The CE Remake has to do better | A Critique of Combat Evolved Anniversary 

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I think Halo CE Anniversary opened my eyes as a kid to graphics not being everything, and how important art direction can be

I can't believe just how much difference changing just the lighting and the color of the cryo area of the autumn did, makes me think that when they made it they thought the darkness was an issue to be solved instead of a big part of why the art direction is so good on the original

I think replacing CE's artstyle with reach was a bad choice. CE had its own artstyle that deserved a high quality remake. not to be Decanonized and replaced with reach. CE had some of the best designs for halo and we have never seen them return. the elites looked so awesome.

Think you shouldve redesigned the marines too. The design of the marines of CE is almost forgotten but is defo my favourite

It feels like CE anniversary was remaster room by room with each team who did a room having no idea what the context or story was, like they technically on paper improved things, but completely missed the original intention of the artistic choices made for CE

Bouta' watch the Swedish man flame 343 for 40 minutes

My main problem was always the atmosphere of the INDOORS of 343 Guilty Spark. There used to be so much blood and very little lighting in the original, where in the remaster, it’s the exact opposite. Great work as always. 👍

The lighting on the Halo in CE reminds me of clinical or hospital lighting. Clean to point of being sterilized. A clean room on planetary scale. Fitting considering the Halo's purpose.

we really need to push videos like these as the community to 343 or whoever is working on the remaster, not harass but help showcase what the fans want and maybe help them and whatever contract workers are on it if so know what halo ce is and give a glimpse into how it should be remastered

The entire issue with the Forerunner aesthetic in CE is in Classic the art style is ancient civilisation, in Anniversary it's like they're still alive

One thing about the swamp area in the flood level is the grey, almost yellow fog. A little bit of foreshadowing to the grey yellow of the flood.

20:40 I actually liked when you removed the blue light completely from the scene. It looks closer to the original and more ominous.

343 made the forerunner stuff just too busy and less ancient, it’s a shame that came into CEA as well. And yeh idk why the devs hated the idea of dark and moody atmosphere literally anywhere in the game. Just sticking lights literally everywhere!

Somebody send this to the art and lighting directors for the Halo Remake now before it's too late!

Haven’t finished the vid yet. This gonna be good! EDIT: Finished it. It was really good.

The only thing I ask of the remake, is to please for the love of god, keep the OG warthog design. The new design with the fuel tanks on the back has always felt like such a downgrade to me, I think it looks so much worse than the OG

I’m gonna be honest I clicked on this by accident

When I was playing the og halo trilogy for the first time on MCC last year, I remember really not liking the look of CE because it was set to CEA graphics by default. My biggest fault was just how… not good the cutscene mocap looked. It reminded me of that movie Food Fight.

Loved your redesign of the MK V armor, but what I'd really kill for is to see an updated version of CE's marine armor. It's easily my favorite in the franchise, but just got left in the dust with the first game and it makes me sad

I want them to basically massively upscale the original art style. Keep the same aesthetic and color palette. Take inspiration from Marcus Lehto’s recent update design. Just make it crisp and shiny. And for the gameplay, I want them to be respectful of the original feel, while maybe expanding on the intent of the original missions with enhanced technical capabilities, like making the areas bigger or more story-detailed (in an atmospheric way, not adding pipes and lights and lines everywhere). Stuff like the jackals and humans fighting the flood together. Similar to the Resident Evil remakes. With the Flood, have some sections be dark and needing the flashlight, covenant blood seeping down the walls, empty echoes and the hun of forerunner structure. Do not shy away from the blood, gore and violence. Also maybe even adding extra missions or optional bonus ones outside of the main campaign, like halfjaw’s mission on the flood-infested ship Infinite Succor.

Would love it if you did a video for Halo CE’s NPCs (Elites, Grunts, marines, etc) along with one of the rooms inside the weapons cache on 343 Guilty Spark, and some of the other levels that you didn’t touch on in this video. This whole time I thought 343 had overdesigned, but your video has shown that it’s more than that, and I’d love to see so much more of this. 100% make this a multi-part series.

I think most will agree to what I will propose here: Somebody (or somebodies) proficient in modding and art aplication *absolutely NEEDS* to make a mod (mostly) graphically remastering Anniversary edition, with Wernissage art from this video as a reference! Maybe even call it "Halo Combat Evolved: Wernissage Edition"!

