It's hard to imagine what might've become of the shooter genre, of online gaming, of the console market in general without Halo: CE. I hated FPS games before this one. They all gave me motion sickness or bored me stiff. When you first land on Halo and start to comprehend the breadth of the game's scope, it's a magical feeling. And I'll never forget first experiencing the brilliant reveal of the Flood for the first time. 12-year-old me was enraptured.

Halo: CE was a real game-changer in the 3D shooter genre. Large, open levels, well-designed vehicles, an interesting, deep story, and a sense of power made Halo the juggernaut franchise it is today. Warthogs alone make this an easy 9+.

LAN parties baby. You spoiled youngsters with your high speed internet and dedicated online servers will never know the majesty of lugging a heavy as fuck TV, X-Box, and as many controllers as you own to your friends house. This was a glorious time where a long ethernet cable was worth it's weight in gold and your friends would do everything in their power to put together the dream team and mop the floor with everyone until you and everyone else complained enough to break them up.

Halo, to me, reminds me of Goldeneye in the way that it was overrated by people who were playing on console stuff that had already been done much better on PC years before, but Halo at least runs fine and plays pretty well. I hate the vehicle combat though, and it's a lot easier than some people make it out to be (I got through the Library in one sitting). It has a good atmosphere but it's really basic. It's only considered a classic because it was in the right place at the right time.

Its influences may be obvious, but Halo: Combat Evolved charts its own brilliant path thanks to a compelling story, pulse-pounding gameplay, and a hauntingly beautiful musical score that adds a cinematic quality.

Classic shooter with a passable narrative and immersing world building. The campaign is more substantial than later games.

Classic

Score for campaign. Multiplayer score 0, so damn clunky and audio is messed up.

I was not impressed with this game because I was expecting much more.Still...it's a decent shooter.

Some good high school memories.

A solid shooter with surprisingly neat enemy design and a good amount of weapon variety. It's one of the few games that does the two weapon limit well due to how different weapons are and how scarce ammo is. I also dug the open-ended level design that, while copypasted and annoying to navigate at times, were interesting due to how many options the game gives you with open spaces and how enemy detection works. Movement is a bit sluggish and simplistic, but this is a damn solid title.

Tried it. Didn't like it. So much shooting, not much fun. Sorry.

The game that changed shooters forever. Its single-player campaign is legendary because of its incredibly refined mechanics and shockingly resonant story. It also still has some great multiplayer, even if it is pretty dated at this point.

This is the fps standard I compare all others to. It might be my favorite game of all time. The Master Chief collection has given this old gem an amazing facelift.

I play shooters on PC, so I don't understand why anyone cares.

I didn't play the single-player mode of this game until more than a decade after it came out, and it still blew me away. The narrative is stupidly simple, but is somehow so engaging it kept me on the edge of the seat. I remember my first playthrough consisted of me waking up early to play this, going to work, coming home and immediately playing some more when I got home. It went on like that for three days until I finished it. At risk of sounding cliche, I could not look away.

Bored me stiff.

Never liked halo.

It aged the worst of the series, mostly due to extremely repetitive level design which gets worse in the latter half of the game, but still fun and easy to see why it was such a big deal.

It was ok. ' Just shooting stuff.

I only really played after I had already starting playing Halo 2. It was good and had some great maps, but hard to compare once I'd already played the much superior sequel.

The first Halo had a great campaign with some real interesting elements we hadn't seen before in a game, but the strength was obviously the multiplayer. The maps were great, and I loved pistol sniping. A good start to a solid franchise.

You've just beat the tutorial and watched a cut scene. Then you get dropped in the first level and the music kicks in and your kid brain is about to explode with how cool this is. Years later you go back after pc gaming and realize playing a fps with a controller actally sucks. How was I ever good at this?

A lot of fun with friends.

Only Halo I've fully played, pretty fun, never blew my mind

That E3 moment where the guy was trying to get everyone to go ape shit about the return of the Halo 1 Magnum and the long non reaction that followed.