#HALO CUSTOM EDITION CAMPAIGN MOD CMT INSTALL#
#HALO CUSTOM EDITION CAMPAIGN MOD CMT SERIES#

If the graphics weren't as good and the renovations weren't as carefully or lovingly done, Halo SPV could have missed the mark. Assaulting a beach with dozens of UNSC Marines in 'Silent Cartographer' was a stunning experience for me in 2001, and it was every bit as chaotic and breathtaking this time around-plus, I had a decent rifle to shoot with. None of the ideas borrowed from later Halo games feel inappropriate or out of place here. The highest praise I can give Halo SPV is that I had to hop onto Halo wikis to double-check that Brutes and gravity grenades and power swords didn't actually appear in Halo 1. Leaning into the sandbox always makes Halo better, not worse. It's also easier to change tactics on the fly or just mix things up if corridor battles are starting to feel stale.

#HALO CUSTOM EDITION CAMPAIGN MOD CMT SERIES#

Having all of the weapons of the Halo series to play with makes moment-to-moment combat choices more interesting. If I miss the spray-and-pray approach, I pick up the SMG instead. Halo SPV instead uses the Halo 3 version (MA5C) of this rifle: a smaller magazine, more powerful bullets, and much more accurate. I only played a couple of levels of unmodified Halo, but there's just no comparison: Halo SPV is a much better game for someone who plays sci-fi shooters here in 2019, a much more engaging shooter than the antique original.ДЇor example, in 2001 the standard assault rifle (the MA5B in the lore) looked like a long-range rifle but it tore through its 60-round magazine with an inaccurate spray of bullets, like an Uzi loosely taped to a broom handle. On the other hand, a wider variety of characters and weapons just makes Halo, a shooter always designed to be an open-ended sandbox, a lot more fun. Enemies like Brutes (Halo 2) and weapons like the SMG (Halo 2) and even pick-up gadgets like the VISR (Halo 3: ODST) have been folded into the levels I remember from 2001.ДЇor players who want nothing more than to relive the original Halo with nice graphics and lighting effects, picking up a Bruteshot from the deck of the Pillar of Autumn is like saluting Captain Janeway on the bridge of the Enterprise. The team has gathered characters and weapons from throughout the Halo series and spliced them into the DNA of the original. I'm more conflicted about some of the other changes Halo SPV makes. But those graphical improvements make those other aspects easier to appreciate anew. I feel shallow saying those surface elements made that much difference-after all, Halo's many innovations, from enemy AI to setpieces to regenerating health, are all still there.

Here in 2019, Halo: Combat Evolved was, at best, kind of quaint.ДЇrom the first notes of Gregorian choir to running unarmed through the exploding corridors of the Pillar of Autumn, the huge improvements to graphics and lighting in Halo SPV had me hooked. A much-younger me had his mind totally blown by the original Halo, but today-me is old and tired.

The game is good, but Halo has also suffered the saddest fate for any classic action game: It just feels kind of cute by modern standards.

#HALO CUSTOM EDITION CAMPAIGN MOD CMT INSTALL#

Finally, my PC was ready to install Halo SPV, a mod (for a mod) for an ancient game.ДЇor the sake of comparison, I played the first couple of levels of Halo straight from the can, no mods, no graphical updates. I was forced to cruise eBay for an old boxed copy to play Halo SPV.Д«efore I got to SPV I had to install Halo: Custom Edition, an ancient set of modding tools still used by the Halo PC community today. Since the fabled Master Chief Collection isn't out on PC yet (and wouldn't be compatible with this mod anyway), there's no way to buy Halo for PC digitally. Unlike the piracy gray area of region-cracking that lead to Halo Online, Halo SPV is a totally legal mod that requires a legit copy of Halo to run. 'Easier' is not the same as 'easy,' however. Halo SPV strikes a careful balance between updating and preservation

Halo custom edition campaign mod cmt