Important Context: CEA's graphics are a result of 2 things. -Players between 2004-2011 had been asking for "realistic" "modern" retexturing of Halo CE because thats what gaming was doing at the time and players who misunderstood how graphics and art style work kept asking for more hyper realistic representation. The idea of a "less is more" implied details for gaming had been thrown out the window in a post 9/11 world where players wanted simulated reality, not fantasy settings. All gaming stusios and publishers threw everything including the kitchen sink to make games look and feel less like a videogame. Players on Waypoint, facebook, RU-vid, and other sites had been asking for what CEA IS for a long time. - When Bungie left and gave the keys to the kingdom to 343, Several comments before were made saying that Halo Reach was representing (for better or worse) how halo SHOULD have been (if they hadn't been micromanaged by Microsoft to devaite and if they had the technology and knowledge then they had now) visually, mechanically, and thematically. Halo Reach adds a lot of muddy, busy details to the original CE mark V concept for the Mark VB, Which was intended to be a retcon in production before the writinf changed to be about the SIIIs. That same "add more surface details" was applied to everythinf in reach for """realsim""". This was positively received. Note: i spent days on the forums agruing against this since basically its start wheb Halo 3 moved away from the graphics and style consistent between CE-2. I was boo'd off the forums. CEA injecting horrendous surface details to everything and making it busy, was celebrating at the time in 2011 after mods doing something simikair for years and the idea of "replacinf assets with modern ones" by the CMT with their various mods and SPV. I get why people are upset, but no one talked about in 2011, and the overwhelming majority of players until recently prefered CEA graphics, Especially New Halo players who think "the original graphics are too old looking etc" because they grew up in the time when "modern graphics" was the only thing out at the time. Now years later people finally figured out thwy dont actually like the Reach and 3 models dumped over the originals, but thats just too close to what Bungie would have wanted at the time (the ones that cared, most didnt by the time they left) and what mostnof thr fans wanted too. Side note About chief's armor. Originally it used the body of the Mark V B from reach and people hated it, and they changed it to what it is now. The armor itself looks bad only because of thebweord proportions of the CE model, when you see the CEA armor in other media (official digital paintings, Team Raven cameos, the Statue they released in 2011) looks really good, and the CEA inspired armor for Halo 4's mark V also looks phenomenal. Its not my preference, the fan made one by EXO Armor Labs is the one i think does it right. But the design is better represented when not locked to CE's inaccurate scaling of the body.

I'd almost prefer if they went nuts and remade 1, 2, and 3 into one huge campaign. Adding cut content and further connecting the games together.

I absolutely love your videos man, please upload more if you can. The facecam here was a nice touch too 👌

Marcus Lehto already beat you to the Mark V remake. Man was part of the original Bungie art team and put out an updated model a year or two ago. Looks amazing and is currently in use in a Halo 3 remake mod for Halo CE.

An ideal remake doubles down on what works and improves what didn't. If 343 wants to craft a remake of Resident Evil 2 or Dead Space quality, they need to maintain the visual simplicity of CE, and instead focus on redoing the weaker second half of the campaign. Keep the same biomes, but create new routes so you're not just backtracking everything you've done before.

I lighting in cea was one of the major reasons I didn’t look how cea looked

Haven’t even had enough time to hear what you have to say but I already agree

*For me personally I think the Reach art style made sense since the Covenant and UNSC just came from Reach. But definitely the environments and Forerunner structures needed to be much better.*

That Segway into the sponsorship was 🔥 Excellent video as always! Here's hoping the CE Remake Devs are taking notes.

The temple hallway for the second one came out beautiful

My biggest hope is that they dont try to shoot for a T rating

Bravo on the visual corrections! I am all for these types of videos

10:50 Holy crap! That looks so much better!

343's problem with Forerunner designs has always been that they don't treat these structures as ruins.

A 40 minute video about Halo aesthetics is exactly what I didn’t know I needed today

I never really stopped to look/appreciate the artwork, but after you made the adjustments to the silent cartographer, im feeling like we missed out on something truly amazing.

