The Ultimate Halo: Combat Evolved Critique

[@BenPlaysGames]

✅ Subscribe: kzbin.info 🖱 Support the channel: www.patreon.com/ben_plays_games You can watch my other supercuts using this playlist: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bpLXlpp_fqufhJY&pp=gAQBiAQB

[@regularphill]

That was great, My only nitpick was that you did not leave in the truth and reconceliation control room gold elite encounter in. Other than that, you killed it.

[@honestjakegaming]

The beginning explains it all!

[@timgelzinis9850]

The first time you 😮

[@Dabrebro]

You are right about Bungie's intentions of the Forerunners being Humans! The original storyboards for Halo 2's ending shows the Arbiter uncovering some Forerunner remains in a tomb, which is revealed to be a Human skeleton. I have always enjoyed the way Bungie portrayed the Forerunners and implied the connection between them and humanity, as it gives the story a sort of cyclical nature that ties into other circle metaphors found throughout the rest of the series, like the Halo rings themselves

[@voltspc9394]

Halo 3 literally has a quote calling chief a forerunner, it’s no debate, Joe Staten wanted humans to be forerunner, it’s also confirmed in one of the older books

[@brancolt_]

as if the word “reclaimer” itself wasn’t a dead giveaway. You only REclaim what was once yours and is now lost. Humans are reclaiming their own creations which were left derelict after the rings were fired.

[@DigitalDNA]

@brancolt_ I like the concept of Forerunners being ancient ultra advanced humans, however, I think that plot line puts the Flood at nothing more than space zombies, with very mysterious origins and wouldn't make sense in the Halo universe.

[@brancolt_]

@@DigitalDNA Why?

[@DigitalDNA]

@@brancolt_ I'd say the current origins of the Flood are more appealing to me personally, rather than it being found on some barren rock with no explanation to its evolution state and existence.

[@lanzrabe2914]

I like to think that Chief killed the marines in the pod during the crash because he wasn't sitting and bounced around inside, crushing everyone else.

[@raymondjack]

It’s always definitely canon in my head since I first played the game 20 years ago.

[@cristianroy21]

Considering he weighs a ton. You might be right. Cause they were all strapped on. & the other pods had survivors lol

[@halinaqi2194]

I like that explanation more than the developers having trouble setting up marine allies in that part of the mission.

[@godwingeorge1880]

Makes sense 😂😂😂

[@windwakin]

You say you “like” to think that?

[@brianm5563]

The lighting effects were so amazing for 2001; the scintillating light from plasma fire or muzzle flash reflecting off of the walls/surroundings was incredible.

[@TheJohnmurphy516]

the pillar of autumn also teaches you how to climb ladders with prompt instructions on the bridge.

[@burge117]

Whoa looking forward to this man ❤ By the way, have you ever thought of doing a video on each Halo game where you list your personal favourite and subjectively the best and worst levels from each game? A trifecta if you will. I know for some Halo games...my personal favourite levels don't always match up with what is subjectively the best level 😂

[@toxenzz]

Love the long-form content Ben! Been having it on in the background listening intently while gaming. This’ll be one I come back to again and again.

[@tomski758]

I’m certain this man deserves more subscribers and popularity with his amazing quality of content

[@SumanNath25]

The Library intentionally made that way for immersion into the story. To show how exhausting is fighting with flood mentally and physically. To have a hint of why forerunners would fell to flood despite having tech superiority. I am not a machine which need flashing lights to be entertained always. Alone, dark, very alien, creepy, never ending nightmare could be entertaining as well. And I love the Library the way it is.

[@Keatoo]

I love these long videos! Thanks Ben good work

[@gabe1298]

Absolutely sensational. Your best yet.

[@devilravenninja9597]

Playing Solo on Legendary... rather than dread, when fighting the flood, I actually felt a strong sense of relief ngl just cause they're much easier to deal with

[@underscore_5450]

