Reviews from

in the past


All the good parts of the original, but now you can press a button to swap between the original and current graphics at any time. So neat.

(Played via the Master Chief Collection on Steam, Normal difficulty, mostly used Old graphics)
I really dug going back to this. The weapons are a blast to use, the story and writing was surprisingly good, especially Cortana and her interactions with Chief, and the levels are pretty well designed...mostly.
Yeah later on the game can get kinda irritating to play, special shoutouts to Assualt on the Control Room and The Library for being especially repetitive and hard. Also the grenade throwing in the last level felt way too precise.
But yeah, this is a great time and you should give it a shot.

la música es una pasada y el gameplay es bastante decente pero los vehículos son lo peor que ha producido el ser humano y el diseño de niveles es atroz

Tenía ganas de ponerme con la saga y teniendo la Master Chief Collection en Game Pass tiré adelante. He oído maravillas de la saga y sólo jugué, de manera muy inconexa y hace muchos años, el 3 (donde al multi si le di bastante) y el ODST. Esta vez he querido profundizar más en lo que propone a nivel de worldbuilding y trama y mi intención (tras pensarlo más, aunque sigo abierto a opiniones) es jugarlo en orden cronológico de salida, no en orden cronológico por trama.

Los shooters es un género que siempre me ha parecido repetitivo y facilón, así que de los 4 niveles de dificultad que tiene, elegí el tercero, confiado. Tuve que cambiar la dificultad en el cuarto capítulo a normal (y de aquí en adelante esta saga no pienso subirle más la dificultad) de lo complicado que me pareció. Si el juego debía durar unas 8 horas aprox (teniendo en cuenta lo que me ha durado el 2, del que hablaré un poco más adelante) este me llevó unas 15 sólo por complicarme yo mismo la vida.

El gunplay es bastante bueno, se presentan bastantes armas, diferentes entre sí, opciones de afrontar las situaciones y una IA que quizá no estoy muy acostumbrado, donde lo mismo te van comiendo terreno como tiran las armas al ver que están en inferioridad.

El ritmo ya no me parece tan interesante. Se repite muchísimo. Tienes que ir muchísimas veces por los mismos escenarios, ya sea yendo y volviendo por los mismos sitios como reciclando secciones. Este apartado en mi opinión es el que peor ha envejecido, haciendo que algunos puntos sean un coñazo de re-visitar más allá del aliciente de intentar que no te maten, bien sea el Covenant o los Flood.

La trama, que es a lo que venía, me pareció flojísima. Bien es cierto que hay cosas que debes ir intuyendo y que a medida que va acercándose el final se pone más interesante, pero es pobre al punto que en dos frases podría resumir todo lo que ocurre en esta primera parte y no me dejaría nada.

Visualmente la verdad que aguanta bastante bien el tipo. Hay un botón que te permite ver los escenarios tal cual eran en la versión original de 2001. He de decir que me parece flipante que algo así existiera hace ya más de 20 años, entiendo su merecida fama en cuanto a innovación en los shooters, pues a día de hoy, es perfectamente jugable y disfrutable, aun con sus cositas.

Me mola mucho el doblaje que tiene al español, le da muchísima potencia a la hora de sentirte el jefe maestro. El temita principal es bastante icónico y entre fases a veces te meten algún temita cañero que te invita a creerte un crack en esto de matar bichos.

En general me parece una buena puerta de entrada a la saga y un icono en el panorama de los shooters. Siguiendo esta estela me molaría jugar también los Half Life, que también he oído (más si cabe) maravillas y pueden servirme para comprender a nivel contextual lo que han supuesto para la industria. Sí es cierto que vine por la trama y en este caso, es de los puntos más flojos que me he encontrado, aunque los terminales expandían guay la información que vas deduciendo pero al estar ocultos es un poco jodienda no acceder a ellos si no los encuentras. La experiencia general es notable, rondaría un 7.

