Halo: Combat Evolved PC Game Review 

The flood are fucking awful but complaining about the covenant? They're awesome to fight and a lot of the reason people loved Halo CE so much.

6:27 "They're extremely annoying and never sit still" That's what we like to call "good AI"

What the heck dude? In past reviews you complained about enemy AI that just stands there, even when facing a grenade, now you are complaining about AI that dodges your attacks? The enemy design and AI was arguably the best aspect of Halo: CE's single player mechanics for me. Good variety, interesting reactions, and smart dodging. Satisfying to kill.

"They never sit still" Seriously? That's a good thing!

HALO felt so groundbreaking back in the day but it's been milked to death SO badly.

While I can agree with the level design complaints (though I didn't find it that annoying, cept the Library Level), the enemy design is one of Halo's most underrated strengths. The way the covenant has dynamic in how you approach them, how they move and how they synergize with one another is something I don't many FPS games really nailed, which is something Halo 4 partly failed to do. The fact that you got annoyed with "how they moved" seems just like an old-school shooter being used to the stationary Doom Zombies. Then we have the vehicles, the story, the campaign overall... I don't need to go on about them. But there is a reason Halo pretty much saved the Xbox system which, to be fair is something you acknowledge. I would definitely say Halo holds up, and there are few FPS games I've played since that has surpassed it.

My only complain is that you said that the soundtrack is " for the most part good to listen to " I really think that it deserves more praise than that. I love it and the main theme is just so engrossing. I mean at the main menu when it's being played and the camera slowly pans around the halo ? At that very moment I knew that the game was going to be amazing. Otherwise the review was pretty spot on but I still think you aren't viewing in 2001's perspective , if you know what I mean. Love your reviews though , keep it up :D

Honestly, I fucking love this game to death. It is nostalgia up the ass for me but I do see and understand your complaints. Whenever I'm trying to snipe a fucker on Two Betrayals or Assault on the Control Room they jump around like they're on meth. But that criticism aside, this game was my childhood. Great review, my man.

Halo CE have so much more quality than Destiny. Oh what Bungie have become

"the enemies don't sit still" Yeah, cause god forbid you actually have to have some skill. All I have to say is git gud.

"The migrane inducing sound of a heartbeat"Once you play a Zelda game and hear *that fucking beeping,* you will pray to have the heart thump back.

I used to be a pretty "die hard" Halo fan, my favourite one probably being Halo 3. It was that time when I didn't know a lot about games like call of duty and shit. In terms of Halo 3 I was just playing a few particular missions over and over again because there was so much freedom as to how you would wanna complete it. To be honest I was pretty shocked the first time I played a game like Bf 3 in the single player. It was so awful.

The original Halo is one of my all-time favorite first person shooters. At first I didn't really "get" it though (like other favorites of mine, such as Quake). I had some of the same complaints, particularly when it came to repetitive environments. However, through repeated plays those issues sort of disappeared (as familiarity usually does for me). Also, like with Quake, competitive play helped me enjoy the single player more. I learned skills through playing with people that I wouldn't have learned otherwise, like the grenade-melee-grenade cancel trick to throw out more grenades faster, or the fact that using the pistol and plasma guns at an enemy's throat counts as a head shot and deals far more damage, allowing me to take down covenant elites in mere seconds. Tricks like that helped me be more reckless with my fights like I was playing DOOM or Quake, and it also made me feel like I actually had a fighting chance when playing it on Legendary. I feel a little sorry for PC players because they had to experience a buggy, ill-optimized version of the game three years after its original release. In 2001 the game looked amazing, even by PC standards. By 2004, it began to show its age.

I played Halo: Combat Evolved in my PC for the first time today. I usually don't like FPS games bcoz most of them are just overrated and don't interest me. But, this game was so mindblowing and epic that I played for 2 hours straight. Everything is amazing. Music - 10/10. Gameplay - 10/10.

The reused levels never pissed me off. Because going backwards with new enemies was enough to keep it fresh. Yes its lazy. But it makes story sense. And the ending where you began really works

What you call lazy, I call resourceful. The campaign was slapped together in less than a year. What they managed to achieve within their limitations is downright amazing. Although, two betrayals can suck my balls. Fuck that level.

