The reason why the game ran on the Reach engine, is because they didn't want their player base split from the main game (which obviously at the time was Reach). It wasn't because of time constraints
I personally really like the original CE graphics. It’s like you’re playing though an oil painting at times. It honestly part of what makes this my comfort game.
I will say, CE:A didn't preserve the horror aspect in its graphics, but the Keyes terminal...good lord...that's the single most chilling thing in the games.
It’s also based on passages from the book of the game, Halo: The Flood. They…aren’t any less chilling, especially as we effectively see what Keyes is thinking and trying to do during all that time: basically, when he realises the Grsvemind wants to find Earth, he distracts it for as long as possible by feeding it all his memories from childhood to recent except the data it really wants, and he uses the CNI transponder carrier wave itself as a life ring of sorts. He’s literally run out of memory by the time the Chief hears him screaming right before he dies: he’s screaming “NOOOOO!” at the Flood in defiance. If John didn’t destroy the Earth data the Gravemind wanted when he smashed Keyes’ skull in to get the neural implants, the Flood certainly lost it later when ODSTs arrived and burned the creature (or was it covenant?) even moreso when the semi conscious Jenkins fighting against the Flood controlling him destroys the ship by making it crash at a book exclusive ODST character’s request, to prevent the Flood using it to escape.
Keyes. Jacob. Captain. Service number 01928-19912-JK. Keyes. Jacob. Captain. Service number 01928-19912-JK. Keyes... Jacob...? Captain.... Service number 01928-19912-JK... "YOU WILL _NOT_ HAVE ME!!" ... _"...We already do..."_ ___ Absolutely chilling. The second half of Combat Evolved (and particularly The Library and Keyes) IMO should be classified as survival horror, sort of like o.g. Resident Evil 4. Absolutely god-tier environmental horror, it's not too scary in gameplay, but in the context of the story, the Flood are nightmare fuel. CE's more bleak and horror-driven tone while still keeping a somewhat hopeful atmosphere is a big reason why it's my personal favorite Halo game.
Halo 2 Anniversary was great. It’s a shame it still hasn’t been fixed for series x. It’s probably the best thing 343 has put out and they’ve just ignored the issue.
@@peterjordansonthe2nd731 Missing screen space reflections, (think earth city beach, and delta halo lake with the temples and cliffs all not being reflected) and any light source flickering like a bitch under weapons fire, and of course the framerate, which was made to fit within xbox one from 2014 at 60fps, which cant run on series x at 60fps properly, issues were introduced with the later updates, most important is crashing issues in co op, but we have the game now avaliable on pc which is really cool to be honest.
I honestly don’t get why they haven’t made a proper halo ce remake yet. There’s no reason not to aside from maybe lack of employees or funding. People would love it. And yes I mean a full remake. Improve on everything from the original, and add new content and stuff on top of it. Mainly for the multiplayer as it hasn’t aged too well.
@@PkMyMuMMaNlook at the resident evil remakes. A remake done right is a guaranteed money printer. But this is 343 we’re talking about, I wouldn’t trust them with a McDonald’s order at this point…
I saw almost nobody hate Halo CE anniversary when it was first released. The main gripes people had was it being an old game for $40. People generally liked the newer graphics, hell some people even preferred it.
The issue with the graphics is that not only did the intended art direction get lost in translation by making the game look too brightly lit in scary levels like 343 Guilty Spark as well as making the Halo Ring’s forest environments look too much like earth, it also completely fucks up the geometry of enemy/environmental hit boxes. For instance, missing a head shot on an elite because their head hit box was lower than the Anniversary model would show or the shot gets stopped by a tree that has a wider hit box on classic graphics. Don’t even get me started on the fake wall that hides a supply cache on the anniversary version of The Library.
