Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary review

The original campaign still supports two player co-op, which goes to show just how well engineered the game was, with the excellent AI capably handling two human protagonists – plus you can now play it over Xbox Live for the first time. Multiplayer isn’t available as it was originally, instead six of the multiplayer maps have been rejigged for play using the Halo: Reach engine. These can be played standalone from the Anniversary disc; or, using a supplied code, they can be integrated into Reach’s own multiplayer offering, which should provide them with a far larger player base than this release alone could have managed.

The incredible success of the Halo sequels means they sold many times what the original game did, though we imagine that a lot of copies of Halo have done the rounds via friends and second-hand shops. Still, there must be many gamers out there who haven’t played this gem of a game, and they shouldn’t hesitate to buy it.

For those who have already played it extensively, but aren’t die-hard fans, it’s a tougher choice. It’s not cheap at around £28, even considering the amount of work that’s been put into it. It would be nice to have a level select option too, as at this time of year we’re inundated with titles to play and would like to cherry pick our favourite levels, both for solo and co-op play.

Despite an excellent update, we simply can’t recommend you play Halo again instead of playing the best new titles released this Christmas, which is why we haven’t given it an award. However, once you’re done with those, there are few gaming greats more worthy of revisiting than this one. We never use the ‘c’ word lightly, but Halo deserves it – it’s a classic.