How I Stopped Drawing in Paint and Loved the Halo Series

This blog is mainly for those who, like me, love the Halo universe and, perhaps, like me, only played the first two parts, and were incredibly happy about the announcement of the Master Chief Collection and Reach on PC. But, this blog is also for those who missed the wonderful Combat Evolved at one time and have no idea why many, many people love this series of games so much.

PS
At first I wanted to write about the universe as a whole and about the two games that were released on PC, but my thoughts got so carried away that this blog will only be about Halo Combat Evolved.

Let’s get nostalgic and understand the reasons for nostalgia. Let’s go!

A long time ago, when I was very young and not drunk, I played Delta Force: Black hawk down and was incredibly happy. Until one terrible day, my mother turned off the computer from the network because she could not close the game and the game did not break.

Since I was small, there was no way to fix the game.

So a month passed. I didn’t play anything, at most I drew in paint or played pinball.

But one fine day, a dude came to my mom for tutoring, and she, apparently imbued with my low mood, asked this dude to look for games on our PC. Like, what if we didn’t see something?. And he found. Dude found Halo Combat Evolved. From that day my love for the Halo series began.
More precisely, even this: love began from the moment I saw the treasured application icon, which (I realized much later) depicted the Master Chief – John 117. Hero of my life.

And then, when the game started, she managed to make me fall in love with her even more. And, although the child’s brain was not yet burdened with knowledge of music, I was fascinated. This. Music.

My pirated copy of the game (it was 2004, Kyrgyzstan, I was 7 so don’t judge me) was entirely in English. Knowledge of the English language was then enough to navigate the game menu. There was no talk of understanding the plot at all, but nevertheless I barely understood it. That’s because Halo has amazing cutscenes. A seven-year-old child, barely completing the game on easy difficulty, understood the plot… Or maybe the plot was simple?- those who haven’t played the game will ask… Well, how can I tell you? No.

Briefly about the plot.

Distant future, planet Earth, after many wars and other misadventures, unites under a single flag and sets off to conquer the universe using newly invented hyper-drives. But earthlings quickly discovered that we are not alone in the universe. A huge religious war machine called the Covenant attacked the colonies of the Earth, quickly turned the surfaces of the colonized planets into glass with powerful airstrikes and set off to look for the last refuge of people – Mother Earth.

After the fall of one of the main colonies, our journey in Halo Combat Evolved begins, we play as John-117 aka Master Chief, a super soldier from Project Spartans, a genetically modified young man who wakes up aboard the huge human cruiser Pillar of Autumn and is tasked with rescuing the artificial intelligence Cortana, who holds all the military secrets of earthlings. Master Chief and Cortana escape from the ship and find themselves in the coolest location in the history of video games (IMHO, of course) Ring World, the same Halo!

My favorite couple. https://misterxcasino.uk/login/

Cortana is a rather talkative girl, but Master Chief, on the contrary, is not particularly talkative, he speaks dryly, matter-of-factly, but has that elusive charisma of a tough soldier. These characters have instant chemistry. Master Chief becomes a kind of nanny, as Cortana reminds him of in his first serious skirmish with enemies.

Cortana will be your companion for almost the entire game, she will tell you what to do, just chat with the main character right in his head, share her impressions of the situation, joke and even flirt. Cortana is most similar to Scarlett Johansson’s character from the movie “Her.”. The Chief becomes attached to her as the game progresses, and the player also becomes attached to her.

Strange fact
When I played the Dead Money add-on for Fallout New Vegas, Christine’s voice seemed painfully familiar to me, and it turned out that Cortana and Christine were voiced by the same voice actress, but now, when I’m writing this article, the Internet persistently gives me a completely different result… Write if I’m wrong and just got something mixed up, and these characters always had different voice actresses.
End of strange fact

I consider the further story about the plot of Combat Evolved a big spoiler, and the story about the universe as a whole is a criminal spoiler. So I’ll just say this: no other space opera (if Halo can be called that) has hooked me plot-wise as much as the Halo universe.

Oh yeah, towards the end of the game Combat Evolved takes a sharp turn into… Survival Horror! A third party to the conflict appears in the plot, the so-called Flood. And I must admit, the design of these creatures, the sound and music of the levels in which they appear, is still, 15 years later, creepy… But! There are only two such “creepy” levels, then everything becomes not scary, so all non-horror fans can calmly run through these levels on easy difficulty and continue to play and not be afraid of anything!

Gameplay
By the way, about clashes with enemies and other gameplay delights. Gameplay Combat Evolved is a linear shooter with spacious locations. There are a lot of types of enemies, and they all look damn cool. There are also a lot of weapons, they are divided into two large classes: earthling weapons and Covenant weapons. You really can only carry two weapons and a couple of types of grenades with you.

Shooting in Halo is an art form in its own right, we’ve heard Bungie praised for shooting in Destiny? Or maybe you played it yourself and understand what I mean?? So, shooting in Combat Evolved, a game from 2003, still feels better than in many modern shooters! And I’m not the only one who thinks so.

