Phew…it certainly is. This game was one helluva ride! On a bit higher mental level, let me elaborate. Call me stupid for playing this game after Halo 3 was released, call be stupid for writing a review for this obsolete game (heresy, if you dared to actually call it that).
Halo is one of those games that comes in the ranks of Half-Life and the sorts. Something that revolutionised pretty much everything in arcade FPS gaming. In fact, games released after it, on consoles or otherwise, trying to compete with it, were termes as Halo Killers. Proof enough.
So let me get to the story. You are awoken from you deep lovely sleep in your cyro-tube to combat a number of nasty aliens, called the Covenant, who are pretty bugging actually. Apparently, they didn’t like you going near the ‘Halo’ (no spoilers from me). And when you do eventually crash land on it, you spend a bit of time flitting between Halo and alien spaceship environments, basically whipping lotsa alien ass (do they have asses?). Actually, that’s all I can tell you without spoiling any of the fun for you. So I suggest you get the game ASAP and get ready for some fun.
Now, let me tell you more details, that aren’t as important as the storyline.
Graphics
They are scalable enough to run on a PC bought in the dawn of the millenium (I think), but go older than that and you run into serious brick walls. Solid ones. The textures are nicely done, I’ve noticed, and the graphics engine does a nice job of mapping them. Models (as in stuff around you), are detailed enough. Also, bump mapping and lighting, especially when you take out your flashlight, is pretty cool. However, there is a certain lack of flexibility options in the game settings. But it’s brilliant nevertheless.
Audio
I really like the background score. Gets you in the mood, but then, doesn’t every game? The sounds of firing are crisp, and you can always hear your enemies shriek in fury when you take out one of their ranks. The sci-fi sounds of hovercrafts, plasma rifles and shields recharging are all very immersive. Mind you, you will need proper sound drivers, to take advantage of EAX (Environmental Audio Extensions – will post later).
Gameplay
One word would be – addictive. Another would be – immersive. You could just keep on adding the effects of something that makes you drool, and you’d still be right. Firstly, the difficulty level is highly scalable. I, in a sudden, fit of madness, chose Legendary which is the toughest difficulty. Yes, I’m a jerk, but it was fun. Not only did I improve my FPS skills a lot, not only did I take a agonisingly long time to complete the game, but i had great fun while getting to know little tips and tricks for fragging those little aliens.
Speaking of which, the Covenant come in hordes,a totally genocidal bunch, with really cute Grunts and nasty Elites. There is a trick to quickly taking down Elites that you should learn quickly, for your own sake. Vehicles are fun. In some, you can simply run down enemies, or you can gun them down. (Hey it rhymes!) There are also a number of turrets that you can take control of to blast them down, but his vantage point allows them to take potshots at you as well.
The game is pretty long and winding, which should give you hours and hours of gameplay. I advise you not to play for more than 1 or 2 hours at a stretch, because it can be quite a strain for your won body. I mean, hunching up and sitting still and alert for so long can cause some back (and brain problems – you might shoot your own sibling).
The weapons are fun. Lovely combination of Covenant (generally something to do with plasma) and human (artillery, explosives) weapons. You do get enough ammo around. You can only carry 2 weapons at a time, and ‘only‘ 8 grenades – 4 fragmentation and 4 plasma. The game is never unbeatably tough. The shields last just about enough in ‘Legendary’, but also recharge twice as fast in this difficulty mode, compared to Easy. Also, the health is pretty much unimportant, and is only useful in making last-minute dashes to safety, when your shields are down.
Fellow marines are fun too. Although they don’t last too long in ‘Legendary’. 
Halo has autosaves, known as Checkpoints. Now the thing is that, unless you save each Checkpoint individually after passing them, you can only access the last one you passed. So I suggest that you regularly save your checkpoints manually, through the in-game menu.
There is a whole lot more I’d love to say about the game, but then it would simply ruin the suspense in several levels. All I can say is that, certain parts of this game can scare you outta your wits. Beware… I enjoyed the game till the very last bit.
