Halo's impact

Halo: Combat Evolved was a seminal title in the history of video gaming.  The title almost singlehandedly carried the original Xbox platform early on, helping to shape that platform as the FPS gamer's first choice, a trend that continues even today.  The Halo franchise has also helped to emphasize the legitimacy of video gaming as a mass market entertainment source, with Halo 3 (at the time) claiming the title of biggest entertainment launch ever and $300 million worth of first week sales – this would later be surpassed by GTA IV's $500 million first week. 

Halo would not have had the impact on the industry it did without the excellent design of Halo: Combat Evolved by Bungie.  The game introduced several small innovations that have subtlety (and not so subtlety) changed the gaming landscape, affecting not just shooter titles but all games in general. 

With the recent revelation of 343 Industries and the Halo anime along with the announcement of Bungie's intended departure from the franchise coming out around a decade after the game's first public reveal, we felt it was a good time to take a look at the way certain features in Halo changed gaming forever.