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Is Halo hype or might?
by VGLN Staff
Saturday, December 1, 2001
Heavily hyped for the past two years, Halo goes under the microscope to see what it's really made of.
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Title:
Halo
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Platform:
Xbox |
Publisher:
Microsoft Games
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Developer:
Bungie Studios
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#
of Players: Up to 4 (with 1 Xbox)
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Genre:
First Person Shooter
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Origin:
United States
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Expected
Release: Out now!
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Grapevine:
"Halo, while excellent, top of the line movies in the game, it is very difficult to tell whether your watching a movie in the game, or just kicking some ass in the actual game!" |
Halo. One of the best first person shooters (FPS) since the Goldeneye/Perfect Dark era on the Nintendo 64! Most will say that Halo is exactly what the Xbox needs to make it in the console wars against Sony’s PlayStation2, and Nintendo’s GameCube. Whether or not it’s the killer app that the Xbox needs will soon be decided, as people pick up their Xboxes, and decide which games to get. Most people will be getting an Xbox just for Halo. Some will wait and see if it’ll still release on the PC/Mac formats. It is still undetermined by Bungie, if there actually will be a PC/Mac version of Halo. You can only wish for one if your not an Xbox fan, but want to play Halo, otherwise, you must make a decision. Get an Xbox and play Halo, or don’t get an Xbox, don’t play Halo, and don’t play the best-damned first person shooter game ever!
When I first heard that Bungie was coming out with a first person shooter for the Xbox, I was a little suspicious on how the controls of the game would work. I, like many other gamers, prefer the good old keyboard and mouse when playing first person shooters. Well, now that the Xbox is here, along with Halo, I have realized that a keyboard and mouse is not needed for a first person shooter. A lot of times, developers won’t really pay attention to how well the game is put together, unlike those companies, Bungie did pay attention. Halo is one of the few, but many, games that does not look like the developer that had a low budget for the game. Halo is the game, like many others, that look very high production, and it looks like Bungie had the money to ensure Halo would look like the money they had, beautiful! When going from one of the game menus, to the cinematic, it’s pretty obvious that they are perfect fits in the transition between the two. Of course, you wouldn’t expect the two too look exactly identical, but they work perfectly together in Halo.
The music played in games is important to many people. Well, Bungie did what they could to ensure that all the music in the game fit in the exact place as on screen. And did they do an excellent job of doing so! I didn’t notice any piece of music that was misplaced, or wasn’t “on-time” for it’s spot in the game, when they action on screen got more intense, the music followed through as well!
People claim that a game that was created in less than a year, must have a lot of glitches. When in fact, I have yet to see a number of them within Halo. Sure, I’ve been able to spot a couple points within the game, where it seems like it skips a beat, but nothing major. I’m sure with all the debugging that Bungie did before Halo went gold, they weren’t able to fix all of them, with the short time they had to get Halo out to retailers, so people can pick up their copy on or before launch. And no matter what part of Halo you are currently playing, you’ll be able to notice, that the artwork that went into the scenery of Halo, is absolutely amazing! The one thing I do suggest to the people who doubt the scenery in Halo, is pick up a sniper rifle, zoom in to 10x, and look at the grass! Yeah, I now, your looking at it in full zoom of a gun that can zoom in pretty far, but when you do it, you’ll know automatically that Bungie took their time with even the smallest details! If what the grass looks like isn’t important to you, then you might be impressed with the character models in the game! The only game I’ve seen so far on the Xbox that has better character models, would be Dead or Alive 3. The character models in Halo are absolutely stunning, and will pretty much raise the standards for character models in games for the Xbox. Not only are the character models stunning, but also so are the animations! With all the animations, such as people’s mouths moving, it makes you wonder if there’s now a way to input humans into games. With the mouth movements, it seems to me that Bungie took the time, and recorded, via drawings and possibly mini-movies, people saying what they wanted the characters in the game to say, and used that information to build the character’s mouth movements! No matter how they did it, Bungie did it, and that’s what counts! Just like every aspect of a game, there’s it’s good parts, and bad. I just hit the good parts, now; it’s time for some of the bad. Now, even though the mouth movements look excellent, there are some points when the characters are talking, that they don’t have real good mouth movements.
