Experiencing Halo Out of Order
Encountering the original game after playing its sequels
I have always wondered how Halo became such a success. I could not play Halo Combat Evolved (CE) when it was released in 2001 because I was just three years old and I wasn’t introduced to the franchise until Halo 3 launched in 2007 (which was only possible through going to a friend’s house and playing split-screen). Yet, Halo had to start somewhere. I was keen to finally sit down and play the first game, to understand how it had captivated millions. My thoughts around the franchise are different because of the backward experience I’ve had with Halo over the years.
The first Halo campaign I ever played was Halo 3 in 2007. Then, I waited for the launch of the Master Chief Collection (MCC) in 2014, as I was a more appropriate age for M-rated games by then. In this package, I played Halo 2, Halo Reach, Halo 4, and Halo ODST, in that order. For whatever reason, I had always subconsciously ignored Halo CE, the title that started it all.
I believe the first two missions of Halo CE capture the essence of the campaign and set the foundation for what is expected throughout the series. They are perhaps the two most crucial missions in the entire game as they introduced an entire population of gamers to this world. Being filled with curiosity and excitement for the future of Halo, I had to go back and understand how this great franchise got its footing. As with all great things, it begins…
In Medias Res
This is where it all began. The first line ever in Halo and a crucial moment to introduce the world to this franchise and its protagonist: Master Chief. The first mission, appropriately titled The Pillar of Autumn, takes place on a hulking spaceship named, you guessed it, UNSC Pillar of Autumn.
This is a ship where the number one cause of NPC death is from surprise explosions interrupting them mid-sentence.
The mission is not only a fitting gameplay tutorial with its linear, tight corridor environment, but it also explains the player’s role in all of this. Master Chief is being thawed from a long slumber, and the player takes his point of view. Two points are very clear from this opening mission.
First, this world has been active long before Halo CE begins. The slumber of Master Chief, the reasons for the ship’s pursuit, the role of Cortana, and the giant floating ring in the distance all suggest a wonderfully established world for the player to get engrossed in. After the opening cinematic, one realizes that there will be no shortage of depth in this world.
Second, the gameplay justifies the story and the story reinforces the gameplay. Master Chief is emerging from this slumber after many years. While he has to regain his senses, the player has to gain their senses for the first time. This synergy offers a narrative reason for Chief’s simple abilities during this level. The tutorial is able to be situated within the larger story and it is a great example of utilizing a game’s narrative and gameplay in conversation with one another.
For example, in the first section of the mission, you run through the ship weaponless. After being debriefed by the Captain, you are given a simple weapon: a pistol. By the time the player has become comfortable with the pistol, they stumble upon an assault rifle laying on the ground and can pick it up. This progression of available weaponry not only supports the story but also supports the gameplay as the game transitions the player from learning movement, to using simple weapons, to then learning the most common weapon in the game: the assault rifle.
Unfortunately, it becomes clear that the Pillar of Autumn is a lost cause as it is destroyed by the stylish aliens of the Covenant. It’s time for the player to say goodbye to the linear gameplay of the ship and prepare to land on…
Halo
Master Chief crash lands on this ring called Halo in an escape pod full of Marines. Yet, he is the only survivor. During the cutscene of the crash landing, Cortana asks Chief, “Sure you wouldn’t rather take a seat?” He curtly replies, “We’ll be fine.”
Not only was Chief the only survivor, but he was the only one standing and not wearing a seatbelt. Coincidence?! It’s clear that standing seatbeltless is the only way to survive crash landings in this universe.
This second mission is the opposite of the first in many ways and reveals to the player just how varied the game can be. While the first mission was full of linear and restrictive gameplay with only one path to take, this mission plops you into an open beautiful land and presents you with a multitude of possibilities.
This mission is unique because it offers the player a non-linear experience to complete the level. Once you acquire a four-wheeled vehicle known as the Warthog, you get an objective: “rescue three groups of survivors.”
That’s it.
