For it is the design that stands out as the game’s true tour de force, the original ideas and twists in the gameplay, constantly inducing smile after smile of amazement – it’s all very ‘next-gen’. Such as in the second vast level, upon the surface of the giant ring-planet thingy ‘Halo’ when your bombarded by attack from the air, as the enemy soar high and manoeuvre to attack you, and when hit spiral thousands of feet to the terra-firma below. Breathtaking stuff. The explosion needless to say are lovely; the scale of these battles, the flare with which they’re realised always surprising you. The also adds to the atmosphere wonderfully, immersing the player into the alien world of Halo.

Indeed, can certainly be described as a game of scale, the environments often proving so large that this is actually a detractor (try completing the first level on the spaceship without getting lost at least once) at times, though the frenzied attacks are marvellous.

So what are we left with? Well it’s not a game of original plot, though Halo is a veritable festival of rich and interesting level design, alien opposition, and well thought out set-pieces. It’s only minor flaw being the previously mentioned repetitive action, and frequently daunting scale. What Halo does well, it does better than almost every game before it, what it doesn’t do well is still only slightly derivative from the rest of the genre. Oh, and the graphics are, well, gorgeous – just look at the sky and horizon in level two. Sigh.

The Xbox’s best launch game by far, and one of the finest and most all-round excellent examples of the genre. Go and enjoy it at once.

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By Luke Guttridge