Halo: Combat Evolved – Anniversary (Xbox 360)
Halo. It’s hard to overstate how much of a phenomenon this science fiction first-person shooter was when it released on the original Xbox. It propelled the console up to being a legitimate contender with the other systems of the time, it reinvigorated the first person shooter genre and popularized ideas like regenerating health, and its sequel lead to a big push towards online multiplayer being a feature in any game that had multiplayer. Games trying to copy its success were often billed as “Halo killers” though few would really be able to live up to such a title, but it was clear that Halo: Combat Evolved and its sequels were a definitive part of the console generation of their release and their influence can still be felt in how many shooters are designed today. Halo: Combat Evolved – Anniversary is simply the remaster that brought this original smash hit to the Xbox’s successor the Xbox 360, with changes both expected and unexpected.
The gameplay mechanics of Halo: Combat Evolved are definitely an important part of its success. When you’re playing as the armored soldier Maser Chief, your health actually comes in two layers. The first is a shield that can regenerate if you avoid damage for a short period of time, but if the shield is completely depleted, any further damage you take until it can recover is applied to a health bar. Health is not easy to come by and some weapons or vehicles can blast through both health and shields at once, but the layer of regenerating health in addition to the true health that allows for permanent damage means Halo is able to have a mix of encouraging aggression but many ways to punish or leaving lasting marks if the player doesn’t respect the power of an enemy’s weapons. While the original game was released before cover systems were in vogue, there’s still a focus on moving around the environment to find those areas you can regenerate your shield. Jumping plays a rather large role in navigation though as it can make you harder to target and makes some already rather speedy traversal go by faster if used correctly.
Multiplayer maps tend to play into the mobility focus of Halo’s action. Their overall scope is somewhat small, but this allows for more encounters with enemies and many areas have multiple sight lines to better allow bigger multiplayer matches to have plenty of crossfire chaos. Movement and weapon choice can definitely impact your ability to keep up in competitive matches, especially since the shield system can make skirmishes last a bit longer than the usual player versus player encounter in an FPS. While the batch of maps featured in this remake are rather good for their intended purpose, Halo: Combat Evolved – Anniversary takes a strange approach to the levels it chooses to include. Rather than remastering the levels from the original Xbox release, it takes a smattering of levels from older Halo games and throws in a new one called Firefight with its own unique mode where you fight off AI opponents. Leaving out the iconic Blood Gulch multiplayer map is baffling, but Beaver Creek’s two base style makes it a good fit for Capture the Flag still and each of the game’s six maps comes with a classic variant where aspects of it like hallways are blocked off to better imitate the old style of gameplay. The customizable modes like Slayer where it’s a competition to get the most kills or King of the Hill where you need to hold a position for longer than other players can still are enjoyable to play in these maps, but the authenticity as a remaster is certainly compromised by this unusual choice in which levels should be brought back for multiplayer.
On the other hand, the remaster has some interesting ideas when it comes how to brush up other elements of the experience. Halo: Combat Evolved – Anniversary gives the game’s campaign mode a big graphical overhaul, adding plenty of detail, light, and color to areas that were sometimes grey hallways or harsh polygonal cliffs in the original game. The injection of high definition graphics and greater detail does sometimes take away from the intended mood of an area like the visibility being greater in the icy areas, but you don’t have to pick or choose between the graphics as you can press a button and in an instant switch between the original Xbox release’s graphics and the Xbox 360’s updated look. You can’t do this during cutscenes unfortunately and go into them with whatever graphics mode you had active, but elsewhere, this aspect not only allows you to compare how things have advanced, but it can even help in a firefight. Some enemies are easier to spot in one graphical style and sometimes the way forward is easier to find with differing degrees of detail, and that on-the-fly swapping means you essentially get the perks of the spartan but readable game design of some of the game’s original areas but the lovely updates to the game’s better looking areas. Since the collision detection is based on the original graphics though, there are moments where having the updated visuals active can lead to you unable to shoot through a small opening that didn’t exist in the original or conversely you can move right through a seemingly solid object that didn’t look the same in the past, but these crop up rarely unless you’re directly searching for them.
