At last, the Halo series has come full circle.
It seems these days we gamers get inundated with HD remakes and remasters all the time, most of which amount to nothing more than bare-boned ports slapped with some up-rez paint and stretched to widescreen and, most importantly, the price of a brand new game. Until now, those seemed like adequate, maybe even "good" efforts. Not anymore. Developers of the world, start taking notes; THIS is how you do a truly awesome, worthwhile remake. 343 Industries was not content to lazily shove a ten-year-old game into your face with no substantial updates and call it a remake, using manipulative, fancy terms like "HD" and "remastered." No, instead they opted for something much more grand, and much more glorious. There's a lot to cover here about Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, so I'll get right to the campaign. If you don't like long reviews, tough, don't read this one. Halo CE is too great to be confined to a short, anemic review, and this version deserves a lot of detail. I make no apologies...
A remake worth making
Usually I don't get excited for remakes. This one, in fact, I ordered simply so I could run the original Halo on a 360 without emulation. I honestly wasn't expecting a lot--but I sure got it!
The campaign is, simply put, awesome. It looks SO much better than the original, but at the same time it plays just the same. This isn't just some half-baked 'slap some new paint on it' project--it feels like a brand new game. In addition to the makeover, Halo CE now includes skulls, which I like--especially the infinite ammo skull for those times when you just want to shoot stuff without worrying about conserving ammunition.
Multiplayer was a little bit of a disappointment for me, mostly for two reasons: my favorite multiplayer maps didn't make the cut, and I was hoping for the original Halo multiplayer experience instead of just Reach multiplayer on remastered CE maps. But that's not enough to dampen the experience. As I said, the multiplayer is with the Reach engine (you...
This is the future of Halo...
I've not written a game review before, but I felt I had to this time because I really think this game is not only being underrated because of the multiplayer uproar, but a major factor for it being released in the first place is being completely overlooked. More on that below. I am a software engineer who has been playing computer/video games for 40+ years now (Pong, anyone?), and yes, I am that old. Of the hundreds of games I have played, the Halo series, and Halo CE in particular, easily ranks in my Top 10, probably Top 5. The reason? Its campaign gameplay is virtually unmatched for depth of play, difficulty adjustment, engaging storyline, audio/visual presentation, and on and on. It's just plain fun! I've played Halo CE numerous times over the years, either the full campaign or individual levels. I like Halo multiplayer as well and have spent much time online, but that's not the reason I buy the Halo games. I don't want to repeat what other 5-star reviewers have said about this...
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