Ten years ago, when Halo: Combat Evolved (or Halo: CE or just Halo) was released it was more than just a game. It was a killer IP practically stolen from under the nose of the late Steve Jobs. It was the first triple-A game for the fledgling Xbox console and became a blueprint for how to make a first-person shooter work on consoles. Halo influenced my own personal gaming habits like no other game with the Xbox being the first console that I ever bought (with my own money) and that decision was primarily just to play Halo. Prior to Halo, I was a hardcore PC gamer but the need to constantly upgrade my hardware to keep up with the latest and greatest game releases was starting to get old. The Xbox and Halo was the answer to my problems and were the perfect addition to my uni bachelor pad and to my new 'massive' 51cm TV and first 5.1 surround sound setup.

I have very fond memories of playing Halo both alone as well as cooperatively and competitively either split-screen or at LAN parties. It was one of those games that I played over and over again. Ever since the release of the Xbox 360, I have been wishing for a HD remake of Halo so that I could relive (or ruin) those fond memories on my current hardware, a significant step up from my humble home theatre beginnings. Halo CE: Anniversary is my wish made a reality and then some. If Halo was a blueprint for a console FPS, Halo CE: Anniversary could be a blueprint for HD game remakes in general.

To the cynics out there, Halo CE: Anniversary may appear to be just another cash grab and attempt to milk the franchise. I agree that most HD remakes are exactly that, but what makes Halo CE: Anniversary different is the obvious care and effort that has gone into taking a 10 year old game and re-releasing it as a package that would give all but the best rival games and run for their money. If you were a fan of the original, buying Halo CE: Anniversary is a no-brainer. But if you missed the original game entirely and are still a fan of the series, I highly recommend that you pick this up and experience where it all began.

My personal experience with Halo CE: Anniversary was full of giddy moments of nostalgia and was truly one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences of my life. Back in the day, I finished the original game numerous times and on all difficulty levels. That said, I was still quite surprised how much of the campaign I remembered when playing through it again. I was also a little surprised by just how hard it was on 'Legendary' difficulty...I must be getting worse in my old age. Halo CE: Anniversary is exactly the same game as the original. The original game code, with original animations and AI has been used with two HD graphics engines running in parallel. What this means is you can switch between the original graphics engine (now in HD and widescreen) and the all new 'Reach' graphics engine which makes the game look every bit as good as the latest in the series. Even with the new improved graphics, the game retains everything else so it still looks (animation wise) and more importantly feels like the original did. Likewise you can switch between classic and all new audio. This is a crucial design choice and is probably the one thing that makes Halo CE: Anniversary work when it could have so easily failed. The differences between the dark, purple-hued simple geometry and even simpler textures of the original and the new graphics engine are dramatic. This is especially noticeable in any area with trees and I found myself constantly switching between graphics engines just to see how far Halo and console graphics in general have come in 10 years.

Microsoft Game Studios and 343 Industries have made sure that they do more than simply upgrade the graphics and sound of the original Halo and some of these additions are more welcome than others. Hidden terminals have been added to the game which when activated play short cut-scenes from the perspective of the marvellously demented Guilty Spark character. These scenes flesh out the story somewhat but are probably easier to digest by watching them all in order on YouTube rather than trying to find all the terminals in game.

Halo CE: Anniversary has 3DTV support for those with access to a 3DTV as well as new Kinect features. The Kinect features are probably the only new addition that fails. You can perform certain actions in-game with your voice such as throwing a grenade but this is much easier to do with the controller. Likewise you can enter a new scanning mode using Kinect which allows you for example to scan the bodies of enemies for additional information. The scanning mode does not add to the overall experience and serves to just interrupt the gameplay more than anything. Finally and most annoyingly you can change game settings such as screen brightness using your voice. I found that because of this the brightness would change seemingly at random which ultimately forced me to disable the new Kinect functionality entirely.

For fans of the original Halo Xbox experience, the decision to not include an authentic recreation of the classic Halo multiplayer experience will no doubt disappoint. Instead, Halo CE: Anniversary comes with a code to download the Halo Reach multiplayer component and a couple of remade classic maps. The decision to do this was apparently based on technical reasons but I cannot help but wish that 343 Industries had at least included an offline version of classic Halo multiplayer. Four player split-screen would have worked much better with the added resolution of HD graphics, but alas it was not to be. You can play through the campaign cooperatively over Xbox Live this time which is a great way to share the nostalgia with a friend. This is a welcome addition considering that the friends that you used to play Halo with have most likely moved away and may even have young families of their own now. If you do have young children, they will probably get a kick out of playing a game that Mum or Dad used to enjoy a decade ago.

Thankfully, Halo CE: Anniversary does not command the full price of a new game and can be picked up quite cheaply.