I would absolutely love to see a video series where you edit assets from CEA to make them look more the original like you did here

What always impresses me about your workflow is how much mileage you get out of such individually simple seeming actions. Like just needing two colors for most details to just work and somehow blending well into the image of a fully textured in-game asset to the point that it originally took me multiple videos of yours, where you didn't have a timelapse, to even realize that I wasn't looking at 3D models is insane to me. But yeah, you definitely found a really good middle ground between CE's intent and CEA's detail. I don't intuitively see why people like the look of early 3D era games like the original CE, so this kind of breakdown and redesigning effort really helps to illustrate where the critcism is coming from.

This is one of those game remasters that I try to just not think about because of how mad it makes me. Literally destroyed. The OG vision of CE. I’d love to see Nightdive take a crack at remastering CE if they got the license. They did an extremely good job with the system shock remake

that’s pretty wild that you were already making a video on cea when the announcement happened

It's always the change to lightning that makes me surprised, seeing how you darkened the environment opened my eyes to how bright the anniversary really is... they added too much information for the eyes, too much crap, too much light. As if the ones who made it were afraid that no one would notice their awesome texturing. It's as if artists would erase clothes from their characters, just because they want people to see how good their drawing of anatomy is, leaving us without realism with clothes and armour. Or when hollywood takes of a helmet from a fake 117 to proudly show emotions. I prefer your vision for lightning, over the anniversary lighting.

I think also one of the main problems with cea is forerunner architecture is the lack of bronze and soft lights

Yes, this And Lieutenant McKay, we need her presence and the other ODSTs in the remake if they ever make a good one

Now to beg the modding community to take on the task of fixing it this way!

Agree that drastically changing the art design was a big mistake and it's been brought up many times over the years. I'm curious why it's never been modded to my knowledge.

I love the changes! I agree that 343 butchered the original atmosphere of combat evolved. I'm excited for the remake but they are going to have to respect the originals amazing visuals.

I remember thinking when I first saw the Anniversary announcement trailer that it didn’t look quite right but I was just glad to see more Halo. In the end it definitely felt like something was lost. Your touch ups really improved the vibe. You made it feel more ominous and spooky which is really how Halo CE felt.

H2A is the definition of learning from your mistakes. That remaster was as perfect as they could get it.

Level 1: I would have left the colors in expect dimmed them to match the lighting but otherwise done the same as you did. Next Levels you did it perfectly. Armor: the helmet ended up looking too much like the reach MK V that is too tall and thin like it was smash in from the left and right at the same time

Whoever re-designed the armor in anniversary must have been literally huffing jenkem.

Keep at it, love what you do, especially the full redesigned stuff. Always Nice to see other artist workflows too, I should really use the spot heal tool more often

"Liminal spaces" Is the perfect descriptor. I hadnt even thought about that and have been lacking a good term to give off the vibe the old ruins used to give vs the 343 ones.

I'm so torn whether I want a faithful remake or a faithful reimagining... I adore Halo CE but I feel like if you remixed its weaknesses, added extra content from the Halo The Flood Novel while keeping the best missions you'd have a near perfect game on your hands... Halo SPV3 is a pretty great example.

dude I have to say it was refreshing to see you not entirely throw away (partially because you used it) the attempt the remaster made to bring new detail to the game. Yes, absolutely the atmosphere and intention behind shots used in cutscenes make the story beats hit. Some amazingly talented people have re-created whole cut scenes, with minor deviations I might add, that make the visual story telling work just as good and even better sometimes now with the advantage of newer technology. Your re-working of what the suit would look like, is spot on in my opinion, I liked the suit styles of the second Halo Wars armor, but if we were to look solely at the art and design set from this game, I think you knocked it out of the park! Thank you for taking the time to create this!!

Also don't forget this game was made so it can be played in 3D!

The only level that anniversary does somewhat right is the outside areas of silent cartographer. Seeing your way of fixing the forerunner room reminded me of halo 3s a bit

Really happy to see this video. There's been lots of posts and quick videos on the topic, but a deep dive like this was really needed.

My brother in christ that master chief armor you made is just chefs kiss

We seem to have gone through a prolonged philistine phase with these remasters - the age of 'Monkey Christ' restoration. Capcom are leading the way with their remakes, showing a deep appreciation for the aesthetics of their beloved IPs. So hopefully we do one day get to play the Halo CE of sweet and unreliable memory made fully real and in all its spartan glory.