Finding the survivors, the order in which you rescue them, and the strategy for doing so is up to the player. Each group of survivors is in one of three different areas of the map, and the player can go to any area they wish in any order. This non-linear opportunity puts Halo in stark contrast with the previous mission, The Pillar of Autumn. Further, it opens up the possibilities of what the campaign and the game will offer.
In these first two critical missions of Halo CE, the player experiences a wide variety of gameplay. From linear missions to non-linear missions, from spaceships to open fields, from weaponless to having no shortage of weaponry, these two missions are a prime example of what Halo offers. It’s no wonder why they hooked people back in 2001.
Fortunately for us latecomers, Halo CE is still…
Looking Good
The first Halo has stood the test of time and support from 343 Studios has given it fresh legs to stand on. One cannot discuss the Master Chief Collection without mentioning the graphical upgrades to the old games. In Halo CE, players can seamlessly swap between the original graphics and the remastered graphics with a click of a button.
These screenshots are from the exact same spot in the third mission of CE. As you can see, the remastered version is effective in its improvements to the game’s lighting and foliage. It can feel like a mini-game to switch between old and new graphics throughout the campaign and laugh at the extraordinary difference.
While the original graphics can look like a potato at times, it is important to remember that in 2001 people were amazed by the game’s graphics. Maybe in 15 years, the remastered graphics will also look like a potato to gamers in 2036?
Halo CE was remastered when MCC launched in 2014. We are able to see first-hand the evolution of graphics just since 2001. It is always incredible to witness the rapid technological improvements in games, and Halo CE provides an immediate example for players to enjoy.
Let’s Get Down to Business
Looking more broadly at the entire Master Chief Collection reveals a look at Halo’s popularity and profitability. Of course, Halo CE is only one piece of this collection. There are a total of six Halo games in MCC that can be played seamlessly under a single client.
The business side of the MCC is representative of a classical form of gaming where the cost is only the box fee. Remarkably, there is no way to make in-game purchases and there are no microtransactions offered either. Everyone who pays the $40 box fee has access to the same content.
Interestingly, MCC does offer a season pass. Traditional season passes offer accelerations and exclusive items for those who wish to pay real money. But the items in MCC’s season pass can be unlocked by all players and the rate at which you unlock items depends solely on how often you play the game.
Whereas a Call of Duty player can unlock the entire season pass in one minute with their credit card, the Halo player can only play the game to unlock the entire season pass.
The Halo MCC season pass model is exceedingly rare these days. It must be applauded by gamers whenever it is found because it offers continuous free updates to the game by the developers even after it has launched.
That being said, my theory is that this player-friendly model is a strategic play by Microsoft. Microsoft offers its monthly Game Pass service for $15 a month. Subscribers have unlimited access to hundreds of games under this service, including Halo MCC. Halo has always been the flagship title for Xbox and it is frequently featured at the forefront of its marketing for Xbox Game Pass.
Halo MCC remains very popular to this day even though the most recent game in the collection, Halo 4, was published in 2012. The only accurate player numbers available are through Steam where MCC is sold on PC. In February 2021, it averaged a little over 7,000 players a day on Steam. While this is far from the popularity of other games, it is still a strong player base for a franchise that averages over a decade old.
Additionally, it is not a stretch to claim that the majority of Halo’s player base remains on Xbox and not PC. When Halo Reach launched on the MCC a few months ago, Xbox put out a press release stating that nearly 3 million players were active during launch week. And yet, the max player count of all time, according to Steam, is only 93,000 players. You can do the math to figure out how many of those 3 million players were on PC and how many on the console.
Conclusion
Despite experiencing Halo CE far from its intended order, the experience allowed me to realize how the first installment of the Halo franchise gained its popularity and set a benchmark for its sequels to build from. The first two missions are representative of the types of gameplay experiences that are not only in Halo CE but are in every Halo.
Beginnings are important. Halo CE’s beginning offered compelling hooks both on the narrative end and gameplay end from the get-go.
