Every Sunday for the next 10 weeks I will be highlighting my favourite all time top 10 First person shooting games. I will judge them all on game play, graphics, story, multi player, uniqueness, sex appeal, range and diversity of the characters arsenal and of course popularity. The most important factor though that I want to judge these titles on, is impact on the evolution of the FPS, as some of you will know I’m quite big on the direction of the industry at the moment with the next gen on the way.
The First person shooter originates back to the early 70’s with games such as Maze War and Spasim, but there is one particular game that probably sticks in every ones minds…Doom. Doom was undeniably the most popular and mainstream FPS of its time, despite titles such as wolfenstein trailing behind. In later years we would come to know games such as the Call of Duty series which released Modern Warfare, Black ops or historical wars from WW1 and WW2. Games like the Halo series which brought in depth story to the FPS, and Battlefield which encouraged team strategy and vehicular warfare.
#10 – The First Halo Trilogy
The multibillion dollar industry known as Halo sees players embrace the Spartan soldier, Master Chief. The name less hero is a product of genetic engineering to form super soldiers to fight the battles us mere mortals simple aren’t able to. Standing around seven foot tall, huge muscle mass, the ability to run faster, jump higher and kick Covenant booty harder are all features the Spartans come with. By the events of the first Halo game all other Spartans have been killed in action, only the Master Chief remains, due to his uncanny luck and the assistance of the sexy blue, A.I Cortana.
The Halo games span the war between Humans and the Covenant who are lead by enigmatic and biblical leaders known as the High Council who are locally named Shyuum and Sangheili. The Covenant is a religious race and is waging a genocide war against Humanity. The war is of course hindered once the release of the Parasite race known as the Flood is unleashed. The three factions battle it out for control of the Halo rings that are situated around the galaxy.
Game play is fairly simple, a typical FPS style of look and shoot, with added melee and pyrotechnic throwing capabilities. Another great feature of the game is the ability to drive a range of vehicles, from tanks to alien aircraft. Quite often giving you the choice to drive, act as a passenger or man the main gun in some cases. Halo features various enemies to fight ranging in different difficulties and tactics required to neutralise them, as well as a vast array of weaponry including picking up enemy weapons and explosives.
Multiplayer from the Halo franchise revolutionised the way we kill each other online and locally. Halo comes with various modes and styles of multiplayer including capture the flag, death match and team death match. Vehicles, weapons and customizable characters all come with Halo Multiplayer, as well as player teams that you can create and add friends.
Halo is a great franchise, and has recently been taken control of by 343 Industries, leaving original creators, Bungie to concentrate on other projects. The games have inspired a huge fan base and following, merchandising and some side games including Halo ODST which sees the player as a normal human shock trooper and Halo Wars, a real time strategy game which resembles the Command and Conquer style of game play. Halo 4 is the most recent release and introduces a new story, new enemy and all new weapons and game play, and is sure to continue its success into the future.