When the original Xbox was released in 2001, I ended up getting it as a Christmas gift that year, and I remember my cousin and I going to Best Buy to find more games for our new system. I remember picking up Max Payne and some first person shooter set in space, I dunno, it looked cool.
Little did I know, that game would go on to become a massive franchise, end up owning my high school nights with friends, and end up becoming one of my favorite series in gaming. So the whole series goes here at #5
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#5 - The Halo series - First released November 15th, 2001 (Xbox, PC, Mac, Xbox 360, Xbox One)
I always love a good space story, guess it dates back to my initial love of Star Wars (the original trilogy, let's not be crazy here). So the idea of a huge space shooter on my new Xbox console had me excited, plus this was the beginning of me having my own money to buy games, which was great news for my consoles and bad news for my bank account.
My excitement kicked in the second I put in the first game: Halo: Combat Evolved and heard the famous choir chant, and got a good look at the Halo weapon. Master Chief awakens from hibernation and it's on. The Pillar of Autumn is attacked by the Covenant and your adventure begins. This was the birth of "Pistol Sniping" (which would be taken out in some later games, but make a reappearance later on), which stands as one of the best weapons in gaming. This also was the game that saw the rise of the "LAN Party". Since the original Halo was not equipped with online functionality natively (there was a way to get online, but it involved your computer and some questionable software), the way to play this game was with your buddies, 4 Xboxs hooked up with LAN cables, surround everyone with pizza and soda, and let the swearing begin.
This was also perfect timing for me since I was in high school at this time. I can not put a number on how many times my friends and I would get together and play Halo till we passed out from exhaustion. I remember my friend saying, "If I would choose my all-star team, I would take Jeff because he gets the shotgun, gets up in your face, and doesn't give a shit". I feel my Halo skills have gotten better over the years but I knew the Sniper Rifle was not for me.
Many of us gamers knew where we were when we saw the reveal for Halo 2 and how we lost our damn minds when Master Chief pulled out a second gun and gave us dual wielding. Seriously, this was huge. Halo 2 was also the first to include online, and, subsequently, the reason I started giving up on online voice chat. While many people say Halo 2 is the weakest in the series (it is), that doesn't mean it was a bad game, in fact quite the opposite, there was a great structure there that got us really excited for the first next-gen Halo game on the new Xbox 360 console. A franchise was born.
Of course we now know the Halo series to be one of the biggest on the planet. Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST gave us a really unique perspective of the war. In one game you are playing as the big badass Master Chief, and in the other, you play from the perspective of the "grunt", the "frontline soldier" fighting on a different front. It took a more somber tone and it was really powerful. Then we got to the prelude with Halo: Reach which was an amazing game, I would even go so far as to say Halo 3 and Reach are my favorites in the series. Reach told the story of the "Band of Brothers (and Sister)" that got us to where we knew. How the sacrifices of a few saved millions. The last level of Reach (the last stand versus countless enemies till you died) was absolutely amazing.
The two off-shoots, Halo Wars and Halo: Spartan Assault, I thought were fine, nice diversions that you knew were there just to cash in on the name. Nothing out of the ordinary and nothing fantastic, but worth playing.
Halo 4 was a big risk. With Bungie out of the mix and 343 Industries taking the reigns, and the beginning of a new trilogy, the expectations were high and I felt they nailed it. They did what any first game in a trilogy does, answers maybe 1 or 2 questions while raising about 20 more questions. I am VERY interested to see where they take this with Halo 5: Guardians.
Of course, the multiplayer, I found, got better and better as the games went along. All the perks, the leveling up, the modes, the community, the endless joy, the Grifball. One of, if not THE, best multiplayer experiences out there. I will have to play some of this tonight.
I've got a couple video ideas for the series, first of all one of my favorite cutscenes from the series, this from Halo 2:
And this is the final bit from Reach that I was talking about earlier, the "Lone Wolf" mission where you just fight until the end comes. (This is the END of Halo: Reach, so...spoilers?)
The Halo series is as huge as any other in gaming and for good reason. It's not just another first person shooter, but a space epic that also happens to have some of the best multiplayer ever created. Expect many people to feel the rush all over again when The Master Chief Collection is released for the Xbox One, which includes Halo 1, 2, 3, 4, AND every multiplayer mode and map EVER MADE. I absolutely LOVE these games.
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