I happily clicked on this on purpose, its always good to hear more about how the next Halo game can implement new things to give new and old stories a clean polish

Remastering the remaster damn this looks so much better

Man, I’m glad it wasn’t just me that noticed the cryo room had way too much unnecessary yellow in it. Just yellow stripes everywhere. Also, great video as always. You’re becoming a legend! Each video gets more impressive!

When you were redesigning Master Chief, I was thinking how the black parts needed more blue, as so much detail was hidden, and some of it blended together, you can see this working, as the old Master Chief had the blue, and it helped with the detail, and the black parts didn't blend together (it was the pouches that blended together mostly)

damn, the work you did to those levels is AMAZING, i think you may have swung the pendulum just a little far back on the armor, but fixing the proportions was huge and the work is still awesome

To be honest i think halo cea suffers from being Overdesigned, thankfully they learned and improved on that aspect in halo 2A

I'm just glad you can still play this game in the original art asset mode in the Anniversary Edition which is my preferred way of playing it(when I'm not playing it on my OG Xbox that is). I've been a professional character modeler/rigger in the games industry since the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube era, and there's a lot of things this remaster does wrong from an art aesthetic point of view. They're crushing the blacks and whites by going too high contrast with the textures. With this particular ad hoc lighting and rendering, you need to make sure your tones are tethered in the middle range. Meaning you don't want to paint colors too bright or too dark because it'll get lost in the more limited lighting mode that gives you less range. Either you light the environment properly or you "paint" light in the texture maps and use some sort of low cost vertex lighting or something. Also, when it comes to games from the Gen 6 era, there's a delicate balancing act you have to play when it comes to three things. -Texture resolution -Polycount -output resolution of the image When one of these is out of balance, things look off. For example, when texture resolution is too high for the existing polycount to support it, it gives it that flat fake billboard effect.. and when the texture resolution is too low for the existing polycount, it makes everything seem "blurry" and blobby. This isn't the fist remaster that has made these mistakes. Bully Scholarship Edition and the Price of Persia remasters on PS3/X360 were both awful for the exact same reasons. Great video, btw! I agree with all your points.

I think the remaster devs, in being told they needed to redo the graphics, set out to correct how dark and empty the original game was. And, of course, the remaster was redoing the art to try and match what Bungie had evolved into for Forerunner, Covenant, etc. so it looked cohesive. I think the darkness was a common criticism from players. I know I definitely hated how dark the library was and how my flashlight kept cutting off. Other games of this era also used this flashlight mechanic, like Half Life. I think it was partly because it was a big "wow" factor at the turn of the century. Almost all lighting was static because it was baked into the textures when the maps were compiled. Computer processors couldn't handle anything other than simple dynamic lighting. A flashlight was one of the few dynamic lighting effects of the day and developers turned it into a gameplay mechanic. One where you couldn't have it on all the time, because they put a timer on it for no reason other than to take it away from you. I hated that mechanic. You can argue that it adds to the mood when fighting zombies, or zombie-esque enemies, but to me it's not at all fun to not be able to see what you're being attacked by or shooting at. I especially hated those parts of HL:EP1. It artificially adds difficulty, but hurts bad players more (which included myself back then--I was definitely not that good or skilled). So I think Bungie made some levels darker to set the mood but also to force the flashlight mechanic. Technical limitations would also have mattered because every extra light in a level adds to the time it takes to compile the map, and dynamic lights had to be used judicially, so overall, fewer lights. When I first played the remaster in 2011, I wasn't initially aware of anyone's criticisms. I saw it was much brighter, but I didn't really think about it other than, oh, this is pretty! And it's a lot easier to see the Flood now. Hallelujah! I've seen some videos on the topic, and I get it now. It does indeed change the vibe. Your photoshop work really does bring home how "busy" the remaster was and how overlit it is. The original was too dark, repetitious, and bland (because of the times), but the remaster really went all the way in the opposite direction. In fact, I find this is a problem in modern video games--there's too much detail now and it actually makes it harder to play (FPS's is what I'm thinking of). I'm by no means an awesome gamer, but it's a lot easier to see what's going on in Halo 1 vs. Halo 4. Halo 3 is something of a sweet spot to me. I don't know how much of that is actually the art but it feels the most comfortable. I think the Halo 2 remaster does a good job.

