It’s been like, what, nine years since Halo: Combat Evolved graced the earth with its presence and garnered accolade from the press and gamers, not to mention selling a million copies upon its release in late 2001. But the one big question on everyone’s mind right now is “why”? For a game to have sold over five million copies within a period of four years, it has to at least be on the echelons of greatness.

So why is Halo: Combat Evolved good? Despite the babbling of fools, it has little to do with Microsoft throwing money at things to cover up the game’s so-called flaws. Okay, part of it is because of Microsoft spending quite a lot on marketing and advertising, but it’s anything but flawed. Here’s why:

- Scope & Pacing

Try to remember how the first game started. From the starship Pillar of Autumn reaching a mysterious starfield in the void, to the narrative giving us a sense that the humans are pretty much in a desperate situation, the game succeeded in giving players a firm sense of their place in the story. In this case, you play the super soldier Master Chief, clearly the last resort the humans have to use to counter the fanatical antagonists called the Covenant. They simply outnumber the humans in number and weaponry. As a result, this help establishes the Covenant as a credible threat, since Master Chief’s the only one who can go toe-to-toe with the high-ranking Elites.

Right as you leave the Pillar of Autumn and arrive on the metallic space station called Halo, everything changes. The game showcases its design strength; namely ditching the standard corridor levels and confinements that trapped FPSs usually on the PC for eight long years. Master Chief’s life pod crashes onto a grassy wide field, reminding you of Halo’s Forerunners-created nature. Not only that, it gently leads you to the basics of wide-open spaces combat, vehicle-handling thanks to the debut of the iconic jeep Warthog, and making use of Marine support either as cover fire or extra targets for the Covenant.

The game then throws a lot of curveballs at your direction from start to finish. Find the game’s combat easy to handle? Try dealing with the Hunters and Elites when you meet them for the very first time (with enemy A.I that rivals even Half-Life’s). Still manage to master fighting the Covenant? Hello creepy swarming alien lifeforms that can assimilate all they can touch called the Flood. Figured that the space station Halo could help solve humanity’s problems? Guess what? Activating Halo means that everything, including the humans, get wiped out indiscriminately. Halo: Combat Evolved is then capped off with an explosive finale where you have to ride the Warthog at breakneck speed, plowing through enemies in front of you. That scene is replicated in Halo 3, but nothing will ever top the original’s adrenaline-filled moment.

Granted, Halo’s story isn’t the most original, but it’s presented and told well through its FPS trappings. If something as derivative as James Cameron’s Avatar sold a s***load of tickets because it’s directed and paced superbly, there’s no reason Bungie couldn’t replicate that formula with Halo, right?

- A New Kind of Combat

Halo: Combat Evolved certainly lived up to its moniker. As mentioned above, there’s  no more wading around in corridors (well, for the most parts anyway). The open-air space is your playground of destruction. Your regenerating shields help you make the most of your open-air situation.

Why give players too many weapons at one go when they can experiment with them on the fly by restricting them to hold just two weapons? Also, why restrict them with one weapon at the time when a console controller has buttons and triggers to make a character throw grenades and throw a one-hit kill melee attack consecutively and quick? Bungie’s minimalist approach to the genre made gamers appreciate the FPS genre in a whole new light.

- The Music

Just like how the bleeps and bloops of Mario’s theme was the iconic leit motif of the late 80s in gaming, so too was the main theme of Halo for 2001 and beyond. Composer Martin O’Donnell took all of his music-making experience from somber fares like Riven: The Sequel to Myst and even the battle medleys of Myth: The Fallen Lords, all to compose Bungie’s big break with Microsoft. Along with the help of the Chicago Symphony and planning the music alongside the level designers so that each chunk of music play at key moments, Halo: Combat Evolved’s soundtrack ranks as one of the better musical scores to complement a game.

Here’s some trivia for you: the theme itself (the one with the Gregorian chants) was composed within a span of three days. This is in stark contrast to the Super Mario Bros. stage one theme which took composer Koji Kondo weeks to think up. Inspiration is always a fickle beast.

So there you have it: three simple formulas of Halo: Combat Evolved’s success. With prior game developing experience, Bungie had a hit in their hands despite the presence of naysayers. The hate particularly stem from the PC gaming crowd who felt that the game “dumbed down” the genre they so-called claim, but then again these people always hated console games, so really, what’s new? Still, even with the success of the game’s sequels, they have yet to truly expand on the first game’s key design principles. As in life, you can never forget your first time, and Halo: Combat Evolved truly is memorable in that regard.

Yes, even with its goofy subtitled tacked on.