As some of you know, I took the plunge a few months ago and bought myself an Xbox One. The main drivers being Sunset Overdrive, Forza Horizon 2 and the Rare Replay collection. I had also seen some positive buzz for Halo 5 and knew Quantum Break and Gears of War 4 was also on the horizon.

So when I got my Xbox One, Halo 5 was on clearance too so I managed to get a brand new Limited Edition version for under £20, along with Sunset OverDrive for £15 and Rare Replay for £15 and Gears of War's remaster was bundled in as a download with the console.

So on to the topic at hand, I actually bought an Xbox um... original? on release for £299.99, before MS desperately slashed the price within weeks to £199.99 and among the games I bought at launch was Halo, though I really wanted it for Project Gotham Racing and Jet Set Radio Future. I enjoyed Halo, it seemed "alright". Fun to play in multiplayer and the physics were fun to mess around with. But the game itself? Always seemed a bit generic/average.

Fastforward almost 15 years, and I found trying to play Halo 5, that it wasn't really clicking at all. Felt really wtf?! So I decided maybe the right thing to do would be to grab the game I passed on when I got my XB1 due to monies. On Monday I picked up Master Chief Collection for a whopping £12... (that's right, £3 per Halo!) and since then I've spent a lot of time reliving the first Halo.

My impressions surprisingly being far more positive than when I first got my original Xbox back in 2002. This time I played a game that even in 2016, actually felt fun and fresh. The physics satisfying, the large battles feeling epic. The vehicles just fun to drive. And don't get me started on that soundtrack, that "sounded up it's own arse" to me back in 2002. The Halo Anniversary game has actually been the most fun I've had with an FPS in a good while.

The universe and Story, having 4 separate factions by the end of the game all fighting it out against each other makes the scurmishes intense. Every level genuinely progresses the campaign, and adds something different. You can replay each level over and over again to appreciate it does something slightly different with that wonderful game engine.

Maybe it was just too far ahead of it's time for me to truly appreciate originally. But I have to say, re-playing the original Halo has been thrilling, fun and at 60fps? Fluid! Enjoyed every minute of the campaign (the fact I have finished a full campaign in less than a week despite working full time really hammers that home for me)

So Bungie, I'm sorry for always criticising Halo as a mediocre FPS with a great physics engine. I guess I was just too young to truly appreciate just how special this game was.

I hope moving onto Halo 2 will do exactly the same for me! (I never even finished that the first time around)...

The first Halo seemed to move just a little too slow for me. The movements just didn't have the speed that most shooters had back then. I also played Starsiege: Tribes back in the day and Halo seemed to be just a weaker version of a space shooter to me. I don't think I'll ever fully appreciate the Halo world but I can't deny that I had some fun back in the day playing multiplayer Halo.

I think Bungie said at the time it was deliberately like that to accomodate the console/framerate. Maybe it's that it's now 60fps and moves a lot more fluid that really made me enjoy it more.

Yay! In my mind, the original Halo is a masterpiece. I'm glad you enjoyed it more this time!

The first Halo is excellent. As are pretty much all the Bungee Halo games.

Halo CE is game of its respective generation. Nowadays most shooters are all about the multiplayer though.

Halo CE...disliked it at first but loved it later. What is interesting about the halo bungie games that almost all were rushed and have a ton of content cut. I think Halo reach was the only one were they didn't had to rush and even gave it a lot of content (like space battles and a ton of mp options) recommend you also try halo reach later on it is my favourite :).

I actually loved the first trilogy for it's story.
Shame Halo 4 and 5 pushed their expanded universe which left allot to be desired from a story standpoint.
It's sad when you have avidly played every Halo game and then you ask yourself "Who the heck is that guy?" or "Why are we here?" because the games jumped into the expanded lore and ditched any kind of continuity.

I think the declining moment for me in the franchise started with Halo Reach Multiplayer though, no longer were you being strategic on where you went on a map to secure power weapons or pick up armor abilities... You started off with them/had drops. - And that was a big part of Halo 3 for me, you needed to learn the maps to get the things or work with team mates to secure those areas.

Halo 1 though, was a ripper of a game on the Original Xbox back in the day, heck I even enjoyed the Library, especially on Legendary, split screen (Halo 5 doesn't have this) whilst drinking with mates.
I also had it on PC back then and the campaign managed to shine brighter thanks to 60fps, higher resolutions, better shaders, shadowing, textures etc'.

God i miss the first 3 halo's multiplayer. Drops/Perks are dumb as fuck. But alas all the noobs had to get their Call of Duty with energy shields experience so Starting with Reach everything went downhill massively. Good memories of Halo. Truely the best FPS series from 2001 - 2009 bar none.

The Halo campaigns (except for 5) have all been excellent. Give them all a try and maybe challenge yourself by playing on legendary.