Halo. Just by hearing that name it provokes a reaction out of anyone. Some people love it, others hate it, and some don’t understand either. Selling millions on release day, odds are if you have a Xbox, you have one of the three games. But why is it so appealing? What about it draws in so many people? And why is it still one of the most played games over Xbox Live?

Before Halo, first-person shooters usually fit into one of three categories. First-person shooters were usually either frantic frag fests (Quake, Unreal Tournament), slow tactical team oriented combat (early Rainbow Six, Counter Strike), or the old classic run-n-gun style games (Half-Life, Duke Nukem.) Halo used a blend of all three, primarily adding a tactical element to the faster styled multiplayer games.

The main difference lies within the ability to only carry two guns at a time. No longer could you just pick up every weapon you encountered like in the old run-n-gun games. You had to think and make choices on the field based on what you think you’d come up against. You had to balance your loadout, because if you end up relying too much on long, medium, or short range combat a good player could take advantage of your weaknesses. Older style tactical games allowed a small selection of weapons, but for most missions you never changed weapons and stuck primarily with what you started with. Halo blended all three styles of play, to allow a fast paced tactical run-n-gun game.
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