Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary – Review
Platform | Release Date
360 | November 15, 2011Developed by 343 Studios
Published by Microsoft
The Pitch:
Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary is a spectacularly remastered version of the original “Halo” campaign, created in celebration of the 10th anniversary of one of the most beloved franchises in gaming history. With a bounty of new features including cooperative play over Xbox LIVE, a bundle of some of the most beloved multiplayer maps in “Halo” history reimagined for Xbox LIVE, new challenges and a new story to uncover, Halo: Anniversary is a must-have experience.
I’ve played all the previous Halo titles, starting with Halo 1 by myself on the PC back in the college dorms. The levels were expansive, but nothing I hadn’t seen in Tribes years earlier. The AI was impressive, but nothing more advanced than Half-Life. Was this really “Combat Evolved”?
I was a PC elitist.
It wasn’t until my friend sat me down and we began a co-op, splitscreen experience. Joy replaced tedium when we got lost in the terrible map design together. We would talk trash to the friendly NPCs as we would kill them for their sniper rifles and ammo. It never got old to periodically bash him in the back of the head or stick him with a plasma grenade. And plugging in an Xbox was the entire, easy setup.
I was a born-again console gamer.
As the years went on, we played in massive 16 player System Linked LAN parties and cussed as the sun would rise to reveal an arduous day of class ahead. We both co-oped the entire Halo 2 campaign, and both questioned “who the hell is that dude getting a medal with Master Chief?” But, eventually, we graduated and he moved away. I went on to play Halo 3, ODST, and Reach with other friends, but it wasn’t the same. We would keep in touch, but his schedule was full and his gaming budget was small. I did really enjoy ODST, though. It had an excellent single player campaign with a generous multiplayer suite: the entirety of Halo 3 with all past and future DLC. It unified another group of friends that would play Halo but had varying levels of DLC-commitment.
As a similar package, a pre-ordered Halo: CE Anniversary was assured; and the day after it launched I got a phone call. My friend, who bought maybe 1 game a year, had gotten it as a surprise gift from his girlfriend.
We could go back. Back to 10 years earlier and play together. This time: over Xbox Live.
I still stuck my buddy with plasmas, though this time it was due to my Kinect picking up my helpful reply “Grenades here.” The new graphics look terrible, until you press the Back button to view the Original presentation and see how badly your memory can distort the truth. Then the new graphics look great. It is exactly what I want to see in an HD re-release – an updated mode that can be disabled to present a preserved, original experience.
But going back 10 years isn’t as easy as hitting the Back button.
My friend and I still had trouble getting our schedules aligned, and found we could only play maybe an hour a week. Our progress slowed further when we began encountering a few bugs. They weren’t frequent, but a hard crash just before an hour long level completed made that week a wash. Each session required us to review which level we should be playing, since he had beaten the game and my levels weren’t unlocking consistently in my Stage Select. Each level in co-op Halo has no mid-mission save and takes longer to beat than we could budget in optimal conditions; every small setback hurt.
The lack of polish was surprising, since previous Halo titles had always been so technically competent. They were the pinnacle of stability on Xbox Live, and console gaming in general. I was never drawn to the Halo competitive scene because of the play mechanics, rather because it was just so easy to play the game with friends. It was rare to get booted from the party when transitioning into a match or experience endless matchmaking. Halo was incredibly pliable – playing public matches against strangers with friends both over Live and splitscreen in your party.
Life evolves as does Combat. I love that there are so many games coming out my backlog is larger than I will ever hope finish. I love that my wife hasn’t killed me yet for each time I bring another unopened game into our home. And I love that I’ve gotten to spend some time playing Halo CE over the internet with a longtime friend, even if we haven’t been able to beat it yet.
Halo: CE Anniversary is packaged nostalgia. It plays like you remember, down to the stuttering level loading transitions and backwards trash-talking Elites. It has all of the terrible level design and no sprint button to rush through it. Maybe the jump will feel a little delayed, but for the most part it’s all there. If you want Halo 1 with nicer graphics, achievements, and online co-op, you can enjoy what is here. But this doesn’t have the same technical level of polish as previous Halo releases, and it certainly doesn’t hold up to my rose-tinted glasses and the perfect storm of my environment 8 years ago.
It also doesn’t have the competent multiplayer suite offered by ODST. The multiplayer on the disc is a stripped down and repackaged Reach with only 6 competitive maps. If you select to play Firefight and then select “Mission” to pick a map, you are given a choice of one option. On the other hand, it does include Battle Creek (one of my favorite LAN party maps) and a download code to incorporate all of this content into Reach (or it can be purchased separately for $15). This makes Reach your multiplayer disc of choice.
I hope you enjoy Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. As a media product, it provides a high resolution remake of a now classic and iconic game. But if you try to relive 10 years ago, what you may learn will be something else entirely.
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David Hughes 70 days ago.