Halo: Combat Evolved is a first-person shooter game created in 2001 by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was released on November 15, 2001, for the Xbox. Later versions for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X came out in 2003, and a downloadable version for the Xbox 360 was released in 2007 as part of Xbox Originals. This game is the first in the Halo series. Set in the 26th century, players control Master Chief, a soldier enhanced with advanced technology. With help from Cortana, an artificial intelligence, and the United Nations Space Command (UNSC), players fight against the Covenant, an alien religious group, while trying to learn the secrets of Halo, a large ring-shaped artificial world.
The idea for Halo began in 1997 as a real-time strategy game. It later changed into a third-person shooter and finally became a first-person shooter. In 2000, Microsoft bought Bungie and planned for Halo to be a key game for the new Xbox. Despite some challenges during development, Halo introduced many new features that became common in first-person shooter games. The game also includes a multiplayer mode where players can compete against each other.
Halo was very successful and is often called one of the greatest video games ever made. It received praise for its story, graphics, music, and multiplayer mode, though some critics noted issues with the level design. By November 2005, over six million copies had been sold worldwide, making it the second best-selling Xbox game. It also started a larger multimedia series. A sequel, Halo 2, was released in 2004. In 2011, a remastered version called Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary was released for the Xbox 360 by 343 Industries to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the original game. This version was later included in Halo: The Master Chief Collection in 2014. A remake called Halo: Campaign Evolved is planned for release on PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S in 2026.
Gameplay
Halo: Combat Evolved is a first-person shooter game where players see the game world from the perspective of the character they control. Players can move around and look in all directions, including up, down, left, and right. The game includes vehicles like tanks and alien hovercraft, many of which players can operate. When using vehicles, the game changes to a third-person view for pilots and gunners, while passengers continue to see the world from the character’s perspective. The game’s heads-up display shows a "motion tracker" that detects moving allies, enemies, and vehicles near the player.
The player’s character has an energy shield that blocks damage from weapons and impacts. The shield’s charge is shown as a blue bar on the screen and automatically refills if the player is not hurt for a short time. When the shield is gone, the player becomes vulnerable, and damage then reduces the character’s health. If health reaches zero, the character dies, and the game restarts from a saved point. Health can be restored by collecting health packs found in the game’s levels.
The main enemy group is the Covenant, a collection of alien species united by their religion. Covenant forces include Elites, strong warriors with energy shields; Grunts, small creatures who may run away if their leader is killed; Jackals, who wear a durable shield on one arm; and Hunters, large, armored creatures with a powerful plasma cannon. Another enemy is the Flood, a parasitic life form that appears in different forms later in the game. Sentinels are robotic guards created by an ancient race called the Forerunners to protect against the Flood. They can hover in enclosed spaces and create energy shields when attacked, but they are not very strong and use lasers to fight.
The player is often helped by United Nations Space Command (UNSC) Marines and ship crew members. These allies provide support by following the player, mimicking their actions, or operating turrets and riding in vehicles. Marines and crew members are different in how they act: Marines fight aggressively, while crew members often hide or fire while retreating. If the player kills too many allies, they may turn against the player.
Players fight enemies using weapons, grenades, or close combat. Weapons have different strengths and weaknesses; for example, the assault rifle holds many bullets but is less effective against energy shields. Players can only carry two weapons at once, requiring choices about which to use. Grenades like fragmentation bombs explode quickly after bouncing, while plasma grenades stick to targets before detonating.
Halo differs from other first-person shooter games by allowing players to use grenades and melee attacks while still holding a weapon, instead of needing to put the gun away first.
A split-screen mode lets two players work together through the game’s story. The game includes five multiplayer modes that can be customized for 2 to 16 players. Up to four players can play on one Xbox using split-screen, and more players can join through a feature called System Link, which connects up to four Xbox consoles. Halo did not include artificial intelligence bots and was released before Xbox Live, so online play required local networks. While the game’s multiplayer was well-received and considered one of the best, its 16-player limit was difficult to achieve without a local setup.
