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Preview - Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary

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We only own an Xbox because of Halo!

Posted 7th November 2011, 10:42am in Games / By Joe Skrebels
We only own an Xbox because of Halo. It’s as simple as that, really. Just over ten years ago (and yes, we have as much trouble understanding how that much time has passed too) Microsoft’s heat-moulded pretender to Sony’s throne seemed doomed to failure. How did Gates and co. have the gumption to suggest that they could simply waltz in and provide a credible third option to offer the console wars? Then Halo: Combat Evolved appeared and we understood. That subtitle wasn’t just a cool moniker – it embodied the stance of the game. We had never played anything quite like this. Our giddy, pre-teen faces lit up as our torches did when we pressed the white button (remember that?) for the first time on the burning Pillar of Autumn. Lips quivered as we bit them almost to breaking point whilst we surged up the beach on Silent Cartographer. We screamed to one another during co-op campaigns as our curiously invincible Warthog spectacularly flipped fifty feet into a river after a plasma grenade detonated just that little bit too closely. Halo was, and we cannot understate this, completely freaking awesome.



You can therefore understand our excitement at the idea of replaying it when we found out that the 10th anniversary edition of Halo has been lovingly recrafted by 343 Industries to lose nothing of what we fell in love with first time around, but equally to bring it bang up to date in order to please our ever-fickle gamers’ eyes and ears. The crux of the designers’ work obviously lies in the campaign – an epic tale of one genetically-enhanced badass’ fight to understand the purpose of a giant, artificially organic doughnut in space. Of course, with such a treasured experience in their hands, 343 have (wisely) decided not to tamper with the real experience of Campaign mode - because, really, who doesn’t want to have fun with that obscene magnum one more time? This is the same experience you had ten years ago, albeit with slinky new visuals (that can be switched back to the originals at the push of a button), fully-supported 3D functionality and remastered 5.1 surround sound to make that theme tune sound even more like you’ve entered a futuristic Valhalla. One core change has been made in the form of Kinect support, however. Don’t worry, you won’t have to run around your room with a plastic plasma rifle (yet), but, if you opt to use Microsoft’s finest receptacle for black magic, you will be able to reload, throw grenades and scan items for use in a new “Library Mode” all with the power of vocal cords. Co-op campaigning has been made available for Xbox Live which, although practical, still means you won’t be getting the full experience unless you invite a friend over for a sleepover.



The real changes lie in the multiplayer component, however. The Halo: Reach engine has been implemented for online play, with six maps drawn from Halo and and its fellow Xbox-based sequel to provide the basis for a total of twelve competitive multiplayer arenas with a classic and “enhanced” version of each available to kill your nearest and dearest in. Reach’s sandbox elements will be available to tinker with in the enhanced versions, whilst the classics are strictly classic. The cooperative, wave-based Firefight mode has also been included, with a section of the campaign’s second level turned into a space for both Spartans and Marines to face off against swarms of multi-species religious nutcases. Servers for multiplayer are being merged with those of Reach, meaning that, at some point, Reach players will also have access to the classic levels. We have yet to learn whether the classic multiplayer experience (albeit without the need for system connecting cables and multiple TVs) will be available.



All that considered, we are very, very excited to get our hands on this game. Without Halo, games as we see them today wouldn’t be the same. It pushed the limits of mainstream gaming’s storytelling, created the commercial dominance of first person shooters we see today and included a hidden scene in which a Covenant Elite gently held an African-American stereotype’s arse (http://youtu.be/NWnhteDN98Y#t=0h5m54s). If you played the game when it came out, this will be a Pelican flight down memory lane, and if you haven’t then this is the perfect chance to experience a gaming phenomenon in the best possible way. This will be Combat Evolved, evolved.

We can't bloody wait!

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary will be released on November 15th for Xbox 360.

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