Halo CEA Review (X360)

To celebrate the ten-year anniversary of not just the original Halo: Combat Evolved, but also the original Xbox hardware, Microsoft and new Halo series developer 343 Industries bring us a remastered version of Halo called Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. Halo CEA packs all of the great gameplay the series, and Halo CE in particular, is known for and wraps it in new updated graphics with some Kinect functions thrown in for good measure. It is a shame the classic Halo CE multiplayer isn't here, but new maps for Halo Reach and a new Firefight map are certainly better than nothing. For longtime Halo fans, and especially for newer fans of the series that never played the original, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary is definitely worth a look.Game Details Kinect Sensor Optional Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios Developer: 343 Industries, Saber Interactive, Certain Affinity ESRB Rating: “M" for Mature Genre: Shooter Pros: Great classic Halo gameplay; remastered graphics are very nice; awesome music; new terminals are interesting Cons: Absence of classic Halo MP; Kinect controls kind of pointless; bland level design

What Is Halo CE Anniversary?

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary is a remaster of the original game created by Bungie, not a remake. It literally is a new graphics layer running on top of the old game code, so the gameplay and physics and glitches and exploits are exactly the same as they were ten years ago. The new visuals actually look really, really nice. The original graphics (which you can switch back and forth between at any time with a press of the "Back" button) are kind of sterile and plain compared to the much more detailed and vibrant Anniversary visuals. It is nice they put in the option to use the old graphics, but I honestly can't imagine why you would want to as the new visuals are much more appealing and much more in line with how the other Xbox 360 Halo games look. The sound is the same great Halo sound we all know and love with some of the best music in the whole series.

The campaign does offer a few new twists compared to the original game. There are now terminals hidden in each level that fill in the story of the Halo universe a little more. Giving any specifics of what you see in the terminals would definitely be spoilers, but I'll just say they are very interesting and worth finding. Another change is that there are 14 skulls hidden in the game and those skulls can be activated in the menus to turn cheats on once you find them. Having infinite ammo or bigger explosions while playing the classic campaign really makes a big difference and adds a fun twist to a familiar game. Other than these two things, though, the game is just as you remember.

Well, one other thing. While classic Halo CE had local co-op play, Halo CEA has both local splitscreen co-op and online co-op for two players. Co-op is always the best way to play any Halo game, and it is definitely the way to play here.

Multiplayer

In addition to the campaign there is multiplayer as well. It is not, unfortunately, the classic Halo MP with updated graphics. Classic Halo MP really played a lot differently from what Halo MP and multiplayer in general has become, so it would have been nice to have it here. The reasoning for not doing it was because they didn't want to split the Halo multiplayer community between CEA and Reach, which makes sense, even if we don't particularly like it.

So, instead of classic Halo MP, we have a handful of classic maps re-made to work with Reach multiplayer, including the awesome Forge level editor. If you have Halo Reach and don't want to pick up CEA, you will be able to download the new maps as DLC. If you only have Halo CEA, you can only play these new maps.

Halo CEA also has one new map for Firefight mode, which is the Installation 04 location from the campaign. It looks great and is a fun map to play on.

Kinect

Another addition to Halo CE Anniversary is optional Kinect controls. Kinect is used in many areas, but not the shooting gameplay. During gameplay you can use voice controls to do things like turn on your flashlight, throw grenades, or reload your weapon, as well as activate a scanner mode to scan objects and enemies. Those scanned items can then be viewed in a special area of the menu, and you can use Kinect motion controls to rotate and view the items. The scanning feature to look at the item / character models is not available if you don't have Kinect, but it is only really essentially a Halo CE encyclopedia that you have to build yourself, so while cool, it isn't something you should base a purchase decision on. The Kinect features overall are kind of pointless, and while it is cool to reload or throw a grenade with voice commands at first, you'll still want to use the regular buttons during combat.

One note I want to make about the gameplay is that it is quite a bit different from recent Halo games. Because you don't have recharging health here, the game is much more tense than the newer games. Ammo is also in pretty short supply as well. You spend much of the last half of the game at half-health with barely any ammo and it is really quite intense and fun because of it. It also makes the game significantly more difficult and frustrating than the recent Halo games. You'll die a lot. And a lot of the time those deaths are kind of cheap and annoying. But you learn from it. Part of the beauty of Halo gameplay has always been that you can approach every enemy encounter in many different ways, so when you find one way frustrating, you just figure out another strategy that works better.

On that note, it has to be said that the level design is pretty so-so here. You spend the middle of the game backtracking through the same areas you saw before, which doesn't really hold up today. Also, the levels are super linear to the point there are arrows on the ground pointing you in the direction you should go. Handy from a player perspective, but kind of awful and lazy level design. While there are some bland levels (usually while you're in the Halo interior), other levels where you fight on the surface with a big squad or marines supporting you are awesome. Later Halo games definitely got more consistent as far as level design goes.

The campaign is definitely fun, though, and it does feel rather different from the other Halo games on Xbox 360 and very different from every other shooter on the market.

View the original article here