The original Xbox version of Halo does not support online multiplayer officially, but third-party software allows unofficial online play. The Windows and Mac versions support online matches with up to 16 players and include multiplayer maps not in the original Xbox release. However, cooperative play was removed from these versions because it would require major changes to the game. In April 2014, it was announced that GameSpy, the service Halo PC used for online play, would shut down by May 31, 2014. A team of fans and Bungie employees created a patch to keep the multiplayer servers running, which was released on May 16, 2014.
Synopsis
Halo: Combat Evolved is set in a science fiction world from the 26th century. Humans use a technology called slip-space to travel faster than light, allowing them to live on planets beyond Earth. The planet Reach is a major center for scientific and military work. The United Nations Space Command (UNSC) creates a secret program to train super-soldiers called Spartans. More than twenty years before the game begins, a powerful group of alien species known as the Covenant starts a war against humans, claiming they are disrespectful to their gods. Humans face many losses in battle; although Spartans fight well, they are too few to change the outcome. In 2552, the Covenant attacks Reach and destroys the colony. The starship Pillar of Autumn escapes with Spartan Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 on board. The ship jumps into slip-space to draw the enemy away from Earth.
The game begins when the Pillar of Autumn exits slip-space and discovers a massive ring-shaped structure of unknown origin. The Covenant pursues the ship and attacks. After heavy damage, the ship's captain, Jacob Keyes, gives the ship's artificial intelligence (AI), Cortana, to Master Chief to hide Earth's location. Keyes orders the crew to leave the ship and crashes it onto the ringworld.
On the ring's surface, Master Chief and Cortana rescue survivors and organize a defense against the Covenant. They learn Keyes has been captured by the Covenant and rescue him from the Covenant ship Truth and Reconciliation. Keyes explains the Covenant calls the ring "Halo" and believes it is a weapon. Keyes searches for weapons, while Master Chief and Cortana attack the ring's control room. Cortana discovers a dangerous secret and sends Master Chief to stop Keyes from uncovering it.
Master Chief finds Keyes has been captured by a new enemy, the parasitic Flood. The Flood's arrival causes Halo's caretaker, a robot named 343 Guilty Spark, to ask Master Chief to activate Halo's defenses. Master Chief retrieves the ring's activation index, and 343 Guilty Spark returns him to the control room. Cortana intervenes, revealing Halo's purpose: to destroy all life in the galaxy to stop the Flood. When Cortana refuses to hand over the activation index, 343 Guilty Spark attacks her and Master Chief.
To stop Halo, Master Chief and Cortana decide to destroy the ring. They need Keyes' neural implants to trigger the Pillar of Autumn's self-destruct system. Master Chief returns to the Truth and Reconciliation, finding Keyes has been absorbed by the Flood and retrieves the implant from his remains. After 343 Guilty Spark prevents them from using the self-destruct, Master Chief and Cortana destroy the ship's reactors instead, escaping the explosion in a fighter. Cortana justifies their actions to stop the Covenant and the Flood, but Master Chief says the fight is not over. In a post-credits scene, 343 Guilty Spark is seen floating in space after the ring's destruction.
Development
Halo was created as a follow-up to Bungie's earlier first-person shooter games, Marathon and Marathon 2: Durandal. After Marathon 2 was released in 1995, Bungie wanted to try a new idea instead of making another direct sequel. One idea was a first-person shooter game that co-founder Jason Jones called "the natural extension of Marathon," similar to Quake. At the same time, the team explored a game about tank battles in a futuristic setting, which they called "The Giant Bloody War Game." Jones designed a 3D engine that could create graphics showing height, and he suggested using this technology for the tank combat idea. The team liked this idea and canceled their first-person shooter project to focus on "The Giant Bloody War Game." However, Jones had trouble making the game's physics work for vehicles, so Bungie changed plans and developed the real-time strategy game (RTS) Myth: The Fallen Lords, released in 1997.
