The resolution and framerate boosts do give it a nice, clean look, at least. It has neither the benefit of Halo CE or Halo 2’s recent coat of Anniversary paint, nor of being fairly new like Halo 4. Halo 3 is probably the relative low point in the looks department. But the original Halo’s excellent story and still-remarkable large-scale combat sandboxes – not to mention the goosebump-inducing chanting-monks theme – make the first Halo both enjoyable and relevant in 2014. Some things, like Chief’s relatively short jump height and inability to board vehicles, feel a bit archaic now. It can’t match up to Halo 2 Anniversary’s Xbox One-ified upgrade, but it’s a whole lot better than dusting off your 2001 Xbox to replay this still-great game. Master Chief Collection’s version of Combat Evolved is based off of 2011’s Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. Don’t expect to maintain 60 frames per second in split-screen, though – the dips are far more frequent this way. It’s now much more playable, thanks to splitting 1080 lines of resolution between players instead of just 320, and on much larger TVs than were common a decade ago. It’s great to see the lost art of local split-screen co-op multiplayer revived here, in all four games. There’s no going back from this smoother framerate: the Master Chief Collection is the definitive version of each of these games. All but Halo 2 run at 1080p, which still looks good at the slightly lower resolution of 1328 by 1080. That doubled speed gives the campaigns and multiplayer modes alike a newfound smoothness and polished feel. The other three included Halo games all run at 60fps too, but all suffer from the same noticeable, but far from crippling framerate dips. What was an unintentionally hilarious conversation with a featureless brown worm is now a dramatic confrontation with the hideous amalgamation of all Flood parasites, rendered here in disgusting detail. The best example is the stunning Gravemind scene. Phenomenal new cutscenes not only breathe new life into the plot, but make me long for a feature-length CG Halo film. Bombastic set pieces like the battle on the Scarab, the Scorpion tank trek across the bridge, and the Banshee run near the end all mix with a plot that ably weaves the parallel stories of Master Chief and the Arbiter. You can appreciate the contrast easily, because the audio, like the visuals, also cycles between the 2004 original versions and the 2014 remastering along with the graphics.Īnd you know what? Halo 2 remains a damn fine game, especially now that you can jump straight into Halo 3 and minimize the whiplash of that hard-stop of an ending. It sounds like the Jetsons’ car floating by. The new Battle Rifle and sniper rifle in particular pack a satisfying wallop, but I could’ve done without the more musical Covenant energy sword and overcharged plasma pistol effect. Meanwhile, Chief’s chunky metallic footsteps have been added, and every weapon sound has been replaced with beefier, more aggressive versions. Halo 2’s already-great soundtrack has been remastered, and sounds bigger and fuller while remaining reverential and respectful to the original. But the sum of Halo 2 Anniversary’s parts – most notably a classic campaign that now runs at 60 frames per second – trumps its minor annoyances. Some parts of the campaign seem unnecessarily dark, for instance, and I don’t agree with all of the choices made on the new art. And while the graphics are up to modern standards in many ways, they’re hardly jaw-dropping. Admittedly, the new facade is a bit rough around the edges – I saw occasional frozen enemies, some framerate dips, and a few long loading screens that jarringly interrupt the pace as the impressive new cutscenes cue up. Like 2011’s Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 2 Anniversary is actually running two graphics engines at the same time, allowing you to instantly switch from 2004 graphics to 2014’s Xbox One coat of paint and back again at the touch of a button. I jumped straight to the star of the Master Chief Collection: Halo 2 Anniversary. It’s a laudable touch, considering how big a part Halo’s musical scores have played in establishing the series’ memorable atmosphere. The fan service begins right at the main menu: a flick of the thumbstick starts playing the soundtrack of the selected game.
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