A lot of the design choices in CE are really interesting when looked at in the context of Bungie's previous work. CE's outdoor sections work so well because of Bungie's time developing Myth. Hell, CE was originally conceived as an RTS so Bungie's terrain and enemy placement work really really well. It just so happens that the design philosophy of RTS level design happens to translate really well to a FPS title. On the other hand, Bungie's time developing Marathon seems to have really hurt CE's interior sections a lot. If you haven't played the old Marathon titles, they are full of overlong levels filled to the brim with mazes and puzzles. It makes for an interesting concept for the first few levels, but Marathon really starts to drag before you've even reached the halfway point. For reference, I think Marathon 2 has 28ish levels that take just about as long (if not longer) to beat as a standard Halo level. And it's all mazes and water puzzles. You can see a lot of Marathon's influence in CE's maze-like interiors and Bungie's penchant for trying to stretch the runtime of levels. In my opinion, it's both the good and the bad that make CE so interesting. It's the product of nearly a decade of learning. By the time CE launched Bungie had made dungeon crawlers, invented dual wielding and mouse look for fps games, made 2 RTS games, and had just landed a lucrative deal with Microsoft. CE took Bungie from a relatively small studio where one person was drawing every single sprite by hand to one of the biggest companies in the gaming landscape.

[@loganclements9788]

the balance for "assault on the control room" is to steal the first banshee by setting up your shot with the sniper and blowing it off the platform with a rocket before the elite can get on it!

[@sierra121cyan]

I just realized, after the diagnostics and after the guy in the bay above gets killed, the crewman who ran your diagnostics and shields says 'c'mon, we've got to get the hell out of here!', which is the word-for-word exact same sentence one of the marines says to Six while offering a hand to get him into the pelican at the end of Pillar of Autumn, after Emile is killed. The only difference is that he's a crewman now, and that he says it much more calmly than the marine in Reach.

[@ZChronicNebula]

13:00 epic scene 🔥

[@SandTurtle]

i liked the beginning of the library, the flood really lived up to its name flooding from every nook an cranny charging directly at you, challenging you to ration your resources, throw weapons down, shoot a bunch of rockets, and then pick your shotgun back up..... but it gets old after like an hour of doing only that and literally nothing else

[@fullauto86]

Game critique are a dime a dozen on KZbin but this here is definitely some quality content.

[@jamesb2236]

Combat Evolved is one hell of an experience, and it's so close to my heart

[@colbytabor4069]

2 hour video at 1 am yeah I’ve got time

[@xTheReapersSpawn]

Definitely checkout ruby's rebalanced mod for h1. He keeps Bungie's original design intent in all his changes. Great analysis btw!

[@Liberator130]

9:40 - Those doors are open on Heroic and Legendary difficulty

[@TheLastArbiter]

Is this a reupload? Around 18:30, you begin taking about infinite as if it has not yet launched

[@HOTRODINATOR]

This video comes from splicing together his individual videos of each mission analysis, with added dialogue to fill the gaps

[@TheLastArbiter]

@@HOTRODINATOR gotcha, thanks!

[@bluex217]

1:19:40 wait did you say the best encounter in the game was the end of the library? Or did you mean in the level

[@Yopmemama]

He says the game. The end of the library is the best encounter in the game

[@bluex217]

@@Yopmemama I don't believe that's what he meant tho lol

[@benmcreynolds8581]

The original Halo Combat Evolved is by far my favorite game of the series. I love the way they balanced the weapons/gameplay/maps in this game. It's unique. It's so well thought out for all out fun. Yet if you want to play skilled modes you can too. You can couch co-op party play. Co-op the campaign. I love how the game is crafted to bring out certain types of play style with-in people. It leaves room for goofing around, while equally allowing for a test of your knowledge and skills of the game to see who can utilize things the best. The maps are so unique compared to other multiplayer games. They aren't just copying COD 3 lane map layouts. The campaign is great, the flood, the gathering of ammo, health packs, shields, cloak. The way they built it so you start out with base weapons and you each have to go around the map to aquire weapons and more during gameplay, really creates a awesome structure to how the game is needed to be played. +It's my opinion that The A.I. is by far the BEST A.I. It's so interesting to go up against the enemies in this game. The enemies have such diverse dynamic behavior and reaction responsiveness. Not just enemies, your own soldier's that team up with you to drive vehicle's in the story mode, really adds depth to the campaign mode. The level of customization of game modes is like nothing we have today. You could Customize your own personal character. You could make your own game modes. You could make Serious game modes or dorking around game modes or just all out crazy Overpowered madness game modes. I absolutely LOVE THIS GAME and I still own and play the OG version on a old school original Xbox as well as a Xbox 360. (I haven't gotten a Xbox system after the 360. That era was the peak in my opinion) What I don't get is that "The Original Halo Combat Evolved, on OG Xbox" has some of the best A.i. -As well as Left 4 Dead 2. I love the way they balanced the weapons/gameplay/maps. It's so well thought out & fun. You can couch co-op, party play. Co-op the campaign. It leaves room for goofing around, while equally allowing for a test of skills. The maps are unique compared to other games. The campaign is great, in Halo CE there's the flood, gathering of ammo, health packs, shields, cloak. The way they built it so you start out with base weapons and you each have to go around the map to aquire weapons during gameplay, really creates a awesome structure to how the game is played. +The A.I. is by far the BEST A.I. It's so interesting to go up against the enemies in this game. The enemies have such diverse dynamic behavior and reaction responsiveness. Not just enemies, but your own soldier's that team up with you to drive vehicle's in the story mode, really adds depth to the campaign mode. The level of customization of game modes is like nothing we have today. You could Customize your own personal character in Halo (for free). You could make your own game modes. You could make Serious game modes or dork around game modes or just all out crazy Overpowered madness game modes. I absolutely LOVE when a game can do this and I still own and play the OG version on a old school original Xbox as well as a Xbox 360. (I haven't gotten a Xbox system after the 360. That era was the peak in my opinion)