Cool to see your edits to CE:A artstyle :) The 2nd one I like a ton (20:42) I didn't think you would be so bold to try and redo Master Chief's armor! It turned out great though

These were great but that CEA Chief rework was SUCH a glow up! I love him.

I wish 343 wasnt so focussed on graphics and more so the story/chain of events in the gameplay and the story itself I played Master's Halo CE mod; Halo Spv3 and omfg, the music, new items, the MAPS- there are new map areas on Silent Cartographer and other maps that made me bust several amounts of nut and I felt as though it was an expanded version of CE made by Bungie. CE levels are my fav and SPv3 took it an extra step forward. There's a mission where you have to evac marines who are getting clapped at alpha base and after you clear the area- multiple pelicans all surround the valley coming towards you all filled with survivors, you can see them unload and secure the base later on near 04's demise, chief (the player) finds himself back at alpha. Packed with sentinels- big and small ones, flood, covenant, and a few desperate marines were all fighting over Alpha base, after you arrive the objective is for the marines to stick with you and gtf out b4 more enemies come to shrek everyone there Most all die xD but at the end you have to get to a downed pelican with a handful of marines, defend against the flood while cortana makes repairs and then you finally gtfo with a couple survivors if youre quick enough to kill the hordes of flood Just the idea that the covenant all died, the marines were the next meal in line for consumption, then chief comes and saves their asses after barely making it out of the library and the infested T&R alive. Best part of 04 was chief being like the one true utility against the flood; doing WHAT HES SUPPOSED TO DO: before anything else- he is THE BANE OF THE FLOOD. As he should be. To me that was always his real purpose. Everything else was just him doing his job best he could until he was really needed Everyone on the Autumn died on 04 because they were following orders to secure cortana, Keyes, every human on the Autumn, all died for her- save for 5 survivors being Chief, Johnson, Locklear the pilot and that oni agent (I think?). And without our green-bean-killing machine, theyd have lost her not just to the covenant but to the flood. Theyd have been doomed if that happened CE remake needs to illustrate all of that, like how Spv3 did. Show us NEW elements/unused story that adds onto the existing remastered missions and doesnt compromise their authenticity and original progression/vibes. Thats what Spv3 did, its altered for the better, building on top of the originals in an expanded way that makes the player reminisce on the old while learning the new all at once. Instead of just one or the other.

11:17 i'd say if you're unsure, add some glows to the blue strip lighting in the bg, maybe play with the console lights. Glows go a long way if you know where to put'em. The added underlights under the bridge was a really good touch.

Halo CE in the artstyle of Halo Infinite would be sick. Especially the Forerunner designs from Infinite are perfection due to the classic style merged with the Halo 3 style while it have these Halo 5 textures on it.

I played Halo CE for the first time with this anniversary edition and I remember I kept trying to convince myself to play with the new graphics because of better quality but the original was just so much more aesthetic, atmospheric almost haunting. It was more visually pleasing but I couldn’t tell why.

I still want to see X-com aliens in a Covenant art style and Covenant in X-com's advent style. Elite wearing something Advent Officer like uniforms and something like a muton or Berserker in brute or hunter like armor.

Damn I havent seen a Raycon sponsor in a minute. Thought they died.

I particularly dislike the way the gap in the middle of the chest plate was exaggerated in the remake. In any case, really good photoshop skills, I thought you were gonna make a master chief abomination but it turned out great- good job!

other than art style, I want 343 to add more thing to Halo CE remaster like wild animals and more missions telling a greater picture of how Pillar of Autumn's crew and Chief fighting in Installation-04

Great stuff as always man. Love the Chief redesign at the end. Honestly wouldn't mind if they use the Infinite Mark V in the potential remake.

