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Not really a request but more of an inquiry. Will you be checking out space marine 2 when it drops and if so will we get to see you stomp some tyranids?
@@beccadixon1943 It's a day one purchase for me as I'm a big fan of the first one. Not sure yet how I could cover it on the channel... I can't do a cutscenes video as I would have already played it and streaming it live, it's an option but I'd have to do it over a course of a week etc. Would you want to watch that??
@@kaizammit most definitely, but I understand you most likely have a busy schedule. If you manage to find the time to stream it youd certainly have us tuning in. Only if you would want to do it too of course.
There is this solo animator called Sodaz, he did a Halo Fan animation that I find phenomenal, its about 25 minutes long. Would be great if you could react to that, especially since your latest Halo spree :']
That piano bit is just an easter egg the person decided to include for some reason. The song is Siege of Madrigal and it's from an earlier Bungie game called Myth and they include the song as an easter egg in I believe all the Bungie era Halo games
@@kaizammit It's a fantastic piece of music though. I can't remember when or where it plays in other Halo games but whenever I heard it, it made me really feel that kinda sad but hopeful emotion they were going for. It fit REALLY well in Halo Reach.
36:30 The Easter Egg Grunt's dialogue: "Good thing that Food Nipple's waiting for me at the starship 'cause man, whew, have I worked up a big, Grunty thirst!" Epic LOL
In Halo CE's ending : Cortana: Halo, it's finished. Chief: No, I think we're just getting started. In Halo 3's ending: Cortana: Truth and the Covenant, the Flood. It's finished. Chief: It's finished. It's small callbacks like these that I really enjoy in Halo. In Combat Evolved, there are a few nods at Bungie's other series: Marathon. Like at 32:13 (That blueish symbol you see on the ship is the symbol of the game) . I also remember hearing that the original story for Halo was Cortana going crazy after being plugged into Halo's control room, which is very reminiscent of Marathon.
I was 9 years old when this came out, honestly it scared the hell out of me. Encountering the Elite in the dark hallway by the bridge controls in the second mission. The flood being these disfigured living-dead characters you find locked away in the deepest, darkest part of the ring. It was borderline nightmare fuel as a little kid lol. I think the song at 14:15 is an easter egg that only plays when you stand in that spot.
I hope you've recovered! I was okay with it, my favourite film when I was 6 was Predator and I used to watch Anime like Guyver Biobooster Armour. Trust me when I say this, best anime out there.
Don't forget guys, the MCC's Combat Evolved is based on the PC port. The original graphics in MCC for CE have issues and bugs compared to the OG Xbox's cutscenes because of that.
@@bigtasty42069 Their latest patch broke a lot of things including music and animations in several levels, especially in the anniversary edition. The facial animations for Cortana do not work at all in the latest patch, you can see this in Kai's video on the anniversary edition.
The reason Cortana looks around before saying "yank me!" Is because the PoA was essentially her home, so she was looking around one last time before saying goodbye. Much like a human would do when selling their home.
@@Shad0wKi11 pulled directly from the book Halo: The Flood. *Keyes glanced at Cortana. “Are you ready?” There was a pause as the AI took one last look around. In many ways the ship was her physical body and she was reluctant to leave it. “Yank me.”*
@@KillianConnolly right on. Strange though, wasn't she only in the Autumn only a short time from when Noble 6 delivered her to Keyes and then they make the jump to the first Halo?
@@Shad0wKi11 iirc it was around 2 weeks they were in slipspace (looked it up to double check, left Reach Aug 30th and arrived at Delta Halo on Sept 19th. So closer to 3 weeks). But it was also the first place she lived besides Halsey's lab on reach. She's fairly new when noble team collects her.
So glad you watched the OG version. The Anniversary Edition ruined the tone that the game was supposed to have once the flood got introduced. When it comes to gameplay for The Library that everyone mentioned on the last video, the level is very dark on the OG graphics to make it feel like a horror level against endless waves of flood. Same thing for the forest level (343 Guilty Spark) as well… it's supposed to be dark and foggy so you have no idea what you’re walking into and the AE completely ruined that by making everything bright and colorful.
The og graphics are infinitely better during those missions, on the build up to way better at delivering the feeling of there being something wrong being there, something to fear
fun fact, the shot at 7:30 was done by having the lifepod travel backwards to simulate the ship flying past the actual lifepod. I remember some bungie devs did a vidoc on ce and 2, and they said that's how they managed to capture that. I thought that's a little bit of cool info
14:16 it's a music piece called "the siege of madrigal" it's a easteregg piece present in the old trilogy. IIRC it's from their previous game "marathon". there's multiple throwbacks to that game inside the whole OG trilogy. BTW, love the content, keep it comming mate!
One thing to really keep in mind with darkness of the original graphics, at the time it was made, it was expected to be viewed on CRT screens or even plasma screens. Which had far superior black levels compared to today's LCD screens. Dark imagery was simply much clearer on the displays we had back then.
You'll notice more subtle details in this version as everything was intentional. CEA was an asset flip with no real thought put into the cutscenes. Animations wise It was also 343s and Sabers first use of MOCAP where as in the original it was all hand crafted so everything was designed with purpose. Another factor is that Bungie had many expert cinematographers such as Joe Staten and CJ Cowan which is why Halo 2s cinematics translated so well to Blurr Studios remakes.
The OG cutscenes definitely bring quite a different vibe than the anniversary. Way darker tones and atmosphere. A little tidbit, this version of the cutscenes you watched was actually from an older version of MCC which unfortunately had many graphical issues due to being a port of a port which resulted in a slightly less appealing presentation. For example, when Cortana is in the control room, she originally was flashing back and forth between being green to being purple which I think adds a bit of emotion.
You nailed it on the head that Halo: CE gave "Aliens" vibes. This game was inspired from Aliens 2. If you watch the movie, you'll see a lot of similarity.
The grunt that was shown near the end said "Good thing that Food Nipple's waiting for me at the starship 'cause man, whew, have I worked up a big, grunty thirst!" A little trivia too. Bungie made and sold blue coffee cups on their website that had a grunt on the front and text on the inside of the rim that read, Quench your grunty thirst.
