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, released Halo: CEA on November 15, 2011 - on the 10th anniversary of the original title's launch. The game features 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 game utilizes 3D technology and Kinect Sensor The campaign runs on the Saber3d engine, whereas multiplayer is powered by a slightly modified Reach engine.

Campaign
Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary's campaign is the same story as Halo: Combat Evolved, with the addition of achievements, terminals, and online Co-op. It also has 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 also have subtitles available for in-game and combat dialogue.

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

10 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."

Accompanying each level is a Terminal video, narrated by 343 Guilty Spark, depicting events that have, or are occurring on Halo. Some details in the terminal videos are said to be clues for Halo 4.

Kinect Support
Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary is the first Halo game to feature Kinect integration. With Kinect, players can use voice commands to throw grenades, reload, and analyze both animate and inanimate objects, then store the info on a database, called the Library. Kinect is not included on the disc, it is an automatic update on November 15. Additional features like the Library and Analyze Mode are inaccessible without Kinect.

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

Multiplayer Maps
Seven maps are updated and re-released utilizing the Reach engine. Six of these maps are competitive multiplayer maps that are remakes of maps from Halo: CE and Halo 2. The maps include 2 variants, one classic variant (which 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) includes additional indoor sections behind the bases, while Beaver Creek has these sections blocked to retain the classic layout. In Damnation, the gaps between the bridge down by the waterfall is lacking, but in Penance, they are connected. These gaps are also be forge-able.

Multiplayer maps in Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary include:

The new maps don't just utilize the Reach engine, but were actually merged with the Halo: Reach server (similar to ODST and Halo 3). A version of the new maps were released on Xbox Live Marketplace as DLC to download on to Halo: Reach for people who do not have Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary.
 * Beaver Creek / Battle Canyon
 * Hang 'Em High / High Noon
 * Damnation / Penance
 * Timberland / Ridgeline
 * Prisoner / Solitary
 * Headlong / Breakneck

Firefight

 * Main Article: 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 is vehicle-based, and unlike previous Firefight maps it contains friendly ODST's and Marines that help out the players in their fight against the Covenant. The Flood does not make their appearance in Firefight.

Multiplayer playlists
Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary matchmaking contains 4 different playlists; each has their own purpose.


 * Anniversary BTB
 * Anniversary FFA
 * Anniversary Firefight
 * Anniversary Classic

Terminals
Terminals are a new feature added to game by 343 Industries. There are 10 terminals scattered arcoss all the missions of the game, in which one terminal is present per level.

These terminals reveal to the player more details regarding the Installation 04, certain individuals, and Halo 4.

Development
343 Industries was 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 kept some of the audio and replaced other parts entirely with faithful "re-orchestrations" of the original recordings.

Engine
The campaign runs on the original engine, whereas multiplayer is powered by the Reach engine which was worked on by Certain Affinity. 343 Industries graphically revamped the entire game and the level design in the campaign is more enhanced. This means that everything is more detailed and includes 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 has 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 are not 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 retains some of the original audio from Halo: Combat Evolved, though it was remastered to sound clearer, allowing it to work seamlessly in 5.1 surround sound. Pyramind Studios were in charge of remastering, re-orchestrating and re-recording Martin O'Donnell's soundtrack, and Skywalker Orchestra recorded the orchestral pieces from the soundtrack at Skywalker Ranch. Halo Anniversary features 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.

Soundtrack
The Anniversary soundtrack includes 39 tracks on 2 discs. Many of the song titles are derived from the song titles of the Combat Evolved soundtrack.

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 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, there are two codes, one for a female avatar and one for a male avatar. They are both included on the code card.

Halo: Anniversary Exclusive Pre-Order Concept Art Booklet
In the United Kingdom when pre-ordered from GAME or Gamestation, 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 would feature the Flood as an enemy, though it was confirmed at Halo Fest that the map was Installation 04, and the map would not feature the Flood.
 * In the settings the player has the option of using either the classic music, or the re-mastered music.
 * Halo: Anniversary ships with Kinect support. Its Kinect functionality allows actions to be done by voice command.
 * Despite the fact that the Pillar of Autumn's crew are Marines, they wear UNSC Army Battle Dress Uniforms. However, this may just be for artistic purposes only.
 * If you look closely, the Lieutenant for the Lifeboat in which John escapes in is wearing Marine BDU. This can be seen again if one looks into the cockpit of Carol Rawley's (aka Foehammer) Pelican - she too is wearing Marine BDU.
 * The Campaign features both the original graphics and a remastered graphics layered over the original, and the player has the option to transition between both graphical layers by pressing the Back button.
 * The Multiplayer portion of the game has Forge mode.
 * This game is also supported 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 Assault Rifle in Halo: Combat Evolved 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.
 * The "classic mode" graphical change is also available in the main menu, and is the only way to start the campaign in classic graphics, as you cannot change graphic modes during cutscenes, but the graphics mode you're using in the main menu will carry over into the campaign once you start it up. This also applies to the credits.
 * 343 Industries “revisited” the game’s cut scenes to improve the animation of characters and camera angles.
 * Almost all of the skulls in Halo: Anniversary are different from traditional Halo skulls.
 * During the last Legendary cutscene, If you look closely enough you can notice that the Remastered version features a Sangheili Zealot instead of the Stealth Sangheili in Halo CE.
 * When selecting the level, The Silent Cartographer, the menu picture shows Marines charging up the beach, and striding towards them one can see an image of Thel 'Vadam from Halo 3.
 * The Elite minors in this game somewhat resemble the Elites From Halo wars.