So, I know this is a can of worms for the Halo community, but I myself am pretty undecisive on HCEA from a graphical standpoint. From what I’ve gathered; basically it comes down to two arguments:
1: The graphics are great and gives a real boost to the player for environmental emersion. In the original graphics settings many sections that needed to be played through were bland and way to dark or bright.
2: The graphics are an absolute travesty and do nothing for the game and if anything, takes away from the environmental emersion players have as landscapes and lighting in almost every level is way too bright and over-detailed.
Thoughts and other details I’m missing? What is your POV on HCEA?
I played CE when it originally came out. I loved the game and still enjoy it to this day. My view on the CEA graphics is split as well. I like that they are a little more detailed, but the additional lighting has really taken away from the horror aesthetic that was originally meant for the game. Levels like 343 Guilty Spark have been completely neutered by the enhanced lighting.
That being said, some levels have greatly improved. So I kinda take it on a case by case basis. One level might be better thanks to the new graphics, while another level has been hurt by it. Thankfully, you can toggle between OG and new graphics to fix this for the most part. The Gearbox port CEA is based on will never be able to bring back the true OG graphics, but it gets close imo.
I never played CE when it was the thing at its time. I only recently delved into CE and while switching from classic mode to anniversary is pretty interesting, I found myself staying in anniversary way more often.
If we are talking just about the art style of the graphical makeover, I liked it but could be better, there are still parts where I prefer the original graphics
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> I played CE when it originally came out. I loved the game and still enjoy it to this day. My view on the CEA graphics is split as well. I like that they are a little more detailed, but the additional lighting has really taken away from the horror aesthetic that was originally meant for the game. Levels like 343 Guilty Spark have been completely neutered by the enhanced lighting.
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> That being said, some levels have greatly improved. So I kinda take it on a case by case basis. One level might be better thanks to the new graphics, while another level has been hurt by it. Thankfully, you can toggle between OG and new graphics to fix this for the most part. The Gearbox port CEA is based on will never be able to bring back the true OG graphics, but it gets close imo.
Another level that got neutered was truth and reconciliation the beginning of the level is a lot brighter than what it was originally, so I’m split on it level by level too
My main issue is that the new graphics are too bright. Lack of light was something that made CE so memorable.
All the outdoor levels that take place during the day are great. It’s the night levels or indoor areas that make you want to turn that brightness level to 0.
I loved the CE graphics as a new Halo player. Reach was my first Halo which I bought in 2013 and bought HCEA not long after. As a new player I was scared of the darkness and the graphics made everything brighter. If you didn’t like it, just turn it off.
Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary is based off of the botched Gearbox PC/Custom Edition port of Halo 1 which is objectively inferior to the original Xbox version of Halo 1. The MCC version of Halo 1 is based off of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. So Gearbox botched the PC port of Halo 1 in 2003. 343i, Saber Interactive, and Certain Affinity botched Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary in 2011 by basing it off of the botched Gearbox PC/Custom Edition port of Halo 1. 343i botched the MCC version of Halo 1 in 2014 by basing it off of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary which was already botched. The Gearbox PC port of Halo 1, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, and the MCC version of Halo 1 are all plagued with a ton of various bugs/issues and are all objectively inferior to the original Xbox version of Halo 1.
I enjoy playing both the Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary version and the original Halo Combat Evolved version on the Halo Master Chief Collection PC. I really love the campaign levels in Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary. At the same time, I feel like there has to be improvements especially the original Halo Combat Evolved PC version. I am hoping that 343 Industries will fix the original Halo Combat Evolved PC graphics to make it look more like the original Halo Combat Evolved Xbox version. I really want to see that happening in future Halo Master Chief Collection PC update.
**The art-style.**It does not bring the original justice, almost no similarities in neither Human, Covenant nore Forerunner designs to the original.
**Graphics.**They were not with their time and have aged quite badly.
The remastered graphics are not even close to matching the geometry. While flying a Banshee on Two Betrayals for example I just fly into invisible walls. honestly, go play that mission and aproach the third generator in the Banshee and switch the graphics back and forth, they were sooo far off and this is a place you fly through every single time you play the mission.
Atmosphere:
Too bright, partially taking the creepiness away, also making the flashlight pointless. When you have night vision on the sniper the scope goes so bright that I can’t even see, and these is never a situation where you can’t see without it anyway.
Also they missed a lot of smaller details, for example on classic, when plasma pisles are being shot in the dark, green light is spread all over the walls which is mesmerizing.
Another perfect detailing example is the mission “343 Guilty Spark”, there are videos showing the differences way better than I can descibe them, so go check that out.
Gameplay changesxxcloud7xx already shared links and explained how it is based on CE from PC etc. I can’t really pretend that this affects me too much because I never played the OXB version, only PC, and later HCEA on X360 and later MCC on Xb1, I can’t claim I’ve noticed the differences. But I still don’t think it was the right move by 343 so I just wanted to mention it.
CutscenesI believe pre-rendered scenes would have been a better move. To make the characters movements more natural and make the mouths fit with the words they are saying etc etc. They did a great job with H2A imo.
I love the Anniversary graphics. But there are things they could have done better. For one, I think they made areas too bright. In fact I cannot recall ever needing to use the torch, or the Sniper Rifle’s night vision in T&R. If anything, the night vision makes everything so bright you can’t actually see anything clearly.
Most of the changes in art style were made because it wasn’t going to look that different from the original as it was made for the 360, yet it lets a lot to be desired compared to the concept arts and even gameplay demonstrations before release. I’d let it slide (and I still like a lot how it ended up looking) if they didn’t use the gearbugs port and ripped off the multiplayer entirely, which is what makes it nothing compared to the original. Even Marty O’Donnell himself said it.
Because of me being very young when it came out, I didn’t play the original Halo CE when it first came out. I really enjoyed Halo: CE Anniversary, it was memorable for me. Despite some people saying that the campaign is very repetitive, ill-designed and what not, I really liked it (as a person who was turned into a Halo lover by Halo 3).
As for the comparison between the old and the new graphics… I play it with the new graphics for obvious reasons (2001 graphics just look too low definition to me), but sometimes I press the back button to change graphics and see how the original looked… and I have the impression that the old ones looked too dark, but maybe that was the exact point. I mean, given that the Forerunner structures must look dark, cold, and misterious, making them too bright in Anniversary kind of spoiled that sensation as some people have pointed out in this very thread. They still looked quite desolate with the new graphics, though maybe not enough, and without the nostalgia glasses is more difficult to see it.
Strangely, I read in a recent 2020 review (which was very harsh on Halo: CE, claiming that it has an unremarkable story and is a boring game with an underwhelming AI) the following: “Forerunner installations, that serve as the backdrop to much of the combat, is unbearable at times, making you feel like you’re walking through the most uninteresting, bland industrial factory interspersed with sci-fi mumbo jumbo.”. Forerunner instalations are supposed to look like that given what they represent in the story of the game. They are not suppposed to give you a nurturing, caring feeling, but the feeling of some unknown, strange, ancient yet technologically advanced structure built with some practical purpose in mind (thus the “industrial factory” look that the author of that review complains about).
imo the anniversary graphics change the look of every level way too much, when I try to play on anniversary graphics I just find myself playing on classic anyways. I think halo 2 anniversary was a way better remaster as I feel like they tried to keep the look of the original not completely change it.