The Halo series is one of those franchises that's reputation sort of overshadows the actual quality of the gameplay and narrative. For the longest time it was seen as the dude bro shooter (before getting dethroned by Call of Duty in that respect), which is a shame because this series under Bungie's direction was quite ambitious. You don't really see these sorts of stories in first-person shooters anymore. I've long since fallen off with the franchise, but the Bungie led entries will always occupy a certain corner of my brain.

Halo CE has a really strange start to its story when you think about it. You're already well into the convenant war, and it doesn't really explain what exactly is happening outside the most pressing matter. The Pillar of Autumn is on the run from a Convenant fleet, and eventually crash-land onto the ring world known as Halo. There you discover more secrets about the ring as the story and danger unravels in front of you. The game isn't especially long, but it utilizes its short run time to tell a pretty compelling story, while also planting the seeds of stuff that wouldn't get developed until much later. It's simple and effective, while also keeping a lot of the intrigue that Bungie's older games had.

Halo is arguably the game that made FPSs on consoles viable and incredibly popular, and for good reason. It laid the groundwork for a ton of mechanics that other games would implement in an attempt to capture even a fraction of Halo's success. Regenerating shields, once a novelty and very innovative, are basically the default nowadays and so many games use them. I can't imagine what the gaming landscape would look like without this game's existence. But that isn't the only reason why this game was successful. This game's first half is incredibly strong, with a good sense of escalation and forward momentum. The level design alone and approach to combat is what makes this game, and the rest of the Bungie led games, so special. Levels are open-ended enough where you can approach combat scenarios in a multitude of ways. The enemy AI is really something to behold, and on higher difficulties always keeps you on your toes with how aggressive and tactical they can be. The arsenal presented to you is diverse enough where most guns will provide a unique role, however some guns kind of feel underpowered and redundant. The Assault Rifle is especially guilty of this. Meant to be the human mid range weapon, your more often then not better off replacing it with the Covenant Plasma Rifle, or even the Plasma Pistol, which in this game is absurdly powerful. I'd also be remiss to not mention the Magnum Pistol, a gun so powerful that you're almost always happy to have one on hand, and that completely invalidates an enemy type. I'd say where the game falters is in the second half of the game. Once the new enemy type is introduced into the game, the levels become a horrible slog to go through and the difficulty spikes up quite intensely. It's somewhat redeemed by a very memorable final mission, but getting to that point can be an exercise in frustration.

The human character models look pretty outdated, even by 2001 standards. Stiff animation, puppet like mouth flaps, it's the one thing that holds this game back visually, which is a shame because the rest of the game still looks quite good. The Covenant designs are truly excellent, with great animations and audio barks. The environmental designs are also great, even if some of the textures can look outdated. At its worst, it looks of the time, but at its best I would think I was playing a modern game. On that note, I wouldn't recommend playing this game with the remastered graphics. While the attempt is noble, its way too overdesigned and often times would kill the mood of a given level. They make everything way too bright, and would add unnecessary flora to certain levels that actually has gameplay ramifications, as certain lines of sight become unusable,

The music in this game is simply put, legendary. Martin O'Donnell's score is at this point iconic, and once you hear it, it won't be leaving your head. There's a good reason why Gregorian choirs are so heavily associated with this game. It'd be one thing if the music was simply excellent, but the way it's implemented is what really elevates it. Bungie knew exactly when to play his score, so when you hear Truth And Reconciliation Suite kick in, you knew the moment was important.

Halo CE remains a really great first attempt at a 3D FPS by Bungie. They had years of experience with Marathon to get this right, and it paid off big time. It would launch them into levels of success beyond their wildest imaginations, and would lay the groundwork for their trajectory as a company. A lot of the ideas they had for the first game would be later refined in future entries, and while it might not always shine in the context of modern gaming sensibilities, I still think even more than 20 years it holds up.

Campaign is fairly good for what it is in the first half, second half is kind of mid with too much levels being repeated but its fine.

The Library is probably the only shit level in this game, and that's because it encapsulates everything wrong with CE which is rehashed level design that goes on for way too long.

As always the weapons aside from the plasma gun are good, the sandbox elements to fuck around in are there, the music goes hard and the vehicles are especially great.

Personally I always thought that the HL2 Buggy was good for its time but honestly after revisiting CE like this I'm really starting to doubt that, the vehicles have aged incredibly well.

All & All I can see why so many people hold this up for be a masterpiece, even if it has some glaring issues.

