This Xbox legend should have been left in the past

Over the past few weeks, I’d been getting a hunger to return to Halo, a series that I hadn’t dabbled in for many years. As most people do, I have fond memories of working through the series as it moved from the original Xbox all the way through to the current Xbox Series consoles. So, I tapped a friend and we made plans to fire up Halo: The Master Chief Collection via Xbox Game Pass with a view to run all the games in co-op.

This was the first time I’d be going back to Halo, namely Halo: Combat Evolved, since I retired my Xbox for the Xbox 360. Which means almost 20 years have passed since I stepped off the Pillar of Autumn and onto Halo for the last time. And boy, do I wish I’d left it in the past.

Now, because this is part of the Master Chief Collection, we were playing the original game with the updated and remastered visuals, which I will say are superb. Not quite up to today’s standards, but they did make everything feel shiny and new. I loved the ability to switch back to the retro graphics at the press of a button if I wanted a wave of nostalgia, but the improvements were such that this was more of a novelty.

Xbox Game Studios

What shocked and surprised me the most was how repetitive and, I hate to say it, dull the game is. While mowing down countless Covenant and Flood, we made frequent comments about endless corridors looking exactly the same; the excessive use of elevators to usher you through a level that looked the same as the last 15 minutes of gameplay.

Of course, this comes with a great deal of forgiveness because it was the early-2000s and recycling assets and textures helped to push the game out the door. Plus, what Halo: Combat Evolved did back then was revolutionary in telling a great sci-fi story with a level of cinematic action we hadn’t really seen up to that point.

Only it hasn’t held up to the passing of years. I don't say that because games nowadays do things better, though of course my opinion is tinged with what ifs and what abouts, but because on a fundamental level the game doesn’t offer anything but nostalgia.

I didn’t have a bad time with Halo: Combat Evolved, in fact, I had a very good time. It was a handful of hours spent with a good friend, fragging enemies and tromping through the seeds of a universe that later flourished into brilliance. But, it would be remiss of me not to think on how badly the game has aged and how, sometimes, it’s better to leave these things in the past. Part of me wanted to replay purely for the story, and that was satisfied. Another part of me yearned for those open landscapes, that first footstep onto Halo, piloting a banshee and taking to the skies. Sadly, all of those experiences were left muddied.

Xbox Game Studios

The open landscapes, when looking back via the retro graphics, were just washes of darkness with very little in the way of design. That first footstep was marred by seeing how it really looked with eyes now used to 4K resolutions and highly detailed textures. And flying a banshee was an utter disappointment when shuttling Master Chief for all of a few seconds in a constant back-and-forth.

I don’t want this to be me crapping on one of the best games of all time. Sure, it didn’t hold up visually nor from a level design perspective, but you know what did? The weapons and physics. My goodness, the Halo shotgun really is the best shotgun in any video game ever. Of course, the remastered aspect does amp that up with a crunchier reload and blast, but it’s the model of the thing, as well as the heft and impact of such a weapon.

Then there’s the delight that never fades of sticking an enemy with a plasma grenade and watching them caterwaul around the place as if they’ve been set on fire. Eventually they explode, sending their body into its own orbit, waggling limbs about. Or if you’re really lucky your explosion will set off an enemy grenade, sometimes ending in your own death, but always resulting in hilarity as chain reactions pop off. As much as we were disappointed in the game not living up to our memories, we had a blast just messing around in skirmishes and finding things we didn’t remember from all those years ago.

Xbox Game Studios

At one point, we were waiting for Captain Keyes to finish giving a speech to some cadets on the bridge of the Pillar of Autumn. Impatience run rampant, and I shot him in the face, thinking nothing of it. Bro died on the spot and the game reloaded the save. That kept us laughing for a good few minutes, wiping tears away from the laughter, but commenting that it was a stellar job putting something like this into the game.

Overall, it was a mixed bag. While I appreciate the laughter and the affirmation of the best shotgun in gaming, I still put the controller down at the end of the game and sighed with sadness and frustration. It’s something I think games suffer from more than any other medium - aside from movie CGI in the 2000s, that looked shit then, and it looks worse now. Books don’t suffer this same fate, neither does music, nor film. Games are more ‘of the time’ than anything else. Of course, this makes a case for remakes and remasters more than ever, but it also says something for leaving memories as just that.

We’re yet to get to Halo 2 and my fear is that this will also not hold up to the years. God help me if my favourite of the series, Halo: ODST, pales in comparison to my heady memories. I will stick out the project if only to see how the games bettered themselves and grew over the years, but I’ll be doing so with a lower bar and a degree of caution.