Halo
is a sci-fi shooter that takes place on a mysterious alien ring-world.
Packed with combat, Halo will have you battling on foot, in vehicles,
inside and outdoors with alien and human weaponry. Your objective:
to uncover Halo's horrible secrets and destroy mankind's sworn enemy,
the Covenant.
In the most obvious sense, the "Halo" is a space station
built in the shape of an enormous rotating wheel. As the wheel spins,
it creates centripetal force that mimics gravity on its inner rim.
An entire world exists inside this wheel, with huge developed structures
and vast, open landscapes. But something else exists in the Halo
as well - something mysterious and powerful. All that is really
known is that a force of alien invaders is desperate to find it
and they are leaving death and destruction in the wake of their
search. This mystery of Halo must be solved and the aliens must
be vanquished, before they find what they are looking for and destroy
us all.
The action in Halo is squad-based. While gamers have lots of
options when making decisions about the individual characters they
will play, many missions are best accomplished through teamwork
and certain multiplayer capabilities are supported with this in
mind. The 3D engine's default view switches between first-person
and third person, depending on the situation. Much of the action
takes place in the wide open spaces inside the mammoth space station,
with no level breaks or load times as the player moves from one
place to another.
Some of the basic themes and plot points in Halo may be familiar
to gamers who have played Marathon, Bungie's successful first-person
shooter which was released in 1992 for the Macintosh platform. Among
other elements, Marathon is known for intelligent level design and
a deep, intriguing story. Though Halo should not be considered a
sequel to Marathon, the two share common plot elements and have
related back-stories. Initial development of Halo was done simultaneously
for the Macintosh, the PC, and the Xbox.
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