@@KirksyBoutitsaying you haven’t experienced brightly lit levels is horseshit. They filled 343 guilty spark full of bright colorful lights in what’s supposed to be a dark scary forest
I don’t know man. I don’t remember there being a backlash against the game itself, more so complaining leading up to the game’s release about full priced remakes becoming more and more popular, even though this one was $40 I think. I still have it but I also have the MCC and the original Xbox console/Halo so I admit I haven’t played it in years but I enjoyed the hell out of it
This was back when more *normal* people made up the Halo consumer base. Nowadays only Halo fans talk about Halo, which is why the discussions are way more fanatical and overexaggerated.
I wish they would add the original menus into Halo MCC you load up Halo combat evolved you get the original menus you load up Halo 3 and the original menu pops up before you start the game
I remember busting my ass to get all the achievements for Halo: CE Anniversary. Getting "That just happened" was challenging but if you're careful and play the mission enough you'll memorize enemy spawns, you can also save scum it. "Speed Reader" was torture since even with 30 minutes you have to rush and do all cheeses to get it done which puts you at risk of slipping up and dying. There was also one on Two Betrayals where you can't pick up any new weapons which includes dying and respawning.
Halo: CE Anniversary is in a strange position as it really was my first Halo game so I have some nostalgia. Having no prior association with the OG game, I was running through the logic of better graphics = better. After playing through Marathon, I see this was wrong.
@@TrojanGamer10 Honest Negotiation Suite is supposed to be a direct remake of Truth and Reconciliation Suite and plays in the same area of the game. Edit: Only the remake plays in game. The OG is OST exclusive. See my comment below.
Wait? What? The second one was from the last part of Silent Cartographer "Rock Anthem to Save the World" and the first one from another part of the game entirely. Maybe its because if the country-version and this is some weird localization bs?
Ok I did some research. Both these songs play at the 7:15 mark in the truth and reconciliation suite and honest negotiation suite respectively. The OG one is exclusive to the OST and does not appear anywhere in game. The remake one is just rock in a hard place which is just a remake of rock anthem for saving the world. This plays in the silent cartographer structure. My source is the halopedia article on truth and reconciliation suite.
Nah, the Reach Plasma Pistol is actually amazing. Not just for its charged shot, but for its primary fire. It hits HARD on Legendary. It's a go-to for me in both Campaign runs and during Invasion matches when playing as a Spartan after killing an Elite player.
That whole trick with the original game running underneath was pretty genius, and 343 proved it could make for a pretty great remaster which preserved game feel with H2A. They just botched the art style sooooo bad. A proper remake of CE could be pretty cool.
Would have loved that though would’ve been even more work most likely and still would have been heavily criticized. With that being said, everytime I play through all the games again, Halo CE is always by far the toughest one to get through. Unlike even Halo 2, the gameplay and movement just feel incredibly outdated
That was their original plan, there is even concept art showing stuff not possible in CE's engine like the front of the Autumn being split in two during the Maw. They changed it when one of the team members suggested to keep the debug switching graphics feature.
@@danieltravelstead yeah, 4 games in 4 years is a really weird thing for them to have done. I felt the main 343 team should've tried reimagining CE in reachs engine before they worked on 4 in order to be better prepared
As much as I love the original covenant designs it makes sense from a lore standpoint why they would look more like Reach since the game takes place not long afterwards. Same with the look of the weapons. As far the atmosphere goes I wish they kept it more eery and dark because brightening up everything does make things less creepy.
It really doesn’t make that much sense, not any more than the other games, Halo 2, ODST, and 3 take place the same year as Reach, it makes sense that scouting parties looking for the sacred rings would have different equipment than a force trying to glass a whole planet.
@ZacTheFirst I mean, both the elites seen on Reach and the elites seen on Alpha Halo are part of the Fleet of Particular Justice, so it makes sense for them to share similar harnesseses, while the elites seen in Halo 2 are part of the Fleet of Sacred Consecration, and the elites in Halo 3 are part of the Fleet of Retribution, so they wear different harnesses.