[@Phillibetrus]

Bungie absolutely had the Humans as Forerunner. those references only picked up in the next 2 games.

[@samdeoliveira6272]

Ben, we need to play the campaign together. Looks like you could use some help. :)

[@toringmort4231]

Im so into this

[@blackharpy7468]

At 1:44:16 you killed the stealthed flood elite.

[@SandTurtle]

i cant believe i beat the whole game without realizing you could instakill the hunters. they were suuuuuuuuch bullet sponges without knowing that. they could eat 3 plasma grenades and repeated point blank shotgun shots like a champ

[@Devinn504]

Best halo game ever don’t care, you had to be there day one.

[@noble7525]

Bro really said that the scorpion is pinpoint accurate; which is the biggest lie ever uttered regarding this franchise

[@ayedeebeeno4561]

Im Master Chief

[@Xpwnxage]

Hell yeah

[@rajatdogra96]

4:03 one dialogue missed , you didnt play well 😂

[@harshal343]

Dude you play like a noob even on normal difficulty

[@Moaiticus]

A 2 hour Halo CE critique? I’m interested 🔥

[@hoodbabyslime24]

hell yeahhh 🤙🏽

[@veritech102]

For the fate of the Marines on Silent Cartographer, you hear what happens to them over the radio. They notify you that more Covenant drop ships are in bound. Cortana will tell them to try to get inside the building you’re in but they’ll respond that the drop ships are closing in too fast. They say they’ll hold off the Covenant as long as they can, but it’s evident through the tone of the transmission that it’ll be a last stand. Cortana ends the transmission with, “Give them hell Marines.” She’ll then proceed to tell you that you need to leave before more Covenant reinforcements arrive.

[@highoverseer9323]

not to mention that once you complete the map room if you head back to the start of the level instead of boarding the pelican, the marines that captured the beach with you have been killed it was probably them who cortana told to retreat to the structure.

[@littleute2693]

I never knew that you this is very interesting thank u

[@spearfisherman308]

They are dead you see their bodies at the end of the level.

[@wowno5763]

Marines in the Halo games always get shafted so hard, lol. Like in Halo 2 when you kill Regret, even if all of the Marines survive through the whole mission, i guess they just get blasted by the Covenant ship. ALL of the Marines in Halo: CE end up dead when the ring is destroyed (except Johnson, of course).

[@EskimoCanadian44]

​@@wowno5763and Dustin Echoes.

[@load-bearingcoconut5586]

one of the things I adore about those first 3 levels of Combat Evolved is that it wordlessly introduces players to the 4 kinds of Covenant Infantry and their specific roles. First, in Pillar of Autumn, the player encounters the core of the Covenant's ground force: Elites and Grunts. Leaders and Fodder. Next, in Halo, Jackals are introduced to the fold, acting as shock troopers, scouts, and snipers with their Point Defense Gauntlets, lastly in Truth and Reconcilliation: Hunters, the Heavy Infantry. by separating the Covenant species like this, it gives the player a chance to somewhat safely figure out each enemy's core combat loop.

