Halo:CE was the first console FPS I played. Picked it up with my OG Xbox at launch, and played hundreds of hours of the multiplayer with friends and finished the campaign more times than I can count. This was my first time playing it in a good few years and sadly, it's probably the least I've ever enjoyed playing through the game. Maybe due to how old the game is now, or maybe it's shortcomings, which were always there, are just more visible to me these days.

The gunplay still feels great, the story still mostly engaging, but the second half of the game is a real let down after the first. 'Assault on the Control Room' is an FPS all-timer, yet it's followed up by two of the worst missions I can remember playing in a shooter. They weren't fun 20 years ago, and they're even less fun now. Then you're hit with 'Two Betrayals' and you get caught up in the fight between the covenant and the flood and that epic feeling of the first half of the game comes back, only to get dumped into another mission of running around the same corridors you did six missions earlier, except now you need to deal with the flood AND covenant getting in your way. The ending however is still terrific. Obviously having seen it many times at this point, it doesn't quite hit the same as it did, but in some ways it makes up for the mediocrity of the games latter stages.

Despite being more aware of the games shortcomings these days, I'd still recommend it. There's some really high highs here, which thankfully outweigh the true low points.

Halo:CE was the first console FPS I played. Picked it up with my OG Xbox at launch, and played hundreds of hours of the multiplayer with friends and finished the campaign more times than I can count. This was my first time playing it in a good few years and sadly, it's probably the least I've ever enjoyed playing through the game. Maybe due to how old the game is now, or maybe it's shortcomings, which were always there, are just more visible to me these days. The gunplay still feels great, the story still mostly engaging, but the second half of the game is a real let down after the first. 'Assault on the Control Room' is an FPS all-timer, yet it's followed up by two of the worst missions I can remember playing in a shooter. They weren't fun 20 years ago, and they're even less fun now. Then you're hit with 'Two Betrayals' and you get caught up in the fight between the covenant and the flood and that epic feeling of the first half of the game comes back, only to get dumped into another mission of running around the same corridors you did six missions earlier, except now you need to deal with the flood AND covenant getting in your way. The ending however is still terrific. Obviously having seen it many times at this point, it doesn't quite hit the same as it did, but in some ways it makes up for the mediocrity of the games latter stages. Despite being more aware of the games shortcomings these days, I'd still recommend it. There's some really high highs here, which thankfully outweigh the true low points.