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Genre: First-person shooter

Format: CD

Developer: Bungie Studios

Original Publisher: Microsoft

PC Build: Gearbox Software

Mac Port: Westlake Interactive

Mac Publisher: MacSoft Games

Minimum System Requirements: Mac OS X v10.2.8, 800MHz G4, 256MB RAM, 32MB AGP Video Card (GeForce 2MX/ATI Radeon 7000 or better), 1.4GB hard disk space; Internet or LAN connection required for online play

Review Computer: 1GHz G4 iMac, 768MB RAM, Mac OS X v10.3.2

Network Feature: Internet or LAN

Price: $49.95

ESRB Rating: Mature (blood and gore, violence)

Availability: Now

I'm really sorry; it's taken a while to get this review done. But, chances are you have already bought (or pirated) Halo: Combat Evolved, so it doesn't really matter, does it?

Anyway, for the small group of people out there who haven't gotten the game yet, I want you to leave your computer, drive to any store, and buy it. I'm not kidding. Stop reading this review, get up, buy the game. When you come back, you can finish reading this if you really feel the need to. You must play this game, because words simply do not do justice to the awesomeness of it.

But, apparently you haven't taken my advice to go buy the game yet. Apparently, you want to find out what the game is about. I don't blame you for not taking my advice. I rarely do myself. So, this is my review of the greatest first-person shooter (FPS) game ever. And no one is paying me to say that.

The plot line is fairly simple. The year is 2552, and overpopulation on Earth has caused humans to settle on other worlds. Millions of people fly out to these new colonies. Suddenly, all contact is lost to the colony known as Harvest. The military is sent to discover the reason for the lost contact, and only a single ship returns. Apparently, an alien warship beat the crap out of the puny human ships. The aliens are known as the Covenant, a group of religiously fanatical space monsters that have declared war on humanity...and that speak garbled English for some odd reason. Since these aliens would kick the crap out of us puny humans if they reach Earth, a secret military project on a distant colony has been working to create cyborg-ish super-soldiers. You are one of these super-soldiers and you must single-handedly save humanity. See? Simple. Unlike some of those other games I have to review...like ones where you have to attempt to manage a soccer team as it fails miserably.

During your mission to save humanity, you land on a giant, spinning halo in space. It is a fully life-substantial mass with water, valleys, mountains, and vegetation, and is a weapon/home/sanctuary/breeding ground for zombie-squid things. But, you will not be alone. Every once in a while, you will get marines to follow you. And the AI of the marines is actually very well done. The marines, unlike many other allies you get in these kinds of FPS games, will do things like shoot back at the enemy, and try not to get killed.

As in many "realistic" FPS video games, in Halo you can only carry around two weapons at once. However, you can exchange either of the weapons you are carrying for any weapons you find abandoned or lying next to your recently killed enemies. In addition to guns, you can hold up to four of each of two types of grenades (detailed later). And, you can use mounted weapons and vehicles to gun or plow down your foes.

The humans have a nice arsenal of weapons and a small selection of vehicles. The first human weapon is the M9 HE-DP Grenade, a simple grenade that can rebound off walls or roll along the floor to blow up enemies or vehicles. The second weapon is the M6D Pistol, a small handgun with a small zoom and high-explosive rounds. Third is the MA5B Assault rifle, which is inaccurate and highly wasteful of ammo, but very useful at close range. Also useful at close range is the M90 Shotgun; it fires slowly but can take out several enemies at once at decent range. Next is the S2 AM Sniper Rifle; super powerful, 8x zoom, but only four bullets per clip. The M19 SSM Rocket Launcher, known as the "newb tube" by FPS game veterans, is a portable rocket launcher perfect for taking out enemy tanks or clumps of enemies from across the battlefield. Last in the human weaponry is the Flamethrower. It's only available in the multiplayer games and is useless at medium to long range, but as long as you are less then ten feet from your enemy it's an almost instant kill. There are three human vehicles, but two of them are actually the same car with a slight alteration. The first is a tank: the M8O88 Scorpion MBT. The one person in the cockpit steers the tank and aims its cannon, and up to four people can hitch a ride on the Scorpion's track pods. The second and third are different variations of the Warthog M12. It has a seat for a driver, a passenger seat who can use his or her equipped guns, and a gunner in the back. The difference between the two Warthogs is the type of mounted gun in the back. For the Warthog you can use in single player, you get a three-barreled machine gun, but the one that is only available in multiplayer has a triple-barreled rocket launcher. Both Warthogs are quick and maneuverable, but can tip over easily.

