Halo: Combat Evolved

 Xbox
User Score
8.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 3080 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,658 out of 3080
  2. Mixed: 180 out of 3080
  3. Negative: 242 out of 3080
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  1. ChickenFace
    Feb 16, 2005
    4
    Pass the chicken, i'm playing a crap game called halo here.
  2. Guyman
    Aug 3, 2005
    4
    It's okay... not a great variety of enemies and i can't stand this little warp thing. pretty intense though and story line is pretty good but i just felt like i was running around blowing stuff up.
  3. DanH.
    Jan 15, 2004
    4
    To the person who said "Someone name a better multiplayer console game"...how about perfect dark? I'm not saying Halo sucks. But it is truly the single most overrated game of all time. I enjoyed it, but I wasn't astounded by it like you people were. Maybe the brainwashing just didn't work on me like it did for you...
  4. MattP.
    Dec 22, 2003
    4
    The most overrated game ever. To be fair, I'm not big on first person shooters, they annoy me to no end, but I had huge expectations for Halo. When I bought it I unwrapped it in my car and kissed the disc, having the naive concept that it would some how be the greatest game ever. I was wrong, sorely wrong. The second I started fighting off the baddies, I knew something was missing, The most overrated game ever. To be fair, I'm not big on first person shooters, they annoy me to no end, but I had huge expectations for Halo. When I bought it I unwrapped it in my car and kissed the disc, having the naive concept that it would some how be the greatest game ever. I was wrong, sorely wrong. The second I started fighting off the baddies, I knew something was missing, but I couldn't figure it out. As I kept playing, I realized that something wasn't MISSING, there just wasn't a whole lot their, like an old man with Alzheimiers. The story's crack pot, the weapons are suprisingly short shighted and limited and trying to pilot the worthog is like trying to fix a swiss army knife with astronauts gloves. At best a rental game just definitely way too much credit is given to this game.… Expand
  5. Pelu
    Jan 6, 2011
    4
    It's a plain shooter with stupid space characters, the same old weapons and a stupid plot. A lot of better games were seen on PC a couple of years earlier. But it has co-op, so it's not completely useless.
  6. King_Bong
    Jul 26, 2016
    4
    I never really got to play halo when I was a kid because I never owned an xbox, and for a time I thought this was some great thing that I might have missed out on due to all the hype around the time of its release and all the nostalgia years after it but upon actually playing it and then subsequently replaying it just to be fair and give it another chance I discovered that I really didn'tI never really got to play halo when I was a kid because I never owned an xbox, and for a time I thought this was some great thing that I might have missed out on due to all the hype around the time of its release and all the nostalgia years after it but upon actually playing it and then subsequently replaying it just to be fair and give it another chance I discovered that I really didn't miss out on much. In fact I'm actually pretty glad that I never played it, because at the end of the day its an extremely mediocre game.

    The first and most noticeable thing about the game that I found myself hating were the weapons and overall gunplay, the weapons in halo in addition to being completely uninspired have lackluster sound effects and animations for the most part, and many of the weapons are underpowered thus making the plasma pistol and pistol the best loadout for most of an individuals play through, unless of course you are playing on average difficulty which was so mind numbingly easy it made me contemplate suicide.

