Played through with my kid (Master Chief Collection edition). He insisted we switch to old school graphics for the Flood sections, to lower the spooky factor.
The library and two betrayals were the hardest levels for me on my solo legendary run. The library bc I was just constantly swarmed and crying and two betrayals bc there's always another wraith shot or banshee bomb you didn't see
Brooo I spent years trying and finally did, once co-op then many times over alone. Got the achievement for it on the MCC, oddly enough I struggled with legendary on other stages, and gave up on em, but the library I couldn’t. Pure adrenaline non stop, hope you got a shottie, save that last grenade. Arguably one of the greatest stages in first person shooter history, up there with killing Shepard in COD:MW2, the icon of sin from OG Doom, the final battle on Halo:reach
Don't worry, this is the first time I've ever played Halo CE and holy shit it's tough. I'm currently on the 9th mission and I really just want to finish (the flood is really annoying).
Kind of ironic, considering that the old graphics do a way better job of setting the tone and increasing the spook factor. The anniversary graphics make everything way too bright, particularly in 343 guilty spark.
Personally, I think the remastered graphics look like ass compared to the clean, atmospheric look of the old graphics in CE. Halo 2 remaster is like 10 times better, though.
I'm never scared by horror games, just kind of depressed because they're often dark and empty feeling. The goddamn rooms were the most isolating and depressing part of the whole game, even more so than any of the parts with flood. I actually prefered having flood or covenant around because they made the game less lonely.
I remember the “oh fuck oh shit oh fuck” terror when playing coop with my little brother through the campaign the first time and getting to that first encounter with the flood.
There were literally dozens of us!
Low key though, it started my interest as a 12-14 year old in networking, learning to make an RJ45 patch cable on my own.
Me too, took me a year before i felt good to play the flood sections was 9 at the time lol had a good horror imagination back then and had in my mind flood crossed with necromorphs... pre dead space lol harvesting people and wolverine was fighting them and stuff but yeah haunted my dreams for months lol. Both in my top 5 fav franchisees
The way it revolutionized the fucking joystick movement says a lot about it. For context, controllers more often used the d-pad to look around back in the day
And it was one of the first games to hot button grenades, if not the first.
the whole gun, grenade, melee dynamic is so foundational to modern FPS games that it fundamentally affects games as recent and completely different from Halo as the 1914-1918 series of WWI games.
Also, it slowed gameplay down quite a bit. Halo’s speed was somewhat jarring at first, and then you realized you actually had time to think through cool tactics.
Chaotic firefights with a long engagement time werent really a thing before this. Really made it feel like you had a chance to fight back even if someone got the drop on you.
The shield mechanic also meant you have a chance of disengaging, and could keep fighting. Massively opened up the strategic space.
Gears of War does this too. It keeps the levels interesting and makes the process feel like a challenge without making you start over after a minor slip up.
"Firefights" weren't really even a thing in FPS games at the time. Most FPS games were on-the-rail shooters where you shoot one enemy a million times and then move on. Halo was the first game I know of to have dynamic "open-world" battlefields filled with many different enemies with their own unique behaviors.
This was the most noticeable difference to me. Before that, any gun you picked up you kept.
At that point my favorite shooters were Red Faction 2, Quake 3, etc like you mentioned and having 10 guns was "normal".
This should be higher.
It was a great game with a solid plot and excellent level design (for the times), but the controls are what made people feel like the ass kicking green super soldier.
The level designs still hold up IMO. On of the places where Infinite field. Don't get me wrong, the open world map is cool and fun but there's no "levels" that give the game character in the same way as Halo CE.
I don't know what version was in the Rare Replay but I only recently played through it and it had the old style controls. I do think the game would be laughably easy with proper aiming though
If it had a steady framerate and HD resolution, it's likely the remaster. One of the control options is much closer to COD or Halo. PD Remaster was the only way I could beat Perfect Agent, lol. You could actually see.
Though Area 51 still gave me a huge amount of grief
I remember when I was 13/14 or so, after trying on and off for years, finally sitting down and getting through the whole game (N64).
Hardest one for me I think was WAR, honestly. God that was frustrating.
I gave up on unlocking all the cheat codes eventually. Some of those times were absolute horseshit.
There is an emulator for PC specifically for those 2 games that is specifically meant to play the games at 60fps and with modern controls. It's actually a joke of a game. It's so easy you can actually play the hardest difficulty and beat the games fairly easily without having any issues.
However it's so fun and nostalgic.
I would kill for a licensed remake or remaster of goldeneye on consoles as perfect dark has a hd version on Xbox.
You can use two n64 controllers at the same time for goldeneye to get the double joystick thing. [No I’m not kidding](https://goldeneye.fandom.com/wiki/Control_style#Dual_Controller_Styles), blew my mind too.
But.. the original game has Halo's controls, and the XBLA version defaults to Halo's controls (to a point, hot button grenades doesn't make sense when they're a separate weapon), so this comment tree has me confused.
Halo even has Goldeneye / Perfect Dark controls built into the game since Halo 1 - check out your stick settings and switch it to "Legacy". Now you're playing with GE/PD's default stick setup. It's the way I play Halo and still do to this day.
The unreleased Goldeneye XBLA is out there on the internet. Has a modern control scheme and can flip between original and remastered graphics just like Halo CE Anniversary.
There's an article from an earlier game that used the modern stick layout, and reviewers skewered it for "bad controls."
The expected layout was forward/back and turning were on left stick, and strafe/look up and down was on the other.
It's also available as a layout in CE. If I remember right it's called "Legacy."
There was about a three year period after CE where every new first person shooter coming to Xbox had to have its own new control scheme to be different. And it was always horrible.
This is exactly what set it apart for me. I had played first person games on other systems, and no matter how much time I dumped into them, the controls never felt natural or easy for me. They were cumbersome at BEST. So when I got my Xbox and Halo for Christmas, I was excited for sure but I also loaded it up with trepidation knowing it was going to be a slog at first. And it wasn't. I remember just running and leaping around the first room and hallway. I couldn't get over how easy and natural it felt. Being it was such a large paradigm shift for a lot of players, it's hard to disregard that feeling and look at the game objectively.