@@CloneCommanderCrater1102 yet the Marines in Halo Anniversary are wearing ARMY outfits from Halo Reach and not marine uniforms, the ARs are different, etc. They didn’t do it for consistency, just laziness. They didn’t even try to make the models look natural in the environment which is why gold elites look bad in Anniversary but look great in Reach.
@@ZacTheFirst yeah you and @clonecommandercrater1102 have valid points. I definitely can’t deny the laziness in animation and the fact the marines should look different 💯
That’s still not an excuse to be unfaithful. It’s canon that different fleets often had different armor configurations depending on their role, and the whims of their commanders. The zealots from Reach with the cool ornate looking armor? They’re not from the Fleet of Particular Justice (Thel Vadam’s fleet). They were with the Fleet of Valiant Prudence. A pre-invasion strike force sent by the Ministry of Fervent Intercession, the Covie organization tasked deploying a sect of zealots whose sole job is to hunt down Forerunner artifacts before the cavalry shows up and burns the place down. They specifically like to send zealot strike teams to complete these tasks, usually led by a field marshal (sound familiar?). This is why the Reach zealot’s armor is so different. They’re not technically here for the invasion. They’re on another gig. They’re basically the Covenant version of the Nazis from Indiana Jones. The average zealot, as any fan would know, are the ones wearing standard harnesses colored gold. The lead squads into battle, command ships, lead fleets. War stuff. These are the ones from Halo CE. (And DO NOT get me started on how they butchered the exterior of the Halo ring! FFS it’s so purple and exotic, it looks like the Covenant made it, not the Forerunners!) So no. It actually makes NO SENSE why CEA changes the Covenant armor. It’s literally lore breaking, which is why everyone hates it, and is also why every media that portrayed events from CE onward has ignored these art style changes and goes by the classic graphics, as they should. Even CEA’s TERMINALS don’t stick to the art style change! That should tell you something!!
The wall issues in the Halo CE anniversary campaign drive me nuts. I also don't like that all the maps look like they're lit up so brightly, it doesn't feel like what I'm used to...especially 343 guilty spark and the library 👎 I also wish they didn't alter the music scores so much, Marty O Donnell's work didn't need to be touched at all. 6/10
@@A_GodApple to help clarify, I'm not referring to clipping through the walls. The issue is when you're using a part of a wall as cover and the anniversary graphics slightly change the geometry of it; they bulge out, so you don't have the cover you think you do. The elite can see you and shoot you, but you can't see him. It also becomes a major issue when you're using a rocket launcher with the iron skull on...
I like how smooth it runs, on the old graphics. I love the horror vibe of the first 3 when you face the flood. I had nightmares as a child. Now I can't get enough. If only they'd officially return in game. I'm stuck reliving the past.
I grew up playing the gearbox PC version of CE. It definitely had it's issues, but boy, being able to play multiplayer for Halo Combat Evolved was amazing.
To be fair, that section of Truth and Reconciliation Suite never actually played in the game, it was a trailer song. So they had no reason to actually remake it for the OST, they just plugged the remake of Rock Anthem for Saving the World in there. Which, it is also pretty different from.
this was an AI upscale before AI was a thing Made by people who had no understanding of the underlying greatness of CE's art style and design, with many baffling choices
I was actually playing this a few weeks ago. On 343 guilty spark I literally had to switch back and forth between the remaster and the original multiple times. I ended up sticking with the original because the atmosphere was 100% more ominous and just felt right. The original implemented fog in the swamp, the remaster didn't. A small change that completely killed the swamp for me. There is also less blood in the hallways in the remaster. And I remember as a kid that was one of the things that really stood out to me. its also something explicitly stated in the book, "The Flood".
I personally don't find this lazy. It's very obvious both Saber and 343i lacked the proper time to do the remaster so they just frankensteined Halo Reach and 3 assets with a hastily done map. Which is why a lot of geometry fails to line up. Halo 2 Anniversary proves that they can make a proper remaster if given the time and resources I just don't like calling developers lazy all willy nilly. You can't just immediately know what kind of situation the developers were put in.