    The assault rifle doesn't **** shoot straight, the plasma rifle does more dps than the plasma pistol but because of the regenerating shield system damage per shot ofter takes precedence over damage per second since(and this is much truer on harder difficulties than on lower ones) its best to stay fairly close to cover while shooting enemies so you can engage in the hide till you heal **** at your convenience, the needler pretty much requires you to empty half a clip into an enemy to kill it and is a boring weapon that doesn't require any semblance of skill to use properly, and the rocket launcher, shotgun, and sniper rifle rarely show up during the course of a play though which is disappointing because out of all the weapons in the game they are by far the best in the game due to their beefier sound effects and better functionality than the other weapons. Granted it might have made halo which is already easy even easier had these weapons showed up more often but there is nothing inherently wrong with a game being easy or inherently right with a game being hard. Difficulty is something I really only complain about when I dislike the underlying for the game being easy, in the case of halo what I dislike are projectile attacks that move so fast that they usually can't be dodged and the health system which allows one to soak up damage like a sponge and recover shields at his convenience, as well as the slow easy and tiresome gunplay and enemy types, which can hardly be said to require different tactics to beat. The grunts can be killed simply by shooting them with anything or throwing any grenade at them and if you kill their commanders they'll just run around and give you another opportunity to shoot them by running around like a couple of **** in spite of the fact that they were honestly pretty harmless to begin with, they are equipped with plasma pistols but for some mysterious reason they lack the ability to charge them up, you can pretty much just play peek a boo with them and slowly pick them off with any weapon before attacking the elites and because they never charge up their pistols you won't have to worry about losing your sheilds fighting them this way, additionally its entirely too easy to stick plasma grenades to them which ironically enough they happen to drop like candy upon dying, the jackals are only slightly more threatening than the grunts they for some mysterious reason can charge up their plasma pistols while the grunts cannot and the fact that they are equipped with the exact same weapon as most grunts is one of the things I dislike about the game, it simply does not take orthogonal enemy designs far enough, the strategy for dealing with jackals is pretty much the same as the strategy for dealing with elites; attack their weak spot and/or them with plasma then either attack their weak spot or hit them with anything till they are dead, alternatively meleeing them works pretty well if you are close enough and grenades are more effective against jackals than they are against elites because jackals are far more stationary but its still not a big enough difference in enemy design to make the game interesting and if you compare the orthogonal level designs in this game to the ones in say quake the difference is pretty clear. In quake you have hitscan enemies, that require you to take cover and pop in and out of it to shoot them, there is a dude with a grenade launcher that requires you to dodge his grenades(yes you can actually **** dodge most projectiles in that game instead of soaking them up like a sponge) and also tries to chainsaw you if you get close, and most of the enemies in that game require vastly differ methods of movement to to deal with their attacks and some are more effectively dealt with by certain weapons than with others.

    I could say more about the game but I've reached the character limit, 5000 is far to few for a full length critique.    … Expand
  7. NAYKEN
    Dec 16, 2022
    4
    Unfortunately, this is what Microsoft company understands from the game. The interesting part is that most of the video game reviewers do not understand only the simple and non-development game genres such as FPS and Sports, let's move on to the review without further ado. First of all, is the game good, which is the exaggerated part? Unfortunately, the game is a disgrace, let alone beingUnfortunately, this is what Microsoft company understands from the game. The interesting part is that most of the video game reviewers do not understand only the simple and non-development game genres such as FPS and Sports, let's move on to the review without further ado. First of all, is the game good, which is the exaggerated part? Unfortunately, the game is a disgrace, let alone being bad. We can use a maximum of two weapons with an incredible variety of weapons throughout the game, which makes the game incredibly boring and repetitive, not only mechanically, but also as a level design, the game makes you walk around the same places like a closed box from start to finish. Designs and mechanics Aside from the constant repetition, the game's lack of variety is another matter. Let's come to the most praised subject of the game, artificial intelligence, yes, artificial intelligence has proven that it is good at microsoft software, as never before in the game world. Enemies analyze your movements and play against you, and in the game This is the only tangible thing. Unfortunately, the game makes the only good part of it useless due to its crappy mechanics, level designs and diversity. This game is neither an Arcade FPS or a Realistic FPS, a game that failed both. Stop comparing it to Unreal gold and Quake 2. Serious sam The first encounter opponent I can't even say that if these games are masterpieces, this game is a disgrace. As for the score of the game, it's 42/100… Expand
  8. Skurttish
    Dec 12, 2020
    4
    A game that might have been great in its day, but hasn’t aged well at all.

