## Halo 1

### Enemies
Let me tell you about the obstacles before I explain the solutions.

There are 4 kinds of aliens belonging to the so called Covenant:

Grunts: 
Jackals: 
Elites: 
Hunters: 

**Grunts** will chip away at your health or cut your way of retreat
while you are busy with tougher enemies.

**Jackals** have shields that protects not only them, but their teammates too.

**Elites** are the real danger.
They are fast, tough and heavy hitting.
Some are able to cloak and or carry oneshotting energy swords.

**Hunters** are mini-boss type thugs.
Large health pool, small weak points, with multiple ways to one shot the player.

Then, in the second third of the game, the Flood is introduced.
They are:
these little-shits called infectors: [](little_shit.png)
Bursters: [](burster.png)
And zombies: [](zombie.png)

Infectors come in great numbers and will suicide headbutt you.
Bursters slowly limp in smaller numbers and attempt to Christmas festival you.
Zombies are zombies, but they carry guns and shoot at you *sometimes*.

Then, there is the occasional "Sentinel" which is a floating drone, trying to fry you.
[](sentinel.png)

It is polishing that makes a video game good.

Recently I played a "totally not asset flip" "extraction shooter" at a con type event.
Each component was OK on a surface level, but there was no holistic angle.

The Covenant enemies have just that.
Most of the time you will be fighting against groups of the first 3 species.
They are responsive and lively enough that the encounters never become boring.
For example:
* grenades freak them the fuck out
* Grunts will panic when Elites are killed next to them
* Jackals realistically feel safe behind their shields
* Elites try to dodge to the sides while you exchange fire
* Elites will retreat when their energy armour depletes, or -if they cant- they will run at you
* grenades and charged shots come unpredictably, but the attacks are well telegraphed

The point is, that combat is in the sweat spot: hard to predict, but not bullshit.
Screw the first one up and you are left with boring enemies that stand around waiting to be shot.
Screw the second one up and you get catmario.

May it not be lost on you that I'm basically explaining how it only feels good
to kill something that feels alive.

The zombies; they are zombies...
They come in hordes.
It feels good to kill them, for a while.
As implied, eventually they become boring.

The Sentinels barely contribute, but I guess I'm glad they are here.

### Tools
If, given this line up,
you were assigned an assault rifle,
to kill those alien bastards,
the game would be unplayable.
Thankfully, this game has something called *design*.

There are numerous weapons and each and every one of them is good.
Your preferred gun will constantly shift depending on the encounter ahead.
Different enemy compositions ask for different weapon combinations(!).
Deciding which weapons to take with you is a real decision.
You also have to manage your limited ammo.
There was one occasion where I was soft locked by my weapons and their lack of ammo.
Usually you can backtrack to get a more appropriate gun;
this happened at one of the few exceptions.

Grenades.
Grenades are the bread-and-butter of the game.
A well placed grenade is the difference between 8 enemies and none at all.
They are high risk, high reward toys.
And, the devs rightfully give you plenty enough.

You have two life lines: an energy armour and a health bar.
Shield regenerates, health requires pickups, shrimple as.
Health not so much a safety-net, more like a resource:
something I am rationing between rooms.
It allows me to get into better positions
or finish of enemies running for the backline,
thereby saving ammo.

Maps and arenas are spacious and you are given room to maneuver.
Given that enemies do not always agro you
-they could be unaware of your position or fighting other foes-,
you will often be flanking.
Conflict is also not always the solution:
Sometimes you have to clutch your teeth and run for the objective.
Its also worth mentioning that there are rewards hidden away:
health, ammo, rare guns, even power ups.

### Difficulty
Since I'm a masochistic bastard, I went with Legendary difficulty,
which is the hardest from the 4 provided options.
This proved to be the correct call.
The game was hard, but far from impossible or frustrating.
This is all thanks to the rest of the game design:
I was always given the tools and space to find a working solution.

I could always find a combination of guns,
good grenade throws and movement that would eventually allow me to progress.
I was coming up with my own solutions.

---

Now going back to that extraction-shooter.
Since it was a tech demo and I had limited time with it,
i wanted to progress as fast as possible.

During the tutorial, I'm presented with a barricade of bookshelves that I'm told to shoot.
Since that's retarded, I melee it and instead of the intended breaking into a million pieces,
it floats as a low gravity object.
It featured SCP-173 which, unless observed, its running at you at mach 3 to snap your neck.
So, I was trying to look back occasionally trying to limit its movement.
For 3 peaks it was not even in the same corridor,
but before the fourth I was face down on the floor.
Then, you progress into an office space with generic zombies that you can slalom in between,
but then you will have trouble picking up the required fuses
because the hitbox of their interaction is too small.
For all of the above choices, the devs -who were watching over my shoulder- though I was retarded.

> Why aren't you following the clear instructions?
Because I'm not a puppet and you are most definitely not my master.
I'm here to experience something, not to follow your motions.

Art requires interpretation and people differ.

Should be self evident, but there is always a bigger retard retarding around.

---

The difficulty is flat.
Over all each part is similarly hard
(with the notable exception that the Flood missions are easy as hell).
More on that a bit later.

### Verdict
Its fun, go play it.
It also contains many examples of good game design.
However, let it be known,
tho I abstained from mentioning the flaws its not a perfect master piece.