I played the first Halo back when it wss first ported to PCs a few years after its XBox debut, and back then I found it an enjoyable enough romp that wasn't anything new to someone who'd already been playing FPS games for years on PC; to this date my lukewarm take has been that a significant part of Halo's smash success is because it was a functionally playable FPS on a console. Coming back to revisit it now - under the Anniversary title - it's actually quite striking just how badly it has aged. All of its issues were present on the original release as well, but in 2023 they come across especially bad. The level design is bland and full of copy/paste corridors (and half the levels are recycled in the first place), the checkpoint system feels erratic, the combat starts feeling like a chore once the Flood have appeared and are in full swing, and the two-weapon mechanic somehow feels even worse now than it did originally. The sad thing is that there is a great game hiding underneath all of that, because it's full of so much potential and great ideas - but it feels barely finished despite its (at the time) AAA presentation.

I had to push myself to finish this because I've made it a mission for myself to play through the Master Chief collection, but I think in this day and age - especially if you come from a PC gaming background - this is a game only an established fan could love while viewing it through nostalgia-tinted glasses. That's completely valid and I don't discount those opinions (god knows how many mediocre games I have a fondness to because of when I originally played them), but without that attachment the original Halo feels like a relic left behind.