Aside from a few local multiplayer matches with friends and family, I haven’t played the original Halo since its release with the launch of the first Xbox. I was an early adopter of Microsoft’s debut console, and the only way to ensure I got a unit was to preorder one from the local EB Games. Naturally, you couldn’t just pre-order the system – you had to get a bundle, which included an accessory and two games. It’s a great scam for increasing software attachment rates to a new console, but there wasn’t any way around it. I stood in line 12 hours for a launch PlayStation 2 – and swore I’d never do it again.

The point of this meandering digression is that I wound up with Bungie’s First Person Shooter as one of my two games. This was not by design – before the Xbox launched, Morrowind was supposed to be a day one release, but Bethesda’s game didn’t make it. So, I had to pick a replacement – and the replacement became Halo. I’d played Doom and other FPSs, but they weren’t really my thing. I gave Halo a shot though, and the game changed my perspective completely.

While many gamers loved the character of Master Chief, the badass Space Marine embroiled in a conflict with the very fate of humanity at stake, the real selling point for me was the way Halo made the first person shooter work with a standard controller. It wasn’t as precise as a mouse and keyboard, but it built upon the controls in Nintendo’s Goldeneye in a positive way. Because of that (and, to be fair, thanks to the story and writing too), Halo gave me a newfound appreciation for FPSs.

Ten years later, Bungie has left the series they started (moving on to other projects after Halo 3) and 343 Industries has stepped in to create Halo 4. As sort of a test run to let gamers see what they can do, they’ve created (along with Saber Interactive and Certain Affinity Inc.) Halo Anniversary – an HD remake of Master Chief’s original fight against the Flood menace poised to sweep the universe.

Unlike many other HD re-releases, which get a modest graphical upgrade to take advantage of high def television displays, Halo Anniversary is more a rebuild than a clean up. 343 Industries has taken the original game and given it a complete graphical upgrade that showcases just how far technology has advanced in the past decade, while also allowing players to see that the original version still isn’t bad looking in its own right. One of the coolest features in the game is the ability to “flip” between the new graphics and the original ones on the fly – simply by pressing the back button on the Xbox 360 controller.

To put things in perspective, Anniversary’s Master Chief has roughly 300% more polygons than he did in the original game. The environments feature 3,000 to 8,000% more – which is mind-boggling. It’s not just the raw polygons that make the new version look like a different game, though – it’s also the lighting effects and other technical improvements that add a whole new layer of shine to the grandaddy of all Halos.
Aside from the new HD visuals, everything else about the core Halo experience is the same as it was ten years ago. 343 Industries has kept the weapons, gameplay, and story (with a minor tweak in the form of terminals that reveal cutscenes about stuff happening outside the main narrative) completely intact – which is a bit of a double-edged sword.

Halo was pretty cutting edge for its day, but even a decade ago some of the design decisions Bungie made stood out in a less than favorable way. Now, with ten years of distance and a decade’s worth of first person shooters (including many titles that built upon Halo ideas for their own gameplay) the first game in the series feels even more antiquated in the design department.

The biggest issue, then and now, is the game’s over-reliance on backtracking and redundant environments – neither issue has changed. For whatever reason, Bungie created a game where Master Chief ran into all kinds of ships and alien constructs, fought his way tooth-and-nail to the objective, then gets to fight his way back out, with lots of new enemies spawning along the path. Honestly, it’s lazy design that pads the running time while recycling content. It was obnoxious when the game originally debuted, but the passage of ten long years has taken it to an entirely different level. The game really bogs down in the second half, where every stage feels like a long slog to an objective followed by another long trek back out.

The environments are still recycled regularly as well – but at least they look better. The endless corridors leading to an identical series of kill rooms are present and accounted for. The game absolutely shines in its outdoor battles – skirmishes with a genuinely epic feel that was quite unlike the majority of console games at the time – but those moments are few and far between. Instead, Master Chief still spends the bulk of Halo running through hallways. In that same vein, the Library level is every bit as awful as everyone remembers it being. It’s a testament to how good the whole of Halo is that it managed to overcome these design flaws.

When the game does manage to open up, it’s really quite sublime. Halo’s grander battles are still impressive – and surprisingly challenging. I’d forgotten how tough Halo can be in certain spots, most notably crossing bridges while enemies on a parallel bridge help their comrades try to kill Master Chief. None of the Halo games are particularly difficult, but this one feels harder than all the others except maybe Halo 2 (Jackal snipers were brutally accurate on the higher difficulties). To be fair, some of the challenge is exacerbated by poor design. Halo’s checkpoint save system is still a bit of a disaster and the game loves to toss players into a big fight without a lot of health and no packs around to ease the challenge.

Multiplayer modes are robust, so players who love the thrill of hunting human competition should be pleased. Anniversary features six remade maps from the original game, each one with two different versions. One is closer to the original game’s map, the other is slightly updated.

If that doesn’t scratch the multiplayer itch, perhaps Firefight mode will. In this Horde-esque game, up to four players team up with A.I. controlled soldiers to take on waves of enemy forces. This mode is decent, but the A.I. squadmates are pretty dense.

The game’s iconic score and sound effects have been punched up a bit, with the option to hear the original compositions still present for the purists. Reportedly, a few of the tracks have some additions to them – but I didn’t notice. The score sounds as good as it always did – it’s always been one of the high points of the franchise.

Perhaps the most intriguing thing about Halo Anniversary is deciding if it’s an update or a new experience. Unlike so many other HD re-releases, 343 Industries has really rebuilt the game visually, creating a game that is the same Halo we all remember, but one that looks significantly different at the same time. It’s impressive how seamlessly they’ve achieved this goal – in fact, I wouldn’t have realized how much better Halo Anniversary looks compared to the original game if not for that handy comparison button feature. That being said, this is still the Halo we all know and mostly love. The warts of the experience are still present and accounted for, but the magic is as timeless as ever. Hardcore Halo fanatics and newcomers who never managed to play first game will both find much to like in this experience. It’s not flawless, but the passage of time has been mostly kind to Master Chief’s Xbox debut.

Recommended: Yes