OSCAR COOPER
"Call of Duty has no place in this conversation unless you're twelve and in love with Michael Bay"
Since its reveal at Macworld 2000 as an epic sci-fi action adventure designed exclusively for the Mac, Halo has borne expectation. It was supposed to herald the dawn of the Mac as a viable gaming platform, and Bungie were supposed to become champions the independent development community.
All that changed in early 2001, Microsoft were coming to the party and needed a flagship launch title for their upcoming console.Microsoft purchased Bungie and wrote them a blank cheque with a simple mandate attached, make Halo the best shooter on any platform - Ever.
The question of whether or not Bungie accomplished their directive is a matter of constant debate. PC advocates will tell us that Half Life is the unquestionable king of first person shooters, and the nostalgic amongst us will award Doom (or some other iD title) that mantle. Goldeneye meanwhile stakes a minds-eye claim in the console realm. Call of Duty has no place in this conversation unless you're twelve and in love with Michael Bay.
Balance and momentum. Two descriptorsupon which lay the foundations of Halo' single player campaign, and perhaps the most crucial factors involved in designing a solo experience as memorable as Combat Evolved. Bungie made choices affecting gameplay and narrative devices to deliver story telling that, combined, achieved a balance and sense of meaning and momentum that outweighed any other console shooter of its time.
The choice to limit the player arsenal to hold no more than a two weapons at a time, coupled with grenades and melee, gave the combat mechanics a controlled mayhem. The combination gave the player a multitude of options in any enemy engagement and despite the numerical restriction at no point actually made you feel limited.
The sandbox was designed to be consistent throughout, Masterchief lives in this world and so do you. Warthogs, ghosts, banshees, that scorpion over there, all of it is present and unlike so many games there is no separation between the game world, the mission, and you. If you want to assault the control room with the Scorpion the board it let your marine squad mount up and roll into battle. If that makes you to big a target and you want to be more subtle, jump on the ghost ride into war and tactically take out your foe, the choice is yours.
From the opening act aboard the Pillar of Autumn, escaping cryosleep as your ship is under attack from a Covenant fleet. To the final run sequence, commandeering a warthog through a last ditch flood gauntlet. Throughout the entire experience, technical proficiency, artistic elements and gameplay mechanics all work in symphonic harmony supported by an iconic score and visual design to give the player a feeling they are playing something special.
"A faceless space marine has never been so recognisable. Masterchief is a marine in a suit in space, and yet every single gamer in the world knows that Masterchief equals Halo"
A moment I often remember during my first ever play through came late night, Assault on the Control Room, co-op. My co-op buddy had been taken out and I was standing toe to toe with a squad of grunts and a plasma sword wielding Elite. I could back off, recharge my shields and wait for a respawn, or, I could throw down. Squeezing off a clip of the assault rifle, I threw out a grenade and charged at the Elite. Reload, right trigger, the alien shield fails but I'm getting within melee range and that’s not a fight I want against that plasma sword. I jump into the air and train my sights on the Elites head firing down as I glide over his dead body. A purple bloody slump lay in my wake, reload.My buddy, literally shouted out loud "oh my god, that was ****ing sick". I remember that moment not just because it made me feel like a hero, but because I've never been able to recreate it and that is what makes it so memorable - it was unique.
A faceless space marine has never been so recognisable. Masterchief is a marine in a suit in space, and yet every single gamer in the world knows that Masterchief equals Halo. Beyond that in fact, almost anybody who has a friend or a relative who is a gamer, knows Masterchief equals Halo. The same way that sequential horns, e-minor, and violins overlaid with monks singing equals Halo. The mark of an iconic franchise is defined by its look, sound and feel and in defining its impact and its franchise power Halo is often compared to Star Wars. Whilst this comparison doesn't necessarily hold water in the grand scheme of things, Halo did establish thevideogame blockbuster. The notion of midnight launches were quant before Halo, now they are events. Full blown, full scale, muti-million dollar event launches that garner marketing budgets and media coverage equivalent to a summer movie, and helicopters fly over London carrying three tonne glowing glyphs. This wasn't the case before Halo, but it has been since.
Halo is more than a game, it is a cultural phenomenon. I’m not the first to say it and I won’t be the last. It was a special moment in the history of the videogame industry. Halo gave birth to the videogame blockbuster and it demonstrated that shooters can work on consoles and No other franchise holds such importance to its host platform, Halo is the lifeblood of the Xbox and without it Microsoft would have been dead on arrival.
In November 2001, Halo bought Microsoft a seat at the table and it made the Xbox relevant.More than a decade on the Xbox 360 is leading the console race, and Halo is still its flag bearer.
Ravi Patel