Had problems with the checkpoint system in places which made the game quite frustrating.
Hoards of enemies in tight spaces made the game feel very claustrophobic at times.


C'est le pire jeu auquel j'ai pu jouer de toute ma vie et ça mérite pas que je fasse des paragraphes, trouvez un jeu avec un level design aussi médiocre que celui là je vous donne 100 ans bonne chance

É um jogo extremamente repetitivo e cansativo apesar de ser importante e moldar muito do que seria a saga Halo no futuro.

A história introduz bem muitos conceitos do mundo mas não fecha praticamente nenhuma trama que propõe.

Valeu a pena jogar pela boa introdução na saga mas não mostrou nenhuma qualidade no fator "replay".

A great game in it's own right, it's a shame that I'm too drunk on the brilliance of Reach to recognize this for all of it's strong suits.

for 343's first crack at halo not a bad start, but it completely ruined the style the OG had. and for some reason they used the pc port of CE which has worse lighting and style in my opinion. not bad but could be better

This review contains spoilers

por donde carajo empiezo este halo es el comienzo de una gran franquicia, que es un puto pilar de los videojuegos(en mi opinion) tiene un gameplay bastante basico pero bueno estamos hablando del remaster de un juego del 2001, una cosa que si odie es cuando enfrentas al flood al final del juego en esa parte es un dolor de huevos porque tienen spawn infinito en ciertas zonas del juego donde tenes puntos muertos y como no tengas la escopeta y el rifle de asalto para controlarlos se llega a complicar demasiado, hasta que llegas al final y tenes que sacrificar el rifle de asalto para usar los rpg para romper unas escotillas porque lanzarle granadas es muy jodido por otro lado esta la conduccion que bueno no se usa mucho en este juego pero la unica queja que tengo es el wartogh el cual se vuelve de goma y rebota cada dos por tres siendo bastante inestable pero eso solo pasa como 2/3 veces asique no es la gran cosa, y de historia diria algo pero los terminales llenan casi todos los huecos del momento danto mas lore (estos terminales no estaban en el juego original)

Halo Combat Evolved is a groundbreaking but flawed classic. When it hits it hits but then you have missions like the Library that are just a slog and a lot of reused levels. Not really much interesting to say. Fantastic game that had sequels and prequels that were simply better. Well some of them.

As for the Anniversary changes themselves, yeah it suffers from "let's make everything brighter!" and as a result sacrificing part of the tone and atmosphere. Letting you switch back to the old graphics while maintaining the upgrade in performance is still worth it though and I'd be lying if I said there weren't some changes I like better.

All they did was rip assets from Halo 3 and Reach and call it a day. The art style clashes with the original art direction, causing some parts of the game to just look bright and ugly. None of the choices made by Saber Interactive fits well here. Especially, and I mean especially, the use of mocap in every cutscene. It's so ugly it's annoying. Whenever you play it on MCC, just keep the graphics the same.

bitches be like I have a whole life ahead of me. no you don't the flood is coming

This review contains spoilers

It's cool playing one of the biggest video games of all time for the first time decades after it came out. It's very clear how many elements of this game were used by others in the FPS genre. There are moments that are absolutely exhilarating - tearing through the self-destructing core on the warthog comes to mind - but other levels are an absolute SLOG. Looking at you, Library. The story was pretty straightforward but painted a nice military sci-fi universe, and while the gunplay suffered from a lack of diverse enemies it was exciting enough to make me interested in the second game.

(Played through MCC; Old graphics)
Initially (almost a month and a half ago) I quit this game at The Library and said I didn't like it and that the negatives outweigh the positives for me. Thanks to a friend, I ended up returning and finishing the game.

