Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary

This page is about the 2011 remake, for the original, see Halo: Combat Evolved

 (also referred to as Halo: Anniversary, or Halo: CEA) is a first-person shooter video game set in the Halo Universe and is a remake of 2001's Halo: Combat Evolved. Halo: CEA was announced at Microsoft's E3 2011 press conference, along with Halo 4. It received its "gold status" on 10/19/11.

343 Industries, in collaboration with Saber Interactive, plan on releasing Halo: CEA on November 15, 2011 - on the 10th anniversary of the original title's launch. The game will feature 7 of the greatest classic multiplayer maps, remade from previous Halo games. Support for Xbox Live multiplayer matchmaking, a complete visual overhaul, achievements, terminals, other hidden easter egg goodies, and the ability to play Co-op campaign over Xbox Live. The campaign will run on the Saber3d engine, whereas multiplayer will be powered by the Reach engine.

Campaign
Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary's campaign will be the same story as Halo: Combat Evolved, with the addition of achievements, terminals, and online Co-op. It will also have a new feature: when the player presses the back button on the Xbox 360 controller, the game will switch from the updated graphics engine to the original, and vice-versa. For the story, see Halo: Combat Evolved. Anniversary will also have subtitles available for in-game and combat dialogue.

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary's currently known levels consist of all Halo: Combat Evolved levels.

10 confirmed levels in total:
 * 1) The Pillar of Autumn - "Escape intact as Covenant forces board your ship."
 * 2) Halo - "Seek out surviving Marines and help them fight the Covenant."
 * 3) The Truth and Reconciliation - "Board a Covenant ship in an attempt to rescue Captain Keyes."
 * 4) The Silent Cartographer - "Search for the map room that will lead you to the secrets of Halo."
 * 5) Assault on the Control Room - "Defend the Control Room against wave after wave of Covenant troops."
 * 6) 343 Guilty Spark - "Creep through a swamp to meet the only enemy the Covenant fear."
 * 7) The Library - "Fight your way through an ancient security facility in search of the Index."
 * 8) Two Betrayals - "Re-activate the weapon at the heart of Halo... and learn the truth."
 * 9) Keyes - "Stage a one-cyborg assault on a Covenant ship and bring back the Captain."
 * 10) The Maw - "Destroy Halo before Halo destroys all life in the galaxy."

Multiplayer
Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary will support cooperative campaign and competitive multiplayer modes. The campaign mode will use a remastered version of the original Halo: Combat Evolved-engine. The multiplayer mode will use the Halo: Reach engine. The multiplayer beta was released on October 4th, 2011.

Multiplayer Maps
Seven maps will be updated and re-released utilizing the Reach engine. 6 of these maps are competitive multiplayer maps that are remakes of maps from Halo: CE and Halo 2. The maps will include 2 variants, one classic variant (which will take the name of the map of which it was based on), and a second variant which is enhanced to utilize Reach's new sandbox and features. For example, Battle Canyon (the second variant of Beaver Creek) will include additional indoor sections behind the bases, while Beaver Creek will have these sections blocked to retain the classic layout. In Damnation, the gaps between the bridge down by the waterfall will be lacking, but in Penance, they will be connected. These gaps will also be forge-able.

Announced multiplayer maps in Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary include:

The new maps will not just utilize the Reach engine, but will actually be merged with the Halo Reach server (similar to ODST and Halo 3). At some point in time the maps will be available for Reach players; even if they don’t have Halo CE Anniversary.
 * Beaver Creek / Battle Canyon
 * Hang 'Em High / High Noon
 * Damnation / Penance
 * Timberland / Ridgeline
 * Prisoner / Solitary
 * Headlong / Breakneck

Firefight
Installation 04

This map is set at the cliff-side beam emitter encounter in one of the last three encounters of Halo: CE's second level 'Halo'. The map will be vehicle-based, and unlike previous Firefight maps it will contain friendly ODST's and Marines that help out the players in their fight against the Covenant. The Flood will not make their appearance in Firefight.

Development
343 Industries is utilizing the original Halo: Combat Evolved engine and Saber3d engine in campaign and the Halo: Reach engine in multiplayer to make the original Halo: Combat Evolved look and feel like a game created in 2011. They will be keeping some of the audio and replacing other parts entirely with faithful "re-orchestrations" of the original recordings.