[@Vergil_Sparda_1976]

Yes and also in truth and reconciliation we see new variants of the elites including the stealth and the violent zealot

[@AnesidoraAston]

The one issue I have with 343 Guilty Spark, The Library, and Two Betrayals, is that if Cortana had just taken thirty seconds to explain what she found, a lot of trouble, as well as the argument that starts Two Betrayals, could have been avoided.

[@Xpwnxage]

Yeah but the confrontation in Two Betrayals is so good.

[@noahwoodard3034]

Also it would have taken less words to just say "Halo is a super weapon, stop Keys from activating it."

[@BigWhiskey09]

​@@noahwoodard3034logic should never get in the way of telling a good story

[@roguemerc]

TBF she is absorbing a level of information that no human AI would ever, or probably should ever reach. She shoulda went rampant

[@mobius1504]

I dont think she knows what Halo does at first she was reffering to the flood as to what they found and it wouldnt have changed much if she told him

[@jeffh757]

For all of my countless playthroughs of this all-time great game, I never knew you could take the elevator back up to the surface and see dead Marines pre-Flood reveal on 343 Guilty Spark.

[@slimdevin99]

Same!

[@Ragman312]

You made me realize how much of a barbarian I was for not paying attention to environmental storytelling. I'm glad my eyes are open b/c now I can't help but notice it in other games too

[@moonasha]

I remember playing this game for the first time on PC back in like 2005 or so. The multiplayer online was absolutely incredible.

[@BenPlaysGames]

I'd already played it on Xbox many times but got the PC port on release too. So many hours of fun playing online and using a hex editor to change weapon values.

[@vBUMPERv]

Combat Evolved was my first FPS game and I still go back to play it every now and again. Thank you for making this video 🙏🏻

[@triggerhappym]

Question: During your analysis of the mission Halo, you speculate on how Halo Infinite will go about open area encounters as if you have not played the Halo Infinite campaign. Was this section recorded long before Infinite was out or is there something new coming to Halo Infinite that I am not aware of?

[@HOTRODINATOR]

This video comes from splicing together his individual videos of each mission analysis, with added dialogue to fill the gaps

[@mistermeow527]

42:55 this is actually explained how they died! During your progress through the map room section underground you get a radio call from those marines that an overwhelming amount of Covenant dropships are inbound and Cortana advises them to take cover in the structure but they then reply that there isn't time and will hold them off as long as possible to buy Chief time to find the Cartographer.

[@Peak_Aussieman]

I remember back in the day. Getting the achievement for beating the campaign on laso difficulty was a bitch. Ah, listen memories that aren't even from the original iteration of this game being typed up as if it were a fine regalement of such a fine yarn to mi grandkids around the fire place.

[@clancymcadams1267]

You should make videos that deep dive into the different enemy types, and how they changed along with each game. Like a video for grunts a video for Jackal’s, a video for hunters.

[@AIexMercer]

Played the hell out of Silent Cartographer in Halo demo 😁

[@TruePacifist201]

Me too.

[@pchurch692]

Love these vids, can't wait to experience them all together like this! Thanks for the content as always.

[@Donut117]

