For those of you who have never played Halo, here’s the storyline in a nutshell: In the year 2552 the Earth is extremely overpopulated so mankind has started to colonize other worlds. Man quickly discovers (the hard way) that he is not alone in the universe after a series of devastating attacks by a race of aliens known only as "The Covenant." Mankind fights back by creating Spartans, an army of cyborg super-soldiers. For reasons unknown, the Spartans are decimated, leaving only one alive, the Master Chief. You play as the Master Chief, who is programmed for one thing and one thing only: to kick some alien tail! The action kicks off when Covenant forces board your ship, the Pillar of Autumn, forcing you and several contingents of Marines to abandon ship and crash land on a strange ringworld named "Halo." This is where Master Chief and The Covenant have a final showdown for ownership of the galaxy.

If you’ve played the single player campaign on the Xbox, you won’t find anything new in the PC’s campaign, though that’s not entirely a bad thing. The game leaves it up to you as to how you want to complete your objectives, for instance, you can wade into battle with guns-a-blazin’, or you can find a safe spot and take out enemies one by one with the sniper rifle. Or you can blast a Covenant Elite soldier off his ghost (a flying alien fighting vehicle ), mount the vehicle and take out the rest of the alien troops with its plasma guns. The storyline is linear but the gameplay gives you a lot of freedom as to how you want to approach most missions.

Being a PC FPS, Halo uses the mouse/keyboard combination for control. The controls are responsive and fully adjustable in the options menu, and make it much easier to target your enemies than it was with the Xbox controller. Controlling vehicles with the mouse/keyboard is a little different than in most PC games with vehicles, but it won’t take you long to get a feel for it. Instead of using the arrow keys or (A) and (D) keys to turn the vehicle, you simply point a small cursor (which floats above the vehicle) in the direction you want to go. Then you press the forward or reverse key to speed up or slow down. It’s a little weird at first but before long you’ll be driving like a pro.

The graphics for the PC version of Halo have been cranked up over the Xbox version, with a lot of newly added textures and details. If you want to really appreciate all the graphical details, you’ll need a pretty hefty system with a powerful video card. The game runs fine on a medium machine with most details turned down (showing only a few slow downs) and still looks pretty good.

The weapon models are sharp and very detailed, the vehicle models also look great with nice little touches such as small dings on a fender or a little fading of the paint job. As you would expect, the player models are much more detailed in Halo PC than those seen on the Xbox. The most impressive graphics show up in the outdoor environments, with rolling hills covered in green grass, waterfalls flowing into blue streams and cloudy skies overhead. Others environments have sandy beaches, palm trees and clear blue skies. The only problem with the environments is that the ndoor levels can all start to look alike after a bit and aren’t nearly as impressive as the outdoor levels. Even if you have played Halo a thousand times on the Xbox, the new textures and details coupled with the responsive controls make Halo PC look and feel like a whole new game.

The one thing that really makes the PC version of Halo "Da’ Bomb" (is that saying still in?) is the multiplayer game. If I had to pick one word to describe the multiplayer game it would be "perfect." Never before have I played a game that gives you so many options to choose from, or one that allows you to customize the game modes, weapons and vehicles for each map. Unfortunately, while most of the multiplayer modes from the Xbox are available on the PC version, the cooperative mode didn’t make the cut.

There are twelve standard multiplayer game types to choose from; including old favorites like capture the flag, king of the hill, slayer (Halo’s name for deathmatch) and team slayer. Then there are other "not so" standard game types, like Oddball (the player that finds and holds the skull for the longest total time wins the round), and Race (players race in vehicles and try to be the first to tag all the check points to win). All twelve game types are very customizable. One small annoyance is that while you are in a multiplayer game there is no way to see what your ping is to the server you are playing on.

Along with all the original vehicles and weapons from the Xbox version Gearbox Software has included a few of new ones for the multiplayer matches; these include the flamethrower and the fuel-rod gun. The flamethrower lets you cook your enemies just the way you like them: well done. To be honest though, the flame effects are not very impressive and this weapon is only useful in very close combat situations. The fuel-rod gun shoots plasma grenades that explode upon impact. This weapon is by far the most powerful in the game and the physically largest one, too. It takes up at least half of the screen when you use it, and if you fire it too fast it will overheat, rendering it useless for five seconds or so.

The new vehicles that have been added to the multiplayer games are a very welcome addition and will easily delight Halo fans. The Banshee, which was previously available only in the single player campaign, is now ready for you to fly around the map and rain lead down on the heads of you enemies. The Banshee is capable of flying at a much higher altitude than the Ghost (although it’s a little slower) and is a great way to provide covering fire for your teammates on the ground.

To complement the original chaingun-equipped Warthog jeep, there’s an upgraded model equipped with a mounted rocket launcher. You can really dish out the pain with this bad boy, and just to give the other guys a chance at living you only get three shots before you need to reload. So you need to make every rocket count.

There are twenty-five multiplayer maps to choose from, including six new PC-exclusives. Ice Fields, a large map set in snow-covered canyons with a base at each end, is perfect for large CTF matches as is the Infinity map. Danger Canyon, Timberland and Gephyrophobia are a few of the other maps that have been included for multiplayer gameplay. These environments range from a huge bridge perched between two mountains to vast forests with lots of hills to jump your Warthogs over. No matter what game type you enjoy playing, you’ll find a map that will meet your needs.

Microsoft’s Halo: Combat Evolved is absolutely one of the best designed and most enjoyable multiplayer games that have ever been released for the PC. With a great single player campaign and all the multiplayer maps, game types, weapons and vehicles, it will keep you playing for a very long time to come. Other than a few small flaws and high system requirements, Halo isn’t just another online first-person-shooter; it is "the" online first-person-shooter.

See more screens on the Halo:Combat Evolved (PC) Media Page