Video Game Hall of Fame: Halo

We take a step just a little bit forward with this month's induction into the Video Game Hall of Fame, and embrace a game that came out after the turn of the century. Halo was widely appreciated as a great accomplishment, and one of the reasons that the Xbox would be here to stay. It really ended up being the game that was able to counter the ridiculous size of the Xbox controller and have broad-reaching entertainment. People who had never played first-person shooters came around, because the game was so smooth and well-designed. And long-time gamers appreciated the depth of gameplay and the fact that, finally, a futuristic first-person shooter didn't suck ass.

The campaign portion of Halo was tremendous. I say "campaign" rather than single-player because, at long last, this was a game that offered a two player cooperative campaign. The logic behind it was limited, as there is supposed to be only one Master Chief, but when it comes down to eliminating aliens, you don't need a reason. There are lots of situations where one player can hold the attention of enemies, and the other can slip behind them and bust things up. You feel like a well-oiled machine when it goes right, and a complete boob when it goes wrong.

One feature in particular of the multiplayer campaign made for some good laughs when I played through with my brother. When one of the two players dies in cooperative play, the player is spawned at the location of the second player, so long as they're in a safe location without enemies nearby. My penchant for sniping and taking cover, combined with my brother's maverick attitude, meant that he was essentially bait in big battles. He'd run out into the open, kill a couple guys, and draw more guys to him. Then, he'd start tossing grenades, and I'd start popping pistol rounds into alien skulls. He'd die, I'd fall back a bit, and he'd get respawned. And we'd do it all over again.

The adversarial multiplayer options are also very well done. The maps are well-constructed and, more importantly, well-balanced. Some of the weapons are a little unbalanced (specifically the pistol), but in most levels everyone starts with the pistol, so the playing field is pretty level. As far as game types, you have the standard death match and team death match, as well as king of the hill, capture the flag, and "odd ball," in which a player or team tries to hold the "ball" for as long as possible. The options available are numerous and interesting, from giving every player permanent invisibility or unlimited grenades to giving each player a specific target to kill. They make for a wide variety of enjoyable games.

The apex of Halo, however, is in the system link option. You can link up to four Xboxes together for up to 16 players playing together at the same time. The scope of these mega-matches give you the PC online experience of a chaotic, action-packed game, with the allure of knowing everyone in your game. Trash-talking becomes an art form in these kinds of games, and you learn to appreciate it as much as solid gameplay. This facet, the "big game" feature, is what has made the original Halo playable even today. Our familiarity with the maps and nostalgia for the original have brought people together on multiple occasions to compete in massive struggles for supremacy.

In the end, Halo did both ends right (campaign and multiplayer), which is all too rare in the video game world today. It was this combination of accomplishments that made Halo one of the games of the decade, and one of the early inductees into this hall of fame.