Graphics & Sound

Graphics

Dated. There’s just no other word to explain Halo’s graphics. Considering that it was expected to be a competitor to Tribes 2, that shouldn’t come as a surprise. The most glaring issue is the size and quality of textures and models. For all intents and purposes, Halo hardly looks better than the typical game that aimed for a GeForce 2 baseline system. There are a few tacked-on effects like bump mapping, but in general it’s difficult to get excited by the game’s texturing.

Things get better when you see Halo in motion. All the effort Bungie’s artists went to in animating the various characters has clearly paid off. Humans walk and run like humans, aliens move in a believable fashion and obviously the vehicles are fantastic. Certain specific effects, like those of the plasma grenade or the Covenant plasma mortar tank still have few equals.

Flamed!

Gotta watch for sneak grenade throwers

He's got the flamethrower

Halo starts to impress more with its environments, particularly outdoor settings. Levels 2 and 4 (“Halo” and “The Silent Cartographer”) really demonstrate the immense beauty of the setting. Although it’s easy to pick apart the individual pieces – blocky boulders, low-resolution textures, poor water effects by today’s standards – the whole is far greater than the sum of its parts. The world feels very complete, and thus very real; with the final effect being not unlike Grand Theft Auto 3. Just more proof that suspension of disbelief has more to do with the overall quality of the world than its individual components.

The graphics engine has been gone over by Gearbox to include some basic shader effects and higher resolutions, but runs surprisingly slow. The front end GUI is also in need of an overhaul, as seeing gigantic text and icons at 1024x768 or even higher resolutions on a 19” monitor is… primitive, to say the least.

Sound

Fortunately for Halo, sound technology hasn’t advanced all that much over the years and thus the game’s stellar effects on the Xbox remain just as impressive now. The music is as moody and powerful as it ever was, while combat effects have a crispness that is rarely heard even now.

More importantly than that, the abundant use of voices and voice effects is still above and beyond most any other recent game has done. From the friendly, reassuring voice of Cortana, through the chatter of marines (“hey, you stole my kill!”) and the surprised yells of grunts, to the frustrated rage of elites – this is the kind of detail and character you’d expect only from a Blizzard game.

Singleplayer

The singleplayer game is, for all intents and purposes, the best pure action on the PC since Half-Life, and maybe ever. It may be the best first-person shooter since NOLF and Deus Ex, though those two games are almost in different genres. Never mind the repetitive sequences in some levels, there’s just no other experience like Halo.

Shotgun is definitely the wrong choice here

Rifled with more holes than swiss cheese

pwn3d

The campaign is as complete as Half-Life, but with a better story and a more lively environment. It’s true that there may not be as much variety of critters as you’d hope, but they make up for it with character (well, the Covenant and marines do, at any rate.) The Covenant come in different varieties, color-coded by capability and thus difficulty. Each enemy is clearly unique and fulfills a different function.

The weapons, like the enemies, are relatively few but purposeful. The Master Chief is able to carry only two at a time, and that means making important tactical decisions. The marine rifle may not be the most effective weapon in the game, but ammunition for it is abundant and it’s generally effective enough against most creatures. The sniper rifle is hard to come by and finding appropriate ammo isn’t much easier, but it can abuse smaller numbers of powerful enemies. Tactics will develop against certain creatures, preferred weapon types, anticipation of what will be needed.