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| Hail Halo | |
| Posted By: op_ivy | Date: 12/10/01 1:27 p.m. |
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not really a new review (they already reviewed it), but more halo praise and bungie praise. phase one of world domination seems complete. It didn’t seem possible. The 1998 Halo demo drew major hype with its outdoor environments and squad-based gameplay. But we had seen this before - countless demos that swear they’re going to change the face of gaming, only to fall flat on their face when the final product hit store shelves. Halo looked to follow that path at E3 2000 in its choppy and un-polished form. But fast-forward to the Xbox launch and Halo is now the greatest thing since sliced bread. GA looks at how the First Person Shooter evolves combat and delivers an Xbox franchise that will make the competition duck and cover. Story Developers take note: Most of Halo’s story doesn’t play out in cut-scenes, it plays out right in the action. Whether it’s a horde of invading Covenant, a rush to escape in a life pod, or taking on a force that even the Covenant fear themselves - it all happens very naturally (similar to Valve’s Half-Life). Players will see stuff explode, ships fly in the air, and snappy dialogue all around to make for the most organic play experience. AI Halo AI is smart and a very formidable foe. The Covenant can fight and they’ll show you every chance they get. The Covenant will jump out of bombs way, throw plasma grenades on your body, and ram their vehicles right into you – then laugh. Enemies that know they’ll hurt you when they explode try to run towards with the extra speed. The Marines have great AI and are the best bunch of guys ever assembled for a videogame. They’re there to back you up against the Covenant and say things any of us would say – and they have TONS of things to say. If you kill one of your own men, another Marine will say, “You Dumbass!” There’s a lot of variety in the dialogue and it’s not common to hear the same thing twice in your first run. *Spoiler* At one point you and the Marines reach an alien drop ship with no sign of the Covenant. One marine says, “No Covenant here, huh? I’m thinkin’ nobody’s home.” After that Covenant poor out one the ship doors and another Marine says, “No Covenant huh?! “You HAD to open your mouth!” Co-op The Co-op mode is THE way to take on Campaign Mode. Not since Contra has a two-player mode been so great – Yes, it’s that good. You and a friend can strategize back and forth as you take on the Covenant. Everything that could think about doing in real life combat can be done in Halo. If you need a Banshee vehicle to fly to the next Nav point, have one person distract them while the other nabs the ship. Or if you want to fly in a room with guns-a-blazing you can. And when you’ve passed a level in co-op mode, you’ve passed it in single player. Internet multiplayer is nice, but being right next to a friend through all the action is awesome. Music Halo gets you pumped for combat with some of the best sound and music heard ever. The game has its own running theme song and features the best beats heard in quite a while. There’s orchestral music, choir chants, hard drum beats, and techno sounds to add flavor in each level. The music is cued just like the story during levels. The blast of weapons, vehicles, and ongoing dialogue between the Covenant or Marines sound distinct, all at the same time. Vehicles Why not add vehicles to a FPS? Halo lets you drive three vehicles and even lets you fly one. They add a lot of fun to the gameplay and let you do instant kills when you ram into enemy forces. In the Warthog vehicle the AI can help you man the guns while you drive, or you can transport Marines with you if you have a tank. Halo demonstrates that vehicles can be integrated into an FPS, and not thrown in as a special “driving” level. The New Franchise From the Marine AI talk to the tightly scripted story, Bungie has created the first new next-gen classic. It’s no surprise that Halo will be a franchise force to be reckoned with. Nintendo and Sony have their system sellers but their recent offerings haven’t delivered above and beyond like Bungie’s first Xbox effort. Because of the title’s stellar gameplay, the franchise has the power to turn the tides of the videogame wars. Microsoft has a Trojan horse to move systems and it’s up the company to move the title’s audience past the hardcore and for Bungie to make use of every Xbox feature to show that the title can’t be done anywhere else. If that happens, Xbox will have a very secure position in the console wars. Hail Bungie. Hail Halo.
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http://www.gaming-age.com/cgi-bin/specials/special.pl?spec=halo&pagenum=1 |
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| Replies: |
| Hail Halo | op_ivy | 12/10/01 1:27 p.m. |
| Re: Hail Halo | Lucid | 12/10/01 1:41 p.m. |
| Re: Hail Halo | op_ivy | 12/10/01 1:46 p.m. |
| Re: Hail Halo | vector40 | 12/10/01 8:05 p.m. |
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