The Covenant have a smaller arsenal of weapons and vehicles. Like the humans, they have a grenade, a "Plasma Grenade," that is. It sticks to enemies and the floor, but bounces off trees and walls and emits a large blue explosion when detonating. Next is the Plasma rifle. It is an automatic gun that cannot reload, but will overheat quickly and deplete its power core, causing need for constant replacement. The Covenant Plasma pistol is like the Plasma rifle in that it doesn't reload, it overheats, and it depletes its power core, causing constant replacement, but it is only semi-automatic and has a charge shot ability. The Needler is the only Covenant gun that is magazine-fed. It has pink projectiles that travel slowly, homing in on its target and sticking to it, then exploding to inflict more damage. Like the human Flamethrower, the Covenant gets a multiplayer gun also. It is the Fuel Rod Gun, which shoots explosive projectiles useful against tanks and clumps of infantry. The last weapon is the stationary weapon known as the Shade. It shoots three mildly accurate plasma beams at once, and can rotate 360� to kill both air and ground troops and vehicles. Speaking of vehicles, we get two of the Covenant's at our disposal in both single and multiplayer games. The first is the Ghost, a highly maneuverable hovercraft with one seat, two weak and inaccurate plasma cannons, and almost no protection for the driver. The second is the Banshee, the only flying machinery available to you. It can only carry you, has two plasma cannons and two fuel rod cannons, and can sustain moderate amounts of damage.

So far, you have a simple but entertaining plot line, thirteen awesome weapons, and five kickass army vehicles...what else could a teenaged gamer want in a video game? Oh yea, game play.

In single player, you trek across Halo in a number of quests, saving people and killing thousands of enemies. Enemies pop up, you kill them, pick up their weapons, and move on. As you solve mysteries (don't worry, you don't have to think), a feminine computer chip will explain everything to you. And, even if you don't pay attention, it's still easy to figure out what to do. No puzzle solving, not too much aimless wandering. The way to know if you are going the correct way is to look for the constant notifications that you have passed a checkpoint. There are many checkpoints, sort of leading a trail to where to go next.There are never too many trails to follow, so it's hard to get lost. And, once you beat the game, you can re-beat it in the different difficulty levels.

Now, the greatest part of the game: multiplayer. You can play online or in a LAN network. Halo's multiplayer is like a compilation of the best parts of some of the greatest games ever made. It has the alien weapons of TimeSplitters 2. It has the human weapons of Medal of Honor. It has the vehicle firepower of the Twisted Metal series. It has the different multiplayer modes of Bond games. It has the scenery and graphics of Metroid Prime. And it has the addictiveness of Warcraft multiplayer. This game deserves every game award available, and an Academy Award for good measure.

The weapons and vehicles have been mentioned earlier, so the only part of multiplayer I haven't covered is the game modes. There are many available, including being able to create your own scenarios. The game types include Slayer in which you simply kill as many as possible, and Capture the Flag, which is pretty self-explanatory, along with a few other types I haven't seen in games before such as Oddball, where you carry a skull around, trying not to let anyone take it. Odd, but fun none-the-less. There are many maps to choose from, each with standard weapon and vehicle settings, but all of that can be changed. You can edit almost every aspect of the levels to fit your desires. I enjoyed creating games in which there were only close range weapons and you were invisible unless in a car, causing you to be forced to do (as I call it) Warthog Jousting (ramming Warthogs into one another until one tips and someone gets run over accidentally).

The only thing that could be added to Halo to make it even more awesome is a co-op mode for single player. With that, the game would be perfect. Right now, it is one millimeter down from perfect, but it still deserves a perfect score.

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