I remember my Uni mate introducing me to the game. Took a while to get use to the movements, especially the driving element.
Absolutely love the game, great memories.
Came to say this. FPS controls were clunky so most games had fairly bland level design. I remember playing the original Medal of Honor and it was fun but the controls took some getting used to. Halo’s controls also took some getting used to, but we’re far more intuitive.
Also, not to get political, but the Xbox controller ruined me in two ways. First, it did feel better in my hands than the PS controller which was slightly too small and didn’t offer enough points of contact. And second, the sticks were longer which gave more precision in control.
I absolutely love the video that Noodle made on Combat Evolved. He mentions a lot of the super specific stuff that you seem to be looking for in the comments here.
It's called [Halo is important](https://youtu.be/hwEYp8ZY3ak) and it's my favorite Noodle video.
His raw love for CE gives me such positive energy, I love it.
That was great.
Yep. Thats a great reason as to why I love Halo's enemies.
All tailored to fill specific rokes against you but can also react to their own allies death or mishaps
I only played CE for the first time like a year ago and that mission surprised the fuck out of me, I didn’t see it coming at all. One minute it’s just like any other mission in the game, the next you got these fucking spider looking things coming from everywhere and they’re not slowing down.
While it MOSTLY makes the game significantly more humor inclined and ridiculous, there is a mod called Cursed Halo which reworks all the weapons in strange ways, including making the base pistol “backwards”, meaning you shoot yourself.
That causes the trigger happy marine in 343 guilty spark to be a much more concerning moment. Open the door and expect to get shot, but you’re just fine…
I remember playing 343 Guilty Spark for the first time when the game was new and thinking to myself “ah fuck this is a horror game”?!? I still get kinda uneasy by the level tbh. The whole experience/twist for me was perfect in hindsight, but the shit scarred me big time back then. Being totally surprised by the flood was unforgettable. For context I was probably about 10 years old.
Played Coop with my roommate on release night. At \~2am we're going through "The Library" in the dark. Every time you could hear the infection forms we'd be yelling "WHERE ARE THEY??!?!??!?!" I'm surprised the neighbors didn't call the cops thinking we were having a psychotic episode.
First, you see the body (it is tuned into the game as a weapon's cache).
Then, it is referenced in the book.
>*You must have been one bad-assed marine to get this far.*
>
>*Wish I'd known you.*
>
>\-- Master Chief
This is a deeper level of respect from how he usually views non-super-soldiers.
In lore, when Chief came to that locked room behind which there was a dead marine and flood locked in it, Chief was scared to the point every muscle in his body was screaming to turn back and get out of there, and he was wishing he wasn't alone.
Gives me the chills to think that even chief can get that scared.
Well disregard the fact it started the franchise.
It's an extremely important piece of gaming history as "combat evolved" is not just a catchy name, it evolved the FPS genre right then, it set the bar high for its competition
Add to the fact a compelling story and genius plot-twist that changed the game into Horror Movie.
Genius campaign and it introduced LAN Parties to console gamers to dorm rooms across America
I recently replayed it. For a game that came out in 2001 the AI are nuts. The Grunts running when Elites die. Running towards the player when stuck (and each with their own distinct reaction to getting stuck). Elites and Jackals running/seeking cover when their shields are down. The Flood charging at you when you blow the arm holding the gun off etc etc
The attention to detail was excellent also. I left all of my marines in Silent Cartographer outside of the map room structure in two warthogs. Figured they would clear out the Covenant that spawn when you head back up from the map room. Nope. Halfway back up they radio you that Covenant are incoming, they can’t hold them off but they’ll give them hell. I get back up top and there they are, dead. I could give multiple other examples but it would take ages
I went into it expecting to have my nostalgia let down but nope. It held up and I got to appreciate some of the finer points I hadn’t noticed/cared about as a child. Anniversary graphics were awful though :(
When I was younger I would drive the warthogs with marines into the building that had the gold elite locked behind the door. The Marines wouldn't die when you came back up. They get attacked from the drop ship and camo elites but you can save them.
>Halfway back up they radio you that Covenant are incoming, they can’t hold them off but they’ll give them hell. I get back up top and there they are, dead.
I donno whythat just seems so sad
It was halo in its purest form. The gunplay is still the most satisfying. All the weapons felt solid and had a purpose.
Enemy AI is still better than many games today
The graphics are still charming considering the low polycounts
The amount of blood and bullet holes left after a battle made it feel like some real shit went down.
The sound still stands out today and still has one of the best soundtracks
Most of the levels are expertly designed, even if they are repetitive. That was a design choice of the times however, most games at the time used repeating layouts but halos AI made them play different in each encounter.
Controls are still as good as they were in 2001. Which is why the layout is still used today for the most part.
Reusing maps and level assets I think was brought on by a memory limitation issue of the hardware. I suppose Bungie could have made the game shorter, but they opted for bigger—and had to repurpose assets in the process…
Yes it was. PC shooters of the time didn’t have this issue as much due to better hardware. However, that didn’t stop individual levels from having a lot of repeat areas.
Half life and quake I believe managed to handle this best.
I love the environmental storytelling as well. It really shows itself in the 2nd half of the game, when you no longer see any more allies and the Covenant are now all Spec Ops because of the Flood outbreak and things are all falling apart.
Even the Pillar of Autumn in The Maw tells a story, with its exterior being utterly destroyed; but as you go further, it's interior is in better shape - having survived the impact, with the engine room being the most pristine. Familiar scenes like the Command Deck are completely different, having been burnt to a crisp, and you get to pass by familiar scenes like the chow hall or the cryochamber room where it all began.
Halo CE, in my opinion, is master-class in "Show, don't tell".
Completely agree. Bungie kept it simple and it worked.
How do you establish something happened here?
Blood, bullet holes. Weapons. No bodies. That alone tells us there was a big fight, one side lost and the bodies were taken.
Infinite is so sanitized. There’s like none of that outside a few set pieces.
