This game is symbolic in so many ways for PC gaming.
When Bungie announced the game, people went absolutely insane. Bungie, famous for making excellent games, was promising a multiplayer game in which one could drive a vehicle, or ride in a vehicle being driven by another human. This was revolutionary, and the beauty of the graphics and the way the game played sent shivers up the spines of anybody who saw the screenshots.
Then came Microsoft. They were developing a new console, the X-Box, and they wanted Bungie to develop games for the console. So, they bought Bungie, and announced that Halo was to be a console only title.
PC gamers were crushed.
But something all PC gamers know is that if a game is good enough, it will be ported to the PC and made slightly better, either through extra levels or better graphics. We were promised both, and after about 3 years of waiting, Halo was delivered.
And it ran slow. Very slow. Much too slow for a game that was 3 years old.
And the graphics were pretty, yes, but not very new. We had seen things much prettier.
However, the gameplay was okay, so we trudged through it. The levels were odd: they looked like somebody designed one room and used the copy and paste commands to make huge, boring levels. It wasn't too bad at first, but something happens about midway through the game, something that may one day be viewed as the worst decision in game-making, ever.
Your first enemies, the Covenent, are pretty smart. They will try to flank you, use cover, and so on. They are also very funny: killing them makes them scream in funny ways, and sometimes they get scared by your appearance and run away, screaming funny things.
But, the game switches from smart AI to dumb AI, from fun enemies to boring, repetitious enemies from games we've all played before. The enemies now run straight at you and that is all. No cover, no flanking, no nothing but holding down the fire button and mowing down line after line of enemy. That can make a game fun, as in the case of Doom or Serious Sam, but not here. Coupled with the repetitious rooms, it all but ruins the game.
I usually play games for the single player campaign, and having a weak campaign made this game boring for me. The multiplayer has a few interesting new modes, and the addition of vehicles into multiplayer is very fun, but the lack of support for a good amount of players means that the much lauded "drive or ride shotgun" option is all but useless.
Overall, this game really disappointed me, and with such high expectations (and reviews), I hoped this would be the game that changed PC gaming forever. It isn't. It is just another generic FPS, and that is tragic.
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