The music was re-recorded for the release, and despite being in a genre not really known for its distinct soundtracks, Halo: Combat Evolved – Anniversary takes both a unique and memorable approach to its design. The main theme of Halo embodies many of its best aspects, beginning with a calm chorus that sets a serene mode despite its haunting qualities. Chanting is not uncommon in other songs as well, and many instrument choices lean more towards natural sounds like strings and drums. These surprisingly traditional choices can build up atmosphere in a strange new area well, but when Halo wants to get your blood pumping, electric guitar punches into the affair and is so much more exhilarating for how it is integrated with such atypical company. The only problem with this mix between atmospheric music and energetic battle tracks is the game’s trouble with properly cuing them. Rather long droughts of music can crop up with seemingly no reason and action music might come in or fade strangely during the fights, but some pinpoint applications of the songs like having a powerful track blasting during the explosive finale or the holy sounds cropping up as you learn more about Halo still keep the sound memorable and enjoyable when it is present.
The game’s campaign, which can be played either alone or with another person cooperatively, involves a specially enhanced supersoldier known as Master Chief being woken up aboard the space-traveling vessel known as the Pillar of Autumn. Being pursued by a collection of alien races known as the Covenant who are joined together in battle by their same religious creed, the humans aboard the Pillar of Autumn need to ensure the safety of their advanced AI Cortana who holds the knowledge of Earth and could lead to the Covenant attacking humanity’s home planet. Master Chief is entrusted with Cortana and escapes to a nearby space structure, but this large ring is actually an artificial world known as Halo. The Covenant, believing it to be a superweapon, search out the means to control it, Master Chief and the remaining military forces setting out to prevent this and learn the truth of Halo themselves.
The Covenant are your main enemies for much of the game, these alien troops coming in a few different styles but using weapons the player can pick up and turn against them. Grunts are small little soldiers who are practically guaranteed kills, but their awareness of their low effectiveness can lead to some amusing moments like running from a battle where they’re the last enemy soldier standing and crying out in fear. Jackals are shield-bearing enemies who try to fight from afar, but they’re often their own worst enemy as you can trigger them to abandon their positions and leave themselves exposed. Elite Covenant troops are the closest to you in their abilities and intelligence, coming with energy shields as well, carrying the stronger weapons, and able to hop into vehicles. Some can even be completely invisible or wield plasma swords that are instant kills, so an Elite is always a priority target when they’re around. The Hunters are much rarer and pack their own unique weapon, a large shield, and a lot of health, making them the toughest regular foes you’ll face when Covenant are in play. There is another enemy type that appears later in the campaign, the parasitic Flood relying on heavy numbers to overwhelm you. Their basic form is rather easy to take care off, but explosive variations can instantly kill you if you aren’t watching your surroundings and the infected humanoid Flood carry both human and covenant weapons so that an encounter with the Flood is often tackling various types of attack strategies all at once.
The Covenant weapons all run on energy systems, meaning that if they run out of ammo you need to find a brand new gun instead of ammo packs. The plasma pistol is charge shot with slight homing that can be rapid fired if preferred, the plasma rifle is close to the ballistic assault rifle in its rapid fire shots but can overheat if used too long, and the Needler is an unfortunate little thing that is mean to fill foes with a set of explosive needles but has odd homing and is very weak if it can’t land all of its required shots. Covenant aliens also tend to throw Plasma Grenades into the mix, these explosives able to stick to surfaces or people to make them more unpredictable explosives. While a player can find plenty of these energy weapons during the adventure, they also bring in some weapons more familiar like the aforementioned assault rifle, a rather powerful shotgun that can obliterate many enemies when close and still deal a good amount at range, and more situational options like a rocket launcher and a sniper rifle. The sniper is let down by the fact that any damage will pull you out of the scope, but Halo: Combat Evolved – Anniversary still has a good batch of weapons to swap between as you go that mix with the action and enemy variety nicely.