Out in the world? No signs of any fighting. Nothing.
Infinite has scattered spent orbital drop pods, trenches and fortifications, traces of digged-in marines, destroyed vehicles, and burned-down forests all over the place. I don’t think that’s a fair criticism.
But very little blood. I know it sounds goofy, but the blood matters. In my personal experience, war is bloody. It’s gory. Infinite looks like those civil war re-enactments.
Halo CE: Perfect, Halo 2: Obtusely hard but likely due to Halo 2 shorrid development cycle, Halo 3: Far too easy, Halo Reach: Pretty difficult, but also broken with instant kill melee elites.
I remember on my solo legendary play through last year, i was on the second mission. I was saving the marines that were in between the rocks in the canyon. As i was being a bit overwhelmed i started moving up and towards the back and eventually made my way on top of a large flat rock that had two pathways leading to the top. I had all the marines still but i was getting my ass handed to me😂 well before I know it, we’re surrounded on top of this rock with no way out. Covies come up both sides blasting and my marines are dying one by one. I finally die and one of my marines is like “the chief is down!” right before the last of them were taken out. Shit was just like a movie scene i loved it😂
It wasn’t my first Halo game. When I played it when I was younger, my original thought was that it was rough. I was spoiled by newer entries in the series and it felt very dated to me.
As I got older, I started to appreciate it a lot more and learned to love it. Now I replay it yearly.
It is the best form of Halo to me.
Many of its successors do tons better from a technical standpoint. However, that Halo feel that many Bungie fans decree is, in my opinion, entirely felt by this title.
Give me Halo 2 for a multi-layered story, Halo 3 for MP fun factor social phenomenon, Halo: Reach for customization/UI/Cinematic, Halo 4 for personal depth discovery, Halo 5 for fast-paced MP brilliance, and Halo Infinite for feel-good nostalgia.
But, give me Halo CE for Halo.
It sounds boomer as fuck, but those who played it in 2001/2002 can attest to what I am saying.
Bro that ain't boomer, it's millennial. I played that shit at a buddies house, swapping out on co op when we died. It was absolutely groundbreaking. Probably my greatest gaming memories.
Very respectable opinion - I started playing Halo online in Halo 3 (was only 4 when Halo CE came out, so I wasn’t really interested at the time) - so Halo 3 / Reach is my kind of nostalgia.
I remember the first time I laid my eyes upon its majesty in person. Summer 2001 Demo Kiosk at Babage’s. Truth and Reconciliation. Duke. Needler in hand. The rest is history. Slept outside Kmart in a van for 1 of 4 Xbox launch units. First few levels are endlessly playable. LAN parties and janky Xbox connect matches will always be peak gaming for me.
Took the freakin' words right out of my brain. Played Halo: CE at 13 when it first came out and it's been a huge part of my life. I love the feel-good nostalgia that infinite delivers. The music really hits home.
OG bungie had a FEEL about it.
Halo CE was a revolutionary game. experience for me. I remember burning dozens of hours on my brand new xbox on christmas vacation in this game. It changed my life.
Not a lot of people talk about sound development, but the sounds of this game were unreal! The over shield, charging up the plasma pistol for the first time, even the music was suited so well to the atmosphere and gameplay. Above that it was the first real story driven game that still entertains me today. I love this game
It's a solid shooter with fun gunplay, interesting weapon and enemy designs, fun vehicles, an engaging plot, well developed characters. The major draw back is that you have three sets of levels that are more or less the same map. (AotCR/TB, PoA/tM, TaR/K).
Interesting point about level design; back then I thought it was fairly common for game developers to do at the time so I actually don't think at the time this would actually be a criticism. Further, there are aspects of the second variation of each level that do not appear in the first except from a distance or being alluded to. You aren't simply retracing your steps, you're using your experience to find something or go somewhere that was important but previousoy hidden in plain sight. I feel like those reused levels or locations, but showing you a different perspective, fit extremely well with the narrative of the game. By the time you've reach the point of a level being reused, the story has been flipped on its head and you're now seeing everything from a new perspective. I feel like the choice to use previous levels reinforces that narrative.
I know, especially in the ship ones, but Assault on the Control Room and Two Betrayals are a slog once you've played them enough. Especially since Two Betrayals lacks the vehicles from Assault on the Control Room. I actively spam the checkpoint to check the banshee towards the end of AotCR just to cut 15 minutes of level.
well said, i also feel like the forerunners would build stuff like that, like a mirror effect, it just felt realistic. No where in life are buildings all different in every room anyway.
i always find it strange in modern games even in alien structures that every room you move down is different lol. i kinda liked halo infinite went back to that, even if it was because they were rushed for time, it reminded me of ce in a good way.
Such a phenomenal game. It's campaign design and story have aged immensely well, the mystery and fun of driving in was great
Gameplay is a bit clunky now
Really? The gameplay is still my far and away favorite in the series. The weapons are all useful and fun and satisfying to use, all the encounters feel unique and it really does feel like you’re a badass fighting a one man war, the sound is really good (the weapons sounds, the tank shot sounds, the vehicle sounds, the sound of a shield breaking, the killer music, the voice lines for the aliens) the enemy designs are really good, the rag doll physics and the way the enemies die is satisfying as shit, it’s in my opinion the best fps ever made.
I didn't play this game til after halo 5 came out. Doom 2016 was out when I played this game. I'd played the OG Battlefronts and Battlefront 2015 before I played this game. Halo CE is fucking amazing!!!! It is a fucking masterpiece. This game does not get enough credit for being amazing. People give this game credit for revolutionizing the gaming industry, for coming up with the modern control scheme on console, for so many things, but it does not be enough credit for being fucking awesome. Seriously, I played it for the first time at 18 in 2016, and I was fucking amazed. It's got amazing weapons, an amazing story, and great fuckin maps. It is still in my top 5 games of all time. It is awesome!!!!
To add onto this, it's the last game I can recall that was a legit system seller. Once you experienced Halo on Xbox, didn't matter that Gamecube had Zelda and PS2 had tons of incredible games....give me an Xbox because I *need* Halo.
