Halo: Combat Evolved Game Review

  Hello again, sorry I haven't posted anything for the last two days, been busy with Christmas stuff and haven't had the chance. But without further ado, on with the review! (I made a rhyme!) 

Halo: Combat Evolved, the 1st game in a now 7 game series (6 if you exclude the remake of this game). This is the game that set off a revolution in gaming and changed it forever. Halo is still now classed as one of the best games ever made and was originally on the Xbox and was released on November 15th 2001 but has since been ported to the Xbox 360 and can be bought on the Xbox Live Marketplace for 800 Microsoft Points.

The story follows Masterchief (John 117) who is regularly regarded as the last Spartan alive, but its unclear whether this is true at the time. Most people believe Masterchief was created just before the start of this game but that's not true, he was made the same as any Spartan and was trained from a young age. He fought many battles that are told in the books, and was then put in cryostasis. If you have played Halo: Reach chances are you have seen the last scene where you can see Masterchief in his Cryostasis Cell

Just taking a casual nap while a whole planet it at war!

But back onto Halo: Combat Evolved! It starts off on a ship called the Pillar of Autumn, where you wake up and are objected to go and see Captain Keyes, who tells you the ship is being attacked by the Covenant and give you the AI Cortana. At this point you have no idea who this is, but you obviously know they are the enemy force in the game. You go and check through the ship and sure enough there are Covenant forces that have managed to breached the hull.

You then head back to Keyes who tells you he's going to initiate 'The Cole Protocol' which is put in place to stop the Covenant learning of Earth's position. He then tells you to escape the ship on a escape pod to land on the 'Halo' ring, a mysterious ring shaped space station. You leave on a Pod and crash land on the ring, with only you and Cortana surviving. The next few levels of the game consist of you saving survivors and building up a small team to help save Captain Keyes.

I don;t want to spoil too much so I'll leave the story there and just say that the games has its sad, awesome and funny moments, and just for that alone the game is worth getting and playing. I mean who would want to miss a game with Guilty Spark 343 in!

Yep, this annoying, yet funny, bastard!

For ratings I think the game deserves a 7/10 on graphics as it helped push graphics into a new generation and without it games today wouldn't be the same! For storyline I'd give it a 9/10 as it is one of the best story lines in gaming ever, I've never met anyone who's hated the storyline (Except for those snobby PS3 owners who 'hate' everything Xbox, would be a different story if Halo was on PS3...). The Halo soundtrack was done by legendary Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori. It has one of the best and memorable soundtracks in any game and definitely deserves a 9/10 for this!

Overall, I think the game deserves a 8/10 as it is truly amazing, yet there felt there was something missing, especially if I play it now, I'm not quite sure what it could be though. For download it is 800 Microsoft Points which is about £7 in real money so I think for such an amazing game, that's definitely worth it! There's also the remake (Halo: Anniversary) which is just as good, has online mode and has better graphics but that is currently £25 brand new which is quite a difference.

Anyways, I hope you have enjoyed this post and as always leave feedback and suggestions as I'm up for reviewing anything! Also if you really enjoy it share it amongst your friends and spread the name of Derry! So until next time, cheers! - Derry

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Gears of War Game Review

  The Gears of War series is one of the most known and best Xbox 360 series available to play competing with game series like Halo and Call of Duty. One of the main reasons Gears of War has become so popular is because of the online play, just like most other popular games on any console. 

 

Gears of War follows an ex COG marine called Marcus Fenix, who is called back into action when all war breaks out between COG and the Locust. His old friend Dominic Santiago is the one who is sent to retrieve him from prison and he joins Delta team meeting Damon Baird, Anthony Carmine, Minh Young Kim and Augustus Cole.

With the death of Delta leader Minh Young Kim, Marcus is put in charge of Delta team and has to lead them through various circumstances and situations to try and rid Sera (Planet where Gears of War takes place) of the Locust.

Looks like a look of seduction to me, not death.

Throughout the journey there are many different moments that are nail biting, sad, happy and funny. It is one of the first games to implement the cover usage to help defend you from incoming enemy fire. This comes in very helpful throughout the game and I'm pleased that Epic decided to go with the toggle cover system where you have to press 'A' instead of the original idea of just walking into it to get into cover.

Now, throughout the whole game from when Kim is killed by a badass looking Locust called RAAM, you know that you are to somehow cross paths with him again to lay down your vengeance and avenge Kim. As expected this is exactly what happens and in the final act of the game (Act 6) you meet face to face with the big ass, scary looking, badass RAAM. What better of a place to do this that on a moving train with a massive bomb on it?

Certainly not someone I'd want to mess with!

A battle obviously ensues and RAAM covers himself with some Kryll, a deadly bird that can kill in seconds unless you're in light. You must look for a weakness in this and kill RAAM. When you do finally kill RAAM, you believe everything is over, but not just yet. You still have to make sure the bomb gets into the Locust tunnels so that it will eradicate all Locust forces, or at least thats what you think will happen.

Unfortunately for Marcus and Dom this doesn't go to plan and ends up making more Locust coming to the surface, but where could they be coming from? Turns out that the map of the Locust tunnels was wrong and blew up barely anything, only a locust stronghold and the Kryll breeding grounds, pissing off the Locust forces. Pissed of forces of any kind are never good, especially when they're enemy mutants. General Hoffman then gives a speech to the COG forces, followed by a speech by the Locust Queen that can only be heard by us. We then see a quick glimpse of the early look of Skorge, before he got more badass!

Early version of Skorge, not as good looking though.

The game ends here with a  'to be continued' kind of ending, obviously meaning there would be a second game, but thats a whole different review, so we'll leave that for another day. For now however I will wrap this review up and give my overall ratings.

So my opinion on the game, I first played the game not long after it came out and wasn't a big fan of it. It wasn't until I played it again after a few months and realised how good the story truly was. I fell in love with everything from the characters to the graphics. I just felt the beginning was a bit slow and it took me a while to truly get into it, which is a shame because the whole series is amazing.
For ratings I gave the Storyline a 8/10 as I believe it was good, but seemed a waste of time when everything you did turned out being useless against the forces of the Locust, however it was still really fun and something different from previous games. The graphics and art deserve a 9/10 as there are some parts in the game that are truly beautiful with the scenery and plantation, especially for the time it was made which I believe was 2006. Everything else wasn't too amazing and I think only the Storyline and Art matter in a game like this as there wasn't really too much soundtrack/music. So overall I give the game a 8/10 as there were quite a few bugs, it had a slow start and the storyline was a bit of a full circle only making you end up in the same situation you was in before starting, if not worse.

I'd probably suggest this to fans of 3rd person gaming and shoot 'em ups. The covering system is ingenious and there are parts in the storyline that made me laugh so i'd say give it a go, its only around £5-£10 now and you should be able to find it in any second hand game shop near you! So until next time, cheers! - Derry :)

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