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Introduction

Halo: Combat Evolved (Halo CE) is a classic. While this can be considered a re-release of the original Halo CE that came out on PC back in 2003, it still has that classic Bungle charm that is cemented in the game design, gameplay, and setting. This game is a nice callback to the glory days of Bungie before they got sucked into Activision and lost a lot of their dominance in gaming.

✅ Quick Pros and Cons List ❎

Pros

Game is remastered by 343 Industries with great graphics that modernize the game very well, with the option to switch to the classic graphics in-game!
The story, writing, and atmosphere are high quality and have a nostalgic feel.
The gameplay is timeless, and still feels as good as it did in 2001

Cons

Campaign levels are recycled a bit too much.
Lots of input lag in co-op campaigns
In-game rendered cutscenes seemed to be locked at 30 FPS.

Notice: This review will focus only on the campaign, which I completed on Heroic.

🕹️ In-Depth Review

Even if you’re a gamer who didn’t grow up with an Xbox console in your household, you know what Halo is. It’s a game series that dominated the gaming world in the 2000s, made the Xbox what it is today, and launched Microsoft into the gaming business. All of that started with this game: Halo Combat Evolved. I’ve always been a huge fan of Halo, and now that it’s re-released on PC, I can finally play Halo CE with remastered graphics.
Gameplay
The gameplay of Halo CE is a classic formula that has been built off of in future Halos and other FPS shooters released after it. It’s a simple but effective formula. You can hold two guns at once, with the ability to melee with a dedicated melee button (which was a big deal in 2001). You can hold a sweet number of 8 grenades that is easy to burn through if you get excited with them. The protagonist, Master Chief, stays alive with a shield that protects his health pool from the Covenant. It’s a decently sized shield that will burn through with damage, which exposes your unshielded health pool for damage and potential death. Balancing your health and shields has a nice flow in the heat of combat, and lets you get a little balls-y at times when you have a lot of ammo and grenades at full health. Ground and flying vehicles are available to you for use in select missions as well.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2031595104
There are 4 difficulty levels: Easy, Normal, Heroic, and Legendary. These are the four famous difficulty levels that the Halo series has stuck through all these years later, and Legendary is famous for being a brutal challenge to get through, with the series standard of having a special ending when you beat the game on Legendary. Changing the difficulty changes the enemy A.I., enhancing their behavior and use of cover and dodging in battle, along with things like boosts to enemy health and their numbers. You can play through the entire game with one buddy in co-op if you wish to ease the difficulty a bit. The use of skulls is also present in Halo CE, a first for the game (skulls were introduced in Halo 2), which are used to customize the difficulty further. Beware of LASO mode, which is Legendary with All Skulls On.
Story and Writing
The story of Halo CE was a simple one, as no one knew if the game would become a smash hit when it came out. It centers around Master Chief, who is awoken from cryo-sleep after the Pillar of Autumn stumbles upon a mysterious ring-shaped world called Halo, and the ship is attacked by the Covenant, who guard the ring from unwelcome visitors. Chief is tasked with keeping the ship’s AI, Cortana, and her knowledge of the UNSC and the location of Earth, safe from the Covenant. Eventually, Chief and Cortana crash-land onto the ring and explore it, unraveling its secrets and discovering its purpose to the Covenant. This was a strong story in my opinion, and it was further built upon in subsequent sequels and even a prequel with Halo: Reach! The variety of the mission levels was great, especially during the first few levels. Bungie did decide to recycle some levels for backtracking, which was a bit annoying. I would rather these levels be replaced with brand new stages, but to their credit, they are recycled effectively. The music in the game must be commended. Martin O'Donnell's use of music in this game is outstanding. The right tune always plays at the right time.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2031558427
The voices of Master Chief and Cortana, provided by Steve Downes and Jen Taylor, respectively, pull off their roles effectively. I don’t think anyone else could have pulled off the Master Chief as well as Steve does, and he has remained the iconic voice of the Chief. Jen Taylor voices Cortana with the snarky and sarcastic attitude that has been associated with her, and her chemistry and relationship with Master Chief is great to see throughout the game.

🖥️ Technical Overview

PC Specs: i5 8600k, 16GB RAM, GTX 980ti
Played at 1440p
Microsoft has done a pretty good job at porting this game from Xbox One to PC. Although there have been a lot of complaints, I didn't run into any major problems. I did run into a lot of audio crackling because my headphones were set to 8 channel instead of 2 channel in the Windows audio settings, but switching them back to 2 channel fixed my problem. Although the graphics options are very simple, with all graphics settings simply being one slider ranging from Performance, Original, and Enhanced (similar to the first release of Metro Last Light on PC), the game still looks really good overall. I played through the game at 1440p with enhanced graphics, and I always stayed above 120 FPS with the remastered graphics, with the original graphics skyrocketing above 300+ FPS.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2031558397
Original vs. Remastered Graphics
Bless whoever’s idea it was to keep the original graphics as an option. Although the most classic way to play Halo CE would be to play the PC version that came out back in 2003, you can still play the game with the original graphics instead of the remastered graphics on the new engine Halo CE runs on. One complaint I have is that the remastered graphics brightened up the world a lot compared to the original graphics. Some sections in the original graphics required flashlights, whereas these areas are bright enough with the remastered graphics. While I think the new graphics look really great, they took out a lot of the spooky and gloomy atmosphere the original graphics had. It’s also worth mentioning you can swap between both graphics in-game with the tab button (or select on controller), which is a nice touch, and a great way to compare the two visuals.

💳 Content-to-Price Ratio

As of this review, Halo CE Anniversary retails for only $9.99. While it is bit confusing on the Halo MCC store page, you can buy the Halo CE DLC and play it without buying the full $40 collection.
For $9.99, this game is highly worth your money. It is a great experience from start to finish, with Halo CE being one of the longer Halos in the series. If you’re expecting to play all the Halos in the series, I recommend just shelling out the $40 for all 6 Halo games in the series.

Conclusion

Halo CE still remains a classic 19 years later. It’s a classic game with a timeless gameplay formula, and I recommend anyone that didn’t get the chance to play Halo CE growing up, to give it a chance now! It will always be the start of one of my favorite game series ever.
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