Halo CE is probably my favorite game ever. It's beautiful. Everything about it. Especially Master Chief's Mark V armor

Great work yet again! Mk V in CEA was a slap in the face, especially with the helmet and what's weird is the H4 Mk V helmet was way better while using some of the same design language. With the amount of re-used Reach assets, I feel the MK V from Reach would have been sufficient and less egregious in CEA. Infinite was a major leap in the right direction in terms of overall design and the Artists at 343 blessed us with the Reach MK V (which I think looks better than Bungie's take O.O) and then the CE re-imagine which while not 100% perfect is so damn close to it; I was so impressed by it that I forked out the cash ( I probably shouldn't have). I think 343 are onto something with their return to the original visual language created by Bungie. Infinite come up short in a number of places but one area it excelled in was its visual presentation in terms of design, architecture and atmosphere. I found it intensely nostalgic on my first playthrough and I sincerely hope 343 stick with it- Blues, Greens and Greys just work in the Halo setting and some of the glyphs and textures looked like hi-res re-imaginings of that wall feature on The Silent Cartographer. If it ain't broke, don't fix it! Good design isn't always visually complex and noisy, it should evoke feelings, create and add to the atmosphere, set mood and tone. When it comes together with good music and ambience you get immersion, suspension of disbelief and intrigue. If 343 apply the same overall designs from Infinite to a CE remake, I wouldn't be disappointed.

Tbh, I enjoy the *Halo: CE Anniversary* remake we have today. It has great lighting, holds up nicely and it has great weapon sounds and music. *Halo: CE Anniversary* and *Halo 2: Anniversary* were amazing in terms of remakes. Now the only Halo game I would want is *Halo 3: Anniversary.* Imagine the graphics, music and even the transformation of Flood hosts. 👀🔥👍🏻❤️

The lighting likely has to do with a trend around the time (and somewhat still ongoing) toward brighter games for better visibility on any monitor and under any conditions. Also with regards to the "ambient occlusion" it's actually a baked lightmap, something the new engine, and most new engines, can't do. It's a static, very large image of every shadow that was rendered out for the map that can't change, only be lit up.

More Wern! Excited to watch! Your voice is so soothing lol

Excited to watch your video! Also where did people hear this rumor/leak of a new Halo CE remake/reboot?

Loved that Silent Cartographer interior edit!

Glad you are back, you are such an amazing channel!

I kind of liked the orange highlights on the anniversary. I mean it makes sense right? Pillar of autumn, autumn is when leaves fall. Leaves fall when they’re orange or yellow.

@20:40 I actually like your version the better than the OG. The tan wall at the end and the bright light on the floor really beckons me to want to explore around the corner at the end of the room. Everything you did is much better.

If they remake Halo they’re gonna have chief take his helmet off just like the TV Show.

CE:A's worst offense is less the lighting, and I think the desecration of the art style as a whole. It's basically a Reach asset flip, and not only does this lose the mysterious, almost dreamlike 90's mecha-anime inspired visual style that CE and no other Halo since has had, but the Reach models just straight up do not align onto the CE skeletons properly. Jackals have no necks for example. Hunters look a bit silly since it's this big, bulky Reach model scrunched up to fit on the smaller CE hunter body. They also didn't model a chamber for the Magnum. In CE on the equip animation you see into the breach and see a round being chambered. In CE:A there's literally nothing there, just a big featureless flat slab of metal staring at you. It's hilarious it was missed since it's so obvious.

I hope they make it have a late 90s early 2000s sci-fi aesthetic. So it can look like what Combat Evolved was going for but with better graphics.

I think you did an awesome job on each of your "remaster remasters" lol. I really hope 343 nails this rumored CE remake on UE5

You are doing the fan base a service with the work you put into these videos.

I think time has not been kind to CE anniversary. It was definitely respectable for 2011, especially considering that Saber only had a year to make it. Game remakes have come a long way since then, which has raised people's expectations. I would love to see CE get the same treatment that Halo 2 got.

I flat out refused to buy the MCC edition until I found out I could select the original graphics. The game feels like valorant with the new graphics, it just feels cartoony and goofy compared to the original. The Darkness adds so much to the game and the tension and nervousness of walking through the levels almost waiting for an ambush. I mean they coded a flashlight into the game for a reason.

If CE was done right, they would have replaced the blueish Jackals with Skirmishers (just to visually acknowledge the difference them and the orange).

Hope they make a ODST DLC/Sidestory for the CE Remake based off the odsts in the flood book, maybe even including the half infected marine.