alo is a first-person, space-marine shooting game from Bungie Software, the makers of the classic Marathon series of games for the Macintosh. Players take the role of a cybernetically enhanced marine non-com who is entrusted with getting the computer core of a human battle ship to safety after the ship itself has been trapped near Halo, a ringworld. From that beginning, the game leads the player down to the ringworld and through alien terrain, spacecraft and installations until the player solves the mystery of the Halo.
Taken all together, Halo is a stunning game. The levels are huge. The vista of the ringworld fills the sky. Players not only pound about on the marine's feet, they also drive jeeps, tanks and alien craft. There is a wide variety of human and alien weapons. The challenges vary from standup firefights to sniper rifle sneak attacks to nerve-wracking creeps through rooms of sleeping aliens to timed runs through obstacle-filled terrain. There is a death-match mode and a cooperative mode, each of which allows up to four players to participate on a single screen. The cooperative mode allows the player to man separate stations (driver, gunner, etc.) when on board the various vehicles.
The AI for the aliens and the supporting marines in Halo deserves special mention. For both, their orders are: "Find cover, shoot back, find different cover, shoot back, etc." With the exception of a few hand-to-hand specialists, no computer character on either side charges blindly to its death. The AI, and the long range that most of the fights occur at, give the game the feel of real combat. Players will find themselves crouching behind barrels with other marines while waiting for the aliens to move from cover rather than leaving their character standing in middle of a hall, blazing away with both barrels as 10 aliens charge at a dead run.
Familiar ingredients in a new stew
Larry Niven fans will recognize Halo's setting, a ringworld so small that it orbits a planet instead of encircling a sun. James Cameron fans will recognize the uniforms, weapons and dialogue of the space marines, all of which borrow from Aliens. Marathon fans will recognize the brightly colored aliens as the visual descendants (and maybe the actual ones) of the enemy in the Marathon series. None of these familiar elements detracts from the experience of the game.
The terrain in Halo is not generally interactive, but there are some gorgeous touches. There is a level in Halo where it is snowing. On this level, the players get to drive a tank around. The marines climb onto the tank and ride shotgun. If the players drive close to one of the snow-covered trees, the marines will brush against the tree branches and snow is dumped on them, which they then shrug off. That is really cool programming, and just one example of the many small touches that improve this game.
Everyone who buys this game should have at least two controllers; four would be best. The memory card is not required. Halo has players set up a profile, and then each profile is allowed only one saved game at a time. The computer saves automatically, which is a big (and frustrating) change for players used to PC games. They can't scout down a canyon and then return to an earlier save point. That point will have been saved over.
Big as it is, Halo includes stretches that feel repetitive. For example, in one section, players fight their way across a bridge, walk down a hall, shoot their way through a round room, walk down a hall, shoot their way across a bridge, walk down a hall, etc. There are three bridges like this, each with round rooms at either end. Much of the art is reused exactly. This is not the only section of the game where players may wonder if they have somehow backtracked.
The ship's AI, who is your companion for most of the game, pointing you to the next plot point at the appropriate moments, doesn't take questions. This is too bad, because she is dialed into the alien's battle net, and I would have loved to ask her things like "How many aliens are in that room?" and "Which of these corridors takes me back to the surface?"
— Eric
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