    First off, the graphics stand up just fine. More than serviceable—quite good, considering when it was made. Also, the basic gameplay is generally very fun, as you would expect from Halo. The music and sound are fine. But the level design is atrocious, and I mean that in all its negative severity. There are    A game that might have been great in its day, but hasn’t aged well at all.

    First off, the graphics stand up just fine. More than serviceable—quite good, considering when it was made. Also, the basic gameplay is generally very fun, as you would expect from Halo. The music and sound are fine.

    But the level design is atrocious, and I mean that in all its negative severity. There are very few quest markers, and when they are present, they don’t show you where to go, only where you need to end up. I spent just as much time enjoying the shooting as I did lost and frustrated, staring at the same hallways over and over, wondering where I was going wrong.

    And when I did find where I was supposed to be going, Halo CE took a dead halibut and slapped me in the face with it. This game is HARD, y’all. Between the Flood level that finds you frantically running from enemies spawning endlessly all around you, to chain grenade explosions that kill you without having done anything wrong, you will die a lot, so I hope you have an excellent podcast on, because you won’t want all your attention to be on this. It’s too frustrating.

    All of this, for a story that probably wasn’t particularly good even in its prime. You can see the twists and turns coming from last Tuesday (and I say that as a gamer who was somehow not previously spoiled).