The game also has vehicles; especially large locations can be passed on horseback in a tank, jeep, or even a light fighter. The equipment in the game is also divided into the above-mentioned classes.
Master Chief himself is a tough guy, he wears a Mjolnir suit, which is equipped with energy shields that are restored, just like health in the early series of Call Of Duty, however, there is one thing, but if the shield is still knocked down and you do not have time to restore it, then the damage will begin to take away your health, and in order to restore it you will have to pick up first aid kits.

Fun fact
I completed the first mission in Combat Evolved for a long couple of weeks, logging into the game every day and trying to figure out where the hell I should go. The brain of seven-year-old me could not figure out the intricacies of the corridors of the Pillar of Autumn. I passed the level completely by accident, I just came across the right door in a dark corridor. Then the passage went like clockwork… Until the mission “343 Guilty Spark”.
End of fun fact

As a result, I can make a small comparison. Most of all, the gameplay of Combat Evolved reminds me of the first part of F.E.A.R. All because of the artificial intelligence of enemies and tactical capabilities. YouTuber Rabbit Respawn has a great video about the game F.E.A.R, he goes through the same room with enemies several times and gets a completely different shootout scenario each time.

Well, it’s exactly the same in Halo Combat Evolved. Enemies behave very animatedly on above-average difficulty levels – especially. You never know what will happen in the next second during a major firefight, and rolling back to the last checkpoint has never been so interesting.

I have no idea what to call this item, but let it be “Visual”

Visually, the 2003 game still looks amazing, without any mods. But what I like most are the details.

For me personally, there is nothing more disappointing when in some shooter or slasher, after a fierce battle, I look around the battlefield and see how defeated enemies begin to disappear, walls blackened by explosions and riddled with bullets begin to self-heal, and the chaos left by ME after the battle disappears, as does the satisfaction from the past battle. Combat Evolved doesn’t have this! They shot at the enemy’s corpse for half an hour, like in the movie Starship Troopers? Get walls splattered with blood that will remain so until you leave the level! We decided to paint an obscene word on the wall with gunshots? Make sure you have enough cartridges, because now you have such an opportunity!

In general, the battlefield during a firefight, due to the fallen enemies scattering from the explosions and the living running back and forth and talking to each other, looks amazing. There are sparks bouncing off the walls everywhere, projectiles from energy weapons, beauty! And at the end of the firefight, among the smoking remains, scorched walls and weapons scattered here and there, you will stand, stand and contemplate this splendor as long as your heart desires.

The design of enemies, weapons, allies is simple and clear, and that’s its beauty. Small and grumbling foot soldiers, tall and stately elite warriors, large and armored slugs with fuel cannons, I know, understand and respect each of these enemies. Because of the way the enemies look and behave, you don’t view them as annoying assholes, you actually start to perceive them as an equal threat to you (and on high and legendary difficulty, as a lethal threat to the hero).

But everything I wrote about above would not work without one important detail – location.
The game has 10 levels, and although the locations begin to repeat from the middle of the game, this is due to the plot. And I bet that when you return to locations you’ve already completed, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Each of the seemingly already seen places changes and is supplemented with previously inaccessible places.

Reassuring fact
If you played Metal Gear Solid V and thought that the creators of Halo did the same thing as the creators of MGS V (forced the player to stupidly go through the same missions and complicate the conditions), then you can rest assured, it’s not like that. Yes, we are returning to previously visited locations, but firstly, we are actually returning, that is, we are going from where we came, and secondly, conditions, circumstances and events, everything changes, everything goes according to the plot, no stupid backtracking. In general, rest assured, I won’t spoil it)
The end of the reassuring fact

The dynamics of changing locations is ideal, before you have time to get tired of one, it gives way to the next, and then another! Here’s an example, in the first location we are in the narrow corridors of a spaceship, in the next we find ourselves on the surface of the world of the ring, namely, we are jumping over green hills in a cool Vartog jeep with a couple of surviving allies, BOOM! In the next mission, we go to an enemy cruiser under the cover of darkness to obtain important information! And all this is logically connected, and all the holes in the plot of the game can be closed by reading a book (yes, there are books in the Halo universe!)

About the most important thing – music

At the very beginning I already mentioned that the music in the game fascinated me. Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori wrote the greatest soundtrack in video game history. Combat Evolved even won an award for the soundtrack in some shaggy year. And if you liked the main theme, then listen to this:. This is my favorite composition. Probably everyone has such music, they don’t just like it, it occupies a special place in the heart or soul, or God knows where else, a special place, inviolable, unshakable… In general, listen, and for now I will complete my story, full of subjectivity.

Result: went to replay

And in the end we have a story-driven, linear, more or less tactical shooter, with stealth elements, in spacious locations using technology, amazing music, a huge universe and numerous and loyal fans around the world.

There is also a series of short anime Halo Legends, the director of each episode is different, therefore the art and theme of the series are also different, if you have played but not seen these cartoons, be sure to watch. But for those who are not familiar with the series of games, the anime will clarify some points, especially if you start watching from the Origins series.

This text, as I already said, is full of subjectivity, love for this wonderful series of games and the universe as a whole. And hope. Yes… I think he is full of hope that you, dear comrades who have read up to this point, are inspired and will at least try to get acquainted with the Halo universe. And with the last notes of the soundtrack I finish this blog. Thanks to everyone who read.