Preview: Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary

Is it really necessary to remake a game that’s only ten years old and still freely available? The first game in the Halo series, Combat Evolved, is still up for grabs in the Xbox Live marketplace, and discs can be picked up second-hand from retailers up and down the country for around $10. While the game came out on the original Xbox, the 360 can play it just fine. So what’s the point in a remake?

Well, there are a few things that might make the idea of Halo: Anniversary appealing. The first is that a number of gameplay tweaks have been included to make certain areas less confusing (read: less infuriating), and the developer who’s taken over the franchise from Bungie, 343 Industries, has also apparently filled some plot holes in the game.

While we didn't get to see much story, we did get the chance to see the new 'guiding' through difficult levels demonstrated. PC World played through one 10-minute section of preview code, set in the dark, swampy forest level of the original game, called Guilty Spark. The forest, which was a fairly confusing one in the original game, now guides you toward the building at the end of it in a relatively straightforward way by better lighting your path. The extra guidance is surprisingly welcome - there’s only so much wandering around the same area one can do before you just want to kill some bad guys.

One thing we noticed is that the enemies are a little tougher than they were in the original game. While we only got to fight grunts and jackals, the AI seemed clever. The jackals would dart around and dodge the way they did in Halo: Reach, and the grunts threw sticky grenades frequently.

What’s got everyone excited isn’t playing the same old levels and fighting the same old enemies, though – it’s doing it remastered in glorious, detailed HD graphics. And Halo: Anniversary is certainly more detailed and textured, with brighter colours. However, if you get tired of the new look, pressing the back button on your Xbox controller will show you ‘legacy’ mode, and you’ll be able to see exactly what the graphics looked like ten years ago and make a direct comparison. It’s very nifty, and will excite many who played the original game and are into a bit of nostalgia.

In the end, we couldn’t decide whether we preferred the new or old look. While the new look is more detailed – and extremely impressive given it was created on the same engine the original game was made on – it has a lot of jagged edges, and doesn’t hold a candle to Halo: Reach. And we’re rather attached to the old look. It’s not better than the new graphics, of course, but we get warm fuzzies from the memories nonetheless. Either way, it’s great to have both options, and it only takes a couple of seconds to switch between them.

There was no multiplayer in the preview build we looked at, which for many years has been the most played element of Halo. But Halo: Anniversary is going to be on show at the Armageddon Expo in Auckland this year – let’s hope we all get to give it a go then. For now, all we know is that the multiplayer will be built on the Halo: Reach engine, and includes classic maps like Beaver Creek and Damnation. And there will be jetpacks.

The thing with a franchise like Halo is that it doesn't matter whether we like it or not (although we do, thus far). When Halo: Anniversary comes out mid-November, it's going to fly off of shelves faster than a pink bullet from a Needle Rifle. What we can't wait to find out is whether the series' new parents 343 Industries manage to impress the gamers who've stuck with the series since day one.

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