Game Review: Halo Series

Quote of the Day: "Light is the good that guides us through darkness. Even if you are strong, courageous and determined, without light, you may still turn evil."


So do you despise warring games? Do you think that all warring games are full of blood, gore and violence? Well whatever. The Halo series seems like a shooter designed for six-year olds and given an 18+ rating. It has a great story, great gameplay and great soundtrack. Here is a video of me playing multiplayer.



Well it isn't that bloody and violent as most other shooter's. And the music, listen to it from my mixpod playlist.  The creators do a good job on the multiplayer, where the person with the best connection doesn't always win, and so it is fair. Much better compared to Gears of War. (The Gears of War video isn't mine, I put it up just for comparison. And Gears of War is a really bloody game. (Credit goes to the guy who posted the video.)   If you can't stand true violence, don't watch this video.



Okay now enough about violence. Let us get started. Halo is a science fiction video game franchise created by Bungie and owned by Microsoft Games Studios. The Halo Franchise is rated as the 24th best selling video games of all time.  The games have been praised as being among the best first-person-shooters on a video game console, and are considered Microsoft's Xbox "killer app". Without Halo, no one would buy the original Xbox, as the PS2 was much better at that time.  There are five best selling novels for the game, and besides the original trilogy (Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3), several spin offs have been made such as Halo 3: ODST,  and Halo Wars, a real-time-strategy designed to be played on a console made by Ensemble Studios.


In the Halo trilogy, we play as a SPARTAN-II, a genetically enhanced super soldier named John. (Though he was called the Master Chief for all three games.) Humanity has been fighting against a religious "alliance" of aliens which are made up of different allien species, who call themselves The Covenant. Set approximately 543 years in the future, humans accidentally bump into The Covenant while colonizing the galaxy. 


The Halo games consist of an intense campaign, where each mission contributes to the story. The dynamic battles are great, you can choose to be a coward, snipe and get multiple kills, charge in bravely with an assault rifle and hope for the best, go by air or land vehicles or have a mix of all. The vehicles are extremely well balanced for gameplay, (unless the enemy steals your team's tanks!) we do not need a large homing missile to destroy tanks and aircraft. With enough skill some light shooting and grenades would do and if you are a strategic person, you can hijack and steal enemy vehicles! (All games including Halo Wars except for Halo: Combat Evolved.) And of course, vehicles versus vehicles. 


The weapons in Halo are also generally well balanced unlike other shooters. Different weapons are used for different purposes, and each weapon can counter another. 


The soundtrack is great, with a good mix of different instruments and great percussion, it adds a large amount of drama to the already action packed firefighting. Halo is and will be a classic, as it was the first game that reinvented the First-Person-Shooter genre, and its style of play is just---------------fun. If you own and Xbox and never played Halo, I do not know what to say. 


Good campaign, good soundtrack, good multiplayer, good gameplay, good community, good story, good game. (And yes Halo Wars is one of the most successful console Real-Time-Strategies to date. Even though it is not made by Bungie, it still has a great soundtrack, great multiplayer, great gameplay, great community, and is ultimately fun. )