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HEAVEN ON EARTH

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: December 05, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game is quite possibly the best game ever made. Now i am the kinda guy who stays up till 3 in the morning on a school night to see Commando or Rambo. I am a killing fanatic. Any game were i can feel the carnage i love it.

This game rocks anyway you look at it. The multiplayer is awesome. There are so many game types it makes it almost impossible to choose which one you like. In the multiplayer there are a lot of characteristics within the settings that you can change. Only one bad side though. You cannot ever play with bots.

Another great factor of this game is the co-op. This is the best to play with two people and almost as fun with only one(yes i know it sounds strange, co-op with only one person ur crazy). The different level difficulties enhance your gaming experience even more. You can choose to have fun on easy or really challenge yourself on the hardest.

The single player rocks. No matter what level you play on what difficulty or how much you get beet you'll have a lot of fun. There are so many levels and each contains a new enhanced gaming experience.

The game has a huge selection of things in which to kill your enemy. The vehicles are awesome. There is a 4 wheel stearing, all-terrain, buggy with a machine gun mount on the back(which you can use and comes in handy in co-op). There is a tank that has a machine gun and the usual artillary. Enough of the human stuff. The covenant(alein race threatining human existance in the universe) vehicles are almost as cool. They have what they call a.. a.. i forgot. but it is a hover vehicle that shoots dual plasma rounds out the front and is extremely fast. The covenant also harbor the banshee. The banshee is basically upgraded version of the whachamacallit thingy. Ugrades include being able to fly, and able to shoot fuel cells as explosives. Don't get your hopes up though. The banshee is the only vehicle you can't use in multi.

To move on to weapons. Like vehicles there are human and covenant weapons. covenant weapons are based on energy and batteries so you don't need to reload(except for needler). But the humans have my personal favorite. Good old fashioned bullets. More specifically the sniper rifle. I'm a sniper freak and this game is the best for people who like to nest and snap off a few head shots.

One more last suggestion. I reccomend that if you like to read to read the halo book. Yeah i know it sounds gay but you will never get confused and you will know who and what everything is whether it be human or alien.

BEST GAME I'VE EVER PLAYED

Halo is a System Requirement for Xbox!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 17
Date: June 05, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I've played halo and it is by far the best game ever for Xbox, if you dont have halo for Xbox then you simply don't have Xbox. The plot is outstanding and the gameplay is fantastic with the ability to pilot a number of vehicles human and alien plus the use of alien and human weapons, this game will set the tone for future video games, the only game that will be able to rival this is Halo 2 coming out in 2004

lives up to the hype

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: November 08, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I played Halo in a 16-person multiplayer capture the flag competition at one of Microsoft's "Xbox Unleashed" parties. I also got to watch a decent player run through a few levels of the single player mode. The biggest issue with any first person shooter on a console is control. Honestly speaking, Halo's control is just not as good as the classic PC mouse and keyboard setup. And yet, for first person shooters on a console, Halo's control is a breakthrough. I, and many others around me, were surprised by how easy it was to adjust to Halo's control scheme. Furthermore, it is highly customizable, you can even adjust the sensitivity of at least one joy stick. I would not be surprised to see claims in the future that Halo's control is superior to the mouse keyboard combination.

Onto the graphics... Evil Empire or not, Microsoft delivered on the graphics in Halo. Halo is a sunny world with bright blue skies complete with drifting clouds. Jutting steel towers hiding vast underground complexes are set against a background of curved landscapes (another words, Halo's engine does curved surfaces and they are not afraid to show it off). All the character models look and move organically and the vehicles, though somewhat derivative of Star Wars, are very cool. I heard some complaints about frame rate from a guy on the losing team of our little competition, but I thought it played smoothly throughout.

Because of the noise at the party, I can't judge the audio, but I can tell you that the game would be worth it with no sound at all. Halo is packed with features, including, I'm told, new multiplayer game types and all the networking software needed to make hooking up your Xbox to a LAN, or directly to a cable modem, a snap. And last but not least, lets not forget that the fun factor is high, after all you even get to jump into vehicles and mow down everything in your path. Basically, I am willing to go out on a limb and say Halo looks like it will live up to, and maybe exceed, all the hype. Buy an Xbox so you can play this game.

Ground Breaking

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: November 05, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I loved it from the moment I booted it up. It wowed me with its wonderful graphics even before I started playing. When I did start I found that it's gameplay was even better! Pretty soon I was blasting aliens like a pro. If your looking for a good Xbox game to buy then get Halo.