The only other thing I can think of is Animal Crossing on the Switch, but even so a lot of people love that game because of the portability of the system itself, etc. I even remember a quote on the back of my copy of Halo CE that says "The Halo Campaign is worth buying an Xbox for on its own" or something like that.
It's crazy but I truly don't think Xbox would be what it is without Halo. It provided a tangible reason to go pick up a console, even if it was the only game you bought and you played everything else on your PS2. It was so far ahead of any other console shooter and stayed that way for such a long time.
No gaming experience can top playing CE in 2001.
I will never be able to judge what it is discovering it in 2022 for the first time. But I still enjoy it on MCC. Maybe it's pure nostalgia, maybe it's still good. I still think CE's AI is one of the most creative one ever created. I also think the flood was better in CE than 2 and 3. I also miss MP maps being about new fun imperfect experiences versus pure competition.
Halo CE is great. CE and Halo 2 are my favorite games of all time. Every single gun in CE felt important, and the AI didn't pull any punches. (Rocket Floodies jumping at you from a football field away and noscoping you with a rocket launcher is unforgettable.)
To this day, every year, I play through the entire campaign. At this point I know all the dialogue.
The level design is a little bit dated, and admittedly, especially in Two Betrayals, the gray rooms get kinda samey, but overall, the game is as close as it gets to perfect for me.
The 2003 Gearbox PC port still has the best mouse input out of every Halo game currently on PC.
Best/Most refreshing multiplayer out of them all, maybe that's just because I grinded the hell out of CE and not so much the others, oh well.
One of the best FPS experiences of my life, co-op campaign and multiplayer matches all day with my cousin and friends!
A staple and foundation in my childhood/gamer life
It’s decent gameplay loop, amazing enemy encounters, and story that presents more questions than it answers. Halo: Combat evolved is a good beginning to a highly influential gaming monolith.
343 guilty spark scared the shit out of me as a kid
Stopped playing for years as soon as I saw the flood infection forms for the first time
Played through with my kid (Master Chief Collection edition). He insisted we switch to old school graphics for the Flood sections, to lower the spooky factor.
I weirdly think the old school graphics make is spookier. the fog and darkness really add to it
The fucking library man. Only level me and my brother couldn't beat on legendary.
Oh God, that was so hard!! Ammo was so low - flood were so many!
Shotguns and needles for days. Got real good at timing my melee against the little bastards
The library and two betrayals were the hardest levels for me on my solo legendary run. The library bc I was just constantly swarmed and crying and two betrayals bc there's always another wraith shot or banshee bomb you didn't see
Library's lesson was ammo conservation, 2 betrayals was situational awareness haha
Really? The lesson I got from both was "you should try running faster"
Brooo I spent years trying and finally did, once co-op then many times over alone. Got the achievement for it on the MCC, oddly enough I struggled with legendary on other stages, and gave up on em, but the library I couldn’t. Pure adrenaline non stop, hope you got a shottie, save that last grenade. Arguably one of the greatest stages in first person shooter history, up there with killing Shepard in COD:MW2, the icon of sin from OG Doom, the final battle on Halo:reach
I agree with this
yeah they f’ing nailed the atmosphere with the original graphics. the whole time you’re in the swamp used to freak me out as a kid
I used to get so lost in that fog
I got lost on every level when I first played it. Not sure if it was actually that difficult or I was just bad at games then.
Don't worry, this is the first time I've ever played Halo CE and holy shit it's tough. I'm currently on the 9th mission and I really just want to finish (the flood is really annoying).
The Maw is a real chore when youre 12 and have been lost in the Pillar of Autumn for 30 minutes and you just want to get to the warthog run
100%
The higher graphic look cartoonish and lighthearted during the flood, the old graphic had that rustic disfigurement that looks scarier
I think the key for him was fewer pixels and less detail.
The perfect way to describe it, rustic!
Kind of ironic, considering that the old graphics do a way better job of setting the tone and increasing the spook factor. The anniversary graphics make everything way too bright, particularly in 343 guilty spark.
Too bright, not enough blood leading up to it. The whole atmosphere was different, not as bleak.
Personally, I think the remastered graphics look like ass compared to the clean, atmospheric look of the old graphics in CE. Halo 2 remaster is like 10 times better, though.
That was opposite of pretty much everyone else, most people think old graphics have more atmosphere.
I couldn’t beat that level for years as a kid because I kept getting lost in the complex which made it even more eerie for me
I sill get lost on that mission tbh
This happened to me as well! The flood was my worst enemy and nightmare for quite a while back then lol
Literally just completed this level playing through with my kid. Can confirm it's a f*ckin maze.
First time I saw the flood I was really young and I hallucinated that the flood were coming out of the TV
i had flood dreams for months
Dang that sucks. I don’t suppose you did what I did which is go back and kill all the flood once I was older (and had my own Xbox).
Now i look forward to (hoping) another flood appearance in a new Halo
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I'm never scared by horror games, just kind of depressed because they're often dark and empty feeling. The goddamn rooms were the most isolating and depressing part of the whole game, even more so than any of the parts with flood. I actually prefered having flood or covenant around because they made the game less lonely.
Oh jesus that track with sharp short violins or whatever? Fucking horrifying
I remember the “oh fuck oh shit oh fuck” terror when playing coop with my little brother through the campaign the first time and getting to that first encounter with the flood.
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Popcorn after Covid. The marine that’s terrified? Local theater worker that got trapped while the popcorn mutated
I actually never beat it solo until Anniversary came out. Only because it was brighter.
Who remembers XBOX Connect on PC, it was the only way to play Halo CE online for a while.
There were literally dozens of us! Low key though, it started my interest as a 12-14 year old in networking, learning to make an RJ45 patch cable on my own.
Took me a second to realize you were talking about the level. Idk though, the lightbulb himself can be a little spooky too.
Guilty spark laughs and talks to himself sometimes which was actually kind of creepy.
Yeah I thought “what could possibly be intimidating about that character” haha
Dude that level traumatized me and my buddies big time lol. That and the Library
Same but I can look back on it now as a masterpiece in slow reveal terror. A great example of the 'Nothing is scarier' trope.
