Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Review

Combat Evolved Anniversary, a first-person shooter video game, was created by several companies including 343 Industries, Saber Interactive, and Certain Affinity, and released by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360 console. This updated version is based on the original 2001 Halo: Combat Evolved game made by Bungie. The new game was announced at a big video game event in 2011 and came out on November 15th of that year, which marked the tenth anniversary of Combat Evolved and its initial release on the Xbox console. Later, Anniversary became part of a collection for Xbox One called Halo: The Master Chief Collection in 2014, and was also made available for Windows and the new Xbox Series X/S consoles in 2020.

In 2007, Microsoft created an internal game development studio called 343 Industries. After Bungie finished making Halo: Reach in 2010, 343 Industries took over the Halo franchise. To celebrate Combat Evolved’s tenth anniversary, 343 Industries partnered with Saber Interactive to create a remastered version of the game. Saber used its own special game engine to make the graphics look new and improved, while keeping the original gameplay from the old Halo engines. A helpful tool was added that allowed players to easily switch between the old and new visuals for comparison. The anniversary edition came with many exciting updates. These included a major visual upgrade in high definition, support for playing with friends online via Xbox Live, new sound effects and music, and extra features such as achievements, collectible items, and Kinect support.

Anniversary got mostly good reviews from critics. They liked the new visuals, sound effects, and the option to switch between old and new graphics. However, some people had problems with bugs, issues with how levels were designed in the original game, and playing multiplayer together wasn’t working smoothly for them.

Gameplay can be controlled using the Back button to switch between old graphics and new ones.

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary has the same gameplay and storyline as the original Halo: Combat Evolved. The game is a first-person shooter with some parts where you see things from a third person’s point of view when you’re in vehicles. The story follows Master Chief, the main character, who fights against aliens called Covenant on a mysterious place called Halo.

Master Chief has a special shield that can absorb some damage and make him stronger. But he also needs to take care of his health, which will only come back if he finds some special packs around the game’s levels. He can use different kinds of weapons and vehicles, both from humans and aliens.

When playing the remastered game, players can easily switch between the old-style visuals from the original game and the new, improved graphics that were specifically created for this updated version by pressing the Back button on their controller. Both styles are shown in high-definition widescreen with a 16:9 aspect ratio compared to the older game’s lower resolution and narrower screen size. The remastered graphics can also be enjoyed in three-dimensional view if the player has a compatible TV that supports it.

New features added to the game include rewards for achieving certain goals through Xbox Live achievements, playing online with friends in cooperative mode, secret terminals that reveal more about the story, and special skulls that change how you play when you use them. The game also supports using your Kinect for voice commands like navigating menus, giving instructions during fights, and scanning the environment to find hidden items on screen that are added to a virtual book called the Library.

The first Combat Evolved did not have online multiplayer capabilities, but players could still play together locally using split-screen or System Link LAN connections. The Anniversary edition includes improved multiplayer and two-player co-op campaign support that can be accessed both online through Xbox Live and offline via local LAN. This new multiplayer mode uses a modified version of the engine from Halo: Reach and features seven remade maps based on Combat Evolved and Halo 2 levels. Additionally, Anniversary introduces a new map inspired by a Firefight campaign level, which is a wave-based survival game type where players team up to fight enemy groups with increasing difficulty. This edition also adds artificially intelligent allies to the Firefight mode series for the first time.

After escaping from the Covenant’s destruction of Earth, the human spaceship Pillar of Autumn suddenly jumps into slipspace to escape being found by the Covenant. The ship lands in an unknown part of space and discovers a huge circle-shaped world orbiting a giant gas planet. When the Covenant attack, Captain Jacob Keyes puts all his trust in the ship’s artificial brain, Cortana, who knows everything about how to defend the ship and where Earth is located. He asks the strongest warrior in the human army, known as Master Chief, to take care of Cortana’s information so it doesn’t fall into Covenant hands. Master Chief fights off the Covenant soldiers trying to get on his ship and then leaves the ship in a small lifeboat to land on the surface of the circle-shaped world orbiting the gas planet, while Captain Keyes tells the Autumn to “land” safely on the ring.

