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Halo PC Review October 10, 2003 Jakub Wojnarowicz |
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Summary: Halo has finally arrived for the PC, and we take a very, very close look at it. In fact, Jakub ended up writing almost two other complete reviews before he finally got his opinion straight. What can we say? Well, obviously, the singleplayer is stellar, but... read on.
 Overview | Page:: ( 1 / 5 ) |
Guess which game
Editor’s Note: As with our Halo PC Preview, we experienced a small error with our screenshot utility and Halo; where the Windows mouse cursor was caught in every picture even though it was not visible on the screen. Our apologies for the inconvenience.
Halo has finally made it to the PC, and poses an immediate dilemma for this reviewer. Do I compare to Halo Xbox? Do I compare it to other PC shooters? Do I focus on the fact that there is, inexcusably, no co-op (no matter what Gearbox and Bungie say, the game shouldn’t have gone gold without it), or do I point out that Halo is perhaps the most definitive singleplayer experience since No One Lives Forever, if not Half-Life itself?
What can’t be ignored is that two years is far too long to wait for a port to come out, and not even be fully featured. Heck, it doesn’t even run all that well. One would think that a 2GHz P4 with 512MB of DDR and a GF4 4200 would be capable of performing at least on the same level as the Xbox version – but, alas, it cannot. The game has been delayed so much already for the PC, a few extra months to code in co-op and some performance enhancements wouldn’t kill anyone.
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And really, I could spend the rest of the review dissecting Halo’s problems and shortcomings – because there are many – but I could spend just as much time focusing on what it does right.
For example, no matter what anyone says, the AI is the best in the business. Covenant and marines work together. While the simple-minded may comment that the AI is nothing but the Skaarj from Unreal, that’s a gross oversimplification. The Skaarj didn’t take shelter, they didn’t interact with each other, and they certainly didn’t have the kind of terrain obstacles and challenges to deal with as Covenant and marine forces do.
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Take one of the early missions where you end up gathering three groups of marines from escape pods. In one of those, the marines are holed up in a small outpost, with several waves of Covenant troops coming at them. The Covenant soldiers try to keep the humans pinned down, while navigating rough terrain and attempting to get into the outpost via several ramps. Perhaps they’re not as coordinated as real soldiers would be, but then that wouldn’t give much of a chance for the player. At the very least, however, they’re as competent as a good set of players on a CS server.
SIDEBAR: If you can’t stop talking about a member of the opposite sex, odds are you’re attracted to them.
| Graphics & Sound | Page:: ( 2 / 5 ) |
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.
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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.
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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.
SIDEBAR: The back story behind the Master Chief is really quite dark and brutal, at least according to some FAQs on GameFaqs.com
| Gameplay | Page:: ( 3 / 5 ) |
Multiplayer
There is no co-op. Gearbox may not have had the full two years to put it in, but Microsoft and Bungie did. It’s their fault that it didn’t make it into the game and quite frankly, it’s a huge mistake. The PC market is starving for any co-op experience, never mind one as impressive as Halo’s.
Multiplayer is basically nothing but a faithful translation of Halo’s multiplayer, with a few new levels and two new weapons. The Xbox’s auto-aim has been disabled for both single- and multiplayer, thus compensating for the extra aim that a mouse gives for all but one weapon – the sniper rifle. The sniper rifle is abusive. It dominates outdoor matches. Pop your head out into the open at your own risk, and don’t expect things to improve as the community matures. As people become more adept with it, as the old-school Quake II players with their insane rail skills join the fray, it’ll be a massacre of Counter-Strike proportions back when the AWP was known as the AWM.
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It’s unbelievable that somewhere along the way, no one thought of toning down this powerful weapon that’s become completely imbalanced with the addition of mouse control. The only limitation to its power on maps like Blood Gulch is that the weapon doesn’t spawn nearly fast enough. It takes at most 2 hits to kill an opponent, or 1 to the head. As there is absolutely no reason to miss, a competent player should get at least 5-6 kills before he runs out of ammo or is fragged in return. This can quickly end a flag run for the enemy team, or precipitate one of your own.
Far more serious than weapon balance is Halo’s complete and utter lack of moderation. Playing on a team damage server and have a teamkiller? Too bad, you’re stuck with him. You certainly can’t vote him off. He won’t be booted off automatically, he’ll just keep on going and going until he’s bored or the server empties.
That Gearbox and Bungie seemingly put no thought into this is perhaps a sign of their utter contempt for the gamers who are willing to buy the game based on the name. The PC community is rife with morons who do nothing but abuse and exploit games without adequate griefer protection. How at least Gearbox, well aware of this from their Half-Life expansion days, didn’t decide to take some proactive measures defies logic.
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The multiplayer interface is similarly awful. The text chat window is just white text, you get little feedback on who you killed or who killed you as all that information scrolls by in the same window as the chat. It’s nearly impossible to co-ordinate a team even if your fellow members are willing. The fuel rod cannon and flamethrower are interesting and useful additions, but hardly make up for the issues that trouble multiplayer.
SIDEBAR: I have a kidney punch to deliver to MS, Gearbox and Bungie reps this E3.
| Ballistics Report | Page:: ( 4 / 5 ) |
Pros
Polish
Spit and shine. Bungie and MS spent the dime and time to make Halo a deep, absorbing experience.
Sound
Not only beyond reproach, it’s beyond comparison at this moment. Blizzard, and only Blizzard, can claim a rightful challenge.
Singleplayer
Long but not drawn-out, thoughtful yet full of action, interesting without gimmicks – it just plain rocks.
Immersive
The environment provided by the overall graphical experience and sound is extremely immersive.
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Cons
No co-op
After 2 years, this is inexcusable. It would be the defining feature of the game if it made it to PC, but its mere absence simply makes us compare it to the Xbox version and sour our attitude towards all three companies involved.
Multiplayer
Teamkillers galore, and no way to stop them other than joining bunny servers. The sniper rifle is overpowered on open maps. The interface is laughable. This is all made worse by the fact that underneath all the crap is a great multiplayer game. Remove the sniper rifle, add a simple voting interface to boot teamkillers and create a proper chat window – and we might forgive all this co-op nonsense.
Graphics
The texturing is great, for a game released in the previous millennium. The models are blocky, though have great animation.
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SIDEBAR: Vehicles are really, REALLY fun.
| Final Verdict | Page:: ( 5 / 5 ) |