The Best Xbox Game Every Year 2001 - 2024

24. 2001 - Halo: Combat Evolved

With the original Xbox launching in November 2001, there's a fairly small roster of games to pick from. That said, the choice is clear.

Development of Halo: Combat Evolved was a tumultuous road, starting in 1997 as a Mac computer real-time strategy title in it's earliest form. Through the years, Halo would transform into a first-person shooter that led players through a deep, space-faring narrative. The first instalment introduced the world to the legendary figure of Master Chief, the face of not just the Halo series but the Xbox brand. Even today when the franchise is in a less healthy place, Spartan 117 is still synonymous with the big, green X.

Microsoft needed a big system seller and Halo got the world talking instantly. There was something completely addictive about the gameplay loop; the thrill of fighting down waves of aliens with a roster of incredibly satisfying weaponry, not to mention vehicular combat, across some massive maps. It pioneered in a great many places, and where it wasn't the first it was quite simply the most refined, breaking open the floodgates for console FPS experiences. 

It's appropriate to kick this list off with almost unquestionably the most important game in the history of Xbox. Halo was a true system seller, and it's not too bold a claim that its success allowed Microsoft to take the foothold they needed to enter the console gaming market.