Yeah, I like this one. To list of the negatives first, the...I'd say halfway point (AOTCR, 343 Guilty Spark, and The Library) is a big low point of the game, I feel the health system can be really annoying at points, and I feel the checkpointing and the like enemy placement can be wack sometimes.
But past those, the game's pretty good.
Also the old graphics are like really nice to look at for me. Both because of that like "ah yeah, the look I remember when I would play some of this as a kid" feeling and because I feel the old graphics kinda nail things better, namely the lighting in some areas where the Anniversary graphics make them too lit up

wat a phenomenal game!!!!! it was so good!!!!!!!!!!!
i played in da original graphics and i loved da gunplay and how every scenario felt like it's own challenge, and da music and sound design!!!!!!!!!! it was amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No hay mucho que decir, es un clásico. Tremendo update gráfico, eso si, al menos comparado con la primera vez que lo jugué. Yo tampoco soy el mismo, tuve que disminuir la dificultad en The Library :(

Rejoguei o jogo de pouco em pouco e eu descobri uma coisa que eu não tinha percebido na minha primeira gameplay. Eu amo esse jogo, do fundo do meu coração. A atmosfera pode ter sido estragada pela versão Anniversary (graças a Deus dá pra colocar os gráficos originais) e ele é datado em várias partes mas eu genuinamente não consigo descrever o carinho que eu tenho por ele.
É até um pouco difícil pra mim fazer essa review porque esse jogo é sensacional e é muito íntimo pra mim falar sobre ele. Claro, o jogo repete muito cenários, a gameplay em algumas partes não é tão boa mas eu criei um apego tão forte que eu as vezes só quero rejogar esse jogo de novo e de novo.
É esquisito como a pouco tempo atrás eu só via esse jogo como um começo sólido pra franquia e isso acabou evoluindo pra ele se tornar um dos melhores jogos que eu joguei.
Esse jogo é apenas incrível.

Played with Game Pass via MCC. This was a nostalgic trip. However I remember enjoying this game more growing up. Gameplay is fun and engaging. However, the story felt underwhelming.

This game has a few problems that prevent if from matching the masterpiece that it is based on, but the foundation is so strong that it doesn't really matter. My biggest gripe is that they based it off of the inferior PC port from the time, but that doesn't stop the game from being incredibly fun.

After 15+ years, I always believed I had finished Halo: CE on PC back in the day. After replaying it, I don't think that was ever true. My main vivid memory of playing Halo on PC were the custom multiplayer mods and maps. Playing Slayer on Hyrule Field with all of the weapons from Ocarina of Time will probably be engrained into my brain.

Regardless, my memory was at fault in regard to finishing Halo CE's campaign and after finishing it a few days ago, it's way better than I remembered. To start, the graphical upgrade thanks to the anniversary edition makes this game feel like a recent release. I also loved being able to freely toggle the anniversary graphics and the original Xbox graphics. I have a soft spot for the old graphics and, in some areas, I prefer them, but the leap in graphic fidelity is astounding.

Gameplay-wise, this classic still holds up well. Gunplay is still exciting and fluid, the pacing of the campaign is solid and never dull, and the story is pretty good sci-fi. The plot points don't tread new ground, but it sets the foundation for the later games quite well as there are multiple opportunities to expand on multiple plot points. I played the game solo on Heroic and found that difficulty perfect. I was dying a decent amount, but nothing seemed unsurmountable.

I definitely recommend putting the time into finishing the first Halo as I really enjoyed my play-though. It was really fun re-familiarizing myself with the game as well as making sure I was paying attention to the story so I could understand where it is going to go for the sequels.

new graphics takes away from the experience in some areas

Switching between past visuals and updated ones at the press of a button blew my mind

Anyone who knows me is under no illusions about my thoughts on Halo: I like my least favorite Halo more than 95% of games that exist. And for a long time, I maintained that CE is in my top 3 Halo titles. Having just completed my third playthrough - I feel like I need to complicate this perspective.

CE is often criticized for its repeated interiors that seemingly stretch on forever, the same textures stretched floor to ceiling for room after room, even in the Anniversary remaster. This is doubtlessly archaic but focusing on the texture work is a misdiagnosis of the accurate level design frustration. The checkpoint system is entirely broken and so many levels are too long. Why does Guilty Spark have to open 10 doors in The Library. Why couldn't it have been five? Or three?