Engine
The campaign will run on the original engine, whereas multiplayer will be powered by the Reach engine which was worked on by Certain Affinity. 343 Industries will be graphically revamping the entire game and the level design in the campaign will be enhanced. This means that everything will be more detailed and include more assets to fill in the blank space that Halo: CE left behind. In addition, in 343's ViDoc on Halo: Anniversary, they stated that the player will have the option to switch between old graphics and revamped graphics with the push of a button.That mode is called Classic Mode. However, the developers will not be sacrificing the original feel of the gameplay. Halo: Anniversary is simply adding an additional layer of graphics on top of the original game ones, hence being able to switch between the old and revamped graphics, and thus keeping the original gameplay and physics of the game intact.

Audio
Halo: CE Anniversary will retain some of the original audio from Halo: Combat Evolved, though it will be remastered to sound clearer, allowing it to work seamlessly in 5.1 surround sound. Pyramind Studios are in charge of remastering, re-orchestrating and re-recording Martin O'Donnell's soundtrack, and Skywalker Orchestra will be recording the orchestral pieces from the soundtrack at Skywalker Ranch. Halo Anniversary will feature both the original and remastered audio, giving players the choice of which sound effects and soundtracks they wish to hear during the campaign. The audio will have to be selected from the main menu and cannot be changed during gameplay in the same way as classic graphic mode can. Click here to hear a shortened version of the Halo Theme from the Halo: Anniversary Trailer.

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary E3 2011 Tribute trailer
The trailer was announced at the E3, allowing the audience stare in awe. Later, it was followed up with the teaser trailer for Halo 4.

Halo Anniversary Exclusive
A 343 Industries Video Documentary was released shortly after the unveiling of the Halo 4 Teaser, which contained some extra footage and additional information on Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary.

Halo: Anniversary Exclusive Pre-Order Grunt Funeral Skull
This video showed it's viewers new footage of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, and a new skull called the Grunt Funeral Skull, which makes Unggoy explode like a plasma grenade three seconds after death. This skull is available when the game is pre-ordered.

Halo: Anniversary Exclusive Pre-Order Master Chief Avatar Armor
If pre-ordered, you will receive a redeemable code via e-mail to get the exclusive Master Chief avatar armor. The style of the armor is his original Mark V MJOLNIR armor as opposed to his current Mark VI MJOLNIR armor.

Halo: Anniversary Exclusive Pre-Order Concept Art Booklet
When pre-ordered from GAME, you will receive a booklet called "Halo: The Art Of Building Worlds" that contains 'ground breaking' concept art 'sweeping landscapes from the "Halo" universe' and shows 'evolution of the Master Chief'.

Trivia

 * It was speculated by the the Halo Community that the lone Firefight map could feature the Flood as an enemy, though it was confirmed at Halo Fest that the map is Installation 04 and the map is not featuring the Flood.
 * In an interview with Gamespot, Vice President of Microsoft Game Studios, Phil Spencer, confirmed that Halo: Anniversary will ship with Kinect support. Its Kinect functionality will allow actions to be done by voice command.
 * The Campaign will feature both the original graphics and a remastered graphics layered over the original, and the player will have the option to transition between both graphical layers by pressing the Back button.
 * It has been confirmed that the Multiplayer portion will have Forge mode, but if it is going to be like the normal Halo Reach Forge system has yet to be confirmed in the following g4 interview
 * In Multiplayer, 343 Industries had confirmed that they will be offering a playlist where certain changes are made, like removing the 'Bloom Effect' from the DMR, adding a feature to the Armor Lock Ability, etc. An example for removal of the effect can be seen in this video.
 * This game will be available in 3D.
 * In older CEA videos, you see the MA37 Assault Rifle model from Halo: Reach being used. This was used as a placeholder until a proper model could be made. The AR in Halo 1 is the MA5B, so it would not be canonically correct to have the MA37 model.
 * The shotgun in CEA resembles the shotgun from the Halo: Reach beta, in which it has blue sights.
 * Footage shown at Halo fest during the Halo anniversary campaign discussion indicates that the “classic mode” graphical change for the campaign is also present in the main menu of the game. The menu featuring the ring is seen changing back and forth between old and new graphics.
 * 343 Industries are “revisiting” the game’s cut scenes to improve the animation of characters and camera angles.
 * 343 Industies has shown that the skulls in Halo Anniversary will be different from traditional Halo skulls.
 * The Xbox 360 Kinect sensor can be used in the Campaign.