Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary - Mission 8: Two Betrayals

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary is a 2011 first-person shooter video game developed by 343 Industries, Saber Interactive, and Certain Affinity, and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360 console. It is a remaster of the 2001 video game of the same name, originally developed by Bungie. Announced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in 2011, it was released on November 15, 2011, the tenth anniversary of Combat Evolved and the original Xbox it released on. Anniversary was later included as part of Halo: The Master Chief Collection for Xbox One in 2014, and for Windows and Xbox Series X/S in 2020. 343 Industries, an internal studio established by Microsoft in 2007, was given control over the Halo franchise after the release of Bungie's final entry, Halo: Reach in 2010. 343 Industries approached Saber Interactive to develop a remaster of Combat Evolved for the game's tenth anniversary. Saber used its proprietary game engine to reproduce the graphics and the original Halo engine for gameplay. A development tool for toggling between the old and new visuals for comparison became a feature in the shipping game. Anniversary's enhancements include a complete high-definition visual overhaul, support for cooperative and multiplayer gameplay via the Xbox Live online service, new and remastered sound effects and music, and extras such as achievements, in-game collectibles, and Kinect support. Critical reception to Anniversary was generally positive. The updated graphics, sounds, and ability to toggle between the remastered and original visuals were praised. Complaints included technical glitches, faults with the original game's level design, and the multiplayer implementation. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary and the original, Halo: Combat Evolved, are identical in gameplay and plot. The game is a first-person shooter with portions of vehicular combat taking place from a third-person perspective. The story follows player character and protagonist Master Chief as he fights the alien Covenant on the mysterious ancient ringworld Halo. Players are equipped with a recharging energy shield that absorbs damage; players also have health that can only be replenished by health packs scattered across the game's levels. A variety of human and alien weapons and vehicles can be used. Players can switch between the "classic" graphics of the original game and the new graphics developed for the remaster by pressing the Back button on the controller. Both classic and new graphics are presented in high-definition, 16:9 widescreen compared to the original game's 480i resolution and 4:3 aspect ratio. The remastered graphics are also available in stereoscopic 3D for compatible televisions. Additions to the gameplay include Xbox Live achievements, online cooperative gameplay, hidden video terminals that provide additional story, and collectible skulls that modify gameplay when activated. Support for Xbox Kinect includes voice commands for video navigation, in-combat directives, and environment-scanning, which adds on-screen items to an in-game encyclopedia called the Library. The original Combat Evolved did not support online multiplayer, but players could play multiplayer locally via split-screen or System Link LAN. Anniversary adds revamped multiplayer and two-player co-op campaign support available online via Xbox Live and offline locally. The game's multiplayer mode uses Halo: Reach's engine and features seven remakes of Combat Evolved and Halo 2 maps. Anniversary also includes a new map based on a campaign level for Firefight, a wave-based survival multiplayer game type in which players and their allies fight enemy groups of scaling difficulty. Anniversary introduced artificially intelligent Firefight allies to the series. After Microsoft acquired Bungie in 2000, Bungie developed the original Halo: Combat Evolved as a 2001 launch game for the Xbox, Microsoft's first video game console. Following the release of Halo 3 in 2007, Bungie separated from Microsoft to become an independent company once again, but the rights to Halo remained with the latter, which formed an internal division to oversee Halo franchise development, although Bungie themselves would produce two more games, Halo 3: ODST (2009) and Halo: Reach (2010) as part of their obligations to the publisher. 343 Industries, the internal division, approached Saber Interactive with a proposal to remaster Combat Evolved for the game's tenth anniversary as the former were developing Halo 4 (2012), the series' next main entry. Saber's Chief Operating Officer Andrey Iones recalled that the offer was "an opportunity we [could not] miss", as Saber had never before worked on a major game franchise and many team members were fans of Halo. Saber developed concept art to form visual ideas for the remaster and then flew to Seattle, Washington, to meet with 343 Industries.