Funny thing is how I'd always think about using the new graphics with a better PC but once I got that I still stick to the old graphics haha!

Just look at my CE review for a general overview of the campaign but in terms of it's own game CEA sits in a weird spot.

The new visuals feel pretty neat at best and incredibly out of place at worst, a big mixed bag on that front. Although the feature to switch between new and old graphics is incredibly good.

The multiplayer map pack for Reach was very nice though, added a ton more maps to play and all felt very good while having interesting renditions of the classics.

Overall this review is more of Halo CE compared to a individual review of anniversary. However I do want to say that as a product anniversary provides. It's new graphics and cutscenes are not the best in fact there outright ugly most of the time. However because of the option to just switch to the old graphics its really not a huge problem.

Halo CE was a genre defining game that has only been matched by its two sequels. Because of its age and its overshadowing you'd think that Halo CE might pale in comparison, however CE to me is the most memorable of the 3 games. It's story is fun, movement is fun and floaty, and its weapons, enemies, levels and multiplayer all holdup extremely well. The overpowered pistols, the introduction of the flood and the less serious aura compared to its newer counterparts. Halo CE is a great game and its co-op campaign and multiplayer are still great by all means and is definitely worth replaying

Played it first time in 2019 from Halo:MCC and it became one of my favorite fps of all time and personally my favorite halo game despite its flaws.
What makes gameplay so special are AI enemies, environment, climate, perfect gunplay and this music OOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
But yeah there are some elements that can make people go insane, even myself. This one mission with bridges, which never ends, some flood enemies cough, cough with rocket launchers are painful on every difficulty level.
I appreciate this game even more after replaying campaign alone on legend. Its one of those games that gets better when playing on the highest difficulty.
Split screen is nice. Multiplayer can be fun, but I think every other halo game is better in that aspect. Everyone use magnum and nothing else.
No matter what I will love this game forever.

The updated graphics of anniversary are rough and lose a lot of the fun style of the original in exchange for a fairly soulless modern sci-fi look. The props I'll give it are its lighting is significantly better, still knowing when to go darker for drama but holding it at a playable level. I can't really get too salty at these graphics considering how piss easy it is to toggle between them and the original style.

Combat Evolved has quite an interesting story that misdirected me at certain points. At the start it felt like it was going to something hyper-militaristic with the marines invading Halo out of fear because they believe it's a religious idol for the covenant. However once you meet the Sparks and the Flood it's more sinister existence becomes clear. I was over the moon with a story that didn't feel overly predictable, it was really fun to watch those cutscenes.

Core gameplay is awesome and the level design has a natural flow to it. All the weapons and vehicles feel so nice and can easily be thrown around, the floaty jumps are also a great time. Level design is very solid, there's clearly some limitation imposed on them likely by the system it was originally designed for although I don't know that for sure, resulting in you going back through places you have already gone through. The game doesn't make this feel unnatural, it feels pretty good and makes the settings feel a lot better explored.

However The Library remains utter garbage. It's a shame that a level that's set up to answer a lot of questions falls so flat. It's just an extremely bland circle you run around for far too long. This is just a sore moment in an otherwise great game.

Played with my boyfriend, Master Chief Collection has excellent co-op that worked pretty much flawlessly.

Halo CE is a certified classic. The campaign does an excellent job of establishing the universe while providing amble variety in level design and gameplay variety. From linear corridors to large open areas, to sniping across valleys the first half of the campaign is everything you want from an FPS campaign. The mid game twist adds both to the story and gameplay in equal measure, However it is from here that Halo begins to run out of steam. The last few levels have you going through the same areas as eariler missions just with hordes of enemies, which is the only major blemish on this games legacy. Thankfully the game picks up again in the last sequence to end on a high.
The multiplayer of this game feels like the most fun alpha ever created. The gunplay feels as good as modern shooters but wonky weapon balancing and spawning into bullets stops me from saying its objectively great but I had lots of fun regardless.
Overall while showing its age in places CE is still Awesome.

I'm a big fan of 360 games, but I never got around to playing the first two games, and I'm finally making up for it. Overall, I really enjoyed my time with Halo CE, aside from some of the backtracking portions, but they weren't too bad. I especially enjoyed the tense and eerie atmosphere leading up to the flood reveal. It was a perfect way to lead into a complete shift in the game's tone.
And I have got to say the anniversary edition's graphics were really something else with how they managed to ruin the vibe of every level when I swapped to see how it looked compared to the original. Just worse in every way.