Xbox 360 review: Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary

Before releasing their first full game in the Halo series, 343 Industries revisited the original Halo: Combat Evolved, updating the graphics and soundtrack to bring it up to speed with current-gen games. The result is Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, a game which seeks to both appease fans of the original Xbox blockbuster and tide the community over until the release of Halo 4. Halo: Anniversary is nowhere near as bold an undertaking as previous entries in the series, but it is a project that required careful attention from the team at 343 Industries, lest they screw up one of the most popular games of all time and anger the fanbase.

The story and level design remains entirely faithful to the original Halo: CE, save for the obvious graphical facelift and the inclusion of terminals and skulls. As with Halo 3, the skulls must be collected from various hidden locations throughout the game, and can then be used to alter aspects of gameplay, such as the amount of ammo found in weapons and the disabling of Master Chief's radar. The terminals behave somewhat differently, however, as they feature fully animated sequences chronicling 343 Guilty Spark's time on Alpha Halo following the disappearance of the Forerunners but prior to The Pillar of Autumn's arrival. 343 Industries stated prior to Halo: Anniversary's release, these terminal videos hold ties to the story of Halo 4, but to what end exactly is something that remains to be seen.

As for the bulk of the gameplay, Halo: Anniversary controls significantly less smoothly than any of the Xbox 360 releases, but holds up fairly well for a game originally released in 2001. Splash damage radiuses are often inconsistent, while grenades have a significant delay before detonating. The Assault Rifle's range is decent, and it serves as one of the best long-range weapons next to the needler and sniper rifle. Vehicles tend to slide around while Master Chief is trying to exit them, which can be an annoyance when attempting hairpin turns or pinpoint accuracy on the higher difficulty settings.

As stated earlier, the graphics have seen a massive overhaul. There are so many fine details worked into every environment, from the Forerunner architecture and the inside of the Covenant ship Truth and Reconciliation. Halo: Anniversary is easily the most stylized and artistically-driven of all the Halo games released to date, and these two elements make the entire experience incredibly visually pleasing. In reality, the graphics are not as impressive as many current-gen games - Halo: Anniversary actually falls somewhere between Halo 3 and Halo: Reach in terms of its overall presentation. The dialogue is the same, and the marines will utter cheesy dialogue at times, but it all sounds much clearer than on the original Xbox. The soundtrack takes to the classic tunes, with a new twist for each. The Installation 04 theme has a very tribal sound to it, which is fitting, and the Honest Negotiation Suite has a powerful driving horn part that is followed by some gorgeous vocals. Meanwhile some of the other tunes are a bit more subtle and, as a result, are not quite as instantly memorable.

343 Industries has included the original Halo: Combat Evolved as a bonus for those who insist on playing the game as it originally was. The graphics can be changed at any time during the campaign with the press of the 'back' button on the 360 controller. While it is fun to switch back and forth a few times to see just how far the series has come since its debut, there is one feature of the updated Anniversary graphics that truly stands out - the lighting. Many of the environments in the original Halo are so dark that visibility ranges from low to nearly-impossible-to-see-anything. It's a nice inclusion for nostalgia's sake. But when navigating the underground tunnels of Alpha Halo, the new graphics are practically a requirement.

The original Halo's multiplayer element has been removed in favor of six multiplayer maps and one firefight map as re-imagined in Halo: Reach. All of the included maps are carried over from Combat Evolved, save for Headlong and Timberland, which originate from Halo 2 and Halo: PC respectively. It's a smart move on the part of 343 Industries, as sustaining the Reach multiplayer base means they do not have to compete with themselves. The maps can be played from either the Anniversary disc (where only those maps will be accessible) or from the Reach multiplayer (where they stand out as some of the best maps in any of the playlists). Also included is the Library, which catalogues any vehicles and species players scan in-game while using the Kinect. It is a feature that is entertaining for a brief while, but seems to be aimed primarily at players who are largely unfamiliar with the Halo universe.