At this time, Bungie had about 15 employees in Chicago, Illinois. After finishing Myth, Bungie planned a sequel called Myth II: Soulblighter. Jones let other designers work on this project and returned to improving the technology from the 1997 game. A group of three Bungie members started an RTS game focused on science fiction, realistic physics, and 3D terrain. Early versions used the Myth engine and an isometric view. The project first had the name "Armor," but it was changed to "Monkey Nuts" and later to "Blam!" after Jones felt uncomfortable telling his mother the original name.
To test how players could control units, Bungie added a mode where the camera followed individual units. Developers noticed that letting players drive vehicles themselves was more fun than having the computer do it. By mid-1998, the game became a third-person shooter.
Peter Tamte, Bungie's executive vice president, used his connections from his time at Apple to arrange a meeting between lead writer Joseph Staten, Jones, and Apple's CEO, Steve Jobs. Jobs was impressed and agreed to introduce the game at the 1999 Macworld Conference & Expo. Interest grew after positive reviews from journalists at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 1999.
Before the Macworld announcement, the game had no official name. Possible names included "The Santa Machine," "Solipsis," and "Star Shield." Bungie hired a branding firm that suggested "Covenant," but artist Paul Russell proposed "Halo." Some people disliked the name, thinking it was religious or related to a product, but designer Marcus Lehto said it captured the game's mysterious universe. On July 21, 1999, Jobs announced that Halo would be released for MacOS and Windows.
At this point, the game's story involved a human spaceship crashing on a mysterious ringworld. Early versions showed aliens fighting humans, with humans using guerrilla tactics against the technologically advanced aliens. Bungie planned features like an open world with reactive terrain, spent shell casings, and weather effects, but these did not make it into the final game. Early versions included unique creatures, which were later removed to focus on the Flood. The main character, called "the cyborg," was later named Master Chief. When Halo was shown at E3 in 2000, it was still a third-person shooter.
During Halo's development, Bungie faced financial challenges. Before releasing Myth II: Soulblighter, the company relied on Myth sales and missed deadlines. A glitch in Myth II caused it to delete files on users' computers, leading to a recall of 200,000 copies and a cost of $800,000. Bungie sold part of the company and publishing rights to Take-Two Interactive. Facing more financial pressure, Peter Tamte contacted Ed Fries, head of Microsoft Game Studios, about acquiring Bungie. Fries, working on Microsoft's first console, the Xbox, negotiated a deal where Microsoft gained Bungie and Halo's rights, while Take-Two kept Myth and Oni. Jones and Seropian presented the deal to Bungie as a way to shape the Xbox's future. Microsoft announced the acquisition on June 19, 2000, and Halo became the Xbox's main launch game.
With nine months to finish Halo for the Xbox, Bungie focused on turning the game from third-person to first-person to connect players with the action. A key challenge was making the game work well on the Xbox's gamepad, as first-person shooters on consoles were rare. Designer Jaime Griesemer wrote code to help players move and aim without being obvious. The game used buffered inputs to match player intentions with movement.
Other Bungie projects were canceled, and teams were merged into Halo's development. Griesemer said he was so busy after moving to Microsoft's Redmond campus that he did not unpack his belongings for six months. Designers tested gameplay and enemy AI on a level called "B30," which later became the mission "The Silent Cartographer."
To meet the release date, Bungie cut many features. Open-world plans were abandoned, and the long campaign was shortened. One level was replaced with a cutscene. Writer Joseph Staten described his work as "story duct tape" to fix gaps. To save time, levels were reused, and glowing arrows were added to help players navigate. Microsoft writers made last-minute script changes. An online multiplayer mode was dropped because Xbox Live was not ready. Four months before release, multiplayer was redesigned using members from the defunct Bungie West team. Some staff slept at the office to ensure the game was completed on time.
