The Importance of Halo

The world of Halo awakens alongside Master Chief – a statuesque super-soldier, and the protagonist of the most influential (on console) first-person shooter franchise of all time. Most of what makes Halo so fascinating and relevant can be observed in its initial moments. With a controller in hand, the player has access to two analog sticks: one that rests on the left thumb, and the other on the right. The left analog stick is used to move left, right, up, down, and any degree in between. The right analog stick is used to look around while moving – a tool meant to emulate the feeling of a mouse and keyboard, and a paramount device to digest the world of Halo as Master Chief. The stakes are established right away, with an inconsequential soldier explaining the state of things as “hectic.” Halo doesn’t waste any time: the weight of the world can be felt immediately, and it’s up to you, the Master Chief, to make things right. The importance of Halo can be seen in its ability create stakes, using its innovative mechanics to navigate those stakes, and building a character that can believably and competently wield those mechanics. 

The World of Halo

Halo: Combat Evolved takes place around 500 years in the future, and about 300 years after humanity began exploring and colonizing space. Chief awakens to an alien species called the Covenant attacking the Pillar of Autumn, the spaceship that not only serves as a reflection of Master Chief’s arc in Halo: Combat Evolved, but the entirety of the Halo Trilogy. After thwarting the attack, the ship’s captain Jakob Keyes burdens Master Chief with saving humanity on Earth. The ship’s A.I., Cortana, is left in Chief’s hands as the ship crashes onto a foreign ring called “Halo.”

In his critique of the Halo Trilogy, Barry Irick presumes that Halo: Combat Evolved encourages the player to “barrel through” the ensuing campaign. The second mission, “Arriving on Halo,” or just “Halo” couldn’t do more to denounce that sort of mentality. Chief’s crash-landing on Halo serves as one of the earliest truly open-world environments in the genre’s history. The vast lakes and deep cliffs, which were allegedly inspired by Bungie’s move to Washington after being purchased by Microsoft, develop a sense of imagery that speaks to the scope and vastness of the Halo universe. It’s meant to envelop and immerse you, which is why Halo: Combat Evolved experienced a development shift from third-person to first-person. While exploring Halo, the intensity with which the universe is designed begins to become apparent. Not only are the landscapes large and beautiful, but they are also meticulously designed to house large-scale battles between Master Chief and the Covenant. The massive wave of enemies isn’t designed to feel redundant, it’s meant to emphasize how important the Halo ring is to the Covenant – which we find out more about just a bit later. 

A Worthy Foe

The Covenant is one of the most fascinating enemy groups in video game history. Part of this is built into their complex history, which unravels over the course of the trilogy. More interesting, however, is the way they were programmed to behave in combat. When Bungie was developing Halo, it was important for them to mold their mechanics around the world they built. Part of that was developing a highly competent protagonist in Master Chief. In tandem with Chief’s creation was creating a worthy foe – enemies that could make that competence felt. So instead of creating enemies with scripted behavior, they had to feel dynamic and be able to react to the changing environment around them. 

This is the beginning of Halo’s union between storytelling and gameplay. Not only is the Covenant smart, they actually play smart. Barry talks about the arcade nature of the combat, but that ignores the purpose with which Halo was designed: to make you think, to make you strategize, and to encourage you to soak it all in. There are actually several design decisions that help disprove the concept of Combat Evolved as an arcade game, including a regenerating shield that actively emboldens the player to back off and reassess the situation when things aren’t going well. 

The effects of the regenerating shield are multifold: for one, it empowers Master Chief, reaffirming his larger-than-life presence. Master Chief is designed to be and feel powerful – equipped to deal with otherwise insurmountable situations. It also meant that enemies had to be active, aggressive, and smart. The ways that Bungie decided to show this enemy complexity is really interesting. Within the Covenant are several different enemy types, with the most common being Grunts and Elites. Between these two types of enemies involves a stark contrast: Grunts are small, awkward, and panicky; Elites are large, fast, and brave. It’s this kind of scaled design that makes Halo so fascinating because you don’t even have to look outside of the series to know how shrewd the enemy architecture is. 

Even though Grunts are easier to take out, they throw precise grenades (and hurl sharp insults at Master Chief, like “you think you’re sooo great” when his shields are low), charge up easy-to-hit plasma shots, and cower to positions of safety. They often feel like gnats swarming Master Chief as he attempts to deal with much more formidable enemies, like Elites. They dodge grenades thrown at them by rolling out of the way, or if they’re stuck with a plasma grenade they’ll charge headfirst at Master Chief. Knowing Chief’s power, Elites will check the dead body after he’s been killed – often by shooting him with more bullets just in case. 

A World to Match The Chief

Shortly after Master Chief deals with the onslaught of Covenant and boards an enemy drop ship to recover and save Captain Keyes in Halo: Combat Evolved, Keyes details why Halo is so important: it’s a weapon of mass destruction and a religious artifact. The Covenant has been waging mass genocide on humanity for years and in an act of defiance, humanity (through the lens of Master Chief) has accidentally discovered their most important asset. Combat Evolved begins to mold history in its universe, articulating that Halo was developed by an ancient species that the Covenant worship. This isn’t just normal sci-fi fodder, it’s a deep, rich world that exists far beyond what we see as Master Chief. 

Involved in the artful creation of the Halo universe is the music. The original trilogy is composed by Marty O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori, featuring a range of string orchestra and percussion. The music perfectly represents the mystery of the universe and the importance of Master Chief’s quest to save humanity. The original Halo theme has been described as one of the best pieces of music to get you excited for the game you’re about to play, and I think that holds tremendously true. Halo’s universe doesn’t just exist, it actively invites you to explore it through its writing and music. Halo’s music is mysterious and triumphant, matching the persona of its protagonist. 