One thing that nether video included is at the very end there is 343 Guilty Spark flying somewhere in space. At we later get to know in halo 2, he flied to the Thershold Gas Mine where we meet him as Arbiter. And one final note: the Anniversary Editions includes terminal videos witch contains some good lore.
Also finished Halo CE on legendary yesterday and can confirm the line Johnson says at the end and the Elite touching up Johnson is real. But for me, there was one difference in the cutscene due to me playing with the Anniversary visuals, and that was instead of the Elite touching up Johnson at the end, it was Johnson who touched up the Elite followed by a surprised / what the hell reaction from the Elite.
38:26; a fun fact here for you: a lot of people misheard the line "Just dust and echoes" as "Just Dustin Echoes" and a whole meme was born about a character named Dustin Echoes who survived the first Halo's destruction.
28:40 Funny thing is if I remember correctly they (Bungie) admitted to some of this in a developer commentary track for the Halo 1 cutscenes. I think it basically boiled down to either inexperience, crunch time or a combo of both. Still an incredible product in the end.
You should totally run a capture card and react to all the original games on original hardware. Also, Cortana looking around is her getting one last look around at the bridge of the Autumn before leaving it. She probably knows that she may not ever see it in that condition ever again.
17:18 You only get a shotgun here if you play on easy difficulty, and the placement of where you get access to the shotgun changes depending on difficulty. Also, this level has a ton of environmental storytelling like this, both audible and visual.
In the anniversary version there's the same Easter egg in the end as in this one with the elite and sgt Johnson, but instead of the elite grabbing his cheek it's Johnson instead
13:18 a lot of people hated the Duke because it was far too big for their hands. What I find funny is that Halo 1 came out in 2001 when I was THREE years old. I learned to play this game when I was between ages 4 and 5. I may have been on easy difficulty but I beat the whole game at that age. If a literal child can play on that controller, anyone can. Conversely, my dad loved the controller because being tall with big hands, it actually fit him compared to most small controllers. Another interesting fact about the Duke controller is that the reason it was so big had something to do with Sony owning a patent for multi-layered circuit boards or something similar. I don't remember all the details so maybe you can look into it if you find the topic interesting.
This game will always hold a special place in my heart. It was my first FPS and first game that wasnt a Nintendo game. I spent hours with friends in local multi player. Beat it on ledgendary solo and with friends more times then i can count.
If you are willing to do this for Halo CE, It'd be great if you did this for Halo 2 original graphics as well. Its also shot very differently than the full CGI cutscenes of the remaster since it uses the in-game engine for all its cutscenes. Sadly the original cutscenes get skipped over in favor for the remaster, and almost forgotten nowadays.
"Sometimes these TH-camrs make the cut a little bit harsh," (in relation to cutting out their gameplay)....only for TH-cam to cut Kai's immediate next sentence off mid-word for a Domino's ad was chef's kiss comedic timing for me. (Aware Kai doesn't control that, just made me cackle)
Oi! Glad ya checked this out, and thanks for bearing with us Halo nerds! If you want another legendary franchise with a very underappreciated title, scope out the Alien vs Predator (2010) game cinematics! It's a super cool idea for a game, it has 3 separate campaigns that all tie into the same overarching story. The first one is from the perspective of a uniquely intelligent Alien as it escapes the facility and ignites the chaos. The second is about the Marines sent in to secure the facility, and later surviving and escaping the planet. Lastly, you play as the Predator who arrives late to the party to clean up the mess and get some good hunting in while he's at it. It's a very good game that flew under the radar, and for 2010 it actually still looks pretty dang good for a lower budget game.
Should watch more of the Elders Scrolls Online trailers, a lot of them are really good especially the early ones like "Alliance." I'm sure there's a compilation of a bunch of them
I'm really glad you decided to check out the old cutscenes, you have the best eye for all of the cinematic camera changes that were botched in the newer version, and for some of the things that Anniversary changed just for no apparent reason. Not to be a Negative Nancy, I do think Anniversary looks good at times but the original game is intensely charming
Yeah, although the guy recording should've turned up the in-game brightness a bit and lowered the music volume a bit, they really made it brighter and more colorful in the anniversary edition, which a lot of people didn't like because they thought it ruined the games overall atmosphere and many moments throughout the game, like the horror vibe/colors when you first meet the flood. And, many of the textures, models, etc.. used for the anniversary edition were copied straight from other halo games, like Halo Reach and Halo 3, which some thought didn't fit that well and made it appear rushed by developers. Also... 1. the music at 14:15 was an easter egg in Halo CE that would play if you stand in that exact spot. 2. the secret grunt said: "I'm glad that food nipple is waiting for me on the starship cause man, have I worked up a big, grunty, thirst!" 3. yes, that really is the original legendary ending lol.
i was 6 month old when came out and it will be forever will be my first favorite action video game. i was born May 1st, 2001, and the game came out on November 15th, 2001
I think the darkness of the image overall can be attributed to Bungie coloring the game for display on CRT televisions. Playing/watching the game on an OLED was never intended. Love the content. Keep it up!
20:32 Notice how Keyes is in combat gear in the origininal cutscenes, compared to Anniversary where he uses hi's ship captain uniform here. This has always bothered me as it doesn't make sense for him to not wear any combat gear. Weirdly enough the Beta version has him in combat gear. Weird.
@KaiZammit Thank you for reviewing this! The MCC version of Halo: CE desynchronized some of the sounds and timing when they upgraded it to high definition. The original X-Box version maintains the graphical and audio fidelity much better. Halo: CE on X-Box is still dark, but the HD version of Halo: CE in MCC is darker. The issue is that the Anniversary Edition, and then MCC, used the Gearbox port of Halo: CE from PC where the graphical issues originally became apparent. The Gearbox port was released shortly after the 2001 X-Box release and those issues from the port carried through Anniversary Edition, MCC, and all the MCC updates that exist today. The OG X-Box version is lightning in a bottle and is truly the best way to experience Halo: Combat Evolved. I hope you are able to review the PS2 game “Zone of the Enders 2: The Second Runner” in a future video. 🙂 Cheers mate~!