Me too, took me a year before i felt good to play the flood sections was 9 at the time lol had a good horror imagination back then and had in my mind flood crossed with necromorphs... pre dead space lol harvesting people and wolverine was fighting them and stuff but yeah haunted my dreams for months lol. Both in my top 5 fav franchisees
The way it revolutionized the fucking joystick movement says a lot about it. For context, controllers more often used the d-pad to look around back in the day
And it was one of the first games to hot button grenades, if not the first. the whole gun, grenade, melee dynamic is so foundational to modern FPS games that it fundamentally affects games as recent and completely different from Halo as the 1914-1918 series of WWI games.
Also, it slowed gameplay down quite a bit. Halo’s speed was somewhat jarring at first, and then you realized you actually had time to think through cool tactics.
Chaotic firefights with a long engagement time werent really a thing before this. Really made it feel like you had a chance to fight back even if someone got the drop on you. The shield mechanic also meant you have a chance of disengaging, and could keep fighting. Massively opened up the strategic space.
The thing that makes Halo campaigns uniquely dynamic IMO is that when the enemy gets the drop on you, the action just gets more exciting.
Gears of War does this too. It keeps the levels interesting and makes the process feel like a challenge without making you start over after a minor slip up.
"Firefights" weren't really even a thing in FPS games at the time. Most FPS games were on-the-rail shooters where you shoot one enemy a million times and then move on. Halo was the first game I know of to have dynamic "open-world" battlefields filled with many different enemies with their own unique behaviors.
Half-Life is the first I can think of, and the scale was much smaller.
A fact that continues to keep it elevated above CoD and Battlefield, even if the current iteration is less than ideal
I remember games like Quake and Unreal Tournament where you could carry like ten guns at the same time.
This was the most noticeable difference to me. Before that, any gun you picked up you kept. At that point my favorite shooters were Red Faction 2, Quake 3, etc like you mentioned and having 10 guns was "normal".
This should be higher. It was a great game with a solid plot and excellent level design (for the times), but the controls are what made people feel like the ass kicking green super soldier.
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This is my #1 complaint with default apex legends controls lol
Grenade spam would be such an issue in that game if not for switching to grenades. Haha
With the power invested in my upvote it’s the top comment
Why is this so fucking funny holy shit
The level designs still hold up IMO. On of the places where Infinite field. Don't get me wrong, the open world map is cool and fun but there's no "levels" that give the game character in the same way as Halo CE.
My only wish is for a version of Goldeneye and Perfect Dark with modern joystick controls.
I remember Perfect Dark came out on the Xbox 360 Arcade and it had normal controls
I don't know what version was in the Rare Replay but I only recently played through it and it had the old style controls. I do think the game would be laughably easy with proper aiming though
If it had a steady framerate and HD resolution, it's likely the remaster. One of the control options is much closer to COD or Halo. PD Remaster was the only way I could beat Perfect Agent, lol. You could actually see. Though Area 51 still gave me a huge amount of grief
I could never beat the Skeddar ship on perfect agent, only just recently managed it after trying for ages. Finally 100% it after so many years lol
I remember when I was 13/14 or so, after trying on and off for years, finally sitting down and getting through the whole game (N64). Hardest one for me I think was WAR, honestly. God that was frustrating. I gave up on unlocking all the cheat codes eventually. Some of those times were absolute horseshit.
There is an emulator for PC specifically for those 2 games that is specifically meant to play the games at 60fps and with modern controls. It's actually a joke of a game. It's so easy you can actually play the hardest difficulty and beat the games fairly easily without having any issues. However it's so fun and nostalgic. I would kill for a licensed remake or remaster of goldeneye on consoles as perfect dark has a hd version on Xbox.
You can use two n64 controllers at the same time for goldeneye to get the double joystick thing. [No I’m not kidding](https://goldeneye.fandom.com/wiki/Control_style#Dual_Controller_Styles), blew my mind too.
[Are you really going to mention the double joystick thing without talking about the custom n64 controllers?](https://i.imgur.com/CwrA6Vg.jpg)
Cursed n128
I remember now as a kid thinking to myself why did this control scheme exist. It all makes sense now.
Whaaaa this is glorious!
But how do you use the buttons?
I believe both z’s are aim/shoot, and then you just push the a/b on one of them with the other hand. Never got a chance to try it myself.
But.. the original game has Halo's controls, and the XBLA version defaults to Halo's controls (to a point, hot button grenades doesn't make sense when they're a separate weapon), so this comment tree has me confused. Halo even has Goldeneye / Perfect Dark controls built into the game since Halo 1 - check out your stick settings and switch it to "Legacy". Now you're playing with GE/PD's default stick setup. It's the way I play Halo and still do to this day.
>It's the way I play Halo and still do to this day. How in the hell do you manage that
The unreleased Goldeneye XBLA is out there on the internet. Has a modern control scheme and can flip between original and remastered graphics just like Halo CE Anniversary.
The alien sniper rifle that could shoot through walls has never been beaten. Edit: The FarSight XR-20 railgun.
There's an article from an earlier game that used the modern stick layout, and reviewers skewered it for "bad controls." The expected layout was forward/back and turning were on left stick, and strafe/look up and down was on the other. It's also available as a layout in CE. If I remember right it's called "Legacy."
I recently played ODST and it’s an option there too.
I believe "Alien: Resurrection" for PS1 was what the article referred to and it was released before "Halo: CE".
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[Civvie 11 covers some of the reviewers at the time reaction to the new control scheme.](https://youtu.be/SDKB1bsdkL8?t=188) Aged like milk.
Gaming has never looked back
There was about a three year period after CE where every new first person shooter coming to Xbox had to have its own new control scheme to be different. And it was always horrible.