    TL;DR : I do not recommend this game. The levels are confusing mazes, the gauntlets that the game makes you run are too daunting even on Normal difficulty, and the story was your average action movie you can stream on Netflix.    … Expand
  9. MichaelScarn7
    Dec 3, 2020
    4
    This game has not aged well. The first few levels were okay, the gameplay and the weapons weren't great, but each mission felt different. The story was alright as well, but once the flood gets introduced this game tanks in every way imaginable. The final mission in this is one of the worst missions ever put into a game. Maybe Halo was fun in 2001, but now it is not worth playing through.
  10. JakubTyszko
    Feb 14, 2021
    4
    Super simple story that makes no sense. A shoot em up with vehicle. Only feature worth mentioning is co-op play. Would never buy this game, got it free with my xbox.
  11. JimmyP.
    Apr 6, 2003
    3
    This game is not fun at all i dont know what everyone sees in it its only fun on multiplayer thats the only reason i gave it a 3.
  12. JamesT.
    Nov 25, 2004
    3
    Come on people. open your eyes, its lamen, repetitive, dull and did i mention boring. and the sequel ain't much better.
  13. Jared
    Jul 28, 2005
    3
    It got boring fast. their is only 5 different enemies in the whole game and no bosses. that sucked.
  14. Gamestop
    Nov 15, 2004
    3
    Halo... Let's see? The first time through it's good only because you want to know how the story is going to turn out. Then you play it again because it's been awhile but it's too easy now that you know what to do. Switch to legendary gives you a challenge but you still beat it only to see a marine hug an elite (let down) You trade it in cause you don't see Halo... Let's see? The first time through it's good only because you want to know how the story is going to turn out. Then you play it again because it's been awhile but it's too easy now that you know what to do. Switch to legendary gives you a challenge but you still beat it only to see a marine hug an elite (let down) You trade it in cause you don't see yourself playing it anymore. 3 months later there isn't anything else good to play so pick up halo again. Legendary is too easy, story line goes faster when you press X, done with it again. Time to try multiplayer... that goes over horribly cause you now relise how stupid the computer AI is. You get good at it have a few runing riots yet as you get killed by a "camper" with a pistol shot from all the way accross the screen the game get's annoying and you find it more fun to commit suicide so your team loses and you can go home faster. Suddenly Halo 2 is announced and you get some what excited to play that so you play Halo once again on legendary yet find it an utter bore and wonder why you are wasting your time once again on this game. Trailers for halo 2 make there way to the masses the insight hits aswell. Sure the cutscenes look wonderfull but the in game graphics not that much of a difference. Some new weapons, vehicles get damaged etc. You can't help to think how much this is going to be more of the same. Nov 9th 2004 hundreds of crazy losers line your store at midnight to have wet dreams about a guy in a green suit. 5 days later your employee have beaten the game just in time to tell you it's not worth your time. The story line in non-existent like *caugh* "Fable" and was more a tool to push halo 3 on the next xbox. So in conclusion no this is not a great game. To agree with other reviews: Aliens comparison the pillar of automn is the ship in Aliens, the master chief's armor is the marines outfits, guns too., Library=BORING, multiplayer never played half life but recall a game called QUAKE "lan party"!!!… Expand
  15. esbegan
    Jun 10, 2015
    3
    Never liked it, never clicked on me, Half Life was older and still way better... I tried several times to like it but still looked like Quake 2 with better graphics.
  16. notbradyn_YT
    Jun 20, 2022
    3
    I don't like this game as much as I want to. I keep getting lost and there are to many puzzles that I can't seem to figure out.
  17. DiosMX
    Jun 26, 2023
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. A pesar de ser un juego que distingue a la consola XBOX, no fue mi agrado la historia ni el gameplay parece cualquier otro juego de su estilo.
    Apesar de ser juegos ya de antaño esta mejor un Area 51.    … Expand
  18. Rick
    Mar 11, 2003
    2
    Sucks Sicks. No fun, just like any other 1st person but with more crap. Not addictive.
  19. Somebody
    Jan 17, 2007
    2
    Run in a straight line shooting the "tough" AI. Just a re-hash of Doom and not as good.
  20. RicS.
    Dec 21, 2003
    2
    This game is so boring!!!
  21. LoserHaloCritic
    Nov 18, 2003
    2
    This game sucks. I mean guns? Haven't we seen this before? Men with hands? Uh..Remeber Goldeneye? Things and objects...haven't we seen this with counterstrike? What I'm really trying to say here is I'm a big nerd. I want bots because my only friends are 3-D and have helmets...remember Counterstrike (again!) Enough with the same crap...how dare you have vehicles with This game sucks. I mean guns? Haven't we seen this before? Men with hands? Uh..Remeber Goldeneye? Things and objects...haven't we seen this with counterstrike? What I'm really trying to say here is I'm a big nerd. I want bots because my only friends are 3-D and have helmets...remember Counterstrike (again!) Enough with the same crap...how dare you have vehicles with wheels. New game? Easy, medium and hard levels? Laughable… Expand
  22. JesseP.
    Nov 25, 2003
    2
    Too much hype not enough content. Half life is so much better and its years older. so the graphics are better in halo but thats expected. cause its newer. just wait for halflife 2
  23. mmallouhi12
    Aug 2, 2020
    2
    Did people even play Halo Reach then played this? or just fan boys all over the place??
    this game literally sucks compared to Reach, for various reasons:
    1- only handful of weapons to play with like for Humans you have 3 guns maybe and the covenant 3 2- Repetitive game play and arenas 3- There is 4 types of enemies with different "colors" 4- Your teammates A.I. is so broken they can't    Did people even play Halo Reach then played this? or just fan boys all over the place??
    this game literally sucks compared to Reach, for various reasons:
    1- only handful of weapons to play with like for Humans you have 3 guns maybe and the covenant 3
    2- Repetitive game play and arenas
    3- There is 4 types of enemies with different "colors"
    4- Your teammates A.I. is so broken they can't even drive you while you shoot (in Reach they used to drive you just fine)
    5- You totally forget about the story and what's happening because of the repetitive things you keep doing
    6- You can't take the Covenant sword from fallen enemies (In Reach you could)
    7- Boring and not at all fun that every corner there is a covenant soldier that is Camouflaged with the sword (1 hit 1 kill)
    8- While in the vehicle (e.g. the Scorpion) you lose health and armor instead of the vehicle?????