At 10:14, you walk out into a hallway full of enemies that don't know you're there yet. This is another test of everything you just learned. Enemies that don't see you can be instantly, silently killed from behind, and the motion tracker lets you see where everyone else is while you focus on killing them one at a time. This segment also introduces you to stealth, which is a recurring mechanic in CE. As for obvious tutorials, Bungie developers have done presentations on their play testing sessions for CE. They mentioned how they needed to keep adding more and more obvious visual and auditory cues to teach players things like the grunts running away when you kill an elite. At 15:20, this is also your first introduction to the needler. Its projectiles are bright glowing pink in a darker green environment. Pink and green are complimentary colors, making your first exposure to these homing needles as eye-catching as possible. The game teaches you they track you without needing to tell you. New players will, of course, want to pick one up and use it themselves. They'll find it's very effective against elites and grunts, but completely ineffective against the jackals they've just introduced. The jackals are also very strong against your human weapons, which leaves you with the plasma weapons. This is teaching you that plasma is better at dealing with shields. Just to further drive that point home, jackals are the only enemies that use charged plasma pistol shots against you, which drain your shields instantly. Around 18:00 you're talking about non-linear level design that still funnels you into tighter linear design. This is also where the game first introduces the sniper rifle. All 3 areas you can go give you a sniper rifle in a spot where you can shoot the enemy, but they can't shoot you. Even before the intro to Truth and Reconciliation, the game is making sure your first exposure to the sniper rifle shows off its strengths. T&R is also the only level in the game that does not feature the pistol, and where your sniper rifle starts with more reserve ammo than a weapon is normally allowed to hold. On top of that, this is also one of the only levels sniper rifle ammo pickups are liberally strewn about in. The sniper rifle and pistol are the only two headshot-capable weapons in the game, so T&R as a whole is a test of your sniper rifle usage. It's also a test of balancing conservation of "power weapon" ammo with more common ammo in a game with a 2 weapon limit, which was also novel at the time. I can't agree with T&R's hallways being uninspired. Even today, the Covenant architecture is visually unique and gorgeous. Texture resolution is normally the most dated aspect of older games, but Bungie's clever use of strip textures make the whole scene appear much more high-resolution. Combine that with excellent reflective shaders, and you've got something that still looks great today. This game came out in _2001_. Even Halo 2 often fails to live up to looking as good as CE. 1:25:00 This is a fun theory, but I don't think it's accurate. There are some Bungie dev commentaries out there where they talk about how they slapped Two Betrayals together. Even without that, signs of rushed development are most obvious in Two Betrayals. It feels like it has the least polish of any level. There are more rocket flood here than anywhere else, checkpoints are much more sparse than other levels, and some of the music cues are weirdly timed or in the wrong order. There's also quite a few gold elites just thrown in there, as well as a lot of the encounters just feeling samey. Every other level you backtrack through also has significant changes except Two Betrayals. 1:36:30 Cards on the table, this is one of my favorite parts of the game. This is Halo entirely taking the training wheels off. You know how your kit works, you know how the enemies work, and you already know this environment (because of T&R). The game throws everything it's got at you. It's also worth pointing out, the flood do actually have a set number of spawns in these hallways. The thing that many players miss is that the flood spawn *behind* you, a ways back, and the next wave is scripted to show up when the current wave is almost dead. If you jump down from the upper level, you're going to have a rough time. If you take your time and go around through the hallway, you can kill a lot of the flood before they've, well, *flooded* you. Also, the shotgun is essentially a straight upgrade over the assault rifle. The game knows this, and it expects you to be using it during this part.

[@Ohbrotherthisguystinks823]

Glad someone else agrees about Keyes. I agree with him about T&R, AoTCR, and the Library having pretty bad sections in the game. But I always liked keyes the level design was very good at making you really feel like you’re almost a side character as the covenant desperately fight to survive against the flood and like you said as the second to last mission it’s really testing your skills and should be challenging.

[@PandaJerk007]

Whenever I hear you talk about 343 Guilty Spark I always come away liking the mission more and more! :)

[@tambow44]

I really enjoyed the circular style of the different chapters. Pillar of Autumn / The Maw Truth & Reconciliation / Keyes Assault on The Control Room / Two Betrayals 343 Guilty Spark / The Library* These are all arguably the same places* but with different objectives and slightly different level design.

[@NeightrixPrime]

I don't fully agree with some expectations for the level Keyes. Later parts are considered repetitive or too hard? I don't think it's too hard, but you do have to re-think how you approach after a death - at a few points you choose between safely waiting out ~7 waves of spawns, or follow a grenade and breach to clear a spawn point. Perhaps this is a difference in preference, as I find most of gameplay sections of H3 to be too short, wishing they were more encounters per level like H1.

[@flatpepsi]

I think it would be cool if these new studios in charge of future Halo projects just rebooted the franchise from Halo 4 and took back the human forerunner approach bungie intended. 343 forerunner is way less compelling than bungie's human forerunner concept. It went from a grim story about the doomed nature of inevitable cycles and the breaking of the cycles to "humans are special and they'll succeed where we failed". Just doesnt hit as hard.

[@evan1612]

As a long time Halo fan, this video has my seal of approval. Great work.

[@BenPlaysGames]

Nice one Evan!

[@zachtaylor5312]

I remember getting this back in 2001. Was blown away. It’s hard to appreciate these days but back then there was nothing else like it at the time.

[@genetenz]

Only on console. Pc had better fps games. It's a really boring game.

[@ericmay560]

@@genetenzbait used to be believeable.