Release
Ed Fries described the time before the Xbox was launched as confusing and fast-paced. He said, "It was like a mix of stress and excitement, and money was not a big concern. We spent a lot of money trying to do many different things." After some planned video game connections to Steven Spielberg's movie A.I. Artificial Intelligence were canceled, it became clear that Halo needed to be the main attraction for the Xbox, even though the game was not originally meant for that role.
Halo had been well received before, but when it moved to the new and untested Xbox console, some media coverage became less positive. A playable version of the game shown at Gamestock 2001 was well received, but critics had mixed opinions about its display at E3 2001, where the game had technical problems, such as slow performance and poor graphics.
Inside Microsoft, Halo was also a topic of debate. When Bungie refused to change the game's name to match marketing suggestions, the subtitle "Combat Evolved" was added to make the title clearer and more competitive with other military-themed games. Fries mentioned that some analysts believed Halo had the "wrong" colors compared to other console games, but he did not share these findings with Bungie.
The game was released in North America on the same day as the Xbox, November 15, 2001.
A prequel novel to Halo: Combat Evolved, titled Halo: The Fall of Reach, was released a few weeks before the game. Science fiction writer Eric S. Nylund wrote the novel in seven weeks. The novel was almost canceled halfway through, but Trautmann helped save it. The Fall of Reach became a bestseller, selling nearly 200,000 copies. Later, the game was adapted into a novel titled Halo: The Flood, written by William C. Dietz and released in 2003.
On July 12, 2002, a version of Halo for Windows was announced as being developed by Gearbox Software. At E3 2003, some critics praised the game, while others were skeptical. It was released on September 30, 2003, and included online multiplayer support and better graphics, but had technical issues that affected performance. A version for Mac OS X was released on December 11, 2003. On December 4, 2007, the game became available for download on the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Marketplace.
Although Halo was not an immediate hit when it was first released, it sold steadily over time and was often sold with Xbox consoles. In the two months after its release, the game was sold with more than 50% of all Xbox consoles. About five months after its launch, one million copies had been sold, a faster rate than any other sixth-generation console game. By July 2003, the game had sold three million copies worldwide, and four million by January 2004. By July 2006, the Xbox version had sold 4.2 million copies and earned $170 million in the United States alone. The computer version sold 670,000 copies and earned $22.2 million. Next Generation ranked Halo as the second best-selling game for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in the United States.
Reception
Halo received many positive reviews, with a score of 97 out of 100 on the review website Metacritic, based on feedback from 68 professional critics. Ste Curran of Edge praised the game, calling it "the most important launch game for any console, ever" and stating that "GoldenEye set the standard for multiplayer console combat, but Halo has surpassed it."
GameSpot said, "Halo's single-player experience is worth buying an Xbox for alone," and added, "It is easily the best Xbox launch game and one of the best shooters on any platform." IGN described Halo as a "must-buy, five-star, top-tier game." Gary Whitta of Official Xbox Magazine called it "a stunning achievement." Jonathan Licata of AllGame praised Bungie for creating a game that combined successful ideas from other games in the genre to make a highly playable experience. Reviewers specifically highlighted the balance of weapons, the use of drivable vehicles, and the intelligence of enemy characters.
The Xbox version of Halo won more than 40 awards, including many Game of the Year honors from groups like the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, Electronic Gaming Monthly, Edge, and IGN. GameSpot ranked Halo as the third-best console game of 2001 and gave it awards for "Best Xbox Game" and "Best Shooting Game." It was also a finalist for "Best Sound." The British Academy of Film and Television Arts awarded Halo "Best Console Game," and Rolling Stone gave it "Best Original Soundtrack." Other awards included "Best Console Shooter" from The Electric Playground, "Best Combat Game of the Year" from GamePro, and "Xbox Game of the Year" from the Golden Joystick Awards in 2002. It also won "Best PC Game" at the Spike Video Game Awards in 2003.
