[Review] HALO: COMBAT EVOLVED ANNIVERSARY

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Halo: Combat Evolved is back. 16 years after Microsoft brought the Xbox flagship to desktop, Bungie’s big green army man returns in the latest release to Halo: The Master Chief Collection. The old soldier’s coming on a bit—missing features taken for granted in the last 20 years of FPS design, with a 2011 paint job that’s looking rough. Even so, Halo holds up remarkably. In packaging it with all the amenities of a modern PC release, 343 Industries have arguably delivered the definitive edition of Master Chief’s debut. See, Halo is still an effortlessly smart shooter. Every Covenant nasty you face has a unique quirk, from shield-bearing jackals to Hunters—massive iron brutes that require a bullfighter’s finesse to defeat. It might not be as labyrinthine, but there’s a Doom-like quality to Halo’s level design—each new hallway testing your skills against a new arrangement of foesLikewise, every gun has a purpose. Well, almost every gun. While human weapons fit neatly into their roles (shotguns, snipers and rockets have obvious use cases), alien guns are a little less consistent. The Plasma Pistol’s ability to break shields in a single hit makes it a necessity on higher difficulties, but Rifles and Needlers struggle to find a use.

 

See, Halo is still an effortlessly smart shooter. Every Covenant nasty you face has a unique quirk, from shield-bearing jackals to Hunters—massive iron brutes that require a bullfighter’s finesse to defeat. It might not be as labyrinthine, but there’s a Doom-like quality to Halo’s level design—each new hallway testing your skills against a new arrangement of foes.Likewise, every gun has a purpose. Well, almost every gun. While human weapons fit neatly into their roles (shotguns, snipers and rockets have obvious use cases), alien guns are a little less consistent. The Plasma Pistol’s ability to break shields in a single hit makes it a necessity on higher difficulties, but Rifles and 

Brutal, barren structures that could have once been made of concrete are now a mess of metal and lights and holograms. The level where the parasitic zombie-like Flood are introduced—once a masterclass in building tension—is utterly sapped of tone by the saturated new visuals. As both visual modes use the same collision meshes, you’ll frequently find invisible walls around Anniversary's trees, which lack the girth of their 2001 

environments had a spars

 

 

Likewise, every gun has a purpose. Well, almost every gun. While human weapons fit neatly into their roles (shotguns, snipers and rockets have obvious use cases), alien guns are a little less consistent. The Plasma Pistol’s ability to break shields in a single hit makes it a necessity on higher difficulties, but Rifles and Needlers struggle to find a use

Then there’s the pistol. Halo 1’s starting sidearm is practically legendary, pounding out deadly-accurate headshots that can down foes in a hit or two. Like Halo Reach’s DMR, it has the unfortunate effect of throwing weapon balance out the window, especially on PC. Why use anything else, when you can point-and-click your way to victory with the very first gun in the gameLater games would add more elements to the pile—more baddies to throw in your direction, quirkier weaponry added to the arsenal. But there’s a delightful simplicity in Halo’s combat puzzles; a simplicity shared by the brutal corridors and wide expanses of Halo’s levels. Blocky cliffs and simple textures betray its age, but Halo still hits that sharp tone of wondrous unease. Firefights are punctuated by long stretches of silence, leaving you alone with the ambient hum of an ancient world. Ancient aliens are a worn trope, but not even later Halo games could paint a world as enduringly 'old' as the first.

 

 

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

OS: Windows 7

Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 960T ; Intel i3550

Graphics: AMD HD 6850 ; NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450

DirectX: Version 11

Storage: 20 GB available space

Additional Notes: Direct 3D feature Level 11.1