yeah man
but anyways
Halo Combat Evolved
Humanity is at war with an alliance of alien species known as the Covenant, you are the last remaining active Spartan Super Soldier, The Master Chief Petty Officer 117.
Ah yes, the legendary game that started this legendary franchise, let’s start with the gameplay. Now this game may seem kind of dated gameplay wise, you have your base movement, walking, crouching, reload, slightly different zoom mechanics as only a few select weapons can actually zoom in with, grenades, melee, jumping, all the basic stuff of a shooter the only thing is, you move very slow. But Halo is different, as it introduced the concept of energy shields for your character. you have your shield bar and then your health bar, your shield bar regenerates, your health does not, you have to find health packs too stay alive. Halo also has two power ups, active camo which lets you blend in with your surroundings, and Overshield, which gives you two extra shields over your normal one. There are 7 weapons, the Assault Rifle, which is an automatic with a 60 round clip, the Sniper Rifle, which has a double zoom and 4 round clips, The Rocket launcher, that has 2 rockets per clip, the Needler, that fires a volley if heat seeking pink needles that after 6 impale themselves they will supercombine (explode), the Plasma Pistol which can overcharge to take out your shields instantly, the Plasma Rifle which is an automatic that tears through shields, and the legendary Magnum that has 12 rounds a clip and 3 shots to the head of a shielded target will drop them.
There is also a lot of variety between enemy types, from the tall menacing Elites (that also have energy shields), to the short, cowardly but scary in hordes Grunts. There are also a few vehicles in the game, from the Warthog which can fit 3 people, a driver, shotgun, and a gunner, to the Scorpion tank that delivers extremely devastating shots. you can even use the Covenant vehicles, though there is one criticism here is that the vehicles are pretty hard to control, they are invincible, but they drive like bricks.
The story, is great, though Master Chief is a rather 1 dimensional character and doesn’t talk a lot, he’s a soldier, he’s cool and does what he’s told, all the side characters tend to be more interesting, from Chief’s AI companion Cortana to Captain Keyes, the story is very mysterious as you are on this large ring world, it does a good job at making you feel like you are part of a massive universe. The multiplayer is also very fun, everyone starts with the same weapons always so it’s always an even playing field, weapons are scattered all over the maps so you have to fight for them, it’s pretty simplistic, but in it’s simplicity you can do so much, from warthog racing, invisible snipers, to normal slayer, the variety is great.
Halo Combat Evolved is a great game and it is what started this amazing franchise, though it controls a little sluggish, it’s a worthy challenge on the harder difficulties and a complete nightmare on legendary, it’s fun, got a good story and opens up a large universe for you
Halo 2
The Master Chief must mount the defense of Earth and an Elite Commander must pay for failing to safeguard the Halo ring
This game takes what it’s predecessor had, and expanded on it by a huge margin. Gameplay wise, it’s a lot smoother, you move faster, the health bar is gone and your shields recharge faster as does your health (though you cannot see it). You have been given an even bigger variety of weapons, I can’t even go over all of them, but they all manage to be unique. The pistol has been severely nerfed, however this plays into one of the new mechanics, dual wielding, certain one handed weapons like SMG’s or Needlers (dual Needlers are OP though) can be dual wielded, unleashing double the firepower. Enemy types are even more varied this time, along with the enemies from the last game, there are new ones from the unpredictable Brutes to the flying Buggers, it takes a lot of strategy to take these guys down. There are also some new vehicles and the returning vehicles are actually easier to maneuver this time around and don’t feel like you are driving an invincible brick, as these ones can be destroyed.
Multiplayer, everyone still has the same starts, but this time around, instead of just customizing your Spartan colors, you can now customize your primary, secondary and your Emblem’s three colors. You can also play as Elites this time, though this time around with all the new maps (and a few returning ones) and the new mechanics such as hijacking vehicles and the new movement speed, game modes, and weapons it is a lot of fun. There is also custom games where you and your buddies can make up entirely new gamemodes and test them out, like starting everyone with red plasma rifles and have 200x speed when you have the flag. The story this time around is also pretty great/risky, as you play as Chief defending Earth from a Covenant assault, you also play as an Elite Commander who failed in protecting halo from the Chief and has become the Arbiter, you see things from the Covies perspective. It continuously expands the universe and I personally loved this aspect a lot, really shows you how these races work and how the Covenant itself is structured.
Halo 2 is a great sequel to a great game, the only problem I have with it is the ending, which is the cliffhanger of all cliffhangers. Multiplayer is solid, the story is solid, this is worth a play even if you haven’t played the first.
Halo 3
The end of the Human/Covenant War is coming, the time has come to finish the fight
The final part of the original trilogy of halo games, let’s see how it stacks up against the others. The base movement is relatively the same to Halo 2, but touched up a bit more to be even more fluid, even more weapons have been added to this game, and a new mechanic known as equipment, which are one time use pickups at random points on maps or campaign missions, they vary from flares to blind your enemies to power drains that drain your shields, or even limited invincibility (this one is never in multiplayer). There is also 4 player online co-op for the first time in Halo. Dual wielding returns, only the Needler has been removed from doing so due to how it was too powerful in Halo 2. In this game there are now Brute vehicles to add to the standard ones, it’s really fun to mess around with them, as it is with every new vehicle and weapon. The enemy variety is still great, there are even a few new flood forms to spice things up. and Vehicles handle even better than they did in 2.
Multiplayer, I think is probably the strongest of the 3 original games, you have the equipment, weapons, even starts, a bunch of new maps that became instant classics along with the great map size variety and just straight variety in general you have just so much to choose from. Custom Games comes back and is just as fun and silly as you could make it before, only now there are even more options. Though the biggest addition would have to be forge, where you can edit weapons, vehicles power ups and certain entire parts of the map in order to make a map to suit what you want from it, you could even tear down whole certain maps and make new ones from scratch. As well as the theater mode where you can go into previous games and save moments from your game, but not even from only your angle, you can see the game from other peoples perspectives and look at it just from a birds eye view. In the story front it’s just as solid as before, all the past surviving characters have come together to finish the Covenant and the Flood once and for all, as it all culminates to an epic final fight and escape, it truly is probably the best campaign of the original trilogy of Halo game. (keeping it as vague as possible just because no spoilers)
In the end, Halo 3 is an epic finale to a great trilogy of games, it’s satisfying, has an amazing multiplayer component, the great invention of Forge, the great variety of multiplayer, and theater to capture all those cool/funny moments, Legendary is just as hard as the other two and is an epic challenge and you should definitely pick up these game if you have an xbox.
