Halo: Combat Evolved

Halo: Combat Evolved is a 2001 first-person shooter developed by Bungie, released as the flagship launch title for Microsoft's original Xbox. Players take the role of the cybernetic super-soldier Master Chief, fighting the alien Covenant and the parasitic Flood across a mysterious ringworld while accompanied by the AI companion Cortana.

The game refined console shooter controls, popularizing the two-weapon limit, regenerating shields, grenade-and-melee combat, and drivable vehicles within large, open sandbox environments that let players approach encounters freely. Its enemies used noticeably smart squad behavior, and the score-based cooperative campaign and four-player split-screen made it a fixture of LAN gatherings. It effectively established the Xbox as a serious platform for the genre.

Halo helped define modern console shooters and launched one of gaming's biggest franchises, spanning sequels, novels, and other media. Its campaign has since been rebuilt in high definition and bundled with a modern collection alongside the later games, so playing it today on current Xbox and PC hardware is straightforward.