I'm so glad you're now watching the original version, and I'm also really happy that you are noticing how much better the cinematics were in the original, as a professional. The first thing I noticed and seriously disliked about Anniversary were the cinematics... 343 ruined them in Anniversary, the cinematography, camera movements, animations, mannerisms, expressions and character movements were all totally wrong in the remake.... this one was just perfect (albeit the technology wasn't where it is now with graphics, lighting and resolutions), but lets not forget Halo CE/1 originally came out on the Xbox in 2001 as a launch game, and well before it's PC launch, so we can forgive that.
I really enjoyed covering this one and was surprised by what they were able to do being being on limited hardware. Thanks for hanging out in the stream, I appreciate it!
You should do a video comparing the original Xbox 360 Halo 3 cutscenes and the MCC Halo 3 cutscenes. They ruined them in MCC, which is the version that you reacted to. They basically took out all of the shadows and cinematic lighting and made it look way more dated. I sent you a tweet showing you the difference but I don't think you saw it. If you don't want to make a video about it, please do a comparison on your own. MCC does not do it justice. The original still holds up to today's standards.
The game that changed gaming forever. It’s criminal what the CE Anniversary changes did to parts of this game, particularly the mission where you meet the flood
Nice thing about the end of the first mission, it has been mentioned by Marty or the devs that the pillar of autumn is not moving just the camera to simulate acceleration
This was my first ever Xbox game and I've been a fan of the series since. Absolute nostalgia watching this! You should do the original halo 2 cutscenes next
It did feel a bit darker than usual, the fact that these cuts were so brutal makes me wanna make my own OG graphics cutscenes video, where I'll include more gameplay, mostly the parts where the environmental storytelling was done. Example. During the flood reveal level, if you navigate back to the elevator you came down in from the swamp and activate it, an explosion happens at ground level, a horror music stinger is played and you see whats left of the elevator coming down and falling even deeper into the shaft. This made young me scared because I would have to go back to the flood infested facility. Later in the level, you've fought off mostly combat forms who just try to run at you and take a chunk outta ya, you find a second elevator which made me so happy as a kid, only to find out that the elevator goes even deeper, the air gets dark green, the flood theme starts playing and the elevator shaft walls are coloured with blood. Telling a story that the flood gathered the bodies of the dead and threw them down the elevator shaft to gather biomass for their proto-gravemind. When the elevator fully descends the flood theme is already full on and you find out that the flood can now use weapons?!? As one AR wielding human flood form runs as you guns blazing.
Some context for the clip at 14:17 Some halo games like 1 and 3 have spots in the campaign levels the players can reach that will trigger the song you are hearing to play. These games have crazy amounts of charm.
31:25 Halo CE was this dark haha. It really helped the second half of the game with each flood level, there were aome parts where you kinda really needed the flashlight they gave you. In the anniversary, I never found any point for the flashlight.
My first game on Xbox when I was a kid and fell in love with the Halo franchise up until Bungie departure. After 343 took over it feels you can no longer connect with Master chief and other Spartans
Kai, would you react to Halo Dev Commentary? They had former Bungie devs like Marty and Joe staten talk about their development, behind the scenes and some thoughts of design points such as cutscenes, even errors One of such things talked was the initial scene with the halo ring and Pillar of Autumn That they never made the ship move Because of how low tech and how jarring some things can be, it was made smooth alternatively by moving the camera smartly panning through, giving the impression it was flying by Same with Chief leaving the ship on escape pod, same thing, they had the escape pod and camera move by the ship instead to give the impression of flying by
12:50 Some time ago we got an access to the beta build of the Anniversary version and it did have slightly darker lighting, than the release version. Why they changed the lighting from the beta even more was most likely because the Xbox 360 wasn't able to handle it, giving us a game that was too bright. The beta build also had different cutscenes at times, for example they show longsword fighters launching from the Pillar of Autunm in the first cutscene. They decided to scrap those cutscenes and just modify the CE ones.
15:54 Cortana is supposed to be pulsating from green to purple repeatedly (I think to signify that she is collecting information or something along those lines) but The Master Chief Collection uses the Gearbox PC port of CE which had many graphical issues making it look worse than the original Xbox version. The video you watched must have been recorded before it was finally fixed on MCC.
One thing I miss on these. Sgt Johnson has different lines for his introduction depending on the difficulty you play on. If you were very bored or curious there is another Halo cutscene/promo that was created when it was going to be a PC RTS game. It was around nine minutes long and I used to have it on a PC Gamer (UK) cover disc.
I agree with the others, recommending that you react to the original Halo 2 cut scenes. I always enjoyed the original cutscene with the arbiter being branded, namely, because his roar of pain and emotions always looked way better than the remaster.
Some of the mo-cap I think was alright in Anniversary, especially at 17:53, where they had Chief look uneasy with how he readjusted his hand on his Assault Rifle. Also, perhaps a bit of a spoiler, but on CE when the Flood are revealed, there's an elevator during the level you take that has its shaft just smeared with Covenant blood. Anniversary you can barely see anything sadly.
15:56 This is a holdover from the game's development where different systems would alter Cortana's color scheme. 39:50 It is real, you can only get this scene on the Legendary difficulty.
I think the strange bit with the music may have been like a secret area that you can go to, when you go there it will play special music. There are multiple in Halo Infinite, locations with good views that play the Halo theme. But I’m not sure, just a possibility.
Fun fact: at 7:30 When the cruiser is going past the escape pod, the escape pod is actually reversing, back towards the cruiser. I learned this from a developer commentary, strange technique but it works. Edit: I should have said the ship isn't moving at all lol
The POA in general during this scene isn’t moving at all. It’s everything else moving around it. Also the Halo ring in the beginning is a vehicle prop that is the same size as the Autumn. Forced perspective makes it appear bigger than it is. Crazy stuff.
I was 5 years old when I first played this in 2005 lol, Ik I shouldn’t have been playing these games but my older bros had it and I couldn’t resist, but I was too scared to complete the game😂
So, especially in regards to the early cutscenes, the reason the anniversary version of the cutscenes looks off by comparison is because it's literally just new graphics over the same 3d skeletons. Bungie did a LOT of neat tricks to make their extremely limited animations convey details, to the point that putting higher-fidelity graphics and polygons over top of the same skeletons just couldn't quite match the original. Some of the things they did are likely "glitches" or artifacts of the simpler graphics breaking in ways that they leveraged, so when the newer models and graphics replaced them they behaved differently. This is also part of the reason why the chief's hands look so tiny with the newer visuals; the model for the Chief with the newer graphics just didn't quite scale the same way the old ones did. I would kill to have the CE Anniversary overhauled with Blur making the cutscenes like they did for Halo 2. And staying true to the original aesthetics. They made things too bright in a lot of cases, ruining the tone of the settings.