This game isn’t lazy in the slightest. You can definitely have issues with the decisions in lighting and atmosphere but every single texture of this game was redone and the ability to switch between graphics modes on the fly is something that is still incredibly rare. To call it lazy, is a complete misunderstanding of how much work it takes to do this
Halo CE Anniversary was actually my first experience to halo and it's honestly all I've ever known about halo CE. I really didn't see alot of the bad geometry at all until watching videos like this pointed it out. So after years after the game came out and I booted up MCC and decided to play halo anniversary again but with classic graphics. It almost baffled me seeing many of the scenes being entirely different as I grew up just playing on remastered because in my eyes as a kid realistic equaled better. But after playing through classic I noticed textures being clean when the were supposed to be filled with grunge like the forerunner structures looked like they were mopped recently and over all the lighting is much brighter.
I always switch to classic version, the new one gets old real fast. It saddens me to see most new players start this legendary game with the anniversary version
They really don’t understand how they’re ruining the game’s atmosphere for themselves. I tried to warn one of these RU-vidrs and she just said “nah, I like it this way better”. To each their own, but these people have no idea what they’re missing out on
I gave my copy to a charity shop. Only halo game I've gotten rid of. I prefered the classic graphics, and once MCC came out there was no need to keep it. I still play on classic graphics mostly for MCC too for CE (H2A is fantastic however.)
The remaster looks like a mishmash of various Halo assets, I think I did one run with remastered and never again classic look for me. Not to mention they completely fucked up Shaders that changed Jackel shields and fog amount other things like the trees model not matching the hitbox at all
If you love Halo: CE, do yourself a favor and play it on an OG Xbox, not a 360, or the MCC. The original feel has never been properly duplicated, especially if you have a CRT TV.
Played combat evolved anniversary and I did notice the horror element was gone and it was not dark, like one mission you’re asked to turn you’re flashlight on and it does nothing cause it’s not dark at all
I played Halo a bunch when I was a kid near release. Playing it with the updated graphics on MCC is honestly really nice. I understand the difference is offputting to a lot of people and I can definitely agree that I wish they would have stuck with the tonal changes in the later half. However, overall I'd say it was a nice upgrade from the original graphics, but I actually play toggling the graphics throughout the campaign to compare them. Maybe I'll do a run with nothing but classic graphics soon.
Also, I'm not sure if anyone noticed this... but if you compare the "Classic" graphics to the "Anniversary" graphics of CE, on MCC, the "Anniversary" graphics also add in lag. As in, there's a very, very small amount of lag between button input to what happens visibly on screen. It might just be one frame, but it's enough that I started thinking about it, and would rapidly swap between the two graphics while killing enemies, and then it was screaming at me. The game suddenly feels "off", because it isn't nearly as immediate as before. I don't remember the original Anniversary version having that issue... so I THINK it's just an MCC issue on Xbox (not sure about PC).
There was also a Kinect feature, where you coul yell "analyze" like a madman to your Kinect till it understood what you said, and it would scan objects and enemies in game, and you could then go and look at their 3d models in the main menu Extras.
Even though it was a bad remaster, I still enjoyed playing it. I even completed 100% of the achievements for it on 360. Not including the Reach MP achievements for the DLC.
Aside from the atmosphere of 343 guilty spark, they did a great job remastering the levels. Would have loved a more grittier feel but I can’t even play the original of CE or 2 without switching to the new graphics. Though it fun to look back and see how it came. Would still love a Halo 3 remaster too to fix all the terrible faces
Personally... I THINK that the intent of Anniversary was to update it to the Reach artstyle, which is the first major artstyle shakeup in the series. And honestly, IMO, even though the classic graphics are much better, I really like how the Reach-ized graphics look. It strikes a balance between military grit and classic Halo CE wonder. However, I'll freely admit that the horror aspects are greatly diminished.
