Halo: Combat Evolved

Halo: Combat Evolved
Developer(s)	Bungie Studios Gearbox Software (Windows port) MacSoft Games (Mac port)
Publisher(s)	Microsoft Game Studios
Series	Halo series
Engine	Halo engine (Proprietary)
Platform(s)	Xbox, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X
Release	Xbox NA: November 15, 2001 [1] EU: March 14, 2002 [2] JPN: April 24, 2002 [2] AU: March 14, 2002 [3] Microsoft Windows NA: September 30, 2003 [4] EU: October 10, 2003 Mac OS X NA: December 3, 2003 [5]
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer, cooperative

Halo: Combat Evolved (or, more commonly, Halo or Halo 1) is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie Studios. It was released on November 15, 2001 as a launch title for the Xbox gaming system,^[1] and is considered to be that platform's "killer application".^[6] With more than five million copies sold worldwide, Halo is second only to its sequel, Halo 2, in sales for the console.^[7]

In Halo, the player assumes the role of the Master Chief, a "SPARTAN" super-soldier. The player is accompanied by Cortana, an artificial intelligence that occupies the Master Chief's neural interface. Players battle various aliens on foot or in vehicles as they attempt to uncover the secrets of the Halo. The game has been called "easy to learn,"^[8] and has been praised for its "engaging story".^[9]

Game magazines have ranked Halo among the best^[10] and most important^[11] games of all time. For example, Edge gave Halo a full score of ten out of ten, only the fourth such designation in the magazine's 12-year history;^[12] Nevertheless, Halo has its critics, and the game was tenth on GameSpy's "Top 25 Most Overrated Games of All Time"; one reviewer stated that the game "recycled the same areas over and over until you were bored to tears."^[13]

The game's popularity has led to labels such as "Halo clone"^[14] and "Halo killer", applied respectively to games either similar to or anticipated to be better than it.^[15][16] In addition, the game inspired and was used in the fan-created Red vs. Blue video series, which is credited as the "first big success" of machinima^[17] — the technique of using real-time 3D engines, often from computer and video games, to create animated films.

As a first-person shooter, Halo has a gameplay fundamentally similar to that of its peers, focusing on combat in a 3D environment, and taking place almost entirely from a character's eye view. The player can move around and look up, down, or to either side.^[18] Halo is credited with presenting one of the first successful sets of controls for a first-person shooter on a video game console.^[19] The game features vehicles, ranging from armored jeeps (Warthog) to tanks (Scorpion), alien hovercraft (Ghost) and even aircraft (Banshee), all of which can be controlled by the player; the game switches to the third-person perspective during vehicle use.^[20]

The player character is equipped with a damage-absorbing energy shield, in addition to hit points. Its charge appears as a blue bar in the upper-right corner of the game's heads-up display. When the shield is fully depleted, the player is highly vulnerable, and further damage reduces the character's health level.^[9] However, the shield will recharge if no further damage is sustained for a brief period.^[21]

Halo's arsenal consists of weapons from science fiction. The game has been praised for giving each weapon a unique purpose, thus making them useful in different scenarios.^[22] For example, plasma weapons need time to cool if fired too rapidly, but require no reloading. Instead, players are forced to discard them after depleting their batteries. In contrast, conventional firearms cannot overheat, but require reloading and ammunition.^[21] All weapons may be used to bludgeon enemies,^[21] which allows a player to silently kill opponents without alerting other nearby enemies.^[23] Players may carry only two weapons at once; thus, strategy is required when using and selecting firearms.^[24]

The player can carry up to eight grenades at one time: four fragmentation and four plasma grenades each.^[2] Like the game's other weapons, the two types of grenades differ; the fragmentation grenade bounces and detonates quickly,^[25] whereas the plasma grenade adheres to targets and takes longer to detonate.^[26] A button assigned to grenades eliminates the need to holster firearms before throwing.^[21]

The game's main enemy force is the Covenant, an alliance of alien species. Their forces include Elites, fierce warriors protected by recharging energy shields much like the player's own; Grunts, which are short, cowardly creatures, usually led by Elites, and who often flee in terror instead of fighting unless an Elite is present; Jackals, which have highly durable energy shields attached to their arms; and Hunters, large, powerful creatures with thick armor plates that cover the majority of their bodies.^[27]