I can't see these without thinking of the Cursed Halo versions. You should watch those sometimes. Not sure if they'd be the kind of thing you'd want to do a video on (they're basically the same as these cutscenes in terms of cinema, except with a bunch of silly jokes tossed in), but they're really funny, especially if you know the original cutscenes.
always loved the graphics of the original, especially the interiors of the halo itself. they feel empty, monolithic - like something with a solemn purpose. like a mausoleum, or a war memorial. full of massive shapes and dimensions beyond our understanding. perfectly alien, and yet somehow eerily reminiscent of the corridors of your own spaceship in which you start the game. which of course fits perfectly given the story context and was most likely intentional on the part of the developers. they had some sharp people working on the games in those days. too many bells and whistles in the remaster clouds what i think were some very intentional stylistic choices unfortunately. as for the darkness you mentioned, this guy's recording might be a bit darker than what's intended, however the original version of the game was quite dark with sparse lighting and only a few of these scenes are noticeably darker than what i've seen from my own experience. all in all a great example of how less is more, especially in cinema. great video!
The lighting was definitely exaggerated by the person who recorded it, but Bungie's version was certainly much darker and more toned down than the Anniversary edition, which boosts the atmosphere they were going for; this was my greatest criticism of 343's attempt to "modernize" the first game. And yes, that legendary ending was legit.
@kaizammit there's some cool fan made projects out there filmed inside of the game. As a filmmaker you could even do something like that yourself, i did something like that for one of my projects in my video class
Any possibility you’d at some point be able to react to some Destiny 2 cinematic/trailers? Destiny 2 is by the same company who did Halo 🙏 The Final Shape Trailers are quite common now and some say it’s one of the best trailers. Cayde-6 is an iconic figure in Destiny and has some cool cinematic shots! Love your content and your film-analysis/commentary. ❤
The original version of combat evolved in its original graphics is how the show should be done. The lighting, aesthetic, music and vibe of ce can’t be matched. Halo is supposed to feel big, empty and mysterious. The show needs to convey that feeling of liminal space on the ring. It’s done so well in the old game because of the limitations of the og Xbox. I’m still working on the script Kai!
If there’s a chance of it, would you be willing to go through the cutscenes of Ace Combat 5, Zero, 6, and 7? In time obviously you have many projects goin on.
Jams, you should watch it on the Patreon it's adfree over there remember but that's only if you're the same Jams supporting me there too?! If it is, you're the best
One of the things I believe this video gets wrong is that in the original cutscenes, there is absolutely zero sound in any of the space shots. The only exceptions i think being the lifeboat launching and atmospheric entry on the ring. Looking back, it makes a *lot* of the scenes more powerful, such as the final destruction which happens in complete silence. Inclusion of sound effects here I believe cheapens a lot of those shots, even with the original graphics.
![FILMMAKER REACTS: HALO CEA (2011) | [ALL CUTSCENES!] | IS IT ANY GOOD!?](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YPeFpcgTECQ/mqdefault.jpg)
![FILMMAKER REACTS: HALO CEA (2011) | [ALL CUTSCENES!] | IS IT ANY GOOD!?](/img/tr.png)
![FILMMAKER REACTS: HALO 5 (2015) | [ALL CUTSCENES!] | IS IT ANY GOOD!?](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/u_RQV4XC7qQ/mqdefault.jpg)
![FILMMAKER REACTS: GOD OF WAR (2018) | [ALL CUTSCENES - PART 2!!] | BOY LISTEN CLOSE!?!](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Xp3UCW8jK6g/mqdefault.jpg)
![FILMMAKER REACTS: METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE | [ALL CUTSCENES!!]](/img/n.gif)
If you have a suggestion or a piece of content with an amazing story, please let me know, I would love to see it!
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This channel is a CDKEYS & Green Man Gaming Ambassador and with every purchase you make, you support me. Save money on the games you LOVE!!
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Not really a request but more of an inquiry. Will you be checking out space marine 2 when it drops and if so will we get to see you stomp some tyranids?
@@beccadixon1943 It's a day one purchase for me as I'm a big fan of the first one. Not sure yet how I could cover it on the channel... I can't do a cutscenes video as I would have already played it and streaming it live, it's an option but I'd have to do it over a course of a week etc. Would you want to watch that??
@@kaizammit most definitely, but I understand you most likely have a busy schedule. If you manage to find the time to stream it youd certainly have us tuning in. Only if you would want to do it too of course.
Not sure if it would help, but maybe a poll could help you find out what the larger sub base would think about SM2.
There is this solo animator called Sodaz, he did a Halo Fan animation that I find phenomenal, its about 25 minutes long. Would be great if you could react to that, especially since your latest Halo spree :']
Fun fact - The Elites language are reversed English from unused dialogue of Sgt Johnson. Wort wort wort means Go, go, go
That piano bit is just an easter egg the person decided to include for some reason. The song is Siege of Madrigal and it's from an earlier Bungie game called Myth and they include the song as an easter egg in I believe all the Bungie era Halo games
Legend, thank you for telling me
@@kaizammit It's a fantastic piece of music though. I can't remember when or where it plays in other Halo games but whenever I heard it, it made me really feel that kinda sad but hopeful emotion they were going for. It fit REALLY well in Halo Reach.
In Halo 3 it’s called “Never Forget” I believe.
@@chaosonreach6434 Nah its still called the same, "Siege of Madrigal"
36:30 The Easter Egg Grunt's dialogue: "Good thing that Food Nipple's waiting for me at the starship 'cause man, whew, have I worked up a big, Grunty thirst!" Epic LOL
Is that what he says!? That's bizarre
In Halo CE's ending :
Cortana: Halo, it's finished.
Chief: No, I think we're just getting started.
In Halo 3's ending:
Cortana: Truth and the Covenant, the Flood. It's finished.
Chief: It's finished.
