Best launch game ever!
The gameplay in Halo is about as good as it gets for a FPS shooter on a console. The damage system is by far the best, you have a standard health bar, but on top of that you have a shield. If you get hit, the shield will take the damage. If cover is taken you can let the shield go all the way back up, if you do not wait you health meter goes down. The enemy A.I. is pretty good for the most part, they will dodge your attacks, take cover and get out of the way of grenades for the most part. Well, the Covenant will do that. The Flood however will attack in more of a kamikaze like effort. They just run straight for you most of the time and if you sneak up on them and throw a grenade into a group of them, they just stand there. However, do to their shear numbers, you wont feel bad about doing that at all. They are very frustrating to fight against. What I do like though, is that everyone fights everyone, Covenant, Flood, Sentinels, Marines. There are no sides which adds to the fun. Halo provides a good amount of weapons and vehicles to drive, both the human and covenant can be used with a nice balance in both. Theres pistols, rifles, grenades, shotgun, rocket launcher, and more. The graphics in Halo are solid, not really any clipping, and no glitchy spots. The backgrounds are nice as well depending on the level. Levels are outdoors and indoors, but a couple of them get very tedious around the middle part of the game. The level such as the Library has got to be the worst level in that every part of it looks the same and it takes a decade to complete because of all the enemies that have to be killed. I wish there was a kill counter that kept track of how much of The Flood you kill in that level, it has to be in the hundreds. It maybe depend on the difficulty, but I am not certain if it does. For the most part you can not just simply run away because they follow you and are much faster than you. Aside from that, that was the only level that wasn't fun at all to play. The music and sound in Halo is pretty good. The music isn't overdone at all and is excellent in creating different moods and tension. The sound effects are also very good. The assault rifle sounds a little weak, but that isn't oo big of a deal. The Covenant will make noises, speak, and flip out when you appear. This game is awesome, but one big letdown is there is no Xbox Live play. That just simply kills the replay value of the game. If this game was on XBL people would still be playing it along with Halo 2. It is still a must own.