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary is not a groundbreaking title in the wildly popular series. The campaign is fun to revisit, but serves as a reminder to just how far the experience has come since Master Chief first set foot on the ring world. Halo: Anniversary was really only ever intended to present an updated version of the original Halo, not a grand reimagining. And to that end, it is quite successful.

My rating: 8 (out of 10)

Game Forecast: Summer 2012

There are really only two major retail releases that I am concerned with for this coming Fall. In case my recent posting of their trailers did not provide enough of an indication, those two games are Bioshock Infinite and Resident Evil 6. With the semester wrapping up soon, I have only a few more weeks until I have significantly more free time to focus on gaming and reviews, and I felt this was a good time to provide a forecast of what I am planning to tackle this summer.

The anime aspect of my blog will be a bit more free-form. I only have a few films that I feel a desperate need to view before the end of the year, along with the remainder of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. But I have spent a fair amount of time lately picking up some older video games that I missed out on back in their heyday. As I have made mention of numerous times before, my experience with the core Final Fantasy games is rather limited, and I am going to do my best to remedy that. I am currently in possession of Final Fantasy V, FFVI, FFVII, FFX, and the DS remake of FFIV. FFIV takes precedence over the others simply because of how long overdue the review is, but FFX is second on the list. From there, I can't rightly say at the moment. I've heard great things about FFVI, but I feel like I have a duty as a gamer to play through FFVII. FFV is of little concern right now, and is under the category of "I'll get to it when I get to it".

As I am currently powering my way through Resident Evil Revelations, Pokémon White version will be the next handheld title I plan to focus on. I'm more than halfway through the game, and I feel like I can finish the main game much quicker than FFIV's story. Beyond that, I also picked up a copy of the Gamecube exclusive Resident Evil Zero, which I will play along with some of the Final Fantasy games as a means to break of the monotony and prevent RPG overload. I love RPG games, don't get me wrong. But after a while, it can get to be a tad annoying. I also have The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks to get to at some point.

There are a few other games that I am considering purchasing for the summer as well, though I certainly would not start on any of these until I had broken off a sizeable chunk of the pile I've already amassed. Those titles under consideration are: BlazBlue Continuum Shift II (3DS), Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (Wii), and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary (Xbox 360). Also, I have every intention of purchasing Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, though I do not know if I will actually pick it up on the August 28th release date or if I will wait until it has already been out for a while and save myself a few bucks.

So there you go; the outlook for my summer games. Even if I do not manage to complete every game listed before Bioshock Infinite and Resident Evil 6 arrive, the only games coming out after them that I'm particularly interested in are Pokémon Black and White 2 and Halo 4, games that I honestly know very little about in comparison to all of the aforementioned.

"Bet you can't stick it" - Ten years of Halo

"Ten years ago, Halo changed the way we play video games" - I understand Microsoft and 343 Industries' desire to pump up their audience for the upcoming Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. And let's face it, it's not like the aforementioned statement hasn't been recycled to try and sell a myriad of other video games, movies, products, etc. But I feel it's also a grand exaggeration. As someone who was not particularly fond of the original Halo when it hit the Xbox, I am still willing to give it credit where credit is due. Among the ranks of Perfect Dark and Goldeneye, Halo was one of the best first-person shooters developed for consoles. It wasn't afraid to do its own thing with the multiplayer aspect, straying from typical level designs with levels like Chiron TL-34, Boarding Action, and Hang 'em High. And it certainly helped pave the way for other games that would steal some of the PC-dominance over the genre.

My favorite genre has always been adventure games, whether they are more free-roam adventure titles like Ocarina of Time and Metroid Prime, or platform adventure games like those of the Sonic the Hedgehog and Kirby series. Aside from a few titles on the N64, I had almost zero experience playing first-person shooters, and those that I had watched others play seemed to be - with perhaps a few rare exceptions - the same game regurgitated over and over, with clunky controls and storytelling that was mediocre at best. While I don't feel that was necessarily the case with the original Halo, I kept my distance from it because, to me, it felt lacking. Yes, the multiplayer could be great fun, but only shined brightest if your friends lugged their own Xboxes and televisions over to your house to play. The story was creative, but the characters weren't particularly fleshed out, and thus I had little reason to care for them - most notably, leading man Master Chief.