It's small callbacks like these that I really enjoy in Halo. In Combat Evolved, there are a few nods at Bungie's other series: Marathon. Like at 32:13 (That blueish symbol you see on the ship is the symbol of the game) . I also remember hearing that the original story for Halo was Cortana going crazy after being plugged into Halo's control room, which is very reminiscent of Marathon.
I was 9 years old when this came out, honestly it scared the hell out of me. Encountering the Elite in the dark hallway by the bridge controls in the second mission. The flood being these disfigured living-dead characters you find locked away in the deepest, darkest part of the ring. It was borderline nightmare fuel as a little kid lol. I think the song at 14:15 is an easter egg that only plays when you stand in that spot.
I hope you've recovered! I was okay with it, my favourite film when I was 6 was Predator and I used to watch Anime like Guyver Biobooster Armour. Trust me when I say this, best anime out there.
I was 7 when it came out and i loved it the moment i turned it on, haha
Don't forget guys, the MCC's Combat Evolved is based on the PC port. The original graphics in MCC for CE have issues and bugs compared to the OG Xbox's cutscenes because of that.
They patched it a while ago
@@bigtasty42069 Their latest patch broke a lot of things including music and animations in several levels, especially in the anniversary edition. The facial animations for Cortana do not work at all in the latest patch, you can see this in Kai's video on the anniversary edition.
@@Jaksynn thats fair I have noticed the anniversary music doesn't loop correctly
and yes the Legendary Ending was real and 100% accurate lol
The reason Cortana looks around before saying "yank me!" Is because the PoA was essentially her home, so she was looking around one last time before saying goodbye. Much like a human would do when selling their home.
Also that piano bit was in the halo 2 credits as well.
I think it was actually her preparing herself for yanking.
@@Shad0wKi11 pulled directly from the book Halo: The Flood.
*Keyes glanced at Cortana. “Are you ready?” There was a pause as the AI took one last look around. In many ways the ship was her physical body and she was reluctant to leave it. “Yank me.”*
@@KillianConnolly right on. Strange though, wasn't she only in the Autumn only a short time from when Noble 6 delivered her to Keyes and then they make the jump to the first Halo?
@@Shad0wKi11 iirc it was around 2 weeks they were in slipspace (looked it up to double check, left Reach Aug 30th and arrived at Delta Halo on Sept 19th. So closer to 3 weeks). But it was also the first place she lived besides Halsey's lab on reach. She's fairly new when noble team collects her.
So glad you watched the OG version. The Anniversary Edition ruined the tone that the game was supposed to have once the flood got introduced. When it comes to gameplay for The Library that everyone mentioned on the last video, the level is very dark on the OG graphics to make it feel like a horror level against endless waves of flood. Same thing for the forest level (343 Guilty Spark) as well… it's supposed to be dark and foggy so you have no idea what you’re walking into and the AE completely ruined that by making everything bright and colorful.
this video seems darker than usual to me.
The og graphics are infinitely better during those missions, on the build up to way better at delivering the feeling of there being something wrong being there, something to fear
@fabianholmgren9399 what do you think of the unreal engine update?
@@kaizammit it looks amazing and feels like an evolution not a makeover
There isn't anything more nostalgic then halo CE and 2
fun fact, the shot at 7:30 was done by having the lifepod travel backwards to simulate the ship flying past the actual lifepod. I remember some bungie devs did a vidoc on ce and 2, and they said that's how they managed to capture that. I thought that's a little bit of cool info
14:16 it's a music piece called "the siege of madrigal" it's a easteregg piece present in the old trilogy. IIRC it's from their previous game "marathon". there's multiple throwbacks to that game inside the whole OG trilogy.
BTW, love the content, keep it comming mate!
Is that what it is! You absolute G for telling me, love it Thank you!
That track in my opinion embodies all the loss and defiance of humanity during the Human-covenant war for me...
One thing to really keep in mind with darkness of the original graphics, at the time it was made, it was expected to be viewed on CRT screens or even plasma screens. Which had far superior black levels compared to today's LCD screens. Dark imagery was simply much clearer on the displays we had back then.
You'll notice more subtle details in this version as everything was intentional. CEA was an asset flip with no real thought put into the cutscenes. Animations wise It was also 343s and Sabers first use of MOCAP where as in the original it was all hand crafted so everything was designed with purpose.
Another factor is that Bungie had many expert cinematographers such as Joe Staten and CJ Cowan which is why Halo 2s cinematics translated so well to Blurr Studios remakes.
The OG cutscenes definitely bring quite a different vibe than the anniversary. Way darker tones and atmosphere. A little tidbit, this version of the cutscenes you watched was actually from an older version of MCC which unfortunately had many graphical issues due to being a port of a port which resulted in a slightly less appealing presentation. For example, when Cortana is in the control room, she originally was flashing back and forth between being green to being purple which I think adds a bit of emotion.
14:18 This is a song from Bungie's previous game series Myth. It's titled "The Siege of Madrigal".
You nailed it on the head that Halo: CE gave "Aliens" vibes. This game was inspired from Aliens 2. If you watch the movie, you'll see a lot of similarity.
The grunt that was shown near the end said "Good thing that Food Nipple's waiting for me at the starship 'cause man, whew, have I worked up a big, grunty thirst!"
A little trivia too.
Bungie made and sold blue coffee cups on their website that had a grunt on the front and text on the inside of the rim that read, Quench your grunty thirst.
One thing that nether video included is at the very end there is 343 Guilty Spark flying somewhere in space. At we later get to know in halo 2, he flied to the Thershold Gas Mine where we meet him as Arbiter.
And one final note: the Anniversary Editions includes terminal videos witch contains some good lore.
Also finished Halo CE on legendary yesterday and can confirm the line Johnson says at the end and the Elite touching up Johnson is real.
But for me, there was one difference in the cutscene due to me playing with the Anniversary visuals, and that was instead of the Elite touching up Johnson at the end, it was Johnson who touched up the Elite followed by a surprised / what the hell reaction from the Elite.
That is mental!
First game I ever played, few have come close to giving me the same feeling I had playing Halo for the first time.
For me, the game that made me inverted!
