Halo: Combat Evolved

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.

It's polished, it has a couple new ideas, and it was fun enough with a group. That's enough to make it stand above most of the copycat FPS slop of the time. But I don't see anything to make it legendary or pioneering as people claim.

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.