I carried my skepticism towards the sequel for a few months after its release, until a friend of mine invited me over to his house for a LAN party. I was reluctant to try Halo 2, but eventually I gave in, as all eight of us playing would be staying up until well past three in the morning anyways. To put it bluntly, I was absolutely horrendous at the game. For the first few matches, I spent more time exploring the levels and subsequently being shot up than I did trying to learn the controls. I tried to stick with what I knew, and with Halo 2 being a first-person shooter, that wasn't much, save for the ability to drive vehicles. Granted, this was no Mario Kart, but I got a feel for how the Warthog, Ghost, Spectre, and Wraith all handled fairly quickly. And that became my calling for the evening - a cabbie, if you will, providing a mobile turret for slayer matches and quick getaways during capture the flag. Many hours later, I decided that perhaps my skepticism had been proven wrong - at least as far as the multiplayer was concerned. The fact that we had played so many matches with people in different states (some in different countries) was genuinely exciting.


As most of the group dozed off for the night, a few of us stragglers were still willing to have another go at the game, but decided to take turns in the cooperative campaign. Graphically, the game blew me away. It was wildly colorful and infinitely more detailed than the original Halo. The soundtrack was phenomenal to boot. I wasn't overly impressed with the events of the first few missions - sure, the segment in zero-gravity on Cairo Station and boarding the Scarab to destroy it from the inside were both pretty cool, but I felt this was more or less a highlight reel of Master Chief doing his thing - being a tough guy and killing aliens. Everything changed when things shifted to the Arbiter's perspective, which initially led me to be quite confused. Wasn't the Covenant supposed to be the enemy? Why was I controlling an Elite? Why was he being sent to kill other Elites? I soon stopped asking these questions, embracing what Halo 2 had trumped its predecessor a thousand times over with - effective storytelling, memorable characters, and a much more expansive universe.

A few LAN parties later and I went out and purchased my own Xbox, registered an account for Xbox Live, and joined in the fray. In hindsight, it was all very impulsive, as I never actually bought another game for the original Xbox - I had every intention to, but purchased Knights of the Old Republic for the PC and most other multiplatform games for either the Gamecube or Playstation 2. Eventually I upgraded to the Xbox 360, though not until almost two years after the system's launch. And of course, the first game I picked up for it was Halo 3.

I'm positive that I logged more hours of playtime in Halo 2, but I spent plenty of time in Halo 3's multiplayer matchmaking as well. Certain elements felt refined from the previous games, while others - like the equipment and Brute vehicles - felt a bit clunky and unnecessary. The story was brilliantly executed, despite my disappointment at it being shorter in length than Halo 2's campaign. Unlike many others, I had thoroughly enjoyed the Arbiter's campaign missions in Halo 2 and was sad to hear that Master Chief would be receiving the spotlight for the majority of Halo 3. I was, however, satisfied to see how the Arbiter's role in Halo 3 played out, and (as with many of the other cutscenes) I cheered as Arbiter used his energy sword to dispatch the Prophet of Truth. Ultimately, Halo 3 never felt as perfect a game as so many claimed it to be. I felt it was a fitting conclusion to the story of Master Chief, but there were so many other directions Bungie could go with this universe.


Frankly, I almost entirely ignored Halo 3: ODST when it was announced. The same went for Halo Wars. While both did present new perspectives on the Halo universe, they way they presented themselves failed to draw me in the same way the other games had. While I teased the prospect of picking up ODST, it eventually passed by, though I did take the demo of Halo Wars for a spin. I have always been quite fond of real-time strategy games on the PC, but found the resource management - or rather, lack thereof - removed much challenge from the gameplay.

