It's good. You know it, I know it. Our detailed review will tell you exactly how amazing Bungie's epic First Person Shooter is.

A batch of in-game screens now accompany our review. Two reviews, two batches of screens added. You know it's gonna be good.

What if Halo was bad? I mean really bad? The Xbox would be in shambles, Bungie Software would be in financial disarray, and the world as we know it would be gone. Thankfully that virtual hell will never come… Halo rocks in a very big way.

The graphics in Halo are breathtaking to say the least. The character models of both your comrades, and the villainous aliens are eerily well detailed. You'll see elite covenant troopers spring at you and flail their weapons in effort to make contact with your head, as they come up close you'll be able to see their mouths open as they release a bloodcurdling battle cry. The details on the environments also stay true to form. In an outdoor scenario you'll be able to look down at the ground and pick out individual blades of grass or individual leaves on trees. Regardless of where you are in any one of Halo's levels (and there are lots of them), you'll be in for a visual treat. As good as the graphics are, the world of Halo has got so much more to offer than merely good looks.

The story of the game is as follows: the human race is in a struggle with a race of aliens called, the Covenant. They're faster, they're stronger, and they're a hell of a lot meaner than the human race could ever be. The game begins with a panning zoom of the UNSC ship, the Pillar of Autumn coming out of an emergency hyperspace jump. The ship is on full alert as the covenant ships are quickly approaching their position. Aliens boarding the ship have become imminent; there is only one hope. And you're it. The next scene is you slowly awakening from a deep, cryogenic sleep. The test team takes you through your calibration steps (it's really just a training sequence in disguise) and is just about ready to go into weapons training, but suddenly this ship is boarded by the covenant and that is where your fun begins.

You must make your way up to the bridge and enter into a scripted dialogue with Captain Keyes who then decides to evacuate the ship and give you the vessel's guidance system named Cortana who plays the role of your guide throughout the game to you to carry to safety onto a life preserver. After jettisoning the Pillar of Autumn, you then bear witness to the essential destruction of the ship, and in a last dying breath the ship is landed onto a ring shaped planet called… Halo. The story then escalates from there up until what is affectionately being called "the swamp level" throws an amazing twist into the epic that is Halo. What is that twist you ask? Just play the damn game.

"Hello, I am Cortana, how may I direct your call?"

You play as a character only known as Master Chief. He is skilled to use all weapons, trained to pilot all vehicles, and has been asleep for quite along time awaiting this happy little reunion.

The game's controls are some of the best that I have ever seen in a console first person shooter. It's almost as if Microsoft specifically designed the controller to suit first person shooters such as Halo. The left analog stick serves as your standard up, down, left, and right movements, or if you prefer, you can use the directional pad for movement. The right stick is used for the operation of looking and aiming your weapons. L is used for throwing grenades, R for firing your chosen weapon, A for jumping, B for melee attack, X for basic operations (pressing buttons, entering/exiting vehicles), Y for switching between one of your two weapons. The white and black buttons are used for turning on your flashlight and switching between fragmentation and plasma grenades respectively. Regardless of what control configuration you pick, Halo operates with tremendous ease in any mode of play.

Something that has been overlooked by the astounding gameplay and the breathtaking graphics is the incredibly composed audio. Halo was not degraded by hardcore rock tunes, or cheesy rap motifs. Instead Bungie Software filled Halo full of mesmerizing Gregorian-ish chants. It's amazingly hard to explain how or why the music does such a good job of setting the mood for each and every scene that you are presented with, but it does, and does it very well. The weapon noises are also very well done, if not just a bit muddled. The assault rifle (my personal weapon of choice) echoes through the halls of my home like none other. The needler and sniper rifle are two other favorite, both for their graphics and for their excellent use of sound to convey the sincerity of the beating that you are doling out to your adversaries.

The artificial intelligence of your opponents is also absolutely frightening. They'll appropriately adjust their tactics to fit the difficulty level that you have selected. They'll flank you, hide if injured, wait for reinforcements, and of course perform the ever-popular bull rush.

Despite the lack of bots in Halo (something that I was extremely displeased with when I heard the news) the multiplayer aspect of the game can be extraordinarily exhilarating. Bungie Software has given those of us who have the dough to shell out for a few spare TV's and Xboxes, the option of linking up to 4 Xboxes together to get some kick ass 16 player slugfests going. However, if you don't have that kind of moola, then you have the option of playing through one of Halo's 26 methods of multiplayer mayhem. And if that doesn't suit your fancy than there is the ever faithful cooperative story mode in which you and a buddy can attempt to play through the entire single player story mode as a team.

Gamer X
Has some Cortana "issues" to sort out.

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