Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary

It's hard to believe that it has been ten years. Ten years since the original Xbox launched along with the very first Halo. Halo: Combat Evolved single handedly turned the FPS genre into a worldwide phenomenon of gaming.  It introduced FPS games to the consoles you might say. It had the greatest multiplayer, had a lot of LAN parties and all nighters, and became a pop culture phenomenon.  Its controls translated very well into the consoles, had a really good story, and just took over the game industry by storm.  After ten long years we come back to the game that started it all and put Microsoft’s Xbox on the map.  The question is did the game stand the age of time very well?  That answer would be yes to an extent.

Halo: Combat Evolved comes back into our lives remastered in full 1080p widescreen HD. The graphics have been rebuilt from the ground up and have been fine tuned and polished with a mirror shine. Master Chief looks wonderful in the brand new graphics engine. Yes Halo: CE uses the Halo Reach graphics engine. But here is the real kicker, the game plays and feels the same way it did ten years ago!  Well almost. Once in a while you will come across a hiccup in the games frame rate. It does kind of get chunky here and there but really you can barely see it. Plus there is the ability to switch the graphics of ten years ago to the graphics of today with the press of the back button on your XBox 360 controller.

Even the old graphics have been remasterd in 1080p HD!  I can't believe the amount of work 343 Industries has done to polish up the original Halo!  The story of Master Chief, Cortana, and Sgt. Johnsons fight with the covenant is still the same.  Elietes are still very smart, fast, and brutal, grunts are still cowardly, brutal, and slow, and the Jackles are still the same too.  Wait till you meet up with the flood, that's when things get really out of hand! But there have been new features added to the game like terminals and skulls. The terminals will explain the events leading to Halo 4, and the skulls are there for extra bonus like the grunt birthday party. Headshots to grunts leave confetti and screams of happy children.

Weapons have been slightly modified too. It's much easier to use the sniper rifle this time around.  The crosshairs actually seem bigger than they did years ago. Grenades seem slightly changed too. I remember getting killed from a grenade that I would be literally halfway across the map.  Now that seems gone and when I throw grenades they don't seem to have that mighty explosion that they had years ago. Remember split screen co-op? Now you can take the co-op on Xbox LIVE!  Yes this is a much needed add right here!  I am so glad I don't have to share a screen anymore! But regardless of these little modifications it is still the same Halo we all love and adore. Oh, by the way I double dog dare you to start the game on LEGENDARY!!!!

However, though the games controls come with a slight learning curve. With the black and white buttons gone replaced with the LB and RB buttons, your grenades and melee buttons have kind of been swapped on you. But no need to fear!  You can switch to Halo 3's Recon Control scheme so your melee button returns to the b button and you don’t have to figure out why your b button does not work. You see when I first played the game I expected everything to have remained the same exact as it was ten years ago.  But the controls got changed and I was really frustrated at the fact that 343 Industries would do this.

So please before you actually play this game I highly recommend that you change the controls to Recon settings that way your right bumper does most of the work when it comes to reloading, opening things such as doors and bridges too.  Plus there has been an added setting for Kinect users.  You tell your Kinect to reload and you will reload.  Tell your Kinect to scan and it will scan.  But I almost find this a bit of a waist though.  When i play a game I do not want to have motion gaming do it for me, I would rather do it with a controller. 

Now for the big part, the multiplayer. It's no longer Halo: CE's multiplayer. Instead it's the multiplayer of Halo REACH with maps from Halo: CE and Halo 2. In a sick and twisted sense this is really awesome but at the same time a major letdown. I would rather play the Halo: CE multiplayer on XBox live than I would Halo REACH!  If I wanted to play REACH multiplayer I would have just plugged in Halo REACH!  It is a major letdown in my eyes!  This is a key essential that made Halo: CE what it is. Without the original multiplayer from the original game, I feel somewhat lost. Yes, it is awesome though to have REACH multiplayer with the old Halo maps. Don't get me wrong it's wicked! But if I am going to play Halo: CE, I want the games original multiplayer. Lord forbids a Halo 2 remake comes about and multiplayer is messed with.  All chaos will break loose!

The game does have achievements for all you achievement hunters!  Some of them are very easy to get while others are just a pain in the; you know what!  It's only priced at 39.99$ So please go buy it!  It's so worth it!  It's a great single-player experience with a pretty good multi-player too.  However, though the Multi-player would have been absolutely perfect in my eyes if they left it alone instead of giving us REACH multiplayer.  But despite all of that, the game does stand up to time really well and If you have never played HALO: COMBAT EVOLVED, You really need to drop the 39.99$ price tag and go play it!

Chris Osborne, Noobfeed