Halo is the best game ever

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: December 19, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Pros:
Storyline
Cooperation, Single player, and Multiplayer battle modes
Variety of human and alien weapons
Many human and alien vehicles
Squad bases combat
Different groups of aliens

Cons:
Not to many levels

Graphics:
The graphics are just fantastic, both the Aliens and Humans look very real. Also the landscape looks great untill you look up close of course.

Sound:
Great sound effects and music, I think the music really goes along with the story and makes it feel like you are watching a movie. The only thing about the sound is that the aliens speak in english

Gameplay:
The gameplay is another great part of this game because you need to involve strategy to win, and with the vehicles and variety of weapons it is even better. Also they intergrated both the joysticks one to look around and one to move this makes you feel like you are really in the game.

Lasting Appeal:
If you are going to play this game in cooperation mode I advise you to play a harder skill level than easy because otherwise it is too easy to beat and once you beat the game I felt no reason to go back and to it again in normal, but the multiplayer is great so if you got friends get them over and play all the multiplayer modes for hours on end.

Story Mode:
This is the best part of the game because the game includes a great storyline to go along with the game and they even leave it open for a sequel.

Multiplayer Mode:
Here you cant battle a endless amount of aliens or anything but you can battle your friends, so I would say beat the story mode first then just fool around in multiplayer and beat up on your friend. the only bad part about the multiplayer is that you cant put in computer players into the game.

My Ratings:
Graphics-5
Sound-4.5
Gameplay-5
Lasting appeal-4
Story Mode-5
Multiplayer Mode-4

Overall(not a average)-5

Halo: FPS Evolved

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: April 19, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Halo's a first person shooter. Which means that from a first person perspective (mostly), you shoot stuff. The formula hasn't changed a whole lot since Quake's addition of the real third dimension, but Halo's beauty lies in its execution. The game world provides an interesting place to fight, from its wide-open meadows, to cramped, claustophobic internal corridors. The AI, both enemy and friendly, is some of the best ever seen. The Covenant soldiers, your fellow inhabitants on Halo, will outflank you. They will chase you. They will bring reinforcements, they will gun you down, and they will laugh at and mock your still warm corpse. The little cowardly grunts will run and scream, and panic appropriately, when you stick a plasma grenade on their face. The friendly AI will not only realistically follow you and augment your offensive capabilities, but will show genuine anger at fallen Covenant, and flee from friendly fire.

The end result is that while not necessarily revolutionary in terms of gameplay, the execution gives it a revolutionary feel. You rarely feel alone on Halo - whether it's marines fighting by your side, or Cortana (an AI, that's been loaded into your suit) telling you to "Watch out, there's two of us in here, you know?" - there's always someone, or something to interact with.

The addition of vehicles, on top of all this, gives Halo an extra dimension that keeps the gameplay feeling fresh. Hop in a Warthog jeep, with a friendly soldier manning the chain gun in the back, and you can plow through huge numbers of enemies, nigh-effortlessly. Snipe a Covenant Banshee pilot, and their mini-plane will crash into the ground at your feet, and skid to a stop mere feet in front of you (or if you're not careful, the wreckage will take you out, as well). If you're particularly careful, you can even snipe the pilot out of the plane, and hop into it yourself.

All this adds up to a sense of immersion and freedom that are almost unmatched in FPS history (Deus Ex being the sole major exception). While some of the level designs midway through the game can get repetitive, the sheer sense of danger, panic, fear, that the game can create are enough to keep a player interested even wading through piles and piles of enemies.

Every surface is bump-mapped, every surface is beautifully textured. While Halo doesn't feature the volumetric grass found in games like Tony Hawk 2X, the textures on the ground, on the rocks, on *everything* are fantastically detailed. On the Dreamcast, or even on the PS2, walking close to a surface often reveals a good deal of pixelization on textures that cover most large surfaces. Not so on the xbox. The closer you get, the better things look. It's rare that you'll find a mip-mapping boundary, and it's rare that you'll find *any* texture defects.

The character models are highly detailed, and very well animated, particularly the model for the Master Chief. There are very few moments in the entire game, where the animation will pull the player out of their state of immersion - there are few clipping problems, there are few jerky transitions between animations. Almost all the time, things look realistic, smooth, and believable. Snipe a Covenant Elite in the head, and it will crumple, lifeless to the ground, just like you'd imagine it would.

Halo isn't just a graphical representation of a few levels that are tied together to form some mishmash of a coherent story. Even when there are large changes if your orientation between levels (being transported on a dropship, for instance), the variety of graphical detail, and the sense of good overall design always keep you feeling like you're in a *place*, *on* a ringworld, rather than just playing a game set on one...

Buy Halo

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 14
Date: November 13, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Halo, a must have.
If you love games and are looking for something with great graphics, sound, game play, and multiplayer then look no further. Here is a hands on report, which will make you feel bad if your not getting an XBOX.