Retrospectively the Halo: Reach map-pack system has been a benefit in terms of the Halo: MCC. Allowing a pure Halo 1 port for MCC online, but giving those new maps for Halo: Reach. At the time though, it was a shame.
Biggest issues for me was the atmosphere, especially in 343GS and the lack of blood from dead enemies... I wanted the POOLS of purple and aqua blood to be flowing.
How could you forget about the Kinect-exclusive Library feature? They should have expanded on that, without requiring a Kinect. It’s the only reason I still hold on to this game. Imagine if Halo MCC implemented a similar mechanic, just without requiring an expensive peripheral.
In my opinion. It's pretty obvious that microsoft didn't understand Halo like Bungie and the community did. So they struggled to crack the code for so long (and to be honest, they still do have trouble understanding halo to this day). 343/cyber interactive could be blamed for this, but l believe this lies with Microsoft as the biggest challenge on leadership with halo. (It’s kinda like they're cursed with halo and they don't know what to do with the franchise's future). It's understandable that the gearbox version isn't the best way to play Halo CE.
I remember being so excited for this game. Then getting it & being so disappointed, especially when I reached the level 343 Guilty Spark. It felt like they were trying to make the game T for Teen. I had hoped they’d add the Flame Thrower, playable Fuel Rod Gun, & the Rocket Warthog into the campaign, but no. It’s sad Microsoft forced 343 to rush so many projects, it only served to accelerate the tarnishing of Halo’s brand quality.
Original Halo CE its amazing, Aniversary edition its full of bugs, i always rage quit the campaing as there are so many missplace objets like rocks, trees, walls, etc. and other bugs like checkpoint/respawn bugs that make a pain in the ass to play it, when i play it i do it on OG and just change it to new graphics when i face with a bullet that crash in the air just to find there is a rock or a tree right there, also marines have invisible walls and cant follow you as they did in the original
Loved this when it came out but as I’ve gotten into adulthood my taste for art and graphics changed a lot. Low res doesn’t always mean worse. Art direction carries a vision. Original CE just looks so much better now.
I still play Halo CE campaign on MCC, but in its original graphics. After 23 years, I finally decided to turn on the Bandanna Skull and play with unlimited ammo. LOL
Halo CE is still my favorite. I have noticed it is always getting harder to find matches in the MCC..Its really the only game I have ever feared of dying.
what? I don’t hate this? you just making shit up now? the show was actually good as well mint boy. why you cater to the haters to much bro it’s cringe af
10/10 The water in The Silent Cartographer is peak But being real, yeah it was a real disappointment that Halo 1 multiplayer wasnt included. I think the game only launched at $40 at the time so I think I was overall ok with what I paid for. My main criticisms are atmosphere change in the later half of the game and the grossly detailed environments that make the game harder to look at and pick out items/enemies in. I'd have also preferred they didn't just import the Reach models for a lot of things. Heck, they *almost* imported the Assault Rifle from Reach in the original trailers. I'm glad they at least changed that.
I genuinely have no idea why they screwed with the geometry of objects and such with the graphical update. I literally was playing this a few days ago on legendary and killed myself with a grenade that bounced back to me off of thin air, that of course wasn't really thin air. Just another reason to play on the classic graphics instead.
It's my theory that it's because the "remastered" graphics, to save on development time, are made of cobbled together assets from Halo Reach and 3. In a vacuum there's not really anything wrong with that, but the level geometry doesn't account for collision data present in the original CE so it leads to what looks like a curved corner actually being a 90 degree angle solid wall things bounce right off of.
Salut. Je suis fr. Juste pour te dire que je te follow depuis quelques mois. Et j'admire chacunes de tes vidéos, explications, conseils et autres.. et ton contenu avec tes propres plays, un grand merci. Félicitation.
I honestly give the remaster a 7 out of 10. Definitely not faithful on a 1:1 setting, but it's still gorgeous in most aspects. Definitely could have lined up the geometry a lot better and it would have been better off if they actually remade the OG models of weapons and entities from the ground up.
