Me and my roomate who was my best “Halo” friend since HCE went up to midnight release at Best Buy bought the game and I got to say I am really loving the game! I am impressed with the updated graphics, audio, new features and the campaign is still as fun and sometimes even challenging as ever! You really have to use tactics and be on your toes for most of the campaign, the enemy AI is still good even by todays standards and the gameplay still holds up incredibly well. Truth and Reconciliation was still challenging on Legendary due to the fact that you dont get a pistol and there is alot of ranged battle. A couple things I enjoyed immensely was double melee-ing Elites(BLB) and of course 1 shotting the Hunters in the back with the pistol lol. Silent cartographer was as awesome as ever Beach storm FTW!!!
The tight and responsive controls of Halo CE and physics at least movement wise is still better than any other Halo game. The weapon sandbox is still superb and every weapon is different and useful. It really made me think playing this game again that this was the definitive Halo game and probably the best overall. It puzzles me that Bungie changed so much about the movement,aiming, melees, and physics since the original because to me they are close to perfect for a Halo game discounting vehicle controls. Even the grenade physics and properties(longer fuse time, more distance,more like real grenades) feel like better grenades than any other Halo game has. Even just from playing the campaign again(which was remade beautifully btw) you get the feeling that game mechanic wise Halo CE plays the best of any Halo game.There’s purity to the original Halo that Bungie failed to recapture in later titles, a magic conjured by a mixture of a few simple ingredients combining to make something really special.
Going into the HCEA playlists I knew it was not going to be the original(like some people still for some reason thought it was) but a imitation so I was pleasantly surprised. The pistol while not as accurate at long distances, no bullet leading, and lethal as the CE pistol still got some properties right including RoF, wild spread when trigger is held down, pistol flip after melee,three-shot ect and does remind me of the original pistol. The maps were remade beautifully and I even liked some of the new additions like the tunnels added into Beaver Creek(aka Battle canyon in HCE) which balances the map better giving blue side better access to OV while Red team like always has easier access to rocket arch. My first time playing Damny I had to try out my old opening move. I went directly to OV spawn grenade jumped from OV to Rocket pit picked up the rockets before the enemy and picked up a double! Talk about a nostalgic night I fell right back into my old ways with the multiplayer which is not the original multiplayer in many ways, but feels and plays like classic multiplayer in many ways. Movement and jump heights work well, aiming feels right except for the minimal bloom which I have adapted to anyways, the only complaints I really have is Chill out not being remade and the weapons other than the pistol were still pretty much Reach weapons. I will be exclusively playing this multiplayer until Halo 4, and me and my friends are having fun playing Halo again which is what really matters. I dont know why some people are being so negative about it. 343i delivered what they promised and more with the campaign and trying to imitate classic settings as best they could. We should be celebrating the release of Halo and having fun playing with friends like we did in the old days, not moaning about the multiplayer we didnt and will not get.
I feel overall HCEA was a worthy remake of the original and still tons of fun to play! What A great way to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Halo and the Xbox thank you 343i for putting the time and effort in to do this for the true fans.