Having never played Halo growing up, I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy the series with no nostalgia. Fortunately Halo: Combat Evolved proved that good game design is timeless.

There was something oddly heavy about the movement that took a while to get used to, but other than that the game was a blast to play from the beginning. Shooters live and die on the feel of the guns and every gun in Halo is unique and gratifying. Except the assault rifle. That one just sucks.

Most of the levels are pretty solid. Unfortunately the game has a lot of maze-like interiors with identical looking corridors which I struggled to navigate and often I wandered in circles for a frustrating amount of time trying to figure out how to progress. And while I don't think reusing levels is automatically bad, I didn't think it was done in a way that added to the game and it just felt like padding, possibly because the developers started running out of time.

I do think this game is subject to a bit of overhype from fans, but I don't believe it's overrated. I think you just had to be there at the time to feel the transformative effect it had on console shooters. Without that context, it might be puzzling why it's so revered when nothing it does seems that crazy today. I wasn't there, so I'll never really get it. But ultimately it's still a great shooter that stands the test of time.