    Just don't play this garbage version of Halo.. Skip it

    P.S. YES I know it's 2020 and this game is 2001 lol    … Expand
  24. BenW.
    Feb 10, 2007
    1
    A dreadful game. The hype is all for nothing. Compared to a PC game its nothing even Daiktana is better than this. The sequel haven't improved on it either!
  25. SamW.
    Dec 21, 2003
    1
    I recently bought an xbox with halo expecting it to be like everyone says. but when i do play it its alright at the start but damn does it get boring!! the levels are boring and are like the same. the monsters are corny and killing them are repetitive. and the weapons are lame. there needs to be more meatier weapons but all they got are stupid alien weapons which are boring to play with.I recently bought an xbox with halo expecting it to be like everyone says. but when i do play it its alright at the start but damn does it get boring!! the levels are boring and are like the same. the monsters are corny and killing them are repetitive. and the weapons are lame. there needs to be more meatier weapons but all they got are stupid alien weapons which are boring to play with. this game is soooooo over rated. there are so many better games out there.… Expand
  26. HateFounder
    Dec 11, 2003
    1
    Just had to post this after checking out the stats on this baby and coming across Founder's review. Dude, how many games have you actually played in your life? Never seen a tank in a game before? Come on. Never had a vehicle that other NPCs can ride in? We all have. Never been to school and learned how to write or spell? Or put together a cohesive sentence that accurately represents Just had to post this after checking out the stats on this baby and coming across Founder's review. Dude, how many games have you actually played in your life? Never seen a tank in a game before? Come on. Never had a vehicle that other NPCs can ride in? We all have. Never been to school and learned how to write or spell? Or put together a cohesive sentence that accurately represents a coherent thought? And you think Halo offers tactics? Buddy, tactics involves more than deciding what direction to walk in or having to make choices. It's about constructing a plan and following it through as YOUR ACTIONS HAVE AN INFLUENCE ON WHAT HAPPENS NEXT. You cannot possibly have a linear tactical game. If you do, then what you're getting might look like tactics, but it ain't. … Expand
  27. JH.
    Dec 18, 2007
    1
    And they said Assassin's Creed was repetitive? As FPS games go, this is atrocious. Particularly multiplayer where it's like fighting in a cardboard box... "Where are they hiding? Oh. Over there. That's because the levels are so small"
  28. Delta_Assault
    Sep 28, 2011
    1
    Halo isn't a very good first person shooter. I know, I know. You're a Halo fanboy and you think I'm just a mindless hater. You think I'm just going along with the crowd. That I'm some sort of dude who enjoys hopping on bandwagons. Well, no... that's not really the case. I've thought about this for a long while. I've never liked Halo. Even back when it first came out in 2000, it didn'tHalo isn't a very good first person shooter. I know, I know. You're a Halo fanboy and you think I'm just a mindless hater. You think I'm just going along with the crowd. That I'm some sort of dude who enjoys hopping on bandwagons. Well, no... that's not really the case. I've thought about this for a long while. I've never liked Halo. Even back when it first came out in 2000, it didn't impress me. I'm not a guy who likes to be counter-culture, or go against popular opinion for its own sake. There are many popular games I do enjoy. It's not that at all. And here right now, I'm going to explain in detail why Halo is terrible, so you can't accuse me of being a mindless hater. The HUD of Halo is just annoying. Instead of being like other contemporary FPSs, Halo insists on representing all of its ammo onscreen as lots and lots of tiny bullets, instead of simple easy to read numbers. This is lame. There is no need to fill up the top corner of the screen with rows and rows of bullet symbols, just show us a **** number. Like... if it said 60 in the corner? That would be fine, that would work for me. I can read and count, I know what 60 means. 60 means that there are 60 rounds in my magazine, I don't need to see a ton of tiny **** bullets up there. Halo's universe is a complete ripoff of Aliens and various other scifi properties. This shows a startling dearth of imagination on Bungie's part. Seriously, it's not an homage, it's a straight ripoff. This is not subtle, this is hitting you over your head with a sledgehammer. The right way to do it would be something along the lines of Mass Effect. With ME, you can tell that the creators at BioWare had an appreciation and respect for scifi and were influenced by all those works, while creating their own unique and imaginative new universe. They had influences, they did not outright copy. Halo does not do this, Halo is the result of Bungie ripping off other scifi works and cobbling them all together. I find this deeply objectionable.