1) Graphics
This game has the best graphics for a FPS. For example the plasma pistol top part has an amazing mirror image of what is above you. Also the level design is breath taking. There is very detail bump mapping, pixel shading, vertex shading, reflection mapping and much more through out the game. The worlds are so beautiful you just might want to stop and smell the flowers. Halo really shows the true power of the XBOX. Other consoles such as the Game cube or PS2 won't come close to the graphical powers of this game. To prove it the cd case says XBOX ONLY. Also the XBOX features a hard drive, but were not talking about the XBOX. Any way, Halo has the best graphics in a first person shooter hands down.

2) Game play and controls.
Though some say the FPS should be only on PC's because it's easier to use a keyboard and mouse, I think not. The XBOX controller is really easy to get the hang of. I know some of you have small hands (such as me) but when I played halo it wasn't hard at all. The game play was amazing in halo. The AI was so great I felt like I was playing with one of my friends. For example on one of the levels I was shooting an alien and when his shield was low he ran and hid behind a wall. Later he jumped out with his shield fully restored and tossed a grenade. This really startled me because I never knew the enemy planned attacks. They AI also learned from its mistakes. It wasn't really hard to defeat one alien, but a group well that's challenging. I must say Halo is at 30 fps, but I didn't notice any slow downs. I could tell more but I'll let you find the rest out.

Overall I rate this a five star because of the amazing graphics, great game play, and fantastic multiplayer. I recommend this game to any one who likes action and great fun. Please buy this and the XBOX. Buy American

One of the best ever, for ANY system.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: November 27, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Having read about Halo when it was being developed for the PC, I was excited to see screenshots and information about the game, and eventually a really cool trailer. When Microsoft bought the developer, Bungie, I figured that the Xbox version of the game would suck, based on my estimation of other console shooters. My friend splurged on a Xbox when it came out and wouldn't stop talking about how cool Halo was, so I had to see for myself. I bought the Xbox and Halo. Once the startup screen came up I didn't stop playing until 18 hours later when my roommate and I beat the game.

In a word? Astounding. The controls took a little time to master, but once I spent a little time (like maybe an hour) they became second nature. Driving was similarly difficult, but once acustomed to the style of driving it was simple, and great fun, wedging the Warthog into buildings to help deliver some extra firepower to the enemies inside. The graphics are outstanding, the water effects being particularly cool, as well as the real feel of the world as a whole. You and vehicles slide on ice, the green lushness of the grass, the white of the falling snow, the raining bodies and debris kicked up by explosions (the sticky grenade effect is hilarious when the grenade sticks to the bad guy's head) all serve to imerse the player into the ringworld of Halo.

The AI is deadly, diving out of the way of grenades and warning comrades of danger as they duck behind cover. One particularly harrowing fight was with the invisible Covenant soldier with his very visible sword cutting down your marines. Difficult doesn't even begin to describe some of the scenes, but as frustrating as it was to die over and over again, I always came back with the determination to lick the baddies one way or another.

Overall this game will be the crown jewel of the Xbox for a long time, and when finally released for the PC I hope it will be every bit as good as it's Xbox counterpart (with a bigger multiplayer component, of course). I equate this game to some of the other games I consider to be definitive examples of computer/video game entertainment. Metal Gear Solid, Half-Life, Fallout 2, Civilization (2 and 3) and X-Com are all examples of excellent design and execution, and now Halo will proudly reside on that short short list.

I never thought I'd say this, but Microsoft's got a real good thing on their hands. Keep it up, Bill.

Halo is worth buying an Xbox over

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: January 24, 2003
Author: Amazon User

My first exposure to Halo came almost exactly one year before I actually purchased an Xbox. A friend had received the system for Christmas, and had already decided that the only game he'd be playing for the next six months was this one. A little cautious myself, I picked up the gigantic black controller with the clear bubble in its center, and embarked on the first of many four player fiascos. Truth be told, this is a very easy game to pick up on. Much like the N64's Goldeneye, it's quite simple to learn but nearly impossible to master. And, also as in Mr. Bond's Nintendo 64 excursion, there's really nothing I can say here to prepare you for the absolute madness which awaits you in the multiplayer mode.

Perhaps the most notable feature of the multiplayer mode is the ability to customize your character. With the Box's hard drive allowing for an almost infinite number of saves, it doesn't take long for the list of names in your player select screen to become unwieldy. It's something that was previously reserved for online PC players; there's no more guessing about who just killed you or who's controlling the tank. It's printed, right there on your screen, in bold letters. In addition to that, there's the underspoken ability to create, tweak and save your own game types. If you're hooked on deathmatches with multiple vehicles, no radar and infinite grenades, you need only make that selection once. The system saves all the information, so you won't need to select all the same settings the next time you're hungry for a deathmatch. It's an enormous part of what makes Halo so good, but it's also something that's very easily overlooked.