On the ringworld, Master Chief gathers human survivors and leads a team to rescue Captain Keyes from the Covenant’s grasp. During their journey, Keyes explains that the Covenant thinks Halo is some kind of powerful tool. When they reach Halo’s central room, Cortana feels uneasy about the ship’s systems and sends Master Chief on a quest to find Keyes. As he searches for his captain, Master Chief encounters the Flood, a deadly parasite that attacks intelligent life forms. The Flood’s invasion sparks Halo’s AI caretaker, 343 Guilty Spark, into asking for Master Chief’s help in activating the ring’s defenses. When Master Chief activates Halo from the Control Room, Cortana stops him by revealing that activating the ship would destroy all life in the galaxy. Instead of killing the Flood, Halo’s defense system is meant to starve them by removing their food source. To prevent the Flood from spreading and Spark from activating the ring, Cortana devises a plan to blow up the damaged Autumn engines and destroy Halo using Keyes’s command codes. Master Chief and Cortana attempt a rescue but find that Keyes has been taken over by the Flood. They then fight through Flood, Covenant forces, and Guilty Spark’s robotic Sentinels to manually disrupt Autumn’s reactors and barely escape destruction on a fighter.

Overview of Microsoft’s Acquisition of Bungie In 2000, Microsoft bought Bungie, leading to the creation of Halo: Combat Evolved as part of its first Xbox console launch in 2001. After releasing Halo 3 in 2007, Bungie went back to being an independent company but lost control over the Halo series, which was handed over to a new team at Microsoft. This new team took charge of managing the franchise and produced two more games, called Halo 3: ODST (2009) and Halo: Reach (2010), as part of their responsibilities to the publisher. Meanwhile, 343 Industries was working on its next main game in the series, Halo 4, which was released in 2012. The team at 343 Industries approached a company called Saber Interactive with an idea to remake Combat Evolved for its tenth anniversary because they were busy making another new game. Saber’s top executive thought this offer was too good to pass up since Saber had never worked on such a big franchise before and many of their employees loved playing Halo. To come up with ideas, Saber created some artwork showing what the remaster could look like, then flew all the way to Seattle, Washington, to meet with the team at 343 Industries.

343 Industries wanted a brand new remake of Halo by its tenth anniversary, which meant Saber had less than a year to finish the job. The game’s gameplay was supposed to stay the same; even though some parts were unbalanced, 343 Industries chose to keep it the way players remembered it while introducing it to younger gamers who might be playing for the first time ever. On the other hand, the visuals would get updated with new features like campaign skulls added in. Iones said that experimenting with the game was restricted – they couldn’t change certain parts of character animations because doing so could cause problems with gameplay and make some design choices already determined not work. Similarly, transferring the PC version to Xbox to add more features would have limited how much visual improvement Saber could do, as well as require a lot of time training artists to use the same tools they used for Combat Evolved. To solve these issues, Saber created two separate engines for gameplay and visuals, even though this caused some compatibility problems. The game’s development started under the codename Spark and was finished just in time for its release on October 15, 2011.

To fix the problems of transferring information from the original game’s engine to the Saber engine, the developers studied how they used third-party Havok physics engines to handle object positioning, speeds, and collisions in the Halo game. Saber created an exact copy of every object in the Halo engine so it could be transferred into the Saber engine, which meant that the game’s original programming remained unchanged. The technology developed by Saber Interactive allowed the developers to switch between two different graphics engines – the legacy version and a remastered version – in the campaign mode. This made it possible for players to keep their favorite visuals without having to change anything in their gameplay. Originally, players could choose which graphical presentation they wanted to play from the main menu. The in-game toggle feature became popular among developers, who asked if they could use it too. By giving players the option to switch between the classic version and the remastered version, both engines worked together to keep the game’s original feel intact. This approach caused several problems, including collision issues that made objects move or float through terrain in unexpected ways. The graphics in the Saber engine were much sharper than those in the original Halo game, which meant that even small changes could cause big problems. When collisions didn’t match up between the two engines, characters might walk through walls or above ground, bullets would appear to pass right through objects, and weapons would fall straight through the ground. To fix these issues, Saber had to come up with creative solutions, like making tools for artists to visualize height differences and creating new shapes that wouldn’t cause collision problems. Sometimes, the artists even changed how things looked to avoid collision issues.