[@partrock350]

Thankyou for taking the time to fill ours with great content, your hard work shows and is appreciated 😎

[@OmegaPhlare]

By the time I reach Assault on the Control Room, I am already sick to death of the 3 enemy units: Grunts, Elites, Jackals repeated ad nauseam. That the game soon introduces Hunters and that's nice, but it is not a kind of re-usable enemy unit without setting up an larger area to fight them in, so they go underused. When the flood gets introduced, the player is made sick of them *immediately* because of the Library. Then you fight some sentinels and proceed to play the campaign in reverse by returning to previously trodden areas. By all means this is poor campaign design, but as a teenager I played it anyways because it offered a great couch co-op experience. As an adult I return to it from time to time, not because it's good, but because I like to come back and re-affirm what I've already thought about the game.

[@neonnoir9692]

The game's level design feels intentional. It's chiral - the 2nd half is just the 1st half backwards, back to the POA. Because you're familiar with these places, it hits way harder to see what the Flood has done to them.

[@chickendrawsdogs3343]

Player 1: Halo CE is legendary! Player 2: I think it's ok. Player 3: I think it's great, flawed but great. Player 1, 2 and 3: But The Library sucks.

[@butterboydan]

You might be my new favorite KZbinr. I can’t image the amount of time you spend making this video. This is content💯

[@BenPlaysGames]

Cheers dude - and more time than I'd ever want to admit publicly!

[@wasthataspongebobreference533]

48:40 Shoutout to whoever that other marine was that shot the hunter in the back with their own sniper

[@jnlarge7244]

Can we get an ultimate halo 2 critique? 😉

[@unlimitedpower3157]

Halo CE is the only one in the Bungie era I find difficult wanting to replay it because the padding in level design drags down the overall experience. There are more levels in that game I dread replaying than any other in the series not because of its difficulty, but because it gets boring halfway through. It's a personal opinion I know, but CE is the one game in the series that could use a very good remake like what we've gotten from RE2 and Dead Space. That being said, CE is a perfect time capsule that shows Bungie's slow progress into perfecting their game design by the time between Halo 3 and Reach. It's still a classic that deserves the praise it gained innovating the FPS genre.

[@Blue6Romeo]

I feel like I'm the only one in the universe that thought 343 was female at first....

[@ShiningT1g3R]

@1:47:00 When you mention going to the armory to grab the rockets, if you go all the way to the wall on the far side and shine your flashlight through the window of the closed door, you can make out INVISIBLE Flood combat forms moving around! If you shoot or startle them, the door WILL open...

[@BOomNinjaZ1]

51:29 that elite literally yeeted himself off the bridge from trying to dodge that plasma grenade lol

[@coops3600]

I love how casually cortana tells the marines to "take him down boys" regarding the chief like that's some easy task. If only someone had told the covenant to "just take him down boys" maybe they would have won the war.

[@Getz-Da-Chompy]

Good video Just to say by the way, you forgot to put the card linking to your mission ranking video up at 1:29:48, thought you'd might like to know 🙂

[@BenPlaysGames]

Cheers mate, much appreciated! And thanks for highlighting the card issue too - that's now been fixed.

[@Xbox3851_]

7:10 "About time you showed up." *Screams of death*

[@YourHaloCreations]

Banshee comes in handy for that last push on Assault on the Control Room. Just open the door & get back in

[@poorlilpinchy4026]

great video but wow your grenade throwing is aweful lol

[@AynniV]

Did people actually think Cortana's comment about the cave not being a natural formation was awkward? I thought the point was that the cave was obviously Forerunner tech and that's how she knew it must lead somewhere and have a purpose. If it looked natural, it would have been confusing what she was talking about when she said it wasn't.

[@JACCO20082012]

7:53 is the absolute core of what made Halo what it became. When you think about CE in the context of its time, you are comparing it to Doom and Quake and Goldeneye. All of them were corridor shooters that were limited in scope by the hardware of the time. Halo started off the same; Shooting enemies in corridors. And then suddenly you're on the ring and you have this massive sandbox map with a never before seen skybox and the ability to complete it in whatever order you decide. Unheard of in 2000 and 2001. Halo is the single greatest game in history BECAUSE of that context and because of what it did to set itself apart. Games would not be what they are now if Bungie hadn't juxtaposed PoA and Halo against each other like they did.

[@enriquenavarro7684]

my brother on crist you dont have to say repetition every 5 mins

[@BenPlaysGames]

Repetition.