I’m sure there are some of you out there debating on whether or not to get an Xbox. If you’re concerned about how the graphics and everything move, especially in Halo, don’t be! Halo’s graphics and animations pretty much move flawlessly throughout the entire game! While playing the game, I didn’t run into big animation movements. Although no one is really sure what the final frame rate is for Halo, people are guessing it’s between 30-60 fps (not first person shooter). Really, that’s not all that bad for a console game. Yeah, I’m sure there’s games out there that run faster, but the truth is, the faster a game runs, doesn’t mean the better it is! If Bungie were to have made Halo run at 90FPS, I’m almost certain the quality of the game would have gone down drastically. Which would not have been good for the game.
Okay, enough talk on the graphics, time for the games sound! Overall, pretty good sound. On my pretty old TV with very crappy speakers, I was pretty impressed with the sound! It was very clear, and no static what so ever! Just like the graphics, the sound does have it’s bad sides as well. I can clearly remember, while playing the game, I was in the middle of receiving my new orders from the Captain, when the sound cut down drastically. I knew it wasn’t the TV, because I tried it on different TVs, it was the game. It didn’t last very long, only about 15 seconds! When I tell people about the sound in Halo, I am always proud to tell them that the game wouldn’t be the same without the music and sound it uses! It sets the perfect mood and setting for the game! You can always tell when something big is about to happen, because the music will get real heavy and intense! Without the music and sound that Bungie put it, the experience of Halo would not be the same! The music and sounds are very well composed and put together! No flaws what so ever that I can tell for the music!
With the music that was put into Halo, I can’t remember the last time I’ve heard music put into a game, that actually belongs there, and not there to just occupy space on the game. Bungie literally took the music, created it, and put it in Halo in the places it belongs! Whether it’s in intense situations, or just driving the warthog heading to your next objective point, the music will set the mood of the moment!
If you actually listen to the music enough, it may annoy some, others will love it, and it’ll catch on quickly! No matter how you are when it comes to music, this music is very well composed, and is definitely great music in a game!
The game play is superb! I have not seen a game run so flawless since Goldeneye was the best game out there! Bungie took their time, and made sure the game play was even better than the graphics! Sure, people look at graphics for games, but for Halo, I recommend looking at both graphics and the game play! Both are top of the line!
If you’re worried about the controls for Halo, don’t be! The controls are perfect, no need for a keyboard and mouse for this first person shooter! The controller has enough buttons, not too many, but enough, to handle the controls!
With Halo, there’s good, and bad when it comes to its multiplayer capabilities. For starters, when you’re playing multiplayer with friends, that’s it, it’s you and your friends, and there are no bots in the game. So forget your ability to “train” yourself, and get better against the computer. That’s not the only disadvantage with Halo’s multiplayer. The other is the fact that there is no online coding within Halo, so you can’t play online. So, if you had plans to take your friend from another state on in a Halo death match, don’t expect that too be happening for a while. There are a lot of advantages in the multiplayer area of Halo as well. For starters, there are a lot of different types of multiplayer “games”. Another advantage to the multiplayer, is something that no other system has included. System link. That’s right, you have the ability to play up to 16 players in a multiplayer game, using up to 4 Xboxes, with all 4 using 4 people. No, you don’t have to use one TV; you have to use 4 TVs. So no worry about smaller divided blocks.
A lot of people, when they beat a game, pretty much put the game in a collection of previous games they’ve beaten, and don’t play it again. Well, with Halo, that pretty much won’t happen. There’s always something new to do in Halo. With 4 difficulty settings, including easy, normal, heroic, and legendary, you can always go through the game in those. You can also call for friends and family to come over, and you can enjoy beating them down in multiplayer! Any way you want to do it, Halo is one of those games that can and will bring you hours upon hours of fun.
Bungie, as well as Microsoft, knew what they were doing when they announced this game for the Xbox in January! They knew that they could make a first person shooter work on a console, and Halo is proof that it can be done! If you’re a fan of first person shooters, then you should pick up a copy of Halo, if you have an Xbox, if not, then pick up an Xbox while your picking up Halo! You’ll be happy you did! Even if you’re not a fan of first person shooters, then give Halo a try; you’ll be surprised that it’s unlike any other first person shooter!
--- Kyle Johnson
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