Game:

Halo: Combat Evolved (2001)

Duration: 10:34

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This footage tries to demonstrate Xbox Halo's awesome use of reverb (and HRTF where applicable) using the Silent Cartographer level. Pay attention to how different spaces affect your gun sounds (shooting, reloading, using melee etc.) as you travel between locations, reflecting how tighter hard spaces cause more reverberation (they make sounds bounce around rapidly for a lot longer) than large open outdoor spaces and how massive those large vertical indoor shafts sound! Really good stuff for a 2001 console! I believe this is the work of the Sensaura-based audio hardware found inside the MCPX-chip on the Xbox, which is responsible for — among other things — processing of sound.

Did you know that the Gearbox-made Windows PC version wasn't just terrible in terms of graphical execution but also in the audio department? Enabling EAX on PC might seem like it would automatically be the better audio experience but sadly this isn't the case. EAX will enable reverb and it will work about as you would expect... except that it doesn't work for gun sounds. Why!? It works for ally and enemy voice lines and for sounds emitting from objects, but when firing your weapon, reloading your weapon or melee-swinging your weapon there is NO reverb at all. This is strange considering how loud guns are in real-life (and otherwise) and that you shoot guns about 90% of the time in Halo. EAX can be made to sound excellent (as proven by many Windows PC games in the past, made before Halo) but this was not to be for PC Halo (not to be confused with 343’s more recent remaster of Halo: CE, also on PC). Shameful port, Gearbox, shameful.

#halocombatevolved #reverb #originalxbox

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