[@brianm5563]

There's always been complaint about the repetition of Halo's alien built structures, and that item never bothered me at all as it always made sense. I always thought that if an alien race would build something, it would be simple and efficient, lacking a lot of variation/detail.. I had supposed that a 'superior' being' would have a radical 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' approach to design; if it's a design that works, it would be used all the time.. Oh and just had to say Halo 2 was total garbage. Utterly terrible. The disappointment in that game after such massive anticipation I had is something I never truly got over - I never looked forward to another AAA release with excitement ever again.

[@BenPlaysGames]

That makes sense - I think the gameplay inside those structures is just a bit too repetitive for me at times, especially after The Flood are introduced. It's something Infinite actually nailed, with the extra abilities (especially the grappleshot) making the forerunner environments waaaaay more enjoyable. Also, Halo 2 is a let down gameplay wise but the best in story terms. A strange mix after Combat Evolved where the strengths were arguably reversed.

[@random75491]

Golden era Bungie (Joe) excelled at dialogue and had some pretty well known actors that knew how to deliver. Some of the actors stuck around but it will never be the same without the right vision. Halo fans long for the day we get a Halo game we want to learn to recite.

[@neonnoir9692]

The Library is my favorite level because of how bland and disorienting it is - it makes it far more terrifying and puts your entire focus on the Flood.

[@SamsarasArt]

It also feels like it never ends and neither do the flood.

[@jh9794]

You can actually skip part of assault on the cintrol room if you shoot the banshee on the brudge with a rocjet or kill the elite before he gets inside. Then just fly straight to the door.

[@SamsarasArt]

The active camo you can find gives you enough time to make a bee line for the banshee

[@jh9794]

@SamsarasArt there's a camo in that area? Also yikes, my spelling that day, ouch.

[@Wasted117.]

youve prolly seen me say this a million times. but with gameplay as fun and fair as this, i would rather have more samey than less.

[@GucciPasta]

hey ben, late reply here, but you should really look at the early halo 2 storyboards. you were 100% right, the forunners were meant to be human

[@BenPlaysGames]

I've actually never seen them, will have a butchers!

[@nexemisroguelikes234]

Ben Please Play and Review Ruby's Rebalanced HALO CE Mod!

[@scatterlite2266]

Why do people dislike the enhanced graphics? They are a flat upgrade to me, i only prefer some of the old sounds.

[@BenPlaysGames]

For me, they change too much of the tone and atmosphere of the original. 343 Guilty Spark and Two Betrayals are particularly bad in this regard.

[@SamsarasArt]

Halo CE is perfectly paced in both story and gameplay. It's constantly changing and the experience feels fresh. As you learn more about humanity's situation, Halo and what its purpose is, why the covenant worship it; the gameplay is expanding alongside it. You fight more types of covenant, you get more weapons available to you, vehicle combat is introduced. The first half steadily increases the stakes both story wise and enemy encounters. By the time you're fighting the covenant at full force you discover the control room and what Halo is actually for and the story gets much darker. The overwhelming forces of the covenant in the 5th mission is the antithesis of how they are in the 6th. The flood's introduction is a perfect example of the masterful environmental storytelling that coincides with the plot. It really makes you immersed in the setting and this terrifying reveal feels visceral. And from then on the gameplay and story gets more chaotic and desperate straight through to the explosive finale. It's one of the reasons why Halo CE is my favorite in the series. It also has the best balanced legendary difficulty.

[@Nathan-oo9wi]

I really enjoyed this video and all your Halo videos. I do hope you'll replace your Halo CE footage, though. The footage you used in this and other CE videos is from an old version of MCC plagued with graphical problems. Footage taken from the latest version of MCC would be a much better showing of Halo's beautiful visuals.

[@BenPlaysGames]

Thanks Nathan! I won't be able to do much about the already released videos, but I actually got a new, much better PC a few weeks back and am now releasing all new videos in 4K, so any future Combat Evolved footage used will be from new recordings made in the present to take advantage of that higher resolution.

[@Nathan-oo9wi]

Sounds good! Looking forward to the new videos! @@BenPlaysGames

[@DC-hf7td]

Ben, this is your millionth video about Halo CE.........and i love them all.

