Well it has being ten years since the original Halo appeared on the Xbox and to celebrate this Microsoft has released a HD remastering of the game. Now let’s see what the remasted copy of the game is like.

Before I start I have to say I never played the original Halo since I never owned the first Xbox and I didn’t get into playing Halo until Halo 2 when I played it at a LAN party, but I really didn’t start playing until the third game came out on the Xbox 360.

Now, Halo CE Anniversary is a remastered game so there are no changes to the original game apart from a graphics overhaul, online co-op and terminals which give players some lore from the perspective of 343 Guilty Spark.

One of the most interesting parts of the remastering is the fact you can interchange between the HD graphics and games original graphics on the fly by simply pressing the back button. When I did this it made me realize how far graphics have come in 10 years. From the start I found myself favouring the original graphics a bit mainly because I wanted to see what the original game looked like, but slowly the HD graphics took over. What I ended up doing was using the original graphics for indoor levels and HD graphics for outdoor levels (but sometimes flipped it around every so often). Comparison between HD and SD graphics of Halo CE Anniversary.

One striking change in HD to original graphics I noticed was when you are being given a debrief after leaving the stasis pod and you hear two people talking, 1 in front of you and the other on an upper level watching over you. In the HD graphics you can see both characters clearly but in the original graphics you only hear the character in the upper level. So in all the HD graphics draws you more into the game.

The games singleplayer sees play as Master Chief on an unknown object simply known as Halo after the ship you were on the “Pillar of Autumn” escaped Covenant attack with a blind jump. Before arriving you arrive on Halo the ship is attacked by the Covenant and Captain Keyes hands you Cortana the ships smart AI to protect and to help you. From this point on you are on Halo. Your mission is to find out what the Covenant are looking for on the mega structure, as you go on you learn the secrets of Halo and The Flood an ancient evil is released by the Covenant and so your mission becomes one of mere survival.

The game also comes with 6 classic multiplayer maps redone in the Reach Engine for online multiplayer in Halo Reach and a new fire fight mode.

There is very little to say about the game since it is a re-release of an old title, but from not playing the original I loved it and reminded me what a good fast paced FPS is like, iron sight aiming is only on specific weapons, health packs are needed (regenerating health does not exist apart from regenerating shields). Basically this game was a great fast paced challenge from years gone by and it does say a lot about the game that after 10 years it is still one of the best FPS games out there.

For me Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary was the best FPS I have played this year. I didn’t find it frustrating to the point where I wanted to stop playing and a lot of the environments where open.

Score: 90%

Halo CE Anniversary is a great game for Halo fans who want to remember the routes of the franchise and great for people who love a more fast paced FPS game. The downside to the game is some bugs are in the game, I don’t know if this has got anything to do with the fact the graphics and physics engines trying to work together, but some enemies who were killed would be standing in combat positions when they were dead or some would get stuck but apart from this I truly enjoyed the game.