Whenever possible, Halo 3 and Reach developers used or modified their assets in the new game. For elements with no matching counterparts, Microsoft sent art director Ben Cammarano to Russia to oversee Saber’s office makeover. Cammarano created four guiding principles for the company: visually stunning images, recognizable characters, bright colors, and intense action scenes. Because some original content already existed, concept artists took screenshots from the old game and added new effects to show how improved lighting and textures could change level designs. Some of Saber’s visual ideas were considered too different from the original – they moved the ringworld and nearby planets to make a better skybox, but Microsoft insisted on keeping the same universe feel and rejected their changes. Fans pointed out inconsistencies in pre-release trailers and pictures that Saber eventually fixed. Iones said fans had an influence on certain aspects like floor designs of Forerunner structures, assault rifles, and even the Chief’s appearance. The Chief’s armor was completely redesigned instead of just using old assets.

Saber was unsure if they could successfully adapt Combat Evolved’s split-screen cooperative play for online gaming. With the help of Greg Hermann, a 343 Industries technical expert who had experience with Bungie technology, Saber developed a solution that would enable players to connect online. The key was to synchronize only the player inputs between each Xbox console, as the game itself would behave exactly the same way regardless of whether it was played locally or online.

Because of its contributions to the Halo series in previous games, such as Halo 2’s Blastacular and Halo: Reach’s Defiant map pack, Certain Affinity was approached by 343 Industries to improve the multiplayer maps in Halo: Reach. The game’s multiplayer features are powered by the same engine that drives Halo: Reach. According to Frank O’Connor, the director of 343 Industries, this decision was not without controversy even within the studio. “In the early days of Halo, there wasn’t a good way to handle networking between players,” O’Connor said. “We couldn’t use our existing technology from Halo’s local area network multiplayer because it wouldn’t work with modern problems like lag and other issues on Xbox Live.”

O’Connor also mentioned that recreating Combat Evolved’s full multiplayer would have disrupted the balance of the game and affected Reach’s lifespan. When deciding which seven maps to remake for Halo: Anniversary, 343 Industries set some rules. For example, the map had to be new to a 360-era Halo title, work well with Reach’s gameplay mechanics, and be a fan favorite. To ensure a smooth transition between the campaign and multiplayer elements, the company kept the same art director working on both parts of the game.

343 Industries developed Halo 4 at the same time as the anniversary edition of Halo: Combat Evolved. This allowed them to connect the original trilogy with the upcoming Reclaimer trilogy by using special items in the game that players could find and collect, similar to how it was done in Halo 3 and other games. The idea behind these collectibles was for fans of Halo’s story to enjoy them, but 343 Industries wanted to make the anniversary edition terminals more impressive and fun for all players. However, the development process was not without its challenges. Iones said that the one-year development cycle was very smooth, but there were still some production problems that weren’t discovered until late in the game’s creation. To fix cinematics, Saber used a partly automated tool, but they didn’t thoroughly check their work until after the game had reached an important stage of testing. This led to problems with motion capture animation and lip-syncing, causing audio syncing issues and other animation bugs.

Audio The people who made Combat Evolved updated its music and sound effects as well as its visuals. Players can still listen to the original music from Halo: Combat Evolved, but it was also rewritten with the help of Pyramind Studios, using a 75-piece orchestra called Skywalker Symphony Orchestra and some singers from an ensemble called Chanticleer. Because there were no recordings made just for the game’s music, four musicians took down each piece of music by listening to them play in real life.

The soundtrack was available for digital download and in two physical versions: a CD set that had two discs and a vinyl record edition, which was made in only 2000 copies. The vinyl record came with 16 tracks on each side and included a code to download the rest of the Anniversary soundtrack digitally. A compact disc edition also existed, containing thirty-nine songs and released on November 15, 2011.

Frank O’Connor, the person in charge of the Halo franchise, signed posters at a special event celebrating the anniversary of Combat Evolved.