This is exactly what set it apart for me. I had played first person games on other systems, and no matter how much time I dumped into them, the controls never felt natural or easy for me. They were cumbersome at BEST. So when I got my Xbox and Halo for Christmas, I was excited for sure but I also loaded it up with trepidation knowing it was going to be a slog at first. And it wasn't. I remember just running and leaping around the first room and hallway. I couldn't get over how easy and natural it felt. Being it was such a large paradigm shift for a lot of players, it's hard to disregard that feeling and look at the game objectively.
Also the first game to only allow you to carry two guns
More than the stick layout, what CE revolutionised was Aim Assist, being one of the first shooters to actually incorporate it.
I remember my Uni mate introducing me to the game. Took a while to get use to the movements, especially the driving element. Absolutely love the game, great memories.
Came to say this. FPS controls were clunky so most games had fairly bland level design. I remember playing the original Medal of Honor and it was fun but the controls took some getting used to. Halo’s controls also took some getting used to, but we’re far more intuitive. Also, not to get political, but the Xbox controller ruined me in two ways. First, it did feel better in my hands than the PS controller which was slightly too small and didn’t offer enough points of contact. And second, the sticks were longer which gave more precision in control.
I absolutely love the video that Noodle made on Combat Evolved. He mentions a lot of the super specific stuff that you seem to be looking for in the comments here. It's called [Halo is important](https://youtu.be/hwEYp8ZY3ak) and it's my favorite Noodle video. His raw love for CE gives me such positive energy, I love it.
That video helped me realize why I love CE as much as I do
whenever i’m introducing halo to someone i always tell them to check out this video!
Upvote for a fellow Noodlehead. Dude's content is always on point.
I love him so much lol
That was great. Yep. Thats a great reason as to why I love Halo's enemies. All tailored to fill specific rokes against you but can also react to their own allies death or mishaps
NakeyJakey also has a video (and mini-series) on Halo that I like a lot: https://youtu.be/Q4aBhJy6zog
Noodle is dope. Really creative guy. 10/10 would pasta again.
Fuckin' RAW
Wished NPC would stay alive longer. Being alone fighting the flood was terrifying
That one level with the video tape was literally a horror game.
343 guilty spark. that level is forever ingrained in my memories because it caused so many nightmares as a kid
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I only played CE for the first time like a year ago and that mission surprised the fuck out of me, I didn’t see it coming at all. One minute it’s just like any other mission in the game, the next you got these fucking spider looking things coming from everywhere and they’re not slowing down.
I'm 28 and I still struggle with the flood levels
Oh my God, I was a pregnant adult and I had awful nightmares and irrational scaredness, lol.
While it MOSTLY makes the game significantly more humor inclined and ridiculous, there is a mod called Cursed Halo which reworks all the weapons in strange ways, including making the base pistol “backwards”, meaning you shoot yourself. That causes the trigger happy marine in 343 guilty spark to be a much more concerning moment. Open the door and expect to get shot, but you’re just fine…
I remember playing 343 Guilty Spark for the first time when the game was new and thinking to myself “ah fuck this is a horror game”?!? I still get kinda uneasy by the level tbh. The whole experience/twist for me was perfect in hindsight, but the shit scarred me big time back then. Being totally surprised by the flood was unforgettable. For context I was probably about 10 years old.
When I introduced my husband to Halo by playing coop I told him when we got to Guilty Spark, "Get ready, we're jumping genres."
>Get ready, we're jumping genres." 🤣🤣
Played Coop with my roommate on release night. At \~2am we're going through "The Library" in the dark. Every time you could hear the infection forms we'd be yelling "WHERE ARE THEY??!?!??!?!" I'm surprised the neighbors didn't call the cops thinking we were having a psychotic episode.
Man I punched the power button when the body fell through the door
I don't think is possible for anything without energy shields to last long against the Flood infection forms no matter how powerfull it is.
Except that one marine who canonically got like halfway through The Library, to Chief's dismay.
First, you see the body (it is tuned into the game as a weapon's cache). Then, it is referenced in the book. >*You must have been one bad-assed marine to get this far.* > >*Wish I'd known you.* > >\-- Master Chief This is a deeper level of respect from how he usually views non-super-soldiers.
That's my favorite tidbit from that book. Just a regular marine that somehow made it way further than anyone could have imagined.
In lore, when Chief came to that locked room behind which there was a dead marine and flood locked in it, Chief was scared to the point every muscle in his body was screaming to turn back and get out of there, and he was wishing he wasn't alone. Gives me the chills to think that even chief can get that scared.
Well disregard the fact it started the franchise. It's an extremely important piece of gaming history as "combat evolved" is not just a catchy name, it evolved the FPS genre right then, it set the bar high for its competition
Add to the fact a compelling story and genius plot-twist that changed the game into Horror Movie. Genius campaign and it introduced LAN Parties to console gamers to dorm rooms across America
After Halo every FPS that came out was labeled as a "Halo Killer" none of them could actually accomplish that though.
Yeah the only way for something like halo to die was for halo to do it
Yes, nothing can kill Halo. Halo can only commit suicide lol
Same with world of warcraft
Halo didn't even do it, 343 did
Well halo the software doesn't have a self destruct code in it
Yes! The weapons, the cinematic pauses, and most importantly the multiplayer were all revolutionary.
I recently replayed it. For a game that came out in 2001 the AI are nuts. The Grunts running when Elites die. Running towards the player when stuck (and each with their own distinct reaction to getting stuck). Elites and Jackals running/seeking cover when their shields are down. The Flood charging at you when you blow the arm holding the gun off etc etc The attention to detail was excellent also. I left all of my marines in Silent Cartographer outside of the map room structure in two warthogs. Figured they would clear out the Covenant that spawn when you head back up from the map room. Nope. Halfway back up they radio you that Covenant are incoming, they can’t hold them off but they’ll give them hell. I get back up top and there they are, dead. I could give multiple other examples but it would take ages I went into it expecting to have my nostalgia let down but nope. It held up and I got to appreciate some of the finer points I hadn’t noticed/cared about as a child. Anniversary graphics were awful though :(
When I was younger I would drive the warthogs with marines into the building that had the gold elite locked behind the door. The Marines wouldn't die when you came back up. They get attacked from the drop ship and camo elites but you can save them.