A secondary enemy is The Flood, a parasitic alien life form that appears in three main variants.^[28] Infection Forms, the true form of the Flood, are fragile, but often travel in swarms; they do little damage individually, but the swarms often number in the hundreds. Combat Forms result from humans and Covenant Elites who are infested by Infection Forms, and have hideously deformed bodies. Bloated Carrier Forms serve as incubators for new Infection Forms, and when wounded or near a potential victim, they explode suicidally to damage other nearby life forms and to release their spores. Battling the Flood, the Covenant, and the player are the Sentinels, robotic drones designed by a race called the Forerunners. Sentinels lack durability, but use powerful beam weapons and are immune to infection by the Flood.^[28]

The artificial intelligence in Halo has been favorably received.^[29] Enemies take cover and use suppressive fire and grenades.^[22] Some enemies retreat when their superiors are killed.^[30] The player is often aided by United Nations Space Command (UNSC) Marines, who offer ground support, such as manning gun turrets or riding shotgun while the player is driving a vehicle.^[22]

Halo's soundtrack was created by Bungie Studios' audio director, Martin O'Donnell, and received enthusiastic praise from many critics.^{[20][19][22][24][9]} O'Donnell has stated that his goal was to provide "a feeling of importance, weight, and sense of the 'ancient'."^[31] He designed the music so that it "could be dissembled and remixed in such a way that would give [him] multiple, interchangeable loops that could be randomly recombined in order to keep the piece interesting as well as a variable length". Development involved the creation of "alternative middle sections that could be transitioned to if the game called for such a change (i.e. less or more intense)."^[32]

O'Donnell has remarked that he "sat with the level designers and 'spotted' the level as though it was a movie, with the knowledge that the music would have to be malleable rather than static.... [T]he level designer would tell me what he hoped a player would feel at certain points or after accomplishing certain tasks". Based on this information, O'Donnell would "go back and develop appropriate music cues, then have the designer script the cues into the level, and then we'd play through it to see if it worked as desired."^[32] He explained that the use of music in Halo is sparse because he believes that "[music] is best used in a game to quicken the emotional state of the player and it works best when used least", and that "[if] music is constantly playing it tends to become sonic wallpaper and loses its impact when it is needed to truly enhance some dramatic component of game play."^[33]

On July 21, 1999, during the Macworld Conference & Expo, Steve Jobs announced that Halo would be released for Mac OS and Windows simultaneously.^[34] Before this public announcement, game industry journalists under a non-disclosure agreement had previewed the game in a private showing during E3 1999,^[35] and were reportedly amazed.^[34][35] Bungie Studios later stated an even earlier development build of the game centered on real-time strategy and was "basically Myth in a sci-fi universe."^[36]

At E3 2000, the first trailer of Halo was well-received.^[37] The version shown there differed greatly from the one exhibited previously, marking the first major overhaul in the game's development.^[38] At this point, Halo was a third-person action game, in which a transport starship crashlands on a mysterious ring world that orbits a star.^[39] Early versions of Covenant aliens appear in great numbers and loot what they can, and war erupts between them and the humans.^[39] Unable to match the technologically advanced alien race, the humans on the ring world resort to guerrilla warfare.^[39] This version of the game featured Halo-specific fauna, which were later dropped because of design difficulties and the creatures' "detract[ion] from the surprise, drama and impact of the Flood."^[40]

In accordance with rumors,^[41] Microsoft announced on June 19, 2000 that it had acquired Bungie Studios.^[42] Halo became an exclusive game for Microsoft's Xbox video game console, and Bungie Studios rewrote the game's engine, heavily altering its presentation and turning it into a first-person shooter.^[43] Originally a key element, the game's online multiplayer component was dropped because Xbox Live was unfinished at the time of Halo's release. While a playable demonstration of the game at Gamestock 2001 was well-received,^[44] critics had mixed reactions to its exhibition at E3 2001.^[45][46][47] The game was released in North America simultaneously with the Xbox, on November 15, 2001.^[1]

A Halo port for Windows was announced to be under development by Gearbox Software on July 12, 2002.^[48] Its showing at E3 2003 was positively received by some critics,^[49][50] with skepticism from others.^[51] It released on September 30, 2003,^[4] including support for online multiplayer play and featuring sharper graphics, but possessing compatibility issues that caused poor performance.^[52][53] Halo was later released for Mac OS X on December 11, 2003.^[5]

Halo broke sales records; by April 8, 2002, one million units had been sold; this pace was faster than that of any previous sixth-generation console game.^[56] During the first two months following Halo's release, the game sold with more than fifty percent of Xbox consoles.^[57] Halo's retail price remained at US$49.99 until November 30, 2003.^[58] By July 14, 2003, the game had sold three million copies worldwide,^[59] and by January 28, 2004, it had reached four million copies.^[60] Since its release on November 15, 2001, Halo has sold over five million copies worldwide.^[7]