The release of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary was announced to everyone with a trailer on June 6, 2011. At Microsoft’s big meeting for media and gamers, called E3, they showed a teaser for the next game in the series, Halo 4. If you pre-ordered the game, you got some cool bonuses, like a special costume for Master Chief and a fun skull that made enemy Grunts explode when they died. At the comic book convention in San Diego, a fan had a chance to see a short trailer showing the animations used in the terminals of the game, with a narrator from 343 Guilty Spark talking about it. Microsoft also created something called the Halo Living Monument, which included a live-action movie and a website, to celebrate the launch of Combat Evolved Anniversary.

Thirteen retail stores across the country hosted big launch parties for the new game on November 15, 2011, right at midnight; these events were filled with exciting games like sixteen-player matches and some special giveaways. In the UK, Microsoft teamed up with the popular video game store GAME to hold two sneak peeks of the full game before its official release date, where people could win prizes too. To make things even sweeter for fans, Pizza Hut ran a promotion that allowed customers who ordered a special Halo-themed pizza during a two-week period around the game’s release date to get extra perks on Xbox Live. Although some staff members thought the pizza was yummy, but it wasn’t strongly linked to the Halo series. Microsoft and Pizza Hut teamed up again the following year for another similar promotion when the new game Halo 4 came out.

According to data from tracking firm Chart-Track, Anniversary took the sixth spot as the top-selling game in the UK across all devices; meanwhile, it ranked fifteenth in Japan based on sales reports from Media Create. Additionally, Amazon showed that Anniversary was the second best-selling game for Xbox 360 systems during this same time frame. In North America, it became the third highest-selling Xbox 360 game after its initial release.

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary came out on Xbox One as part of Halo: The Master Chief Collection on November 11, 2014. At that time, it could run smoothly at high resolutions like 1080p60. Later, a computer version of the game was added to The Master Chief Collection on March 3, 2020.

Reception for Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary was mostly positive. Critics gave it an average rating of 82 out of 100 on review website Metacritic, based on 73 reviews from experts. On another site called GameRankings, critics agreed that the game is about 81.92% good based on 53 opinions from reviewers. The staff at a magazine dedicated to Xbox praised the developers for keeping the original gameplay intact and avoiding changes that might have ruined it. One writer said that fans of the series should definitely buy this game because it’s an amazing example of fan service in the gaming world. Many reviewers liked the improved graphics, with some saying that the special button for switching between visuals is really cool. A reporter from a newspaper called this feature “super interesting” and compared it to exploring old ruins on your console. He also said that the new visuals made some areas better than they were before. However, one writer pointed out that the game’s enemy design could have been improved in the original version. Another reviewer liked the visual changes but not some of the problems with the sound effects matching the animations.

Game reviewers had different opinions on how the main gameplay mechanics of Combat Evolved, which remained unchanged in its Anniversary edition, held up over ten years. In an article for GameSpot, Chris Watters said that the game’s fundamental mechanics still worked well, with smooth controls and tough enemies. Adam Guetti, a writer for PALGN, agreed, praising the game’s precise control and engaging gameplay. However, Mike Wilcox of The Sydney Morning Herald believed that the anniversary edition proved that games with winning formulas don’t lose their appeal over time. IGN’s Steven Hopper thought the level design was outdated, making it hard to navigate the environment and get a sense of direction. He also felt that vehicles handled poorly in the game. Giant Bomb’s Brad Shoemaker said that while some aspects of the game were still great after ten years, others – like the level design and fighting against the Flood – remained frustratingly difficult. Digital Spy’s Matthew Reynolds agreed, saying that the game did a great job creating tense situations that later games couldn’t match, but had some annoying irregularity with checkpoints.

There were different opinions among critics about Anniversary’s new features. Some people liked and some didn’t like its 3D effect: Matt Miller said it didn’t change the gameplay experience, while Aziz thought it was amazing because it worked better in this game than in others. Aziz also praised the way players could interact with characters through conversation terminals, but he wasn’t happy about the voice commands for Kinect working slower during fights than using buttons. Ben Kuchera liked how Anniversary improved the multiplayer mode, especially Halo’s maps, but he didn’t like that some modes couldn’t be played with four players together like they were in the original game. Reynolds agreed with 343 Industries’ decision to use Reach as the new multiplayer mode because it allowed new players to come back into the game through a special map pack and also thought that Halo’s combat was better than what you see in other military shooters today.