Today's game on display from our physical collection is the legendary Halo: Combat Evolved for the Classic Xbox! Deyton recently revisited Combat Evolved, but my own story with the series is a bit different.
As a kid, I didn't have an original Xbox—I was strictly Nintendo and only had a PlayStation 1 until I was a teenager. The PlayStation 2 and Xbox were both expensive, so I truthfully never expected to own either, but Halo was definitely a game I was interested in. Thankfully, my cousin had both, and each time I visited his house, I would dive in! The downside was that he lived out of state, so I couldn't go there often, but each visit was memorable, to say the least.
Discovering the PC Demo and Catching Up on Xbox 360
My path to actually owning Halo: Combat Evolved was a bit different, but it's also one that might be very nostalgic for those who were there at the time. When the title came to PC, a free demo was also released which contained one of the game's most iconic missions, along with access to Blood Gulch in its online multiplayer mode. Despite being a demo, the game's online scene was constantly packed, and it was easy to spend countless hours on it. Blood Gulch is arguably one of the greatest maps in the series, so who needed the full game? I sure didn't—at least at the time—and it was actually my first foray into online multiplayer shooters.
It wasn't until years later that I was finally able to buy the game for myself after starting a part-time job and purchasing an Xbox 360. Halo 3 came first, of course, but I managed to find a copy of both Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 at our local Best Buy. Both were the Platinum Hits versions, so they lacked the original cases, but I was simply happy to finally own them for myself. From there, I fully dove into the Halo series, focusing not just on the games, but on the novels as well, and I have been a fan ever since.
A Revolutionary Masterpiece
Halo: Combat Evolved truly was revolutionary for its time. With solid controls, a campaign that could be completed in co-op, and a great multiplayer mode, it is easy to see why it became the main reason for players to own an Xbox in the first place. I'll let Deyton's article take it from here, but it is for sure a game worth playing at least once, if you've never gotten the chance to.
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