Halo #1

Halo #1

No I don't mean Halo 1, I mean Halo part 1 of a series of reviews.  I am currently playing the Master Chief collect on Xbox One and diggin the upped graphics and the overall nostalgia of playing the other games.  Combat evolved has been a joy to return to after things like Titanfall as its a break from serious strategy and a nice dive into an interesting story, as compared to Halo 5.  So check out the good and bad below and let me know what you think!

Bad:

1) Bad voice acting.  Something about Cortana's voice and whoever pilots the pelican is supper annoying and pretty bad dialogue.  In moments of intensity the poor voice acting is a definite draw back.  There's no intensity to the voices when "We're under attack" and Cortana's "those fools" broken train of thought. I also got a little tired of what I call stacking and its when there are multiple levels, floors, or rooms that look exactly alike.  Just doesn't seem well thought out for a compound to only have a control room and nothing else except for open rooms that don't serve a purpose.

2) No aiming down sights.  I know its a small complaint really.  I mean the hand gun you can sorta but really nothing else except the sniper rifle.  Do they even have the DMR in this game?  I haven't found anything except the regular combat rifle, handgun, rocket launcher, sniper rifle, and shotgun.

3) Glitches.  There are glitches such as guns running away from you, bad guys stuck in walls, levels not ending. music over powering dialogue, etc.  Really for the most part these were minor annoyances and nothing more.

4) Lack of mobility.  There is no sprint, no boosted jump, no shield break etc.  Just stripped down walk at one speed and shoot.  Again a minor annoyance and causes some issues when maneuvering large groups of baddies.

5) Missing the beginning of the story.  I know from playing other Halo games why there is a war, but that's the thing.  I want to know why I'm running around killing these aliens, or why I'm cryogenic-ally frozen.  A little mystery is OK but my understanding of the Covenant is pretty limited and the story mode doesn't help.

Good:

1) Its fun!  Seriously  great atmospheres, great concepts, great story, a little mystery, and a little fear made for an extremely fun experience.  Between Hunters, Flood, invisible Covenant with swords, and Tanks the "Uh Oh" moments helped keep the game interesting without really having any big bad's that you had to drop excessive ammo on or spend a ridiculous amount of time shooting one object.

2)  The Flood.  I really like the Flood and the concept of the Flood.  I kind of hope they bring them back for future Halo games (6+), even if its like a new race that once they grow a certain size they start becoming some what civilized instead of an over-mind or destroy everything sort of thing.  I think they could really expand on weapons, story, and levels if there were a Flood civilization.  Also the Flood were the zombies of halo.  I mean mindless to an extent but good for a good scare.  What if you had a mission where you lead a group for the creepy crawlies into battle and weakened other bad guys and turned them into zombies that worked with you?! Seriously does no one see the possibilities here?

3) The story was interesting.  You have the Covenant that are attacking your ship because you stumbled upon this ring.  Your ship goes down and you have to rescue your captain and the story unfolds.  Then the Covenant do something really bad and you have to help clean up after them and save the universe.  Beginning, conflict, major threat, conclusion equals story.  Not difficult.  

4)  Good balance of difficulty.  I'm not a hard gamer, but I do play on normal or and in between normal and hard difficulty.  Normal in this since was decent since I would die maybe 1-2 times per level whether it was a lucky sticky grenade throw, invisible dude with a sword, or just bad strategy (I also accidentally blew myself up a few times...).  Much harder and I would have started getting pissed at the game, much easier and I would have gotten board.

5) The Halo online content that came with the game.  OK, Halo of the future take note.  This was how a Halo game should be to start with.  If you are going to have episode content, release it with the game, if you are going to have necessary back story release it with the game and don't make me pay extra for it.  I hated that with Halo 5, which I played before purchasing the MC collection.  I had no idea of Locke's background until I bought this, but why would I buy this game if I had already had all of these on 360 as they were released? Anyway that's starting to go negative.  I liked seeing the Halo nightfall series with the MC collection and I liked seeing some of MC's back story in the animated shorts.

I would normally not purchase this type of game as I previously had all 4 games for Xbox 360.  However I was selling my 360 and my games and this came up for sale, and I'm glad I snagged it for the $20 I paid.  I will probably have a good 100+ hours of campaign playing between the 4 games which almost equals one Bordlands game, and by the time I beat all of the them maybe Halo 5 will be on sale or on gold for $20 or less.  Soon I will play Halo 2 so keep an eye out for that as well. Now when is my next holiday?  I need a good 4 hours to play halo.