Halo is probably one of the most remade games ever, with Anniversary / Master Chief Collection in 2012 and Campaign Evolved in 2026. But I decided to try the original on Xbox. I finished the PC port, but it was in 2004, so I barely remember anything. So far, it’s not very good.
Lack of subtitles is a minor issue. But the first level, on Pillar of Autumn ship, is a maze of grey corridors that all look the same.
Also, all that talk about how enemies in remasters are dumber: enemies in the original are extremely dumb.
Outdoor episodes are fine. It’s often easier to drive past enemies than to try and fight them, as it seems even inside a tank, Master Chief has no extra protection and dies from a few shots.
But the indoors missions seriously make me question if I’m not just going in circles. Especially the level where you need to cross three bridges. They all look the same, with similar enemy placements. It’s especially funny as the game does make you backtrack a few times, spawning new enemies on the way, so there is no good way of knowing.
The arsenal and gunplay is not as bad as I remember. A pistol can zoom, but an assault rifle can’t, for some reason, and the assault rifle is insanely inaccurate. But the sniper rifle and rocker launcher are serviceable. The alien pistol is surprisingly good. You can’t reload most of alien weapons, but it’s very common, so easy to pick a new one once you start running low.
Grenades, especially the sticky ones, are also plentiful. One interesting mechanic is that explosion also detonates dropped grenades. The common tactic is to shoot enemy a couple of times, then throw a grenade in hopes it would stick. Although sometimes they won’t run away anyway.
From the visual effects, invisibility is surprisingly nice. And also the flashlights that marines have.
There can also be ten enemies on screen at the same time, which is quite a lot. But frame rate does drop accordingly as well.
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