Halo was Xbox’s staple game in the early days. It was the driving force behind the success of the Xbox. Halo 2 solidified the Xbox’s spot among the top game consoles, beating out the Playstation 2 in sales across the USA. Halo 3, being the newest release, and the supposed last installment of the Halo series, has enjoyed a ridiculous amount of success. According to Wikipedia, “Halo 3 grossed $300(US) million in its first week. More than one million people played Halo 3 on Xbox Live in the first twenty hours. As of January 3, 2008, Halo 3 has sold 8.1 million copies, and was the best-selling video game of 2007 in the US.”

A true behemoth in the video game world, the Halo series has given birth to a new tournament league: Major League Gaming. There many gamers who are living their dreams of playing video games for their job. The players of Final Boss have become millionaires off the Halo franchise and live a successful life beating other elite players from all over the world. When gamers can make millions off playing a game you know it was a successful title. In short, Halo is a money monster.

However, what really is the big deal? True the original Halo: Combat Evolved game was a revolutionary achievement. It boasted superior graphics and game play for it’s time and offered an unrivaled multiplayer experience. And if that was not enough, it introduced us to the biggest badass of all time, the legendary Master Chief. But the first Halo made not nearly as much as it’s prodigies. Halo 2 beat out total sales by 3 million more the amount of its predecessor, and Halo 3 with even more still. Yet, in comparison to other games, Halo 2 and 3 are merely replicas of the outdated Halo: CE game with some supped up graphics.

Game play issue in question when trying to figure out what makes the new installations of the Halo series so popular. Games such as Unreal Championship 2, although not experiencing nearly the same amount of success, had one of the best game play systems of any video game released during the Xbox era. With the ability to jump off walls, unlock characters, weapons with multiple functionalities, and an unrivaled rejection and adrenaline system it is a wonder this title didn’t blow Halo 2 out of the water. The same observation can be made for other revolutionary games such as Gears of War, Black and especially the newly released Battlefield: Bad Company which boasts the ability to blow up anything. In the Halo series, not once has a wall exploded away.

Also, Halo 3 has tried to increase the dynamics of the game play by adding equipment into the game. This may be the most irritating addition to a game ever made by a series. Bubble Shields give those who don’t deserve to live the chance to luckily kill you rather than use skill. This goes for the Power Drainer and especially for the regenerator which makes a person seem invincible against a BR when in the green mist. Halo: CE was simply about who had better aim and evasive skills, but by the time Halo 3 came around the game has seemed to degrade to how cheap players can be. Things such as getting out of the maps, super jumps, and the addition of the worst weapons ever included in a video game: the sword and the gravity hammer.

However, the Halo series has many things going for it. For example, Bungie’s advertizing campaigns have all been planned to perfection to get people ready for their next release. Also the alliance of the Halo series and MLG gives the players the sense that they are playing for something or to get somewhere rather than just playing. Bungie’s online leader boards and stats pages add to this sense of player advancement and the feeling that you can become better than others by playing Halo.

Furthermore, elements of the game add to Halo’s likeability such as storyline, the advanced physics engine and features such as the revolutionary saved films feature (where Bungie captures every game players play and allows the gamer to easily view and save the films in the Halo 3 Theater). Also, again, having a legendary badass like Master Chief driving the Bungie pelican of success helps a lot.

So maybe the Halo series deserves its props and success, but maybe it doesn’t. If you are a serious Halo player, ask yourself, how many times have you died without knowing why? How many times have you been beaten by someone you KNOW isn’t as good as you because of glitches, camping, cheating or other ridiculous reasons? Should a game that is geared towards bad player really be at the top of the video game industries “most wanted list?” Or does none of that matter when deciding what a good game is? These are the big questions you as a gamer should ask yourself when wondering what the big deal about the Halo series is.

The Halo series has many things going for it, but also many things which bring the game down. However, it has become possibly the best selling video game series of all time. It has a devoted following which reaches across the globe and a huge fan base in the USA. Since its first release at the beginning of Microsoft’s Xbox campaign in 2001 it has been a dominant force of the video game industry. It has made many individuals and companies extremely wealthy and given gamers countless hours of fun and enjoyment. Maybe that is the “big deal” of Halo, but then again… maybe not.

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