Legendary:You face opponents who have never known defeat, who laugh in alien tongues at your efforts to survive. This is suicide. The most badass quote ever put on a difficulty setting I still have my shirt with the emblem and the quote on it since the game came out back in early 2000 xD I always come back to it and beat it in legendary to feel like a badass lol specially beating the library in one go xD

I’d hardly call anything about this game lazy the devs were on an extreme time crunch and considering they made one of the most influential video games of all time I’d say they did a damn good job

*puts on nerd glasses* The Spartan known as the Master Chief is actually a SPARTAN Mk.2. The original series of Spartans was almost a total bust

I agree with pretty much everything, but another negative point I had with the game, was that a lot its weapons just weren't that fun to use. Most of the traditional human weapons were satisfying, but lots of the alien weapons just felt like pea shooters. Especially the plasma pistol. I hated using that.

This game is a classic, haters gonna hate

5:15 he's basically talking about the library

As someone who never grew up with the halo series being a Playstation guy you're completely wrong about people defending this game for nostalgic reasons it holds up extremely well and is what I consider the first modern FPS in general. The level design is downright genius the soundtrack is iconic are you kidding me? And the final part of the game should be difficult and the A.I. dodging your bullets is another good thing for 2001 this game again holds up and surpasses even recently released titles

I definitely agree with the frustratingness, I have been playing Halo 1 2 and 3 on Heroic on the Master Chief Collection and it's almost too frustrating to be fun for me

A big thing about Halo was the open environments and vehicles and thanks to Halo many fps games include vehicles in one form or another. But without that Halo wouldn't have been nearly as popular and games like Half-Life is more superior in every other way, but then came Half-Life 2 and had awesome vehicle sections packed with both action and exploration.

The first fps i've played.The nostalgia is overwhelming

You sound very bias...complaining about how the enemies bounce around too much...lol, what the hell do you want? them to line up single file and say ohh shoot me next...this is one of the best games ever and every gamer has very fond memories with it...for you to sit here and bash this game adds a large grain of salt to my take on your opinion....

One of the most epic gaming experiences of all time. This was the last age in gaming where you could be blown away. Haven’t felt that for years. Maybe I’m just getting old now.

Its got a mix of the most fun enemies to fight in any Fps and some of the most cheap and bothersome

Only 7 unique levels 1. Pillar of autumn (The maw) 2. Halo 3. Truth and reconciliation (Keyes) 4. Silent cartographer 5. Assault on the control room (Two betraysls) 6. 343 guilty spark 7. The library

"They're extremely annoying and never sit still" And then GmanLives noted in the comments that he thinks the AI is bad. "And I mean the AI is really dynamic in the way it reacts to your playstyle." And then "Later in the game there are environments where everyone is firing at you from several hundred meters away hitting dead-on target every time" *Shows video of enemy missing him repeatedly*

I wouldn't really call Jen Taylor the "Troy Baker of female voice actresses". She hasn't done anywhere near the same amount of roles. In fact, she only did a few outside of Halo

I am glad to hear someone else thought that the levels were sometimes repetitive/copy pasted corridors. Although, y'know that that forerunner building that advance through and then trek back in reverse wasn't that hard to navigate. The glowing arrows were the navigation aids essentially.

Whilst I do feel combat evolved is overrated in many aspects, I still think it deserves praise. The health system is unique and only being able to hold two weapons at a time added some strategy. The AI is also great and can even flank you on legendary. The environments also look gorgeous not just technically but also artistically (especially on the pc).The controls on the xbox were also great as most fps games controlled like crap on consoles. The only problems I have is that for some reason you cant ride covenant tanks in combat evolved and that the story is only good if you have read the books. The game also feels somewhat slow and some of the levels have pretty terrible designs.

Such an amazing game. Still love to play it occasionally. So much better than...well almost any modern FPS. Which is sad to say.

Looking back, the biggest flaw in the Halo games from a modern perspective is the lack of a run button, especially with the huge levels.

Do you have plans on doing any of the Marathon games by any chance? Good review btw.

My favorite game of all time.

Your review is spot on! I replayed Halo: CE recently and I agree with all your points. The one thing I didn't like in the game aside from the lazy interior level design was the difficulty spikes on certain areas. The Library level is really annoying at higher difficulty settings.

