One of those games where even today you can feel how influential it was. Lotta repeated environments make some levels tedious but the combat is fun enough that I didn't mind that much, even when I had to replay half of the control room level because of a dumb death and bad checkpoint.

Also: the portrayal of the "marines"? EXTREMELY 2001.

I find it really weird how the design of every location, enemy, ally, weapon, and vehicle are so instantly iconic and yet the actual building the world part of worldbuilding is so muddy. How... big is the Pillar of Autumn, exactly? Where did it crash? I know, on Halo, but where? How are any of these spaces connected to each other? Almost all of the travel between locations happens off-screen. For being the title character, the Halo itself is pretty undefined.

Halo 1 is the only Halo campaign I've played so far, so I'm expecting that they really improved the storytelling once they knew this was going to be a massive franchise. Looking forward to it.