Don’t you think it’s amazing that even after so many years since our favourite games dropped, we’re still finding secrets and glitches? I was blown away when I covered the Mothma Tamagotchi and its secret characters that were discovered 26 years after it arrived on the scene, but this latest discovery from Xbox’s seminal launch title has well and truly got me feeling like a kid at Christmas.
Combat Evolved is the first game in the Halo series and came into our lives back in 2001. I was 11 when this game came out 23 years ago (a fact that suddenly makes my glass back ache a little more) and was in awe by the Master Chief’s battles against the Flood. Well, for those who are into speedrunning and unlocking every game secret going, an ex-software engineer who used to work for Microsoft has discovered some awesome features for gamers to take advantage of without any modding whatsoever.
The software engineer named Mr Monopoli on Twitter (and no, that’s not the guy with the top hat and moustache from the Hasbro game) has spoken to Games Radar about a way to possess ‘a Flood infection’ in Combat Evolved, a character that can climb up walls and across ceilings. Talk about giving your game file some horror vibes! It’s a speedrunner’s dream and should make completing some levels much easier considering you’re no longer confined to normal movements.
Mr Monopoli has also found a way of playing as Elites and flying the Pelican aircraft, all on an original Xbox with an old-school copy of Halo 1. According to the comments on his tweets, his next job is replicating these same features on the more recent Master Chief Collection. So for the moment, if you want to experience these new ways of playing Halo for some Combat Evolved speedrunning, then you’ll need to head back to the console where it all began!