Trying to get this to run on my PC at an FOV that doesn't make me want to die is a feat of human achievement.

I totally agree with the comments about level design, I spent ages trying to get through some of the interior sections, ESPECIALLY the Forerunner/Covenant bases as they are usually symmetrically designed or mirrored halves, which really just fucks you all up when trying to plan a route or pick a landmark. I'm also not a fan of the colour choices, it was either concrete grey with alien lights or that weird shade of purple that the Covenant seem to love colouring EVERYTHING with.

Halo was actually initially developed for Mac OS and Windows, and them switched to Xbox when Microsoft acquired Bungie. You should review the Marathon series - Bungie's precursor(s) to Halo. Marathon Infinity has arguably the weirdest plot in video game history: non-linear narrative, alternate realities, hidden level dream sequences. It's a trip. It's also still a damn good shooter. The trilogy is open source freeware now, just search for 'Aleph One'.

This game is great, I used to play it on the xbox all the time

Halo is my favorite game EVER. And i think that almost everything about all the games is perfect.

6:31 The AI can be summed up as "that AI from Unreal 1" (you know, the one that will just dodge everything you throw at them) except a wee bit slower.

Got a soft spot for this one myself, but it does deserve some criticism. I share the reviewer's analysis. Is it the be-all-end-all of story-based shooter? Nah. Does it do some good stuff? Oh yeah. The co-op campaign was a real eye-opener for me, as it seemed to be kinda rare at the time. What really blew me away was the enemy AI. Those Elites... man they could move, and watching them react to me, rush me when I took cover, flush me out with grenades... I try not to take that stuff for granted these days, and remember just how bloody heart-pounding those fights could get on Legendary.

Correction: all life to sustain a sufficient biomass for the flood

Another great review for one of my all time favorite gaming franchises. Cant wait for your Halo 2 review! :D

You're right about the enemies moving around a lot, and now it's overblown in extreme proportions in Halo 4 and 5. While you have armor abilities and "Mandatory FPS Sprinting Abilities" in the current games, the enemies, with the Elites and Prometheans especially, seem to be performing Olympic Acrobatic maneuvers and strafing at Doom-like speeds. The ORIGINAL Doom.

I've always loved playing the vehicle sequences in the series, they're always action packed and are accompanied with excellent set pieces, especially with another friend, so much fun its not even real especially split screen

The level with flood was amazing,and scary for me. Just grabbed shotgun and pressed forward.

Beat it on the OG xbox on legendary with my brother when the pandemic hit. Legendary title, great memories.

I recently bought this game on the Xbox live marketplace and played it for the first time just a couple days ago. I beat the game last night and I have to say, it is fun as hell and infuriating as hell. I've lost my shit at this game more times than I'd care to admit, but I always felt fucking awesome after overcoming a major hurdle. It is now one of my favorites and I plan on playing 2 and 3 in the future.

Never played it on PC, but when this came out on xbox there was never a game before or since that I put so many hours in to. Halo is a masterpiece. Great memories of this classic.

Ooh vintage gman. So civilized.

I haven't heard that same critique on the repetitive level design before, but I completely understand where you're coming from.

I have to agree with what *GGG* said about the lack of a map in this game. I just reviewed it and yes, it is very easy to end up going around in circles because of how similar the corridors look. But other than that, Halo 1 is still a pretty solid game. I recommend it to anyone.

Man, this game still looks gorgeous even 20 years later in my opinion. Also, I agree with you about the samey environments. I believe it was to get it to fit within the 64mb ram of the Xbox, but you have a very valid point.

Halo: Combat Evolved is a MasterPiece.

I love honest reviews.

Halo fanboys need to chill. Complaining about a single thing should not equate to whatever this comment section is.

Assault on the control room is one of the greatest levels in a FPS period. No debate.

Wow this triggered a lot of fanboys. its just his opinion. there's been plenty of reviews where I completely disagreed with him

I avoided this game for so long because it didnt have quick-save (which I was used to as a PC gamer) but after I played it the first time I loved it! Even without quick-saves or even cheat codes this game is super awesome!

I got the best Halo game back in 2001 for Christmas when I was 4

I'm a hard core Halo fan and while I understand your criticism I personally find them much more minor than you seem to. That said I thank you for an honest review that is significantly less biased than anything I could produce.

