My Love Affair With Halo

The first time I played Halo was at an Electronic Boutique in November of 2001, the year that Xbox had come out. This is significant for me because I can not remember anytime in my lifes history of when I was so astounded by a video game that I have a perfect memory of the first time playing it. The level that the game was set on for the demo was the one immediately after the escape from the Pillar of Autumn so my first taste of the game was the visually stunning even by todays standards environment of Halo. I remember staring at the screen at how crisp the graphics look and squealing with excitement when I figured out that if I held down the trigger with the plasma pistol equipped it would charge up and release a greater blast. I knew I had to have one, so I begged my parents for one for Christmas. After some snooping I found that they had gotten me one but I was caught in the process so I wasn’t allowed to play it for a week after unwrapping it. Of course that didn’t stop me from sneaking it into my room and hooking it up to a little tv I had when my parents weren’t home to get a few sweet hours of gameplay in. Finally the week was up and I could be out and open about my love for the Game. Over the years the game stayed relevant both in its appeal as a game and because it became a source of social interactions between my friends and I. This was before online play had become an option and I remember spending hours playing team battles in my basement and the basement of friends, and the feeling of frustration or elation when a score would come down to one kill. Throughout high school my interests strayed elsewhere and I wasn’t so invested in video games but Halo always waited for me like an old friend for the occasional time I would pick it up for a play. When I got to college I found a reawakened love affair as I moved into a house with friends that loved playing the original over the newer editions to the series and many nights were spent playing rocket launchers only on the hang em high level. Those days are gone and Halo has taken a backseat again but I have comfort in knowing that some day it will poke its head back into my life and things will be like they never changed.