Chris Faffler

Hour 1

607 Words

Halo 5: Guardians

Released October 27th, people worldwide lined up to buy the latest installment in the popular Halo series, Halo 5: Guardians. The famous RPG has sold $400 million in copies in just its first week of launch, showing how popular it really is.

Halo is a sci-fi themed first person shooter set in the 26th century made originally for the Xbox. Initially developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios, the first Halo game was released in 2001 under the title: Halo: Combat Evolved. The game featured a multiplayer deathmatch mode and a single player campaign. There are currently 12 games in the series, including the latest title, and Microsoft doesn’t plan to stop anytime soon.

Halo: Combat Evolved was a very creative and original game at the time of released.  The early titles of these games were coincided with the creation of Xbox Live. It was one of the first games to release a competitive multiplayer aspect to a console-like system. Almost everything about it was new and hooked a lot of fans for the future.

“I like how it has a lot of originality. It was one of the first real sci-fi first person shooters out there” Said Junior Justin Huppert.

Many people bought the new game in good faith that it would live up to their expectations based off of their experiences with the previous games. They started playing early in their childhoods and wanted to continue the story they’ve known half their lives.

“I started playing [the game] when I was 6, my dad bought the game for me, and I’ve been playing it ever since” said Junior Vinnie DeBerardini, “I bought all the other ones and I really loved the story”.

“People like the game cuz most people have played the first [game] and it’s kinda grown on them” said DeBerardini “And cuz it’s got guns and sci-fi and stuff”.

The community of Halo is a diverse one, mixed with a wide age range from early teens up to late adult. They are a generally friendly people, and makes the online experience better.

“The community for the most part is older and a lot of them have been around from when it initially started” Said Huppert “A lot of younger groups are getting into it now. For the most part, they’re pretty acceptive.”

Over time, things change. Popular games try and imitate each other with their latest releases to try and dip into their competitor’s communities and pick up a few more followers. But these changes aren’t always good.

“Honestly,” said Huppert “I didn’t exactly like some of the aspects they chose to do for the multiplayer. Microsoft thought that since Call of Duty was such a big hit, that they’d start implementing different things like kill badges, kill streaks, huge customization for your weapons”

Sometimes these games can go too far and end up changing their game too much.

“It was OK when they gradually came in, but now it just looks like a futuristic Call of Duty game. It really looks and, in a sense plays, like Call of Duty copy and pasted onto a Halo game.” Said Huppert

Despite its newer faults, Halo has a great, deserving, loyal fanbase. It’s a game that’s come a long ways from its initial release back in 2001, and many look forward to seeing it grow more in the future.

“I never knew what Halo was until I played the first one when I was little” Said Junior Jeff Johnson “It was a really fun game and I couldn’t stop playing it. It was a severe addiction. I love the game so much”

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bungie

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Studios