Category: Xbox

Completed Halo.
I remembered that Library episode was the worst one, with waves of Flood enemies. But it’s actually not that bad, although I did end up running past some of the encounters. The worst part comes later, when you need to backtrack to disable the generators, and the game throws at you zombies with rocket launchers. Those kill you in one shot, and one of them is placed just around the corner, just waiting to blow you away.

So Halo system was created as a way to combat parasytic Flood, by wiping out all lifeforms. But the only place where Flood had remained was… On Halo?
Not sure who thought it’s a good idea to have you throw grenades into ventilation shafts under fire to detonate the reactor. But don’t fret about running out of grenades: you can pick them from infinite zombie enemies 🤡
There was an anecdote that Halo was supposed to be an RTS, just like Bungie’s previous project, Myth. But then they tried to drive a Warthog, and decided it was so much fun they need to make a FPS out of that. Those people need to be put in an asylum. The final sequence in warthog isn’t that difficult, I made it on my 3rd try. But it certainly wasn’t “fun”, at all.

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Halo is probably one of the most remade games ever, with Anniversary / Master Chief Collection in 2012 and Campaign Evolved in 2026. But I decided to try the original on Xbox. I finished the PC port, but it was in 2004, so I barely remember anything. So far, it’s not very good.
Lack of subtitles is a minor issue. But the first level, on Pillar of Autumn ship, is a maze of grey corridors that all look the same.
Also, all that talk about how enemies in remasters are dumber: enemies in the original are extremely dumb.
Outdoor episodes are fine. It’s often easier to drive past enemies than to try and fight them, as it seems even inside a tank, Master Chief has no extra protection and dies from a few shots.
But the indoors missions seriously make me question if I’m not just going in circles. Especially the level where you need to cross three bridges. They all look the same, with similar enemy placements. It’s especially funny as the game does make you backtrack a few times, spawning new enemies on the way, so there is no good way of knowing.
The arsenal and gunplay is not as bad as I remember. A pistol can zoom, but an assault rifle can’t, for some reason, and the assault rifle is insanely inaccurate. But the sniper rifle and rocker launcher are serviceable. The alien pistol is surprisingly good. You can’t reload most of alien weapons, but it’s very common, so easy to pick a new one once you start running low.
Grenades, especially the sticky ones, are also plentiful. One interesting mechanic is that explosion also detonates dropped grenades. The common tactic is to shoot enemy a couple of times, then throw a grenade in hopes it would stick. Although sometimes they won’t run away anyway.
From the visual effects, invisibility is surprisingly nice. And also the flashlights that marines have.
There can also be ten enemies on screen at the same time, which is quite a lot. But frame rate does drop accordingly as well.
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