Honestly, this has all the roots of a good game but a few things make this kind of annoying and gutting. It has a fun pixel art style and a simple but fun sense of progression, it's a quick game and while I'm not convinced the power scaling is right the enemies are fun to go against.

The issue comes in the form of bugs, we couldn't even get into versus mode, admittedly we didn't try very hard but it just black-screened and left us stuck. This also occasionally happened when we moved to the next level. Another issue I have is that the game doesn't incentivise changing characters, it gives you the option to throughout but if you do you will just get instantly fucked by it, I wish it did more to motivate this during the game.

It's worth a play, but not without its issues. I think me and my boyfriend are going to maybe 100% it, we will see if we get that far. It's been nice to play on a busy week.

The updated graphics of anniversary are rough and lose a lot of the fun style of the original in exchange for a fairly soulless modern sci-fi look. The props I'll give it are its lighting is significantly better, still knowing when to go darker for drama but holding it at a playable level. I can't really get too salty at these graphics considering how piss easy it is to toggle between them and the original style.

Combat Evolved has quite an interesting story that misdirected me at certain points. At the start it felt like it was going to something hyper-militaristic with the marines invading Halo out of fear because they believe it's a religious idol for the covenant. However once you meet the Sparks and the Flood it's more sinister existence becomes clear. I was over the moon with a story that didn't feel overly predictable, it was really fun to watch those cutscenes.

Core gameplay is awesome and the level design has a natural flow to it. All the weapons and vehicles feel so nice and can easily be thrown around, the floaty jumps are also a great time. Level design is very solid, there's clearly some limitation imposed on them likely by the system it was originally designed for although I don't know that for sure, resulting in you going back through places you have already gone through. The game doesn't make this feel unnatural, it feels pretty good and makes the settings feel a lot better explored.

However The Library remains utter garbage. It's a shame that a level that's set up to answer a lot of questions falls so flat. It's just an extremely bland circle you run around for far too long. This is just a sore moment in an otherwise great game.

Played with my boyfriend, Master Chief Collection has excellent co-op that worked pretty much flawlessly.

This game is great and it all starts with setting. It's asylum setting stays fresh and interesting while never letting up the creepy horror atmosphere and fun exploration. I haven't done it in this playthrough but I imagine 100% completing this game is a tonne of fun just because of how cool the setting is. I'm so glad it leaned into that 2000's horror aesthetic because it does give the game that added little edge of tension.

The pacing here is incredible and the game absolutely flies away. Almost unsure as to how it managed to make 9 hours just melt away, the game spreads out its mechanics enough that you never feel like you're stagnating on one.

The story is very engaging, the action is phenomenally fun and the character designs are on point. Great game.