The Innovation of Halo Combat Evolved
Unlike other science-fiction video games, Halo Combat Evolved provides an intriguing storyline of high quality. The story that drags a player into an alien world, presents enough background and information to allow for surprises while still keeping things very interesting. A player is swept into the life of an elite soldier as his ship is bombarded and attacked by an advanced alien force known as the Covenant. The player is forced to crash land on an alien planet, and find the purpose of the strange ring world. Unlike most game plots, the entire presentation and style of the storyline of Halo Combat Evolved is fully good enough to stand on its own.
Interface
The controls in Halo Combat Evolved are easy to learn and simple to master. While being very comfortable, they are still very effective. Though vehicle controls are a little different than what is found in other games, they well and are easy to adjust to. All of the vehicles are easily commandeered and can be easily used as tools of war.
The lack of options in the options menu can be quite frustrating. Much, though, can be accomplished, granted you are running the PC version, and know the appropriate command line parameters. This, however, can be an excessive inconvenience.
Weapons in Game Play
Halo Combat Evolved does much more with ten weapons than many other games do with twenty or more weapons. Each of them has a wholly distinctive role, and while players will surely develop different preferences for a small subset of weapons, the full arsenal is so well designed that every weapon must be tried for at least a few minutes.
The range of tactics that each of the weapons require provides one of the biggest surprises in the game. Even more surprising, though, is the fact that Halo Combat Evolved avoids the worn out convention of duplicating weapon roles on either side. Even the difference between the basic pistols for human and Covenant forces is tremendous.
Covenant Enemies
Halo Combat Evolved also has a range of enemies who all display very different and distinct behaviors. The basic units of the Covenant are tiny, grunt-like aliens who rely on numbers to overcome the player. Shield-carrying Jackals are another example of Covenant enemies. Their forward protection and their tendency to roll from side-to-side forces the player to adopt entirely different tactics when facing them. The large Elite troopers, which are found in many different colors, offer a little more of a challenge to the player. Being protected by heavy armor, and being able to beat the player if too close, make these troopers a formidable opponent. Many other opponents included in Halo Combat Evolved, along with these enemies, make for an interesting variety in combat.