Halo was originally an Xbox game, Xbox had a 700 mhz Pentium 3, the PC requirements were a 500 mhz as a minimum, its kind of amazing port

Hey, Gggmanlives, you should try the Halo SPv3 mod for Halo: Custom Edition, its a redo of Halo Combat Evolved but adding more weapons, enemies, and vehicles from the Halo Universe, and updating visuals and adding ENITRELY new areas to levels. They have only released the first four levels currently + a remake of Silent Cartographer, they havent released 343 Guilty Spark and onwards because theyre making an entirely new Sentinel Race/Enemy, and a flood form for every time of enemy, and they say that will be released next year after its been worked on for the last 7 years. Hope you see this and consider this! I'd love to see what you think about the mod :)

Halo and DOOM are my favourite shooters ever. They aren't perfect, but no game is ever perfect. These 2 revolutionized the genre and, although you can certainly do better nowadays, when taking context into account they're damn near unbeatable. A masterpiece doesn't have to be perfect, it has to be fun. These games are fun.

This game was revolutionary. Saved the Xbox console by itself

The last half of the game is the first half played backwards

Great vid I agree with some level design like the libary but some guns are redundant in higher levls like the AR good vid can't wait for halo 2

Ultimately, the one and only reason i play this game again and again is the Coop and multiplayer. while the later is subjective, i think its hard to bash the addictivness of playing the game with a buddy. it is the sole reason why Halo is so fondly remembered (in my opinion). going into Halo solo will likely lead to disappointment, but with a sibling or a friend its great fun and highly recommended! Never-the-less, Great review, i highly, highly, reconmmend looking at the Marathon games. their some of the best shooters released and they're completely free.

what can I say.. this game was my childhood. I respect your opinion, but its a top game for me, personally.

Pretty cool to see you reviewing a classic game like this, and such a spectacular shooting game. It's a shame you don't review 360 games, because Halo: Reach and Halo 3: ODST are two of the best in the series

I checked out Halo's demo and first tried playing it on Legendary, and good god Bungie really meant Legendary. The enemies were tougher to kill, ammo was scarce, the lack of a quicksave made the situation more desperate, and I felt like a soldier who knew that my life hinged on getting my tactics just right when my weapons were limited and one enemy was too tough to die. Interestingly, Halo's Legendary mode is a reference to the Legendary mode in Bungie's previous titles, Myth: The Fallen Lords and Myth II: Soulblighter. The Myth series was a real time tactics game where you just used a handful of units up against overwhelming forces of the undead, and on Legendary, it required that you got the tactics just right if you wanted your soldiers to survive longer. Halo definitely channels Myth's real time tactics, except Myth allowed you to save anywhere in the game, and allowed you to slow time down just so you could get your tactics right. If only there were an FPS based on Myth, considering how fun it would be to play a claymore-wielding Berserk and an explosives throwing Dwarf in first person. I'm impressed by the videos of players beating Halo on Legendary, especially in the way they implement their tactics and weapons against Halo's enemies. Still, I'd have to agree that Unreal is much more enjoyable and satisfying in tactical combat, since the weapons are more satisfying, you can see your enemies' projectiles before they hit you, and the game allows you to fight hordes of enemies in slowmotion when the action's too fast.

