u/dpceee

I played through Campaign Evolved this week. I was playing 2 levels a night, until today (Saturday) when I grinded out 4 levels to finish the main campaign. I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed my experience, while there are some negatives, namely the no multiplayer aspect (yes, there is co-op, not what I mean) and some little quirks or details, but by and large I think that the game was a really solid remake. In fact, in retrospective, I wish they did something like this when they did CEA. The thing that aged the WORST from the original Halo game was the vehicle physics.

As a business decision, I guess I understand why they did not do multiplayer, and as a certified unc (30-year-old), I have to say that single-player is where I find the most enjoyment these days. But as a business decision, they probably say giving it multiplayer as being too overlapping with the MCC, but that game is now mega old. I also am not a huge fan of them doing CE for a second time instead of Halo 3, which will be 20 next year. But, I digress. These are not enough to make me not admit that I had a great time.

There were a lot of changes to the game, and I am happy that they allow a lot of the new settings to be turned off in the settings, which I did. I also appreciate that sprint was not very intrusive to the game design. I rarely used it because I found it to be not really needed. They made it much slower than they would have in a modern game and I appreciate that. I liked the art direction that they went in, they largely reverted a lot of the designs to what we see in Reach, which is a good, IMO. I also was pleased to see that they turned back the clock on the Warthog design.

I liked the little bits they added to the story, like with Keyes giving Chief the pistol. The cutscenes are able to convey a lot more emotion now, but I will not ding CE for being 25 years old and having limitations of the time.

The fact that more enemies could be spawned in made some of the fights really cool, especially when you had two factions fighting each other.

I loved the environmental design, I think it was pretty faithful to the intention that Bungie had in mind while also bringing it in line with the modern day. This will tie into the next point, but the Flood environment design really sealed the deal. Having all that nasty flood fungus everywhere really A. made a level like the Library more interesting, and B. it really leaned into the horror of the Flood, which was really appropriate. 343GS was probably my favorite level of the whole experience, while Pillar of Autumn would have been mine back in the day. The Warthog run was so cool, especially with that desert section going downhill.

However, the single biggest improvement was how the Flood was handled. Adding in the pure forms was something that surprised me actually, but I loved that change. It was great to watch hunters and pure forms duke it out in sections of the game. My only complaint is that the bodies disappear when you smash them rather than break into pieces like in H3. I also was really thankful that rocket Flood have a visual indicator now.

The addition of all the weapons from other games felt appropriate and they were fun to use. I also liked that the vehicles were all drivable. Getting to drive a wraith in CE was cool, and all of the covenant vehicles working like they do in every other game was great.

Was the game perfect? No, but then neither was the original. Should it have had multiplayer? I think so. Was it Halo? Most definitely. Was it worth $50? I think so. My first playthrough was 12 hours, and I do not believe in the idea that games need to be long to be worth the money. I would much rather have a fun experience that lasts me 10 hours for the same price than a game that takes 40-80 hours with large parts of the experience being padding. Maybe this is because I am older now and don't have the time, will, or energy to grind through games like I used to. Either way, I was really pleased with the experience, I will play again with my friends, and I will enjoy that too. If this is a blueprint for their future remakes of H2 and H3, I think I will enjoy those too.

Ideally, I am looking for the early 1800s and the late 1700s. I have a good amount of maps from the early 1900s, but I am covetous and need more.

I am especially interested in maps that show northern Worcester, but I am not going to be pick.

I've asked in the past about this and I got some good resources. And now I am asking again hoping that I will find yet more.

As the title reads mostly. I am wondering what sorts of generalizations of us being stuck in the past will be largely true for millenials as we reach our elder years. For the current generations of elderly people. It is often the inability or unwillingness to utilize technology, for example.

Obviously this is all speculative, but it would be interesting to see what people might thing presently when projecting into the future.