JANUARY 2020 PCWorld 33Original, and Enhanced. I imagine these are
the same options as the Xbox One X, though I
haven’t checked.
I did toggle between the three in
numerous environments, and mostly noticed
differences in draw distance—and even then,
mostly between the Performance and Original
modes. With Performance enabled, objects in
the middle-distance (particularly trees) devolve
into abstract polygonal blobs. Moving to
Original greatly increases the distance at which
this happens, enough so that I really had to
hunt for examples to
show a difference
between it and the
Enhanced mode.
As I said, most
modern PCs will
run Halo: Reach
maxed-out, even at
higher resolutions.
It’s aged well, but
it’s definitely aged,
and some slight
improvements to
textures and terrain
aren’t enough to
mask that fact.
Logically there’s no
real reason to
include graphics
options when most
people will just set
everything as high
as it will go. And yet
I find it somehow
strange Reach
doesn’t even
pretend—especially
since I’d read thatAnother example of Performance mode. Notice the flat lighting on the concrete
buildings.
On Original and Enhanced settings, the shadows are more clearly defined and
the game draws the green and orange lights from the power-ups inside the left
bunker. (Enhanced shown.)