In defense of the game, I've got quite a lot written on my feelings on the franchise here. (spoilers, I fucking love Halo). Yes, this is my half of a spergy argument, but it has all the key points I'd ever want to make. "Halo didn't invent anything, but it did take a bunch of novel features, polish the hell out of them, and combine them in ways they never have before. There were shooters with regenerating shields before Halo, but they didn't have a weapon set that took advantage of different damage types that are more effective against shields and not flesh and vice versa. There were shooters with vehicles, but they weren't optional and they weren't done to the degree of depth. You weren't going to find a game where one guy could run through a mission in a Jeep while his friend covers him with a sniper on a hill. Not before 2001. Hell, you weren't gonna find a shooter with vehicles that had multiple seats that each fulfilled a role before Halo. Also, yeah. Unreal XMP came out on PC before Halo, but don't even try and grasp at those straws. Starsiege: Tribes beat em both anyway. As to whether or not vehicles have been done better after Halo, that's completely subjective. I will say that I think fishtaling around in a Warthog is infinitely more fun than slogging around in a battlefield Jeep... Plus Battlefield's netcode kinda kills any fun one could have with fast land vehicles. cont. "Half Life 2 had destructible boxes/items and you could break them down even further. Being able to pick up barrels and build a wall to stop gunfire was a game changer." So what? Plenty of other incredible games (like quake) don't have any of that. Why does it matter that one game has a feature that another doesn't have? With Half Life 2's advanced object interaction (that Trespasser invented) came Halo 2's matchmaking. Both huuuge features that kicked off the trajectory of the generation of games to follow. Both changed the course of games for good. Are they comparable with each other? Not at all. Does Half Life 2 have dual wielding? No. Does it need it? No. Does Halo have destructible crates with items in them? No. Does it need them? No. Ironically CSGO, and DOTA2 use a matchmaking and party system that's pretty much 1:1 aping Halo 2's. cont. If you lay out Halo 1's feature set on a list of bullet points, nothing is going to be a revolutionary milestone in gaming. Play with them all together though, and the gameplay possibilities that emerge from their combined presence were pretty much unmatched. No one did coop like Halo. No one did vehicles like Halo. No one did the energy shield damage system like Halo. No one did the limited weapon inventory properly (you have to fight enemies that complement the weapons you use so you always have a useful tool) like Halo. No one took all of those novel features and integrated them into a single game seamlessly."

Gggmanlives Good review, but there's a couple things I take issue with. You said the game often has you escaping and going back the same way you came. This only happens three times and it's very brief; in Silent Cartographer when you fight back through the building and in Truth and Reconciliation and in Keyes when you backtrack down like 3 hallways and steal a Banshee/ship. This is maybe a half-hour total of the game 343 GS has you go down several different elevators and rooms so that one is actually not reusing the same rooms you went through before. I don't feel like this is overuse. You are right that they reused a lot of interior rooms that look samey but the AI is so good and spread out in different ways that it doesn't feel too samey to me when I actually play it. Also I didn't mind the reuse of settings like Two Betrayals, Keyes and The Maw because they had COMPLETELY different atmospheres to them with the inclusion of the Flood. The first 5 levels are just straight up tactical action and have more camaraderie, you have a different goal in trying to just help your allies in guerilla warfare tactics and gain key pieces of intel to fight back against the Covenant. You approach the fighting much differently. And the last 5 are horror-action levels in the vein of Aliens where you're all alone trying to survive a nightmare on an alien world. The shift in tone and atmosphere really helps me to not care that I'm revisiting the same place I was in before. The music, lighting, disrepair of ships and enemy types sell me on that aspect. The other thing is the criticism of enemies jumping around and stuff. I mean... come on. They're not zipping all over the place, they are still slowed enough that you can track them. I really dunno what to tell you other than "git gud"? Judging from your video clips, you're not bad but I can tell you didn't pick up on or read some of the strategies that let you become a way more effective player (like don't use the assault rifle on Elites), and that's what's great about Halo 1, you couldn't rely just on shooting, you had to know what guns worked best for certain situations and how to flank the AI to force them into easier to manage situations, and where to place multiple grenades knowing full well the fantastic AI is going to jump out of the way of them. Also the Flood are only really annoying in The Library in a couple rooms where huge waves come at you while you're trying to come out of a hole in the floor. Otherwise shotgun+grenades makes quick work of them. I like the inclusion of the Flood because it forces you to approach the enemies in many different ways. Covenant require more tactics and each Covenant race attacks differently and intelligently, meanwhile Flood require more old-school, raw shooting skill to take them down as they swarm you. And like I said before, they help in not making the same levels you visited before not feel the same. Otherwise, good review. you nailed a lot of the things that people love and also begrudgingly accept as valid criticisms of the game.

Back in the days when CORTANA was not a joke.

You forgot to mention the horribleness with grenades. Y'know, how marines throw grenades and they always only ever seem to kill you, or when you throw a grenade into a room full of other grenades that are on the floor, then Halo Combat Evolved goes and turns into Halo North Korea. I'd say even if it weren't for the copy paste rooms, grenades ruined this game. Grenades.

The whole two weapons thing makes sense when on a console using a controller or if you're playing a realistic game, but on PC where you have plenty of keys and a scroll wheel on your mouse for quick weapon chances, it doesn't fit.