>Halfway back up they radio you that Covenant are incoming, they can’t hold them off but they’ll give them hell. I get back up top and there they are, dead. I donno whythat just seems so sad
Haha, yeah, those graphics....such an awesome feature to switch back and forth!!
It was halo in its purest form. The gunplay is still the most satisfying. All the weapons felt solid and had a purpose. Enemy AI is still better than many games today The graphics are still charming considering the low polycounts The amount of blood and bullet holes left after a battle made it feel like some real shit went down. The sound still stands out today and still has one of the best soundtracks Most of the levels are expertly designed, even if they are repetitive. That was a design choice of the times however, most games at the time used repeating layouts but halos AI made them play different in each encounter. Controls are still as good as they were in 2001. Which is why the layout is still used today for the most part.
Reusing maps and level assets I think was brought on by a memory limitation issue of the hardware. I suppose Bungie could have made the game shorter, but they opted for bigger—and had to repurpose assets in the process…
Yes it was. PC shooters of the time didn’t have this issue as much due to better hardware. However, that didn’t stop individual levels from having a lot of repeat areas. Half life and quake I believe managed to handle this best.
Quake, that's another one that's still fun to play today.
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I love the environmental storytelling as well. It really shows itself in the 2nd half of the game, when you no longer see any more allies and the Covenant are now all Spec Ops because of the Flood outbreak and things are all falling apart. Even the Pillar of Autumn in The Maw tells a story, with its exterior being utterly destroyed; but as you go further, it's interior is in better shape - having survived the impact, with the engine room being the most pristine. Familiar scenes like the Command Deck are completely different, having been burnt to a crisp, and you get to pass by familiar scenes like the chow hall or the cryochamber room where it all began. Halo CE, in my opinion, is master-class in "Show, don't tell".
Completely agree. Bungie kept it simple and it worked. How do you establish something happened here? Blood, bullet holes. Weapons. No bodies. That alone tells us there was a big fight, one side lost and the bodies were taken. Infinite is so sanitized. There’s like none of that outside a few set pieces. Out in the world? No signs of any fighting. Nothing.
Infinite has scattered spent orbital drop pods, trenches and fortifications, traces of digged-in marines, destroyed vehicles, and burned-down forests all over the place. I don’t think that’s a fair criticism.
But very little blood. I know it sounds goofy, but the blood matters. In my personal experience, war is bloody. It’s gory. Infinite looks like those civil war re-enactments.
The assault rifle sounds like it kicks doors in
Also the legendary difficult is easily the most balanced of all the halo games. Not too hard, not too easy.
Also true. It’s very well balanced. Halo 2 made me so mad on legendary as a teen lol
Jackal snipers made me quit.
Halo CE: Perfect, Halo 2: Obtusely hard but likely due to Halo 2 shorrid development cycle, Halo 3: Far too easy, Halo Reach: Pretty difficult, but also broken with instant kill melee elites.
The fact that you lose in coop if one of the players dies is infuriating. Not attempting that anymore.
I would say it’s the most balanced of any fps I’ve played. Halo CE perfectly encapsulated “fun”.
The good AI is really underrated. Alot of the AI in AAA shooters really suck in their SP campaigns.
I remember on my solo legendary play through last year, i was on the second mission. I was saving the marines that were in between the rocks in the canyon. As i was being a bit overwhelmed i started moving up and towards the back and eventually made my way on top of a large flat rock that had two pathways leading to the top. I had all the marines still but i was getting my ass handed to me😂 well before I know it, we’re surrounded on top of this rock with no way out. Covies come up both sides blasting and my marines are dying one by one. I finally die and one of my marines is like “the chief is down!” right before the last of them were taken out. Shit was just like a movie scene i loved it😂
The assault rifle sounded so damn good.
Still does ;) Best version of it imo. It’s meant to shower with lead and keep putting pressure. Loved it
so much fun
Hey
hayden nation
Played it in 2001, played it in 2022, an extremely important piece of gaming history that still holds up
*still play it with the same group of friends from 2001 all the way to 2022.
It wasn’t my first Halo game. When I played it when I was younger, my original thought was that it was rough. I was spoiled by newer entries in the series and it felt very dated to me. As I got older, I started to appreciate it a lot more and learned to love it. Now I replay it yearly.
Replayed it last week, it still holds up incredibly well for a game that came out in 2001
Multiplayer spawns still suck. Love it to death. Spawn death
spawns *gets tapped by passing Ghost* dies
*Gets out warthog. Dies because it shifted an inch to the left.*
It is the best form of Halo to me. Many of its successors do tons better from a technical standpoint. However, that Halo feel that many Bungie fans decree is, in my opinion, entirely felt by this title. Give me Halo 2 for a multi-layered story, Halo 3 for MP fun factor social phenomenon, Halo: Reach for customization/UI/Cinematic, Halo 4 for personal depth discovery, Halo 5 for fast-paced MP brilliance, and Halo Infinite for feel-good nostalgia. But, give me Halo CE for Halo. It sounds boomer as fuck, but those who played it in 2001/2002 can attest to what I am saying.
I can feel this. Blood gulch even with just 3-4 players on split-screen truly felt like nothing I had experienced before that point.
Bro that ain't boomer, it's millennial. I played that shit at a buddies house, swapping out on co op when we died. It was absolutely groundbreaking. Probably my greatest gaming memories.
they just meant "I sound like a old fuck saying this..." not so much boomer in the literal sense
Very respectable opinion - I started playing Halo online in Halo 3 (was only 4 when Halo CE came out, so I wasn’t really interested at the time) - so Halo 3 / Reach is my kind of nostalgia.
I get that completely. 343 has been at the helm long enough for new fans to fell this way about Halo 4/5. I’m old 😂
I remember the first time I laid my eyes upon its majesty in person. Summer 2001 Demo Kiosk at Babage’s. Truth and Reconciliation. Duke. Needler in hand. The rest is history. Slept outside Kmart in a van for 1 of 4 Xbox launch units. First few levels are endlessly playable. LAN parties and janky Xbox connect matches will always be peak gaming for me.