Halo was critically acclaimed, earning an overall score of 97% on Metacritic.^[1] Electronic Gaming Monthly observed, "This game has me totally mesmerized ... [It] engages your intellect on a whole different level," and awarded the game a perfect score.^[6] GameSpot claimed that "Halo's single-player game is worth picking up an Xbox for alone," commenting, "Not only is this easily the best of the Xbox launch games, but it's easily one of the best shooters ever, on any platform."^[22] IGN remarked similarly, calling Halo a "can't miss, no-brainer, sure thing, five star, triple A game."^[20] Edge called it "the most important launch game for any console, ever," awarding it a 10 out of 10 score.^[12] The game received numerous Game of the Year awards, including those of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences,^[61] Electronic Gaming Monthly, Edge, and IGN.^[62] The British Academy of Film and Television Arts awarded Halo "Best Console Game", and Rolling Stone presented it with their "Best Original Soundtrack" award.^[62] According to Xbox.com, the game received a total of 48 awards.^[62]

Although Halo's overall reception was positive, the game was criticized for its level design. IGN wrote that "the middle third of the game basically has ... the same level over again."^[20] GameSpy placed the game tenth on its "Top 25 Most Overrated Games of All Time" list, stating that the levels often "degenerated into recycling the same areas over and over until you were bored to tears," in addition to complaining about the multiplayer's lack of online functionality.^[13] Noting the level design as a problem, an article on Game Studies.org stated that the game still "triumphs in understanding the anatomy of the FPS," and is "not so much about 'combat evolved' as the subtitle suggests, but about 'genre evolved'."^[63]

Halo's PC rendition was subject to mixed reactions, receiving a score of 83% on Metacritic.^[4] While GameSpot claimed that it was "still an incredible action game ... [and] a true classic" while receiving a 9.0 out of 10.^[52] It received a score of 8.2 out of 10 from IGN, remarking "if you've played the game on the Xbox, there's not much for you here."^[53] Eurogamer called the game "a missed opportunity," but stated that the online multiplayer component was "a massive draw .. for Halo veterans."^[64]

According to Gamespot, Halo's "numerous subtle innovations have been borrowed by countless other games since."^[65] The game is often cited as the main reason for the Xbox's success,^[66] and it began what is commonly known as the system's flagship franchise.^[67] Through criteria including revenue, average review scores, commentary, spin-offs and other elements, Halo has been estimated as the top second game of the twenty-first century, behind only Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.^[68] The game's popularity sparked the usage of terms like "Halo clone"^[69][70][71] and "Halo killer";^[15] the game Killzone was billed as the latter.^[72][73] The Halo engine has been used for the game Stubbs the Zombie in "Rebel Without a Pulse".^[74]

Halo has been featured at both Major League Gaming and the World Cyber Games.^[75][76] In machinima, the game was used as the basis for the popular Red vs. Blue. The game's sequel, Halo 2, made US$125 million with unit sales of 2.38 million on the first day of its release,^[77] earning it the distinction of the fastest-selling United States media product in history.^[78] Three years later, Halo 3 shattered that record with the biggest opening day in entertainment history, taking in US$170 million in its first 24 hours.^[79]

The story surrounding Halo: Combat Evolved has been adapted into novels, the first of which was Halo: The Fall of Reach, a prequel. Published in October 2001, this novel was written by Eric Nylund, who reportedly finished it in seven weeks.^[80] The novel became a Publishers Weekly bestseller with almost two hundred thousand copies sold.^[81] The following novel, entitled Halo: The Flood, is a tie-in of Halo: Combat Evolved, describing not only the experiences of the Master Chief, but also those of other characters on Installation 04. Written by William C. Dietz, this novel appeared on the Publishers Weekly bestsellers list during May 2003.^[82] Nylund returned to write the third novel, Halo: First Strike, which takes place between the events of Halo: Combat Evolved and those of Halo 2. Written in sixteen weeks,^[81] it was published in December 2003.^[83] Nylund also wrote the fourth novel, Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, which was released October 31, 2006.^[84] The next novel, however will be written by Joseph Staten and will be called Halo: Contact Harvest.

Another adaptation is the Halo Graphic Novel, a collection of four short stories released in July 2006.^[85] It was written and illustrated by well-known graphic novelists Lee Hammock, Jay Faerber, Tsutomu Nihei, Brett Lewis, Simon Bisley, Ed Lee and Jean Giraud. Bungie Studios regards Halo's adaptations as canon.^[86]

• Official site
• Halo on Xbox.com
• Template:StrategyWiki
• Halo: Combat Evolved at MobyGames
• Template:GameFAQs
• Halo: Combat Evolved at Halopedia
• halo.bungie.org