I left Halo 3 behind for a while, exploring all the other games that I wanted to for the Xbox 360 - Bioshock, Resident Evil 5, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, The Orange Box - until a teaser showed up online for a brand new Halo title. It was to be called Halo: Reach, and was set during one of the most important points in the Human-Covenant war. I knew the basics of what happened at Reach, as the same friend who hosted that first Halo 2 LAN party had also read a few of the Halo novels and passed on that information to me. But as Bungie unveiled new information about Halo: Reach, it was expressed that this would not be Master Chief's telling of the events. Rather, a new squad of Spartans - Noble Team - would take the helm.

The thriving world that was Reach - from its hilltop farmhouses to the sprawling metropolis of New Alexandria - coupled with the variety of personalities presented in each of the members of Noble Team brought me back to my first days with Halo 2. The campaign missions were set up as a sort of 'greatest hits', an homage to missions from every Halo title before it. The gameplay elements from Halo 3 that I was not so fond of (the equipment and weapons, primarily) were either cut or fine-tuned to work with Reach's gaming engine. And yet, despite all of the tributes to and influences from Halos of yesteryear, Halo: Reach felt like the most original and creative since the series' start.


Halo: Reach was the most fitting conclusion Bungie could have dealt to fans of their series. That said, I am still very curious to see where 343 Industries takes the franchise. Hopefully they will keep the games as community-driven as Bungie did. With Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary just two months away, I think I am going to work backwards and give ODST a fair shot before I revisit the events at Alpha Halo. I have no idea what changes lie ahead, but Halo 2 - with its phenomenal storytelling and brilliant multiplayer - will always be my favorite, and the most important game in the series to me. It was the single game that opened my eyes to everything that online console gaming could be, and turned me from a Halo skeptic to a Halo fan. In revisiting the point I made at the beginning of this article, do I think the original Halo changed the way video games are played? No. Do I think the franchise as a whole did? Without a doubt.

Favorite characters from the series:
- Arbiter
- Jun-A266
- Prophet of Truth
- Sgt. Johnson

Favorite songs:
- Sacred Icon Suite from Halo 2
- Behold a Pale Horse from Halo 3
- Finale from Halo 3: ODST
- The Pillar of Autumn from Halo: Reach

Favorite multiplayer maps:
- Blood Gulch (Halo)
- Sidewinder (Halo)
- Damnation (Halo)
- Midship (Halo 2)
- Headlong (Halo 2)
- Relic (Halo 2)
- Containment (Halo 2)
- Turf (Halo 2)
- Ghost Town (Halo 3)
- Orbital (Halo 3)
- Powerhouse (Halo: Reach)
- Condemned (Halo: Reach)

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary maps and terminals confirmed

When the first trailer hit for Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, it was announced that seven classic maps would be included, updated for the Halo: Reach multiplayer servers. While Beaver Creek and Damnation were previously highlighted, the others have now been confirmed as Prisoner, Hang 'em High, Timber Land (formerly a Halo PC exclusive), and Headlong (from Halo 2). Also included is a new firefight map, known as Installation 04. All of these maps will be playable on the Reach servers, as it seems 343 Industries wants to focus on maintaining the fanbase there instead of dividing it between two games. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary will, however, feature a new gaming engine for the campaign mode, which is a sort of combination of the original Halo's play style and current-gen graphics.

Also making a comeback from Halo 3 are the Forerunner terminals. However, instead of providing insight on the Forerunners and their attempts to combat the Flood, 343 Industries has stated the terminals in Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary will bridge some of the gaps to Halo 4 and its subsequent sequels. 343 has also stated that Halo 4 marks the start of what will be known as 'the Reclaimer trilogy' which would seem to imply that those three titles will delve much deeper into the history of the Forerunners. Currently, two of the terminal videos have been revealed, both of which were narrated by 343 Guilty Spark, the monitor of Alpha Halo. Whether this is the case for all of the terminals in the game remains to be seen.