Halo: Combat Evolved was great 10 years ago and now it is even better.
Anniversary Edition
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Developer: 343 industries
Platform: Xbox 360
Rated: Mature
Released: November 15, 2011
Visuals:
The visuals for the reboot Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition are quite impressive and are quite bright and so much more clear then they were 10 years ago and the level design is just as great as it was 10 years ago with all the same great level you will go through from the start of the game on the Pillar of Autumn to the crash landing on Halo, to the beautiful beach's that are on Halo to the out door snow level's and even the lair of the guilty spark 343. All these level's are masterfully remastered in beautiful High-Definition and this game is even done in 3D as well, if you own a 3D T.V and if you don't it's okay not everyone has one and I'm sure not for a while any ways and 343 industries added a nice feature so you can go back from and forth from the visuals of ten years ago to the nice updated visuals just by pressing the back button and it is really a pretty cool feature to go back and forth to see what the visual looked like then and for me personally I played this game in both ways thanks to this cool feature but mostly I played the game in the new look of the present and it was just great. Now the all the character models of the A.I models in this game pretty cool looking and again quite impressive from the human Marines to the aliens know has the Covenant and they every single one of them looked pretty great in both HD quality and even in what the game looked like 10 years ago with a touch of a button and the visual do not flutter at all even when going from the instant switching of graphics of old and present. So in short with the visuals they are pretty great to look at in the present and in the old and their is flutter or frame rate problem from what I experience with the game and the visuals are just pretty great to look at.
Audio:
The audio for Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition is also quite impressive and the audio in this game sound pretty amazing and might even sound better now then it did 10 years ago and that includes the sounds of the guns, rockets and vehicles and even the voice work sound a bit bitter from what it did 10 years ago and so does the award winning sound track/musical score of this game series and it sound just as great as it did 10 years ago and in fact the sound track/musical score for this game is still memorable and it should for many more years to come. So now I'll talk about the sound effects of all the weapons are as great as they were 10 years ago and if not a tad bit better and especially with the game in a much more better Dolby-Surround sound then it was in 10 years ago. The voice over work is just as great as it was ten years ago from the Human's and the Covenant voice's as well some of them like the little grunts are pretty funny to hear them whine when you take down one if the elite's that are with them. So in short for the audio for this game it just as great as it was 10 years ago and might be even better then what it was with the Dolby-Surround sound which made every moment feel just like it did so many years ago with sound and so the audio is simply superb.
Gameplay:
So now the gameplay for Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition is the same mechanics as it was 10 years ago which for the shooter element and all of that is a good thing and the one thing that was not that great and if you are like me and are not that good at all driving the warthog's in Halo: CE because you just can't get used to controlling and steer it with the analog sticks and if you did not like it so many years ago well that is the only I wished they fixed from the last the original version but it was a minor thing and a bit of a pain cause 10 years ago when I originally played this game I played it in co-op with my buddy he drove I controlled the gun and the AI that came with the warthog rode shot gun, so fast forward to now and the same issues I had with controls were still noticeable with the clunky controls but again they were just minor and I survived driving the vehicle.
So now the good with the game was the shooting mechanic's unlike 10 years ago where they were revolutionary for the FPS genre are still fun and still remain unchanged now as they were then and it will be good for some of the newcomer's to the genre to play the game that revolutionized the genre of FPS and for other it is just a great nostalgia factor to go through the game's story again and where you get meet The Master Chief -John-Spartan-117 and for me and most likely for most of the fans of this franchise it should be fun for you as it was for you 10 years ago and for the new comer it will just be great for you guys and gals to get play the game that started the series which as become an legacy in the gaming world. So the single play is just great as it was ten years ago with starting the fight against the Covenant on the Pillar of Autumn to the crash land on to the ring world known as Halo and fighting your way through to find the power source before the Covenant start up a weapon that could obliterate the universe and life as we know it and then you find out the that the Covenant ended up unleashing a enemy known to the Halo universe as the Flood and menacing Alien life form can be a nasty foe and you will have to fight your through them in order to survive and you will end with this having pretty great ending. So in short for the single-player for this game is great as it was back then and playing this game on normal you could fly through this game with ease and playing on the game on legendary will prove to be a bit of issue for some people and the gameplay is just plain great and fun till the very end.
Multiplayer:
So the Multiplayer for this game is pretty great as well and the on-line is pretty much a map pack for Halo: Reach and if you have Reach installed to your hard-drive you do not need Reach to play the 6 remastered maps solely designed on Halo: Reach's engine and one map for Halo's Fire Fight mode or you do not need this game to play the maps either and the remastered maps are from Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 and 6 are Battle Canyon, Breakneck, High Noon, Penance, Ridgeline and Solitary and the new map for Fire fight is Installation 04 and all of these maps are all pretty great and along with the maps you some new stuff to use in forge mode a couple of new vehicles and some weapons. So in short for the on-line for this game is great with the new maps which you can use in Reach as long as you have it installed to the hard-drive so it can ve good to go when ever you feel like playing some classic Halo maps these maps are a pretty great addition.
Overall:
So now for the overall for Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition you a remastered single-player experience with the touch of a button to switch from the new remastered version and the original version of the graphics and you get full Dolby-Surround sound and for the on-line front you get 6 classic remastered and a classic remastered map for Fire Fight with the use of Halo: Reach's on-line engine and with a great decent price of $39.99 for the single-player and all those maps for on-line and all the extra stuff to go with Forge world and some new and classic weapons this game is well worth the price and if you are a fan of this series you and never played the original you got your chance now and for some of it is an great nostalgia factor so we can re-visit something that was great.
9.5 out of 10