At the 5th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards (now called the D.I.C.E. Awards), Halo won four awards: "Game of the Year," "Console Game of the Year," "Console Action/Adventure Game of the Year," and "Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering." It was also nominated for several other categories.
Next Generation gave the Xbox version of Halo a five-star rating and said, "If you didn’t think there was a reason to buy an Xbox, Halo will change your mind."
While most reviews were positive, some critics pointed out issues with the game's level design. GameSpy noted that players would repeatedly move through identical-looking rooms and fight the same enemies, calling this "frustrating." An article on Game Studies.org said the game relied too much on repetition rather than creativity in later parts. Eurogamer described Halo as having two distinct halves: the first was fast-paced and exciting, while the second had strong story elements but repetitive level design. Critics also mentioned that Halo lacked online multiplayer and AI opponents at the time, which GameSpy included in a list of "Top 25 Most Overrated Games of All Time" in 2003.
The PC version of Halo received mostly positive reviews, scoring 83% on Metacritic. GameSpot called it "still an incredible action game" and gave it a 9.0 out of 10. IGN scored it 8.2 out of 10, saying, "If you've played the game on the Xbox, there's not much for you here." Eurogamer called the PC version a "missed opportunity" but noted that online multiplayer was a strong feature for fans. However, the PC version faced criticism for poor performance on high-end computers at the time.
Halo has been recognized as one of the greatest video games ever made. IGN ranked it the fourth-best first-person shooter. In 2017, The Strong National Museum of Play added Halo to its World Video Game Hall of Fame.
Legacy
Halo is known for changing the first-person shooter (FPS) game genre. According to GameSpot, Halo introduced many small improvements that other games later used. The game helped the Xbox become popular and started what is now considered the Xbox's most important game series. In July 2006, Next-Gen.biz reported that Halo was the second-highest-selling 21st-century console game in the United States, after Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Its popularity led to the use of terms like "Halo clone" and "Halo killer" to describe games similar to or expected to be better than Halo. The Halo engine was later used in the game Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse.
Halo has been played in competitions like Major League Gaming and the World Cyber Games. Its sequel, Halo 2, earned $125 million on its first day of release, selling 2.38 million copies. This made it the fastest-selling media product in U.S. history. Three years later, Halo 3 broke that record, earning $170 million in its first 24 hours.
The game inspired the fan-made Red vs. Blue series, which is considered the first major success of machinima, a technique that uses 3D game engines to create animated films. In 2010, Ed Fries, a former Microsoft executive, created a free version of Halo called Halo 2600 for the Atari 2600.
Halo has been called one of the best video games of all time. On March 15, 2004, Gearbox Software released Halo: Custom Edition for Windows, allowing players to use custom maps and game modifications. This version requires an original copy of Halo for PC to install.
At the 2011 E3 Expo, Microsoft announced that Halo: Combat Evolved would be remade by 343 Industries using a new game engine. The remastered version, released on November 15, 2011, marked the 10th anniversary of the original game. It included online multiplayer, cooperative play, and support for the Kinect. The game combined the original Halo engine with a new engine from 343 Industries and Saber, allowing players to switch between classic and improved graphics. The multiplayer mode used the Halo: Reach engine, designed to resemble the original game's multiplayer.
The remastered version was later included in Halo: The Master Chief Collection. The single-player campaign was nearly identical to the Xbox 360 version, with options to switch between updated and original graphics. However, the multiplayer component used the original engine from Combat Evolved instead of Halo: Reach.
In October 2025, a remake of the Combat Evolved campaign, titled Halo: Campaign Evolved, was announced. It is planned for release in 2026 on Windows, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5. This will be the first Halo game on PlayStation. Using Unreal Engine 5, the remake will include improved visuals and bonus story missions. The original multiplayer mode will not be included, but up to four players can play the campaign together online. Xbox Game Studios president Matt Booty explained that bringing Halo to PlayStation aims to attract more players to the Xbox ecosystem.