The single player, mission-based game is unbelievable. It amazes me how far the First Person Shooter has come since it took its first baby steps in the mid 90s, and Halo is currently the cream of the crop. You portray the "Grand Master", a legendary warrior cryogenically frozen and revived in Humanity's darkest hour. Players never see his face, but his deep voice quickly confirms both his identity and his authority. There's a REASON he's our last hope, and the experience heard in his voice misleads gamers into believing they're legends in and of their own right. It's a really cool feeling, to say the least.

Unfortunately, for a game of such visual importance, the actual characters themselves aren't everything I'd hoped for. You'll endure a few cutscenes that probably shouldn't be there; eyes and lips move clunkily. The seams are showing. Make no mistake, the big names and faces in Halo don't give Final Fantasy X's cast a run for their money. The captain (one of the game's centerpiece characters) is emotionless, and difficult to form an emotional tie with... which takes away from the impact of later levels, when you race against time to save his life. Cortana, a computer-generated hologram, is obviously meant to be the most visually stunning character in the game... and even she falls short. The real stars of the show are the enemies, but they're afforded the luxury of being completely new designs.

But while the character models aren't as incredible as I'd expected, the surrounding scenery alone makes up for it, and then some. You'll see individual blades of grass. You'll see the blood squirt momentarily out of an enemy, moments after you've shot him, and then pulse along the rhythm of his heartbeat. You'll hide behind individual leaves, or behind the thick mist accumulating beneath a waterfall. It's simply unbelievable.

I'll again draw the comparison to Goldeneye when it comes to controls. There's no question, the system's controller was designed specifically with this game in mind. After a couple plays, you'll be jumping, tossing grenades, firing, ducking, and striking enemies with the butt of your rifle. For god's sake, there's a button devoted to turning on and off your flashlight... AND IT'S CLEAR. Xbox developers may as well have labeled it the 'flashlight button.' Add to that a built in rumble feature, dual analog sticks (emulating the feel of a PC Shooter, where players use the keyboard and the mouse) and easy-to-reach trigger buttons, and you've got a sweet control setup. I don't have a bad thing to say about it.

Where the visuals of non-playable characters are lacking, the audio most definitely is not. There are hundreds of possible quotes from this game, more depending on which difficulty level you're playing under. That's right, the tougher your setting, the more mature the language surrounding you. They weren't kidding when they said things get more realistic on the hardest difficulty. The voice acting is on par with a major motion picture, with a few exceptions. The production is just incredible... everything is crystal clear, whether you're chatting in an echoing hallway or on the battlefield. Dolby Digital Surround is supported, and that too is top notch. Nothing can express the value of knowing which direction a rocket is coming from, especially when your back is turned.

The largest gripe I have with Halo is its bizarre, seemingly random awarding of checkpoints. No lie, I've been in the middle of the firefight when the system has decided to save my progress. While it doesn't immediately affect me, it does serve as a point of intense frustration when I die further down the line. Instead of reappearing in relative saftey to attempt the task again, I'm dropped right back into that firefight. It gives the player an unfair handicap, and ALWAYS catches him / her by surprise. I'd have much rather had the option to assign my own checkpoints.

What it all boils down to is this; Halo is worth buying an Xbox over. It's the end-all, be-all Microsoft desperately needed to put themselves onto the map as a force in the home console business. It's everything you've heard it is, and more.

Unacceptable ESRB Rating

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: August 22, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I am a parent who recently bought this game for my child. I was worried that the rating given was Mature, but I decided to let my child get it in spite of the rating. I played the game for a little while before letting my child play it, to make sure the content was okay. I found that I was actually quite puzzled why this rating was given. The violence is mild, and the gore is minimal, in fact, I've seen more gore in Teen rated games! I was very happy with the results and let my child play the game. I even watched her for a while, just to make sure my decision was a good one. There is no sexual content, no explicit language, nothing at all but mild violence. At first, this game's rating scared me, having read of other Mature rated games such as the Grand Theft Auto Series, but this game was much much better. In Grand Theft Auto (as I'm sure most parents know), you can do many things that would be considered perverted or sick, and I would agree wholeheartedly with the rating given on that game, and continue not to let my children play it. But with Halo, I was surprised to find that the violence was actually minimal. So if there are any parents out there wondering whether to let their child try or buy this game, you have my word that Halo is a kid-friendly game, even for the most strict parents.

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