The repetitious environments only grate when the arbiter of random chance assign a checkpoint to Chief when he's down to a single bar of health and facing down waves of Covenant that wind through a corridor that, sure, LOOKS like every other corridor, but also locks you within it in this odd checkpoint-induced, stage-padded purgatory. Nearly every level in CE could stand to be a few encounters shorter with checkpoints anchored to a precise set of coordinates.

I found the game longer in the tooth this time than I have in the past and downright frustrating at times. But here’s where things get interesting - although I was less impressed by CE on the whole this time, I became even fonder of its best missions. There is no shortage of effusive praise for The Silent Cartographer but it really does exemplify everything that makes CE a benchmark FPS. The island’s looping structure is a microcosm of the overall adventure, which begins aboard the Pillar of Autumn and ends there, too. You come to care for the fragile Marines who charge up the beachhead alongside Cheif, splintering the Covenenant’s line as you weave between generously large projectile-based gunfire.

Of course there is the small but purpose-built arsenal, each weapon occupying a unique role in the combat sandbox, alongside the Warthog which you can charge across the sand in - a vehicle put to even better use when you’re bouncing across the rolling Pacific Northwest hills of mission II. The gameplay is as simple as it is exquisite. And the tension just continues to ratchet up with the introduction of the Flood, who overwhelm and explode in equally impressive measure. As you begin to double back towards the end of the game, and the Covenant begin to fight the Flood as well as Chief, this sense of heightened chaos and environmental storytelling reaches a new pitch. The man versus army versus army trope complication is a ton of fun, best demonstrated by missions like Keyes.

And I feel like I better appreciated the eccentricies of the narrative this time. Guided by one of the medium’s absolute best scores, music stitches camp to macabre effortlessly, keeping the adventure contiguous despite how often it shifts tone. The Library, for as weak as its level design is, best exemplifies how extremely unique the tone here is. As Chief lays waste to countless Flood, death never more than a moment away, Guilty Spark lazes around the facility, spouting off facts like a college tour guide. This is all before Cortana pops up as the smartest one in the room to reprimand Himbo Chief for being so gullible and poke holes in the weasely facade of 343.

I feel about Combat Evolved the way I feel about Avatar or Star Wars (1977). There is a magic to seeing someone create a brand-new universe in front of your eyes, building on the work of their predecessors to create something informed by the past but totally unique and built for the future. I love the world of Halo. As I journey through my series replay this holiday I will likely find a new home for CE in my ranking, probably just beyond that top three, solely becuase of those aforementioned structural issues. But to begin where I began, just as CE does itself, my least favorite Halo game is still one of my favorite games of all-time. And CE is far from the bottom of my ranking, even after this more mixed replay.

"you know what the original halo was missing?"
"destroying the original atmosphere with excessive amounts of lighting"


À faire après Halo: Reach, franchement sympa pas mon préféré mais force est de constater qu’il a apporté sa petite pierre dans l’histoire des fps

The Flood is the best enemy in the Halo series, period. Awesome game

if i were making a remake of halo i would attempt even a little to capture in fancy new graphical detail even a hint of what makes the original games aesthetic look so unique, but thats just me i guess. thankfully they let you swap between the original and remake graphics at any time with a single button press, which is a fantastic feature i wish all videogame remasters had to include

anyway cant speak for the gameplay, i was kind of carried by the friend i played with but had a good time even with my extreme lack of familiarity with the genre. all the levels were way longer than i expected, but were pretty cool, and looping back through them backwards was a fun way to reuse levels, i respect an upside down castle any day

Played solo, first playthrough.

Halo CE holds up quite well, it's just tough enough at times to take some grit, the ambiance and sound design is fantastic, level design is pretty solid though it gets repetitive at times. The weapons are a bit underwhelming, and certain enemies (the Flood) can be a gigantic pain in the ass, but for the most part it's a solid experience all the way through.