Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary Review

Content Summary

We will examine Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary, the 2011 remake of the 2001 production Halo Combat Evolved, which was the first of the series but should be played in the second place according to the progression of the story.

Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary Teaser Image

The most important thing in a quality and great video game is the story. Of course, gameplay also needs to be designed to engage people with this story, but the most important thing is always the story and the atmosphere designed to increase the impact of this story.

As we mentioned in Halo Reach, the Halo series generally has a deep story, good gameplay and a great atmosphere. However, despite doing all these according to the rules, maybe because the story is bigger than the game, maybe because it is designed to be played with multiplayer, it is not enough to satisfy a person who plays the game alone, dear reader.

The Story of The Halo Universe

The story is so deep and big that you get lost in it. When you want to play games to relax your mind, you find yourself spending time learning about the events in the Halo universe as if you are studying. But then you realize that it is impossible to learn this completely because you need to read 29 books, in order to fully master the Halo universe, twenty of which are the main stories. Let’s put it in writing, exactly twenty-nine!

Halo Books

1. HALO: The Fall of Reach (Eric Nylund)
2. HALO: Contact Harvest (Joseph Staten)
3. HALO: The Cole Protocol (Tobias S. Buckell)
4. HALO: Silent Storm: A Masterchief Story (Troy Denning)
5. HALO: Oblivion (Troy Denning)
6. HALO: Battle Born (Cassandra Rose Clarke)
7. HALO: Meridian Divide (Cassandra Rose Clarke)
8. HALO: The Flood (William C. Dietz)
9. HALO: First Strike (Eric Nylund)
10. HALO: Ghost of Onyx (Eric Nylund)
11. HALO: Broken Circle (John Shirley)
12. HALO:  Hunters in The Dark (Peter David)
13. HALO: Grasslands (Karen Traviss)
14. HALO: The Thursday War (Karen Traviss)
15. HALO: Mortal Dictata (Karen Traviss)
16. HALO: New Blood (Matt Forbeck)
17. HALO: Last Night (Troy Denning)
18. HALO: Retribution (Troy Denning)
19. HALO: Envoy (Tobias S. Buckell)
20. HALO: Legacy of Onyx (Matt Forbeck)
21. HALO: Smoke and Shadow (Kelly Gay)
22. HALO: Renegades (Kelly Gay)
23. HALO: Bad Blood (Matt Forbeck)
24. HALO: Shadows of Reach: A Masterchief Story (Troy Denning)
25. HALO: Evolutions: Essential Tales of the Halo Universe
26. HALO: Fractures (Tobias S. Buckell, Troy Denning, Matt Forbeck ve Kelly Gay)
27. HALO: Cryptum: Book One of The Forerunner Saga (Greg Bear)
28. HALO: Primordium: Book Two of the Forerunner Saga (Greg Bear)
29. HALO: Silentium: Book There of the Forerunner Saha (Greg Bear)

Of course the universe has its fans. I don’t want to be arrogant without going into it, but I don’t understand how this is serial. Is it open source? Each writer has written a new story. Is everyone completing the story by continuing the previous entry, like the old reddit threads? If not, can we call Halo a commercial series where each new book can be written by a different author?

Halo Combat Evolved is one of the first online games that allows us to use many vehicles.

I don’t know if I read this many books to understand an imaginary universe on this earth, where we can’t even fully understand the mystery of even one square centimeter we live on. Yes, sometimes it can be useful to read quality works that talk about another realm, such as The Lord of the Rings, to understand the universe we live in, but a series of twenty-nine books written by different authors?

My answer is no. But if you want to read it, be sure to visit the link here. One of the few links presenting the main books in chronological order. If you want to give a chance directly to the game, it also has a narrative turn to play, which I shared here.

The Story of Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary

You know, it all started with the discovery of a method of transportation as fast as light. Humanity, the separatist organizations that began to colonize the planets, took over the management of some colonies, and a flexible but somewhat dystopian order was formed in the universe. In order to protect the stability of humanity, a structure called UNCS Commenwealth (United Nations Space Command) was established, which is similar to today’s UN or NATO, the center of which is the planet Reach.

Although the UNCS was met with controversy for showing how serious it was in maintaining the stability of the universe, it had created a special genetically modified military unit called Spartans, packed with enhanced abilities. Then we were faced with an attack by the merger of seven alien races called the Covenant, and we realized that we were not alone on the planet.

While the planet Reach was falling, we had the opportunity to play the story through the eyes of the Spartans, and with the ship called the Pillar of Autumn, we had the last people on earth escape from Reach with the artificial intelligence named Cortana.

This is where Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary begins. With a blind leap, Pillar of Autumn suddenly finds himself next to a giant gas cloud. He sees the gas cloud surrounded by a ring thousands of kilometers across. Meanwhile, MasterChief and a few more soldiers manage to survive the attack on the ship.

We learn that the ring, which we understand to be named Halo, was first designed in the form of a weapon, but during the construction, a parasite called Flood, which transforms living organisms, was formed. MasterChief and the artificial intelligence Cortana decide to destroy Halo to eliminate the Flood parasite. However, we later find out that Halo did not directly eliminate Flood, but made it disappear by eliminating Flood’s food. But strangely enough, people and covenants are the food of the Flood.

A Gameplay image of Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary.

Of course, neither the Floods nor the Covenants like our attack on Halo. So for ten hours we keep bumping into strange strange creatures.

Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary General Evaluation

Halo is met with keen emotions in the gaming world. Negative critics slammed the ground, and those who emphasized their positive aspects talked about the story, but did not tell anything tangible.

UNSC’s Logo

Maybe because it is an old generation game, I did not enjoy it very much, but the creatures that constantly spawn from the same place and never stop killing are sometimes annoying. We keep killing the same creatures in the same place for hours. Although Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary has been refreshed, it doesn’t give you a guiding arrow or anything. Sometimes you turn around for minutes until you find your way in corridors that look like each other.

Cinematics, atmosphere, vehicles are very successful here, as in every HALO, but this is not enough to make you play the game this time. Maybe you enjoy it when you play with your friends, but you get bored alone, dear reader.

Its magnificent story is not enough to motivate you as you do not know all of it. So if it’s going to be like this, they should shoot it, it’s a twenty-nine-episode series out of twenty-nine books. Let’s watch and learn so let’s start the game.

Seven separate races, called The Covenant, also have different purposes.

I have no more games to play on Gamepass. Normally, I would like to finish the continuation of the Halo series and get a Paperpile subscription to finish my academic studies instead of closing it, but dear reader, I will not be able to start the continuation of the Halo series, at least for now. Because I’m tired. I’m going to go play video games like this whose story can fit into at least one human life.

References

https://reviewsofgame.com/halo-reach-review/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09C2HD314?binding=paperback&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tpbk