Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary

''This page is about the 2011 remake. For the original game, see Halo: Combat Evolved''.

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary (also referred to as Halo: Anniversary, or Halo: CEA) is a first-person shooter/ Sci-Fi video game set in the Halo Universe and is a graphical enhancement of 2001's Halo: Combat Evolved, featuring extra content, HD visual rendering, replaced HD audio and re-styled sound tracks. 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, as well as the launch of the original Xbox. The game features 7 of the greatest classic multiplayer maps, remade from previous Halo games. The game also features support for Xbox Live multiplayer matchmaking, a complete visual overhaul, achievements, terminals, more easter eggs, and the ability to play Co-Op campaign over Xbox Live. The game utilizes 3D technology and the 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 maintains the same story as Halo: Combat Evolved, with the addition of Xbox 360 achievements, in game 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 has subtitles available for in-game and combat dialogue.

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

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 original multiplayer maps do not return for the remake, and have been replaced with the Anniversary Map Pack, which uses the Halo: Reach engine. The multiplayer beta was released on October 4, 2011.



Multiplayer Maps
Seven maps were updated and re-released utilizing the Halo: Reach engine. Six of these maps are competitive multiplayer maps that are remakes of maps from Halo: Combat Evolved 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 forge-able.

Multiplayer maps in Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary include:

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

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

Multiplayer playlists
Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary matchmaking contains 4 different playlists; each has their own purpose. However, in August 2012, All of the anniversary playlists except Anniversary Classic and Anniversary Firefight were discontinued.
 * Anniversary BTB
 * Anniversary FFA
 * Anniversary Firefight
 * Anniversary Classic
 * Anniversary Squad

Terminals
Terminals are a new feature added to the game by 343 Industries. There are 10 terminals scattered across all the missions of the game, in which one terminal is present per level. Because the original game did not feature them, terminals can only be seen with the HD graphics on.

These terminals reveal to the player more details regarding 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 Halo: Reach, engine which was worked on by Certain Affinity. 343 Industires 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 confirmed 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 soundtracks, giving players the choice of which soundtrack they wish to hear during the campaign. This will have to be selected from the main menu and cannot be changed during gameplay in the same way as classic graphics mode can. Click here to hear a shortened version of the Halo Theme from the Halo: Anniversary Trailer.

Soundtrack
The Halo: 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 Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary trailer was announced at E3 2011, allowing the audience to 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 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 John-117'.

Trivia

 * It was speculated by 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.
 * 343i originally attempted to re-use Halo Reach's Mark V(B)'s Mark V configuration model to depict Master Chief, minus the combat knife, rather than create a new model of the original Mark V MJOLNIR armor. This plan was eventually dropped, as it was unanimously decided that the model "just didn't look like Master Chief", and a new model of the Mark V armor was created. The model is considerably more rigid than the curved rendering of the model found in the original game.
 * In the settings the player has the option of using either the classic music, or the re-mastered music. The game's redone sound effects, however, cannot be replaced by the original game's sound effects.
 * Halo: Anniversary ships with Kinect support. Its Kinect functionality allows actions to be done by voice command. It is the first and so far only Halo title to feature Kinect support.
 * 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 change between graphics engines is not instantaneous, and requires at least a second to transition between the two, during which gameplay does not pause.
 * 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 game's cover art features Master Chief using the M6G Pistol from Halo: Reach. This is due to the fact the M6G was used as a placeholder until the M6D Pistol was properly reskinned. Despite this, the M6G was not replaced on the game's cover art.
 * 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. Unfortunately, the transitions between cutscenes and gameplay are broken up by a noticeable loading stutter, unlike the smooth transitions of the original game.
 * Almost all of the skulls in Halo: Anniversary are different from traditional Halo skulls.
 * During the last Legendary cutscene, the Remastered version features a Sangheili Zealot instead of a 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. It is unknown why this is, since Thel was not introduced until Halo 2.
 * The Sangheili Minors in this game somewhat resemble the Sangheili from Halo Wars.
 * The new graphics were simply relayered over the originals, and the hitboxes did not change. The new graphics do not match the original graphical layouts 100%, which means that it is possible to shoot and throw grenades through the expanded corners in the walls of the Truth and Reconciliation, but enemies will be able to see you before you see them. Conversely, the rock corner before the first pair of hunters in The Silent Cartographer shrinks and you can spy on the Hunters before they see you.
 * If you look closely at the Marines in full body armor, they all have Sergeant's chevrons on their chest, regardless of in-game rank.
 * Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary is 343 Industries' first Halo game. However, it is not their first original Halo game, as that goes to Halo 4.
 * If you go over a Sniper Rifle in original graphics, the weapon swap prompt incorrectly displays the Halo 3 Sniper Rifle instead of the correct one.