Halo: Combat Evolved

The Basics:
Platform: Xbox and PC (PC reviewed)
Developer: Microsoft/Bungie
Price: $25+ (June 2004)
ESRB rating: M

Summary: This game is clearly for the 17+ crowd.

Note: Halo is very popular, and it's likely that your child will have access to play or at least observe this game at some point. Most of the game consists of fighting in a non-stop, science-fiction-based battle against aliens. Blood and violence abound. Although entertaining, the game does little to promote intellectual thought or social development.
 
Further Breakdown:

Overall rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Best for ages: 17+
Playability: Excellent
Graphics: Excellent for its time, and still acceptable by today's standards.
Entertainment value: High
Educational value: None
Reading Level: 5+ Very minimal reading is necessary to play the game.
KidScore Rating

Ages 3-7: Red
Ages 8-12: Red
Ages 13-17: Red
Violence Amount: Red
Fear: Red
Illegal/harmful: Green
Language: Yellow
Nudity: Green
Sex: Green

Review:
Halo is the game that propelled the Xbox game system from a Microsoft pipedream to a real contender in the battle of the game consoles. Even now, more than three years after its initial release, Halo is one of the most popular Xbox games. Recent numbers indicate the game has sold more than 4 million copies, and now the game has been released for the PC as well. This means that there's a good likelihood that your child will have access to play or at least observe this game.

So, why is Halo so popular? As first-person-shooter games go, Halo was inventive for its time, and even now, it is a graphically appealing game. The game has an interesting and mysterious story, allows the player to pilot and drive cool vehicles, and be immersed into a massive battle around a foreign planet. With all that being said, the game has the same pitfall as many other first-person-shooter games: ninety-five percent of the game is simply shooting things that get in your way.

Halo takes place in the future, where humans are fighting a losing battle against the technologically superior "covenant," a group of alien beings who are driven by radical religious beliefs to destroy all humans. To make things worse, it appears that they have found a new weapon of incredible power: "halo," a mysterious and massive ring/space station orbiting a foreign world. As the game progresses, the player discovers that there is an enemy even worse then the covenant. It would seem that while the covenant was attempting to activate halo for their own purposes, they inadvertently released "the flood," a vicious alien life-form that survives only by taking over the body of an organic host and then spreading to the next victim. Once released, "the flood" immediately begins possessing the covenant and humans alike, and the player realizes that they must stop "the flood" in order to prevent the destruction of the entire galaxy.

The game tells a very dark tale, and most of the game consists of one continuous battle with plenty of blood, screams of agony and explosions. The player fights as an advanced, "bio-engineered" soldier known only by the name "Master Chief," the last of a specially designed group of soldiers built to counter the covenant's superior technology. However, no enhanced intelligence was necessary for the player's character -- other than following the story itself, the game has very little to offer in the form of a mental challenge. Any "puzzles" consist of finding a relatively obvious computer terminal and activating it. Directional arrows even mark the path that the player needs to take.

Halo is a first-person, shoot-everything-that-moves type of game. The action is infectious, and the story, while somewhat typical, is well-written and interesting. Undoubtedly the game is entertaining, but parents are going to find little redeeming value beyond that characteristic. Plenty of bloodshed and a storyline that will most definitely scare younger players relegates this game to the 17-plus crowd of gamers.