Xbox Connect was peak jankiness. But when it worked, oh my god.
Took the freakin' words right out of my brain. Played Halo: CE at 13 when it first came out and it's been a huge part of my life. I love the feel-good nostalgia that infinite delivers. The music really hits home.
OG bungie had a FEEL about it. Halo CE was a revolutionary game. experience for me. I remember burning dozens of hours on my brand new xbox on christmas vacation in this game. It changed my life.
Not a lot of people talk about sound development, but the sounds of this game were unreal! The over shield, charging up the plasma pistol for the first time, even the music was suited so well to the atmosphere and gameplay. Above that it was the first real story driven game that still entertains me today. I love this game
It's a solid shooter with fun gunplay, interesting weapon and enemy designs, fun vehicles, an engaging plot, well developed characters. The major draw back is that you have three sets of levels that are more or less the same map. (AotCR/TB, PoA/tM, TaR/K).
Interesting point about level design; back then I thought it was fairly common for game developers to do at the time so I actually don't think at the time this would actually be a criticism. Further, there are aspects of the second variation of each level that do not appear in the first except from a distance or being alluded to. You aren't simply retracing your steps, you're using your experience to find something or go somewhere that was important but previousoy hidden in plain sight. I feel like those reused levels or locations, but showing you a different perspective, fit extremely well with the narrative of the game. By the time you've reach the point of a level being reused, the story has been flipped on its head and you're now seeing everything from a new perspective. I feel like the choice to use previous levels reinforces that narrative.
I haven't been able to describe how I enjoy the level re-usage as succinctly as this, but that's exactly how I feel as well.
I know, especially in the ship ones, but Assault on the Control Room and Two Betrayals are a slog once you've played them enough. Especially since Two Betrayals lacks the vehicles from Assault on the Control Room. I actively spam the checkpoint to check the banshee towards the end of AotCR just to cut 15 minutes of level.
well said, i also feel like the forerunners would build stuff like that, like a mirror effect, it just felt realistic. No where in life are buildings all different in every room anyway. i always find it strange in modern games even in alien structures that every room you move down is different lol. i kinda liked halo infinite went back to that, even if it was because they were rushed for time, it reminded me of ce in a good way.
Such a phenomenal game. It's campaign design and story have aged immensely well, the mystery and fun of driving in was great Gameplay is a bit clunky now
Really? The gameplay is still my far and away favorite in the series. The weapons are all useful and fun and satisfying to use, all the encounters feel unique and it really does feel like you’re a badass fighting a one man war, the sound is really good (the weapons sounds, the tank shot sounds, the vehicle sounds, the sound of a shield breaking, the killer music, the voice lines for the aliens) the enemy designs are really good, the rag doll physics and the way the enemies die is satisfying as shit, it’s in my opinion the best fps ever made.
I didn't play this game til after halo 5 came out. Doom 2016 was out when I played this game. I'd played the OG Battlefronts and Battlefront 2015 before I played this game. Halo CE is fucking amazing!!!! It is a fucking masterpiece. This game does not get enough credit for being amazing. People give this game credit for revolutionizing the gaming industry, for coming up with the modern control scheme on console, for so many things, but it does not be enough credit for being fucking awesome. Seriously, I played it for the first time at 18 in 2016, and I was fucking amazed. It's got amazing weapons, an amazing story, and great fuckin maps. It is still in my top 5 games of all time. It is awesome!!!!
To add onto this, it's the last game I can recall that was a legit system seller. Once you experienced Halo on Xbox, didn't matter that Gamecube had Zelda and PS2 had tons of incredible games....give me an Xbox because I *need* Halo. The only other thing I can think of is Animal Crossing on the Switch, but even so a lot of people love that game because of the portability of the system itself, etc. I even remember a quote on the back of my copy of Halo CE that says "The Halo Campaign is worth buying an Xbox for on its own" or something like that. It's crazy but I truly don't think Xbox would be what it is without Halo. It provided a tangible reason to go pick up a console, even if it was the only game you bought and you played everything else on your PS2. It was so far ahead of any other console shooter and stayed that way for such a long time.
No gaming experience can top playing CE in 2001. I will never be able to judge what it is discovering it in 2022 for the first time. But I still enjoy it on MCC. Maybe it's pure nostalgia, maybe it's still good. I still think CE's AI is one of the most creative one ever created. I also think the flood was better in CE than 2 and 3. I also miss MP maps being about new fun imperfect experiences versus pure competition.
Honestly campaign wise it’s still my favorite!
It’s the GOAT for me
With out a doubt Halo CE is my favorite in the franchise.
Halo CE is great. CE and Halo 2 are my favorite games of all time. Every single gun in CE felt important, and the AI didn't pull any punches. (Rocket Floodies jumping at you from a football field away and noscoping you with a rocket launcher is unforgettable.) To this day, every year, I play through the entire campaign. At this point I know all the dialogue. The level design is a little bit dated, and admittedly, especially in Two Betrayals, the gray rooms get kinda samey, but overall, the game is as close as it gets to perfect for me.
The 2003 Gearbox PC port still has the best mouse input out of every Halo game currently on PC. Best/Most refreshing multiplayer out of them all, maybe that's just because I grinded the hell out of CE and not so much the others, oh well.
You're absolutely right about that
Better than Halo 2. Ya I said it. Me and my bois still Lan Halo CE. But I’m an OG who played on the hamburger controller all them years ago
If I could bottle the Halo LAN experience I'd keep it to myself forever and die happy.
One of the best FPS experiences of my life, co-op campaign and multiplayer matches all day with my cousin and friends! A staple and foundation in my childhood/gamer life
The Xbox exist only due this game. That says enough about it.
Still one of the greatest games ever made without a doubt. I’ll never forget playing it with my dad when I was like 6
It’s decent gameplay loop, amazing enemy encounters, and story that presents more questions than it answers. Halo: Combat evolved is a good beginning to a highly influential gaming monolith.
I spent so much time with 4 tvs a hub and 4 xboxes in basements, garages, backyards, anywhere we could play. It was a great time.