I think you generally only get a few of those in your life, and most of them come when you’re young and your access to games is limited.
We mined the levels for secrets, like the hidden room on the Pillar of Autumn. We spent hours perfecting the Warthog Jump, and stealing Banshees to get to parts of the level we weren’t supposed to see. I can picture it, every step of the way: The winding corridors of the Pillar of Autumn, those first cautious steps onto the Halo installation, the beaches of the Silent Cartographer, the arrival of The Flood, the fate of Commander Keyes (and his pipe), the Warthog run. Instead, my buddy and I spent a lot of time playing and replaying the Combat Evolved campaign. I finished once on Heroic, once on Legendary, and then never went back.īut I barely played the original Halo’s multiplayer at the time-only ever in splitscreen, and only with two people. There, I’m nostalgic for Lockout, Ascension, Zanzibar, all the time I wasted in those iconic arenas. Sure, I played every campaign, but I finished Halo 2 maybe twice and spent the rest of my time with it (hundreds of hours as a teenager) on Xbox Live. I associate the Halos that came after with multiplayer, primarily. Still, it’s the Halo campaign I’m most nostalgic to boot up. It’s very much a game that tried a lot of interesting ideas, but with one foot still stuck in the ‘90s. Even the once-impressive outdoor levels feel small and stilted by today’s standards.
Level design is dated, with an over-reliance on labyrinthine corridors, especially in the infamous Library level. Voice acting is passable, but pretty rough circa 2020. Meanwhile the humble Pistol has a 2x zoom and can one-shot through the Covenant with ease. The Assault Rifle is equivalent to sneezing on most enemies. Fan-favorite weapons like the battle rifle and sword don’t exist here, and the rest of the roster is either highly situational or near-useless. And if you’ve played Halo: Combat Evolved before, you doubtless know the starting Pistol is the only gun worth using.
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