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.