The anniversary edition of Halo: Combat Evolved was a wonderful labor of love from developer 343 Industries for the classic Bungie series. The original game on release looked fantastic, far exceeding the capacity of rival games on the competing Playstation 2. However, it hadn't aged well compared to modern shooters, or even its sequels.
This remaster provided a complete graphical overhaul of the game, with upgrades across the board of textures and visual effects, sound design improvements, and extensive options across the board, including multiplayer. It also added much-needed quality of life improvements, such as wide screen support across the board.
The good thing about the game is that you can trigger the graphics settings at any time depending on how you want to experience the game. If you prefer to play through the game as it originally was on the Xbox or PC version, you can do this. However, if you want to see all the good work 343 Industries has done to make the game modern again, the option is there.
Triggering the style you want is easy. At any time, you can pause the game and go to settings, then video settings. With all of the different settings for PC games available today, there is a single setting at the bottom called “Graphics Settings” with the options “Original” and “Enhanced”. Just toggle that in the menu and then when you return to the game you will see that the in-game graphics will match your preferences.
It should be noted that although the original game has aged graphically, it is still very playable for those who want the shot of nostalgia for the looks of the original game.
Screenshot via Microsoft Game Studios
