Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary Review

 So many times in the past I’ve gone back to play games or watch films and TV shows that I remembered fondly from my childhood and almost without fail I’ve had my heart broken every single time. Due to the giant leaps forward that digital entertainment takes every year, even products that are only a few years old can sometimes feel clunky and horrible compared to the latest releases. And this is why, despite being a huge halo fan that was grinning with excitement at the prospect of playing a HD remake of one of my favourite games of all time, part of me was also afraid, afraid that the memories I had of playing it all those years ago would be ruined. Once I finally had the game in my hands however it only took a few minutes to realise that my worries were completely unfounded. It’s only when you go back and play the original now that you realise just how little has changed in the Halo series over the past ten years. The graphics may be much prettier but the core gameplay has more or less stayed the same, which is a true testament to how Halo CE was years ahead of its time.

Theres has been a worrying number of “HD” remakes in the past few months where it’s been hard to tell if anything had actually been changed at all. Fortunately Halo CE Anniversary does not share such issues. The graphics here are good enough to make it compete with a number of present day releases. According to 343 the graphical quality on the environments have been improved between three to eight thousand percent, whilst Master Chief himself looks around three hundred percent better. As gorgeous as it looks you can never capture the true nostalgia without revisiting something in its original format and the coolest feature of Anniversary is that you can switch back to the old graphics at any time by pressing the back button (or by saying the word “classic” if you have a Kinect). Whilst this is a very impressive feature, one small issue is that it can take about four seconds for the change to happen, during which you see only a black screen but gameplay continues, so you must only make the change whilst in a safe area. It’s not just the graphics that have seen an update either, the musical score and various game sounds have also seen a full re mastering, making the game sound slightly more realistic. If you’d prefer though you can choose to hear the original soundtrack by enabling it in the options menu.

One of the Halo series trademarks, that didn’t see the light of day until Halo 2,  has been added in the form of Skulls. Skulls are game modifiers that, once collected (which is not an easy task), can change the game in ways such as giving you infinite ammo or doubling the health of enemies. Terminals also make a very welcome return, in Anniversary these terminals enable you to view video clips which reveal a very intriguing back story to the life of 343 guilty spark told by the machine himself in an audio diary fashion. These videos also supposedly hold clues as to the plot of Halo 4, definitely worth viewing for the hardcore Halo fans interested in the deep narrative of the Halo universe.

Aside from that though everything about Halo CE has been kept exactly the same. Gameplay, controls, AI are all exactly as they were ten years ago.  And as alluded to earlier it all holds up exceptionally well. Enemies and Elites in particular will evade and flank intelligently making it a very challenging campaign, probably the toughest in the series. Theres only two areas of the game that don’t hold up quite as well as you would like. Firstly the vehicle’s such as the iconic warthog or covenant banshee all handle a lot more awkwardly than their quick and nimble counterparts found in more recent games. Secondly level design is very poor in certain places. Certain levels copy and paste the same rooms and corridors on top of each other multiple times, which not only makes the game feel like a bit of a drag, but can also be quite confusing (I managed to get lost on more than a few occasions). Games these days certainly do a much better of job of leading you through the levels and keeping the action flowing smoothly than they did back then.

Of course you can’t have a Halo game without multiplayer. Anniversary uses Halo Reach’s multiplayer on the same disc, however you only get access to a specific Anniversary playlist which features six new multiplayer maps. The six new maps are all excellent remakes of some of the best Halo 1 and 2 multiplayer maps such as Hang ‘em High and Headlong. In this playlist you will get the full benefit of Halo Reach’s visuals and matchmaking options but in certain modes you can use the classic Halo CE gameplay, without the use of jetpacks and sprinting, but instead with things like the infamous Halo 1 pistol which can take an opponent down with just three well placed shots. It also comes with an equally impressive new firelight map called Installation 04 which is taken straight out of a section of the second level of the campaign.

I’m not convinced that non Halo fans, or those that have never played a Halo game will enjoy it as much as I did, but this game was never aimed at them. But the chance to replay one of the greatest campaigns of all time in glorious HD along with some excellent new maps for Reach, is one that any long standing Halo fan should not turn down. If 343 continue to treat the Halo franchise with as much respect and quality as they have done with anniversary, then we are in for a real treat when Halo 4 comes out.

8/10