The repeating of levels and layouts is due to time restraints. Microsoft put a lot of pressure on Bungie to deliver the game on time, particularly as it was one of their main games for the new console. Faced with these heavy time restrictions, they were forced to cut alot of corners. Ironic thing is that the same thing happened with Halo 2, although there was no level repeats or too much backtracking there (they just full-on cut unfinished levels and cut the game short with a cliffhanger at the end instead)

The PC resolution & models look really nice & crisp.

Most people don't like the back tracking but I actually love it! It's not laziness but there was a strict timeline so they had to cut some stuff. But I love it! I like back tracking in games if it's done right and in Halo it is. The atmosphere is so much different and you're going opposite direction which gives you the feel of escaping which is exactly what you're doing.

Halo was the first game I remember with an off hand grenade throwing button, was it the first? I thought that was a big innovation at the time because I never used grenades in FPS games, especially console ones. It was so cumbersome having to select it, and switch back to your regular weapon and the pause as the weapon change animation took place. It made using grenades so much more useful I think.

Just played through the game again after finding it sitting in my closet collecting dust. This was the first fps game my parents got me and I really do have fond memories playing this game in single player and multiplayer. All the issues you said in this video are present in the game but I still reckon this game still holds its own against some of the crappy games we get today.

ahhh the good old days love this game ,we would play it non stop at school

Damn ..i have to replay trough it again ..... i shouldnt have watched that video ! Why do i love Halo so much ..... because its cool !

when im with class with my homies we all download this game and play lan.

My experience on the PC with halo was kind of a mixed bag. We already had a lot better shooters on PC. It didn't replace quake 3 or RTCW for me in terms of online play. For consoles it was a good game though!

I never had any issue dealing with the enemies in any of the FPS halo games, and I always play FPS games on hard. Have you played Spartan assault or strike? Those two slay me, first few operations are easy but the difficulty spikes HARD after that

Flood do not just "spawn" behind you. They come from the pipes. They're infesting the area, after all. To my knowledge, nothing straight up 'spawns'. Lot of your issue with enemy AI seems to be issues of bad habits and lack of planning. Not saying 'git gud', per say, just "think before leaping in". Halo was a bit more 'tactical' to the usual FPS. When you have two armies fighting, you have to consider your approach a little more carefully. When you have rocket flood, for instance, do not go near them.

Halo did not invent the regenerating health or 2 weapon mechanic. Games as early as 1995 had this, a notable one being a 3DO game called Iron Angel of the Apocalypse the Return.

There are two games that should be reviewed in juxtaposition with your Halo review: Myth The Fallen Lords and Giants Citizen Kabuto. Myth, because Halo follows Myth's tradition of real-time tactics. Giants, because it, like Halo, is sort of a first/third person RTS/RTT... and because the Meccs are kind of a British parody of the hero from Halo.

Ancient video, but Im surprised you never reviewed the MCC!!

I'd say Halo is a franchise that got better and better with each successive title (up until H4, arguably). You get a better sense of the expanded universe with the sequels and the weapon sandbox/gameplay improved quite a bit from CE to Reach. CE, although good for its time and still enjoyable today, definitely shows its age for reasons mentioned in this review. I'd recommend playing through all of the core titles (CE, 2, 3, Reach, and 4) if you're looking to get a better picture of the series.

That's what's sad about Halo and PC, the series didn't really come into its own until the 3rd installment , where the devs began to properly use the level size to really benefit gameplay. Sadly those games aren't on PC

Im just about to start my second playthrough on the xbox. I havent played it sense I was a kid and just got used to the combat again playing some multiplayer during Thanksgiving.

The single player campaign is good but the problems described do stop it from really excelling. The enemy AI is excellent but the slow movement speed of your character, lack of cover and repetitive level design do make it feel like a bit of a grind at the higher difficulty level. The multiplayer is still pretty fantastic though.

The other note i like to add is about bungies development track record. They can make fantastic shooting mechanics in their games, but the level designs and layout in their games fluctuate from good to poor. You noted how the game can get repetitive with its level designs, 13 years later destiny has the same layout for all its fights, essentially a horde mode, fighting waves of enemies. Something tells me they need a new level design team in their studio because they ultimately bring down the experience for all of their games.