Gameplay and story-wise, this game is still better to this day than most of the hot garbage being released lately 😂
38:26; a fun fact here for you: a lot of people misheard the line "Just dust and echoes" as "Just Dustin Echoes" and a whole meme was born about a character named Dustin Echoes who survived the first Halo's destruction.
28:40 Funny thing is if I remember correctly they (Bungie) admitted to some of this in a developer commentary track for the Halo 1 cutscenes. I think it basically boiled down to either inexperience, crunch time or a combo of both.
Still an incredible product in the end.
You should totally run a capture card and react to all the original games on original hardware. Also, Cortana looking around is her getting one last look around at the bridge of the Autumn before leaving it. She probably knows that she may not ever see it in that condition ever again.
17:18 You only get a shotgun here if you play on easy difficulty, and the placement of where you get access to the shotgun changes depending on difficulty. Also, this level has a ton of environmental storytelling like this, both audible and visual.
In the anniversary version there's the same Easter egg in the end as in this one with the elite and sgt Johnson, but instead of the elite grabbing his cheek it's Johnson instead
I still definitely recommend watching Sodaz fan animation 'Remember'. It's really well done.
the music was an easter egg, halo 3 has one aswell.
Thank you for telling me, legend you!
13:18 a lot of people hated the Duke because it was far too big for their hands. What I find funny is that Halo 1 came out in 2001 when I was THREE years old. I learned to play this game when I was between ages 4 and 5. I may have been on easy difficulty but I beat the whole game at that age. If a literal child can play on that controller, anyone can. Conversely, my dad loved the controller because being tall with big hands, it actually fit him compared to most small controllers. Another interesting fact about the Duke controller is that the reason it was so big had something to do with Sony owning a patent for multi-layered circuit boards or something similar. I don't remember all the details so maybe you can look into it if you find the topic interesting.
Same i loved the duke the 360 controller’s felt too tiny
This game will always hold a special place in my heart. It was my first FPS and first game that wasnt a Nintendo game. I spent hours with friends in local multi player. Beat it on ledgendary solo and with friends more times then i can count.
If you are willing to do this for Halo CE, It'd be great if you did this for Halo 2 original graphics as well. Its also shot very differently than the full CGI cutscenes of the remaster since it uses the in-game engine for all its cutscenes. Sadly the original cutscenes get skipped over in favor for the remaster, and almost forgotten nowadays.
Never thought about it but I could do, sure thing
@@kaizammit Very nice, thanks. I hope you enjoy it.
I really love the camera track with og Halo 2 and how moves through the space
the grunt said i'm glad there food on the star ship because i'm big needy thirst
"Sometimes these TH-camrs make the cut a little bit harsh," (in relation to cutting out their gameplay)....only for TH-cam to cut Kai's immediate next sentence off mid-word for a Domino's ad was chef's kiss comedic timing for me.
(Aware Kai doesn't control that, just made me cackle)
That sounds really funny! Sorry about the Dominos ad, not my doing... I promise
Oi! Glad ya checked this out, and thanks for bearing with us Halo nerds!
If you want another legendary franchise with a very underappreciated title, scope out the Alien vs Predator (2010) game cinematics! It's a super cool idea for a game, it has 3 separate campaigns that all tie into the same overarching story.
The first one is from the perspective of a uniquely intelligent Alien as it escapes the facility and ignites the chaos.
The second is about the Marines sent in to secure the facility, and later surviving and escaping the planet.
Lastly, you play as the Predator who arrives late to the party to clean up the mess and get some good hunting in while he's at it.
It's a very good game that flew under the radar, and for 2010 it actually still looks pretty dang good for a lower budget game.
I am so happy that you watched it in the classic graphics, the way it was intended
Should watch more of the Elders Scrolls Online trailers, a lot of them are really good especially the early ones like "Alliance." I'm sure there's a compilation of a bunch of them
I'm really glad you decided to check out the old cutscenes, you have the best eye for all of the cinematic camera changes that were botched in the newer version, and for some of the things that Anniversary changed just for no apparent reason. Not to be a Negative Nancy, I do think Anniversary looks good at times but the original game is intensely charming
Yeah, although the guy recording should've turned up the in-game brightness a bit and lowered the music volume a bit, they really made it brighter and more colorful in the anniversary edition, which a lot of people didn't like because they thought it ruined the games overall atmosphere and many moments throughout the game, like the horror vibe/colors when you first meet the flood. And, many of the textures, models, etc.. used for the anniversary edition were copied straight from other halo games, like Halo Reach and Halo 3, which some thought didn't fit that well and made it appear rushed by developers. Also...
1. the music at 14:15 was an easter egg in Halo CE that would play if you stand in that exact spot.
2. the secret grunt said: "I'm glad that food nipple is waiting for me on the starship cause man, have I worked up a big, grunty, thirst!"
3. yes, that really is the original legendary ending lol.
Glad you still watching Halo stuff
i was 6 month old when came out and it will be forever will be my first favorite action video game. i was born May 1st, 2001, and the game came out on November 15th, 2001
I think the darkness of the image overall can be attributed to Bungie coloring the game for display on CRT televisions. Playing/watching the game on an OLED was never intended. Love the content. Keep it up!
3:26 This speech changes depending upon which difficulty you're playing on.
20:32 Notice how Keyes is in combat gear in the origininal cutscenes, compared to Anniversary where he uses hi's ship captain uniform here. This has always bothered me as it doesn't make sense for him to not wear any combat gear. Weirdly enough the Beta version has him in combat gear. Weird.
@KaiZammit Thank you for reviewing this! The MCC version of Halo: CE desynchronized some of the sounds and timing when they upgraded it to high definition. The original X-Box version maintains the graphical and audio fidelity much better. Halo: CE on X-Box is still dark, but the HD version of Halo: CE in MCC is darker. The issue is that the Anniversary Edition, and then MCC, used the Gearbox port of Halo: CE from PC where the graphical issues originally became apparent. The Gearbox port was released shortly after the 2001 X-Box release and those issues from the port carried through Anniversary Edition, MCC, and all the MCC updates that exist today. The OG X-Box version is lightning in a bottle and is truly the best way to experience Halo: Combat Evolved.
I hope you are able to review the PS2 game “Zone of the Enders 2: The Second Runner” in a future video. 🙂 Cheers mate~!
12:25 This cutscenes dialog changes depending upon which part of the island you explored first.
I'm so glad you're now watching the original version, and I'm also really happy that you are noticing how much better the cinematics were in the original, as a professional. The first thing I noticed and seriously disliked about Anniversary were the cinematics... 343 ruined them in Anniversary, the cinematography, camera movements, animations, mannerisms, expressions and character movements were all totally wrong in the remake.... this one was just perfect (albeit the technology wasn't where it is now with graphics, lighting and resolutions), but lets not forget Halo CE/1 originally came out on the Xbox in 2001 as a launch game, and well before it's PC launch, so we can forgive that.
I really enjoyed covering this one and was surprised by what they were able to do being being on limited hardware.
Thanks for hanging out in the stream, I appreciate it!
You should do a video comparing the original Xbox 360 Halo 3 cutscenes and the MCC Halo 3 cutscenes. They ruined them in MCC, which is the version that you reacted to. They basically took out all of the shadows and cinematic lighting and made it look way more dated. I sent you a tweet showing you the difference but I don't think you saw it. If you don't want to make a video about it, please do a comparison on your own. MCC does not do it justice. The original still holds up to today's standards.
The game that changed gaming forever. It’s criminal what the CE Anniversary changes did to parts of this game, particularly the mission where you meet the flood
Nice thing about the end of the first mission, it has been mentioned by Marty or the devs that the pillar of autumn is not moving just the camera to simulate acceleration
This was my first ever Xbox game and I've been a fan of the series since. Absolute nostalgia watching this! You should do the original halo 2 cutscenes next
It did feel a bit darker than usual, the fact that these cuts were so brutal makes me wanna make my own OG graphics cutscenes video, where I'll include more gameplay, mostly the parts where the environmental storytelling was done.
Example. During the flood reveal level, if you navigate back to the elevator you came down in from the swamp and activate it, an explosion happens at ground level, a horror music stinger is played and you see whats left of the elevator coming down and falling even deeper into the shaft.
This made young me scared because I would have to go back to the flood infested facility.
Later in the level, you've fought off mostly combat forms who just try to run at you and take a chunk outta ya, you find a second elevator which made me so happy as a kid, only to find out that the elevator goes even deeper, the air gets dark green, the flood theme starts playing and the elevator shaft walls are coloured with blood.
Telling a story that the flood gathered the bodies of the dead and threw them down the elevator shaft to gather biomass for their proto-gravemind.
When the elevator fully descends the flood theme is already full on and you find out that the flood can now use weapons?!? As one AR wielding human flood form runs as you guns blazing.
Some context for the clip at 14:17
Some halo games like 1 and 3 have spots in the campaign levels the players can reach that will trigger the song you are hearing to play.
These games have crazy amounts of charm.
31:25 Halo CE was this dark haha. It really helped the second half of the game with each flood level, there were aome parts where you kinda really needed the flashlight they gave you. In the anniversary, I never found any point for the flashlight.
Theres a speed run video of halo ce and it has the 3 developers watching, it was a great watch
My first game on Xbox when I was a kid and fell in love with the Halo franchise up until Bungie departure. After 343 took over it feels you can no longer connect with Master chief and other Spartans
Kai, would you react to Halo Dev Commentary?
They had former Bungie devs like Marty and Joe staten talk about their development, behind the scenes and some thoughts of design points such as cutscenes, even errors
One of such things talked was the initial scene with the halo ring and Pillar of Autumn
That they never made the ship move
Because of how low tech and how jarring some things can be, it was made smooth alternatively by moving the camera smartly panning through, giving the impression it was flying by
Same with Chief leaving the ship on escape pod, same thing, they had the escape pod and camera move by the ship instead to give the impression of flying by
I don't know fella, maybe something for a live stream or the Patreons, unknown without watching it first or looking into should we say.
12:50 Some time ago we got an access to the beta build of the Anniversary version and it did have slightly darker lighting, than the release version. Why they changed the lighting from the beta even more was most likely because the Xbox 360 wasn't able to handle it, giving us a game that was too bright. The beta build also had different cutscenes at times, for example they show longsword fighters launching from the Pillar of Autunm in the first cutscene. They decided to scrap those cutscenes and just modify the CE ones.
Halo 2 anniversary cut scenes are my favorite. I still enjoy first halo scenes. They definitely show their age though
The legendary ending for halo CE was what made "halo is gay" a meme back in the day. Also, endless gay r34.
Jhonson look into my eye
"You look how I feel"
"has enyone mistaken you for a man?"
"No... Have you?"
15:54 Cortana is supposed to be pulsating from green to purple repeatedly (I think to signify that she is collecting information or something along those lines) but The Master Chief Collection uses the Gearbox PC port of CE which had many graphical issues making it look worse than the original Xbox version. The video you watched must have been recorded before it was finally fixed on MCC.
you should watch the Halo 1, 2 and reach developer commentaries. they talk a lot about the cinematics and stuff about the development of the game.
One thing I miss on these. Sgt Johnson has different lines for his introduction depending on the difficulty you play on.
If you were very bored or curious there is another Halo cutscene/promo that was created when it was going to be a PC RTS game. It was around nine minutes long and I used to have it on a PC Gamer (UK) cover disc.
How would I find it?
@@kaizammit th-cam.com/video/HnXOsyGRnFc/w-d-xo.html this here has them all
@@kaizammit There is a version when I searched tagged as Halo CE E3 2000 trailer. 9:50.
I agree with the others, recommending that you react to the original Halo 2 cut scenes. I always enjoyed the original cutscene with the arbiter being branded, namely, because his roar of pain and emotions always looked way better than the remaster.
I never noticed it before but the flood infection form went up Keyes rear
Some of the mo-cap I think was alright in Anniversary, especially at 17:53, where they had Chief look uneasy with how he readjusted his hand on his Assault Rifle.
Also, perhaps a bit of a spoiler, but on CE when the Flood are revealed, there's an elevator during the level you take that has its shaft just smeared with Covenant blood. Anniversary you can barely see anything sadly.
15:56 This is a holdover from the game's development where different systems would alter Cortana's color scheme.
39:50 It is real, you can only get this scene on the Legendary difficulty.
I think the strange bit with the music may have been like a secret area that you can go to, when you go there it will play special music. There are multiple in Halo Infinite, locations with good views that play the Halo theme. But I’m not sure, just a possibility.
that 343 flood mission gave me nightmares when i was a kid lol
I feel sorry for you fella but at the same time, that's quite funny.
Gorgeous, charming, amazing, wonderful music ! 🌞❤️😍😉👍
Fun fact: at 7:30 When the cruiser is going past the escape pod, the escape pod is actually reversing, back towards the cruiser. I learned this from a developer commentary, strange technique but it works. Edit: I should have said the ship isn't moving at all lol
The POA in general during this scene isn’t moving at all. It’s everything else moving around it.
Also the Halo ring in the beginning is a vehicle prop that is the same size as the Autumn. Forced perspective makes it appear bigger than it is. Crazy stuff.
@@Omega4Productions I know lol
I was 5 years old when I first played this in 2005 lol, Ik I shouldn’t have been playing these games but my older bros had it and I couldn’t resist, but I was too scared to complete the game😂
So, especially in regards to the early cutscenes, the reason the anniversary version of the cutscenes looks off by comparison is because it's literally just new graphics over the same 3d skeletons. Bungie did a LOT of neat tricks to make their extremely limited animations convey details, to the point that putting higher-fidelity graphics and polygons over top of the same skeletons just couldn't quite match the original. Some of the things they did are likely "glitches" or artifacts of the simpler graphics breaking in ways that they leveraged, so when the newer models and graphics replaced them they behaved differently. This is also part of the reason why the chief's hands look so tiny with the newer visuals; the model for the Chief with the newer graphics just didn't quite scale the same way the old ones did.
I would kill to have the CE Anniversary overhauled with Blur making the cutscenes like they did for Halo 2. And staying true to the original aesthetics. They made things too bright in a lot of cases, ruining the tone of the settings.
The gameplay for the original is crazy
For the limited capabilities they had back when this first released, they did really well. It's literally genre defining when Halo first dropped.
I can't see these without thinking of the Cursed Halo versions. You should watch those sometimes. Not sure if they'd be the kind of thing you'd want to do a video on (they're basically the same as these cutscenes in terms of cinema, except with a bunch of silly jokes tossed in), but they're really funny, especially if you know the original cutscenes.
14:28 Easter egg. Song from the old Myth game.
mans speedrunning cutscenes
I had to cover this one soon because CEA was fresh in the mind palace. Thank you for watching
i dont remember my expeience being this dark. i probably brightened my screen just a bit
39:26 yes this is the real legendary ending.
always loved the graphics of the original, especially the interiors of the halo itself. they feel empty, monolithic - like something with a solemn purpose. like a mausoleum, or a war memorial. full of massive shapes and dimensions beyond our understanding. perfectly alien, and yet somehow eerily reminiscent of the corridors of your own spaceship in which you start the game. which of course fits perfectly given the story context and was most likely intentional on the part of the developers. they had some sharp people working on the games in those days. too many bells and whistles in the remaster clouds what i think were some very intentional stylistic choices unfortunately.
as for the darkness you mentioned, this guy's recording might be a bit darker than what's intended, however the original version of the game was quite dark with sparse lighting and only a few of these scenes are noticeably darker than what i've seen from my own experience.
all in all a great example of how less is more, especially in cinema. great video!
*PTSD INTENSIFIES*
I would like you to react to this fan who made an animation about Halo called HALO - [Fan Animation] - Remember
No one can cook like the masters themselves.
Yes the legendary ending is real
I'm shocked!
The lighting was definitely exaggerated by the person who recorded it, but Bungie's version was certainly much darker and more toned down than the Anniversary edition, which boosts the atmosphere they were going for; this was my greatest criticism of 343's attempt to "modernize" the first game.
And yes, that legendary ending was legit.
Hey Kai. You should really look at the fan animation Remember created by SODAZ.
First saw your total war video now halo, I like what you do, would be cool to see you do a little more woth total war warhammer 3.
Thank you fella for watching and being apart of the community, make sure you subscribe ! What else can I watch with Total War 3?
@kaizammit there's some cool fan made projects out there filmed inside of the game. As a filmmaker you could even do something like that yourself, i did something like that for one of my projects in my video class
It’s ironic because I just got done watching the Halo Reach video
I've just done a live stream too with me playing ODST. Halo is still very much loved here.
Any possibility you’d at some point be able to react to some Destiny 2 cinematic/trailers? Destiny 2 is by the same company who did Halo 🙏
The Final Shape Trailers are quite common now and some say it’s one of the best trailers. Cayde-6 is an iconic figure in Destiny and has some cool cinematic shots!
Love your content and your film-analysis/commentary. ❤
Thank you so much for watching, I appreciate it! I have got Destiny on my list, figuring out where to start.
The original version of combat evolved in its original graphics is how the show should be done. The lighting, aesthetic, music and vibe of ce can’t be matched. Halo is supposed to feel big, empty and mysterious. The show needs to convey that feeling of liminal space on the ring. It’s done so well in the old game because of the limitations of the og Xbox. I’m still working on the script Kai!
When playing this for the first time never look out of the window on the bridge it's just so fucked up
Just the original or in the MCC?
@@kaizammitboth, the halo looks like it’s 20 feet wide and right in front for the autumn lol 😂
6:02 It's because of a technical limitation of their tool.
8:37 This cutscene varies slightly depending upon where you end this mission.
If there’s a chance of it, would you be willing to go through the cutscenes of Ace Combat 5, Zero, 6, and 7? In time obviously you have many projects goin on.
The lighting I believe is that dark in CE
It sells the look of it being real, this is a serious threat etc
@@kaizammit Yeah I agree
Epic
Jams, you should watch it on the Patreon it's adfree over there remember but that's only if you're the same Jams supporting me there too?! If it is, you're the best
One of the things I believe this video gets wrong is that in the original cutscenes, there is absolutely zero sound in any of the space shots. The only exceptions i think being the lifeboat launching and atmospheric entry on the ring.
Looking back, it makes a *lot* of the scenes more powerful, such as the final destruction which happens in complete silence. Inclusion of sound effects here I believe cheapens a lot of those shots, even with the original graphics.
Can we now get OG Halo 2 cutscenes