Vehicles also play a big role in both the campaign and multiplayer, and while it can take a second to understand that your driving is based on camera positioning more than anything else, these definitely have a huge impact when in play. The Warthog humvee has the drawback of the driver having no weapons access, but people can climb in to be a passenger who shoots out the side or someone can man the turret on top, making for a deadly trio but also a batch of characters who can be killed with one good plasma grenade or rocket if they’re not careful. Ghosts are Covenant hover bikes with high speed and built in plasma guns, and both sides of the game’s conflict have tanks with different approaches to how their main turrets fire their powerful payloads. Banshees also adding flying to the action and can be the hardest to shoot down, but they also can be hard to make work against small enemies if you’re trying to keep it mobile. Vehicles have a tendency to flip and toss out their riders too so careful maneuvering is key to keeping it, but you can right any flipped vehicle with ease so knocking one over isn’t a guaranteed victory over them.
The enemies, weapons, and vehicles all add a lot of variety and flexibility to the combat, but the campaign mode does stumble a little when it comes to map design. While multiplayer is fine-tuned for the action, the campaign has a surprising amount of environment repetition, both in backtracking through familiar areas and going from one identical room to the next. Many of these play host to interesting conflicts the first time you run through them, but the game’s high enemy count in firefights can make these repeated sections drag. Some areas, when revisited, at least have an interesting reimagining or know how to space things out so the retread happens later in the adventure, but other sections really needed greater environmental variety. In particular, one part where a mechanical floating eye known as 343 Guilty Spark guides you through Halo’s interior and begins explaining its purpose and history, you’re passing through area after area of repeated geometry while the enemies do little to shift up their tactics. When Halo hits its highs it can have exciting and challenging gunplay, but its lows definitely show that some aspects of the original Halo should have been updated rather than just retouched in this remaster.
THE VERDICT: The core of the original Halo game is kept intact for the most part in Halo: Combat Evolved – Anniversary, meaning it gets to benefit from many of the things that made the first game so great but also make it somewhat dated. The campaign, despite its interesting battles against different alien types, has a problem with repeated level geometry and enemy encounter variation, but it can still provide plenty of exciting chances to make the most of the gunplay and vehicles. Multiplayer certainly has some weird map choices, but going up against other players is a blast because the mechanics behind the action and smart level design lead to battles where skill succeeds but interesting factors mean you can’t settle into a single successful attack style for too long. Nifty features like the toggling graphics between old and new means this remaster can appeal to nostalgia while still being modern, but the main attraction will still be that superb first-person shooting gameplay that made Halo such a sensation when it was originally released.
And so, I give Halo: Combat Evolved – Anniversary for the Xbox 360…
A GREAT rating. Halo: Combat Evolved – Anniversary is a classic case of a remake that rejuvenates its source material but still goes in a few odd directions. Multiplayer map selection is handled in an odd way and the old graphics certainly look a little strange without their original lighting and other factors, and while it could have done something to try and break up the more tedious parts of the campaign it stuck religiously to the source material’s design. That adherence to the game’s original mechanics and story though mean it is also carrying over the best parts of the first game with a few improvements like extra goodies hidden about and the graphical overhaul. Enjoyment can definitely be had still despite dated elements remaining and the new stuff being mostly small touches because the ideas explored in the original release were so strong. The shield system is a good way of handling health and plays into the sort of risk-taking that fits Halo’s focus on things like jumping around and snagging vehicles. Your weapon options all feel distinct and have their roles to play both in how they handle enemies in single player and their upsides when facing off in multiplayer stages that are smartly designed to contain areas where different strategies thrive.
The first Halo certainly isn’t the best Halo, sitting on the line between some old ideas like campaign map design and the newer concepts like regenerating health, but while the remaster for Xbox 360 didn’t seek to update the fundamentals of the first release, it does provide a nice layer of polish to the look of the experience. You wouldn’t be doing worse off picking up the original save for the missing online features, but no matter how you slice it, Halo: Combat Evolved is a well built shooting game, one with some room for improvement of course but a game that was still excellent even when it got repackaged and touched up ten years after the original’s release. With this being the version available on computers and bundled with Halo: The Master Chief Collection it is likely to be how many people will experience the first game’s campaign, weapons, and mechanics, and since those elements come together well more often than not, this remastered rerelease will continue to show future gamers what made this first-person shooter so excellent.