[@Ratul946]

Amazing review…. No offence but the game feels way different without unlimited ammo… for example, u save sniper ammo for the elites and hunters only.. etc

[@catonmahkeybord5967]

why does he only use the starting loadout throughout the entire game?

[@deltafreshrelics1660]

I know this is an old video but Halo 1 is timeless right? I laugh when you complain about repetitive aspects. Also complaining about difficulty and unfairness. I started playing fps games at 6 with Wolf3d and all the 90s titles. An obsession with any game that had a gun in the corner of the screen. All the ID games, Raven games, and 3D Realms. All super unforgiving and extremely repetitive for the most part. Except for Duke. So, in context of Halo’s release there was nothing like it at the time in 2001 when it comes to accessibility and story especially on consoles. You got regenerative shields plus health, numerous checkpoints, always a ton of ammo, multiple angles to play. Coming from a guy who only plays legendary on that title, it was a great balance. Did anyone play only the highest difficulty on earlier games? I sure didn’t. I feel like you let later game experiences really influence how you critique older games. Half-Life was the only game, and maybe Unreal, that tried to have a story but those weren’t nearly as forgiving as halo. Not even close. If you look at literally everything that came before it, Halo was a new beginning for campaigns and having system link house parties was freaking awesome . The library was me and my best friends favorite way to smoke a bag of weed and burn a night away. We also crushed RTCW on its hardest difficulty that way too lol just to have wolf3d on the Xbox. Great video though and I can truly appreciate the amount of work you put into these. I’ve watched nearly all of them. Great job.

[@rtvtictaczac727]

I think my favorite part of assault on the control room is where you have the opportunity to steal the banshee if your attentive you'll notice in the hallway where you took on the elites prior to the last circular room there's an active camouflage pickup and if you take care of the hunters in that room and the grunts and jackals in-between the two doors then backtrack to the camouflage pickup then make a mad dash to the banshee it makes it much easier and its obvious thats how bungie intended to reward the more attentive and skilled players

[@DrGreenThumbNZL]

When just one mission is more fun and has more variety then the whole of Infinite...

[@nip3004]

"There's two of us in here" Also served a purpose in the level as a way to call attention to your shield and that you would begin to take lasting health damage. The trigger for the line is the first time your shield is low.

[@rm25088]

this must of been a looootttttttt of work. You definitely have the best critque videos. Bar none.

[@Edmitsu]

Look up the video “we were forerunner” it shows every hint and outright confirmation without any shadow of a doubt that humans are forerunners. The only exception were three pieces written by Frank O Conner who was at the time the community manager at Bungie. Which were ignored by Bungie’s narrative and outright wrong with alot of its information. Lee Wilson saw this dude’s videos and gave him the storyboards for Halo 2 and what would become Halo 3. Ends with the Arbiter finding forerunner graves inside the forerunner structure that would end up being the voi portal and when he opens one up a human skeleton is staring back at him. Keith David also had lines recorded for this reveal which are on the Halo wiki. Regardless if you like or hate the change the only wrong answer is to insist that was always the intent of Bungie to have humans and forerunners separate species. Which is why I made this comment after hearing your comments on the level 343 guilty spark. There’s alot of misinformation around this topic and that video does a fantastic job at dispelling it.

[@trE3E3]

I would like to add the super annoying parts of the tutorial are remake additions. They didn't show up in the original game (played that mission enough times to do it from memory.)

[@RandomPerson-ob1hk]

I had fun playing this game on the old Xbox in the corner of the room upstairs with my neighbor a lot, never realized it was ten years old at the time. Great game, part of my childhood as well as my dads early adult life too. Truly multigenerational

[@jackmb9760]

It’s funny still being able to quote the game’s dialogue all these years later😂

[@idunnoay]

Really like your points about the construction of halo CE’s story - coming back to play it as an adult I was struck by how effortlessly functional the story is. It’s not groundbreaking, and it’s not intended to be, but it builds a world that can be fleshed out in the future in a story that has very little fat. It means that for players that just want to be pointed in a direction and told to kill aliens, the story is super accessible for them anyway. Meanwhile there’s just enough there to pull in people that want a bit more on this version of the future. And of course it lays a good foundation for the much more detailed world building of games like halo 2 or reach, without limiting any possibilities for future writing.

[@waede116]

Oh man, I felt like this has been a long time coming... A culmination of a lot of nostalgia-laden love for this legendary game! Congrats and big thanks, Ben! 👍❤