Halo (2001) (VG)

User Rating:

9.0/10   

Director:

Joseph Staten

Writers:

Joseph Staten (writer) and
Brannon Boren (additional writer)

Release Date:

6 November 2001 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

Combat Evolved

Plot:

You play a space marine who must battle multiple alien menaces on a colossal ringworld.

Plot Keywords:

The Covenant | Alien | Planet | Space | Master Chief

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Jen Taylor	...	Cortana (voice)
Pete Stacker	...	Captain Jacob Keyes (voice)
Tim Dadabo	...	343 Guilty Spark (voice)
Steve Downes	...	Master Chief (voice)
Tawnya Pettiford-Wates	...	Foe Hammer (voice)
Jeff Steitzer	...	Announcer (voice)
David Scully	...	Sergeant Johnson (voice)
Mike Madeoy	...	Private Bisenti (voice)
Mark Dias	...	Private Mendoza (voice)
Chris Wicklund	...	Private Jenkins (voice)
Andrew McKaige	...	Private Chips Dubbo (voice)
Ken Boynton	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Todd Licea	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Brian Morden	...	Additional Voices (voice)

Also Known As:

Blam! (USA) (working title)
Halo: Combat Evolved (USA)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

South Korea:18 | UK:15 | USA:M | Australia:MA

Company:

Bungie Software

Trivia:

Much of the dialog of the "Grunt" characters is taken from the Human characters in Marathon 1: "Thank God it's you" was spoken by characters called "Exploding Bobs", which were sythetic Humans who would run at the player and explode. The line "They're Everywhere" was spoken by frightened Humans the player would come across.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Captain Keyes: Cortana, all I need to know is did we lose them?
Cortana: I think we both know the answer to that.
Captain Keyes: We made a blind jump. How did they...
Cortana: - Get here first? The Covenant ships have always been faster. As for tracking us all the way from Reach, at lightspeed my maneuvering options were limited.
Captain Keyes: We were running dark, yes?
Cortana: Until we decelerated, no one could have missed the hole we tore in subspace. They were waiting for us on the far side of the planet.
Captain Keyes: So, where do we stand?
Cortana: Our fighters are mopping up the last of their recon picket, nothing serious. But I've located approach signatures for multiple CCS battlegroups, make it three capital ships per group.
Captain Keyes: Well, that's it then. Bring the ship back up to Combat Alert Alpha. I want everyone at their stations.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Big Bang Theory: The Dumpling Paradox (#1.7)" (2007)

Superb game but not perfect

I just wanted to add that as great as Halo is there is a big part of the game where you keep going into very similar surroundings over and over again. As a single player experience I would guesstimate about 30% is very samey and it can be a bit boring going through these levels. However the majority of the game is great fun and some brilliant level designs but there is some padding of the levels to make the game last longer. This is not a perfect game but its still fantastic. Graphically it is wonderful. Sound is superb. Its fairly smooth with only occasional slowdown. Handling and control is very good. The story while simple is enough to keep you interested. There is a lot of variety in the gameplay generally.