    Let's look at Master Chief. Master Chief as a super soldier is a ripoff of a lot of stuff like BattleTech and Warhammer 40K. He has been surgically engineered to be a superhuman warrior, just like the Space Marines of the Imperium in WH40k. He is physically much larger then a normal human being and possesses much greater strength and athletic capabilities, just like Space Marines and also the genetically engineered Clan Elementals in BattleTech. Then he dons the advanced Mjolnir power armor. This power armor further enhances his strength and survivability in combat, just like Space Marine armor and Elemental suits. Starship Troopers is another example of scifi power armor. His training and origin story in "The Fall of Reach" novel even reads just like Robert Thurston's classic "The Way of the Clans" BattleTech novel. In the Halo novel, the Spartan program takes children and forms them into training cadres to teach them how to become highly capable and skilled soldiers. Their sole purpose is to become the best warrior mankind can produce. This is almost identical to the sibkos, or sibling companies, that the Clans use in BattleTech. If you liked The Fall of Reach, I recommend you go and check out "The Jade Phoenix Trilogy" omnibus edition, which contains "The Way of the Clans." You'll find that The Fall of Reach is simply a pale shadow of Thurston's work.

    Most of what Halo rips off is Aliens, however. That's really the core complaint. Bungie just decided to watch Aliens a lot and uh... rip off the entire film. If they were making an Aliens FPS, this wouldn't be a problem. In fact, that would be great. However, I find it appalling that they ripped off this great film to create their brand new IP. That's incredibly distasteful. And no, it wasn't just ripping off the vague concept of a "space marine." Doom did that and that was fine. There is nothing wrong with taking a general concept like a "space marine" and doing your own thing with it. However, Bungie went far beyond just using that idea. They ripped off almost every element of Aliens. Let's take a closer look at the stuff they ripped off. Master Chief's cryo chamber at the beginning of Halo is a ripoff of the cryostasis chamber in Aliens. Same exact design and function. The Pelican dropship is a clear ripoff of Aliens' UD4L Cheyenne dropship. In Halo 3, there's even a cinematic cutscene that shows the **** layout of the Pelican, which has two seats, one lower down and to the right, with another elevated position on the left. This is almost identical to the **** positions on the Cheyenne. I'm not sure if any dropship pilot in a Halo game ever uttered the line, "We're in the pipe, 5 by 5." but it would not surprise me at all if they did.    … Expand
  29. Naxotrollxdwtf
    Jun 19, 2020
    1
    I feel the game a little boring, but the horse for all is not bailable on macOS
  30. Elanonimous
    Jun 20, 2020
    1
    Nunca he entendido a los fans de esta saga al sobre valorar los juegos de esta franquisia pienso que es un shooter como cualquier otro aunque admito que bastante bien hecho pero no lo consideraría de culto
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Awards & Rankings

1
#1 Best Xbox Game of 2001
1
#1 Most Discussed Xbox Game of 2001
1
#1 Most Shared Xbox Game of 2001

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
97

Universal acclaim - based on 68 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 68 out of 68
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 68
  3. Negative: 0 out of 68
  1. Xbox Nation Magazine
    100
    Halo is quite simply the closest thing we have ever experienced to a living, breathing alternate universe. [Jan 2002, p.72]
  2. GMR Magazine
    100
    The definitive reason to own an Xbox. [Feb 2003, p.95]
  3. Gamestyle
    100
    When you finally set down the controller the first time, and eventually hunger or exhaustion do force all of us to take a break, Halo has pulled you completely into its world and started one of the best sci-fi gaming adventures of all time.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »