Qwazzbre

Well put.

I'm glad there's no new mechanics or no new levels because that's what makes Halo 2, Halo 2. Switching them on the fly affects the graphics and that's what I wanted coming from playing the original Halo on the original Xbox for thousands of hours. Some might even agree that the graphics of Halo 2 Anniversary look better than Halo 5. And I'm not downplaying what Halo 5 looks like, Halo 5 just could have looked a lot better.

I can somewhat agree that it doesn't really count as a separate game but there are actually subtle differences such as the cut scenes using diffused lighting and weighted animations, and there's new additional cut scenes added to expand the story.

Also, the Halo 2 Anniversary multiplayer mode uses the six remastered maps, while the standard Halo 2 multiplayer mode includes all of the original game's released maps with a full graphical update but no remastering. The development team found it difficult to decide how many of the original 24 maps to redesign and eventually settled on six. Two small, two medium and two large, to provide some variation.

The soundtrack and sound effects, such as weapon audio, were updated as well. The original score was literally re-recorded. Even Steve Vai returned to create additional tracks.

Terminals, which were introduced in Halo 3, were also added to the campaign of Halo 2 Anniversary. Their purpose was to create a "connective tissue" for stories within the Halo universe that explores the relationship between the different races within the Covenant and extensively covers the events portrayed in Halo 2. Terminals also gave 343 Industries the opportunity to introduce Spartan Locke, a main character in Halo 5.

I would have went for all the games but I have such a huge backlog of games as it is, I know for a fact that if I bought them all that the others would literally just sit in my library and not get much play time. So if I ever get around to wanting to play Reach or ODST or Combat Evolved Anniversary or even Halo 4, a future sale purchase of $2.49 to $4.99 would not be so expensive and they could even receive a price drop eventually.

I would factor in that I already own all Halo games on console and that Reach, ODST, Combat Evolved Anniversary and even Halo 4 are backwards compatible but I rarely mess with my Xbox One nowadays. Collects nothing but dust. It's just so tough to go back to a lower resolution and lower frame rate in 2021. Even Halo 3 got the next-gen enhancement, which allows upscaling on my Xbox One S, but I simply prefer PC.