Around the midway point of Combat Evolved, the Flood, a parasitic species as old as the Forerunners, is introduced. The Flood has long stood as a controversial enemy type among Halo fans – and for good reason. Their design is to swarm, without intelligence or second thought, and to kill. Barry’s argument that Halo: Combat Evolved feels too much like an arcade shooter can likely be best represented by the Flood and the levels they serve as the central foe. Their aggression and volume present Master Chief with a non-stop hoard of enemies to deal with, and much of the level design that accompanies it is tight and linear. 

So how can this be effectively excused, especially when Combat Evolved has already shown the ability to create vast environments? In part, it’s because Bungie wanted Combat Evolved to feel genre-bending. Sequences like the infamous ‘Library’ emulate the horror of survival games such as Resident Evil. Low on bullets and high on danger, the frantic pace of ‘The Library’ stands in stark contrast with earlier missions like ‘Halo’ and ‘Truth and Reconciliation’ which prioritized exploration or even stealth. Again, this pace matches Combat Evolved’s story beat for beat: The Flood or an unrelenting threat, and the only way Master Chief can prevent their expansion is by blowing up Halo. 

Innovating The Way Games Are Played

There are infinite avenues to explore in terms of the way Halo changed the way games were played, but I want to start with something tangible and easy to digest. Think of grenades, and how we use them in games. Halo: Combat Evolved had two different types of grenades: fragmented and plasma – both of which are mapped to a single button. When you press the button (usually the left trigger), Master Chief throws a grenade and it bounces around wildly but entirely predictably. There’s no cooking the grenades, no slowly aiming the arc in which you throw them, you just throw. The way these grenades interact with enemies is emblematic of the magic Combat Evolved creates. When a fragmented grenade is thrown into a pile of enemies, they wildly disperse and begin screeching obscenities. When a plasma grenade (which sticks to surfaces) hits an enemy, they either run in the opposite direction in panic or charge ahead right at Master Chief to take him down with them. 

It’s easy to take these kinds of mechanics for granted, but the truth is that not only would they not exist without Halo, they still haven’t been replicated in a way that feels satisfying. Other mechanics, like aim-assist, were perfected through the franchise. Entangled in that are smaller mechanics like aim-acceleration (when you first move the aiming reticule, it moves slowly and then accelerates to avoid spinning and dizziness) and crouch jumping. What’s amazing is that even though these mechanics now exist in almost every first-person shooter, nobody has done so in a way that feels as responsive or nuanced. The only example might be Destiny, Bungie’s latest franchise, which has been lauded for its controls and smooth shooting mechanics. The combination of these mechanics with precise level design to showcase them – both in single player and multiplayer – helps Bungie’s work stand above the rest. 

Finishing the Fight

As Master Chief works toward destroying the Flood, he begins his trek back toward the Pillar of Autumn. He does so in a literal sense: the campaign goes the same way out as it went in, frequently retreading the exact same environments with subtle changes. It’s odd that a (uncommon) narrative on these missions is the reuse of these environments was considered lazy design – if anything, it’s representative of the opposite. Facing deadlines to match the release of the Xbox console, Bungie used limitations to its advantage. Much in the same way Castlevania: Symphony of the Night reuses Dracula’s Castle, Combat Evolved uses its existing terrain to finish Master Chief’s initial arc. 

Involved in Master Chief’s quest to destroy Halo is finding a now twice-lost Keyes and gaining access codes to the Pillar of Autumn, which contains enough explosive material to destroy the planet – and Flood alongside it. Battling through Flood, Master Chief finds Captain Keyes sewn to a grotesque looking parasite. What appeared to be a central character in the Halo universe (and remains so, posthumously) dies abruptly and brutally. There’s shock value to seeing Keyes engulfed in a parasite, but the objective isn’t to shock, it’s to communicate stakes. Captain Keyes is represented as tough and smart – so if he can end up like this, what does that mean for everyone else? Everyone is at risk, which escalates the final mission ‘The Maw’ to new levels of intrigue. 

The final level of Halo: Combat Evolved involves Master Chief driving through an exploding Pillar of Autumn, attempting to find his way to safety. Halo is going down, and it’s imperative to get Master Chief off of it. The ensuing gameplay, which involves driving the topsy-turvy Warthog, is timed. It’s not dissimilar to Samus’ escape in Super Metroid, and the stakes are similarly high. If he hadn’t already, this is where Master Chief earns his stripes as a superstar. If the Warthog tips itself over (which it will), Master Chief can flip it back right-side up. The Warthog weighs three tons, and Master Chief can just lift it, in the middle of an exploding ship. By the time ‘The Maw’ wraps itself up, and Combat Evolved alongside it, Halo feels just as large and important as its protagonist. 

Of Chief Importance

Halo: Combat Evolved is just the beginning of what was a decade-long stranglehold on the genre byMaster Chief. Despite the franchise’s more recent misgivings – particularly Halo 5: Guardians which featured strikingly little of the Chief – Halo: Infinite is sure to be one of the best selling and most important video games of 2021. 

Of chief importance is that the franchise returns to its roots of innovation and puts the weight of the world right on the shoulders of John-117. It only takes a cursory glance at Combat Evolved to see just how important Halo really is. It’s time to flip the Warthog and get things back on track. 

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