The original Halo: Combat Evolved is still the absolute best version of Halo, and all the remakes, with the exception of MCC, are a waste of time. So if you haven't played the original because you don't have the hardware to do so, you can now play it straight from your web browser, including the full single-player campaign and a multiplayer mode supporting up to 128 players. The project is a fan-made browser port so it might not be up forever, so jump on it now! There's also splitscreen coop like the good old days!!!

Takeaways:

  1. Play the full Halo: Combat Evolved campaign directly in a modern web browser, with mouse and keyboard controls.
  2. The fan-made port has split-screen campaign co-op and multiplayer sessions with up to 128 players.

What You Need

  • You do not need an Xbox or a copy of the original Xbox hardware.
  • The browser version runs through a standard desktop web browser. Google Chrome seems to run it best at the moment. It runs fairly well on most computers, but don't expect it to run on a potato...
  • A mouse and keyboard are supported, with the original Xbox controls mapped to the standard controls most FPS games use.

How to Play the Original Halo in Your Browser

Note: Because this is a fan-made project, the page or its availability may change over time. There's a chance that it will get taken down under copyright laws.

  • The browser needs to download and initialise the game before you can start playing. How fast this is depends entirely on your Internet connection.
  • Once the game has loaded, you can start the campaign or multiplayer from the game's menus.
  • Select the single-player campaign from the main menu to start playing Halo: Combat Evolved. At the moment, the campaign is the most stable, so that's where I'd start.

How to Play 128-Player Multiplayer

  • From the game's main menu, select the multiplayer option.
  • Unlike the original Xbox release, this browser version supports online multiplayer with sessions designed for as many as 128 players. Things get pretty mental with even a 1/4 of that many players!
  • Follow the multiplayer menu to find available sessions or create your own game if the current version of the project supports hosting. (It's a work in progress)

The 128-player mode is super experimental, and massive multiplayer sessions like this require the game to handle player movement, weapons, vehicles and combat events across a much larger number of connected players. So you will probably have some issues on older devices with slower connections.

Halo Browser Controls

The game maps the original Xbox controls to a mouse and keyboard, using the standard first-person shooter layout that most games use. So you shouldn't have too much trouble getting used to things. There are plans to add full controller support. So depending on when you start playing it may or may not already be a feature.

Things to Keep in Mind

Remember that this is not an official Microsoft release. It is a fan-made project based on the recently decompiled version of Halo: Combat Evolved. So the entire project might be purged from existence if Microsoft decides to go after them. However, there's a pretty good chance that it will simply move to a new location and keep running as normal. That's usually how things things go down. Every time you take one down, another 2 pop up.