MCC version of Halo CE is very different than the Halo CE disk. I’m so glad you showed it lol. Also, the difficulty is different on the disks too. Legendary is MUCH harder on disk than on MCC
I have a lot of memories with this game. Way before i played it, i would always play Halo Custom Edition on my dad's old computer, but me and my dad used to play it everyday and we actually beat it! But i would always switch the graphics to classic not because i didn't like them, its just because i grew up with the classic graphics. Fun-Fact: The Assault Rifle and Pistol actually use the Halo 3 models.
Can you reply to one question that always bugged me? I have an original HCEA xbox 360 too, and on the reverse there are 4 images of maps of halo with the spartans and whatever, but there is one image of the reach's spartan fighting covenant in a map that I am sure was not in the actual game, this map doesn't seem to appear anywhere in the game, I thought it could be firefight's intalation 04 but that one doens't have regular trees, only pines. Did 343 released the game with photos of unused content and they messed up again or is something else? Edit: I investigated more, you could make a full video with a lot of unreleased yet announced/shown features
They've messed up a lot of things with the CE and 2 remasters, but I generally like them over the originals. Taking away Blow Me Away from 2 was the biggest sin ever in my book.
Am I the only one who hates that they changed how quickly you can turn the camera with the warthog?… I used to be able to swing that bitch around corners so easily, then they nerfed it and made it where it turns slower than the 1 setting and you can’t drift it around corners…. Absolute TRASH compared to the original…
I still have the original on my 360 :) I wish an actual Halo Fan based community were to be able to license the Halo IP to make proper Halo Games and remakes. Modernize Halo, patch up the lore's holes (especially with some of the newer games), etc.
Still have my original copy I pre-ordered back in 2011. I remember people liking it back in the day, but in retrospect it's not great. It's kinda weird to think about how this game had support for 3DTVs and Kinect that are completely missing in the MCC version, but I don't think too many people miss those features. I kinda sucked at the time not getting remastered MP, but in hindsight getting more maps and a new playlist for Reach was the right call, especially when MCC eventually came out with CE's MP anyways. It's still weird to me though that one of the CEA maps was a remake of a Halo 2 map. Like, the rest of the maps are solid picks from CE, and then they just have Headlong in there for no reason. Headlong is a great map, it just felt out of place with the other maps.
Yeah the remaster wasn't perfect, but as a 16yo back then i loved playing it! Also when Kinect was still a thing, i really liked scanning all the characters/objects ingame. I only have good memories playing the game :) (Except the internet connection lost error many times playing co op campaign lmao)
I thought Halo 2 needed the anniversary remaster far more than CE. I feel that Halo 2's graphics aged far worse than CE's and Halo 2's remaster looks absolutely stunning. At times the original Halo 2 looked like something you'd see on the earlier 3D consoles like the first PlayStation. Not only that I felt the soundtrack in the Halo 2 remaster was a huge upgrade to the original. The original CE by comparison has aged decently well IMO. I'm fine with the graphical remaster of CE for the most part. Outside of the geometry not lining up in certain spots as you mentioned (there are rocks throughout the game that look smaller on the remaster but use the same hitbox/geometry from the original graphics so on the remaster you can be looking at an enemy but shooting at them won't do anything and they won't react. When you switch to the original graphics you'll realize you're looking directly at a part of the rock), the other big graphical issue I found is with the Hunters. On the remastered graphics you cannot see them charging up their fuel rod gun (you won't see the green glow coming out of their weapon), so a lot of times it'll look like they're standing there doing nothing before they fire off a shot. Once you've played the game long enough you'll just instinctively dodge the fuel rod attack on the remaster. I'd also say it's harder to visually notices you damaging the shields of Elites on the new graphics compared to the original until you pop the shield. On the original CE graphics the Energy Sword looks like a big blue glowstick lol, it's hard to notice it has two blades unless you're really close to it.
