I played the original Halo in a browser, and I was blown away by how well it runs

Published Nov 4, 2026, 11:31 AM EST Patrick O'Rourke is XDA's News Editor and Entertainment Segment Lead. Previously, he was Pocket-lint's Editor-in-Chief, the Editor-in-Chief of Canadian tech publication MobileSyrup, and earlier in his career, he worked as the technology editor at the Financial Post and Postmedia. He's based in Toronto. Over the past 15 years, he's written thousands of articles. Patrick has also interviewed dozens of tech industry executives and covered GDC, E3, Gamescom, WWDC, Apple keynotes, Samsung Unpacked events and more. Patrick has a BA in journalism from Toronto Metropolitan University. At this point, I shouldn't be surprised by the increasingly wild world of video game decompilations and recompilations, but here I am, once again a little blown away. A few weeks ago, I wrote a news story about a Halo: Combat Evolved browser port that was based on OpenCE, an open-source decompilation of the iconic original Xbox game. While that particular browser-based version of the original Halo doesn't seem to be active anymore, I recently came across another, far more polished browser-based Halo project based on OpenCE. Also called OpenCE, it's an official-looking (despite being very unofficial) browser port of one of my favorite video games ever. So, of course, I decided to test it out to see if it's actually worth playing. Setting up OpenCE only takes a few minutes There's online multiplayer, a server list, and even mod support The browser port's menu does a great job of mimicking Halo: CE's actual menu font and style. To protect the project legally, you need to upload a disc image, and a maps folder is unpacked directly from it. Thankfully, the browser-based port handles this process for you in just a few seconds. Of course, you need to dump the disc from a physical Halo: Combat Evolved disc you own, or download the game from somewhere online. The browser port even supports mods, though I haven't really experimented with this feature yet — there seem to be a lot of servers for custom, fan-made maps. You can even create a room for your friends to join, making it easy to play multiplayer and co-op together (this feature doesn't work with Linux, Windows, or Android builds of OpenCE). There's also a server list of publicly available rooms with amusing, old-school names like Swat Pistols and LegendaryX32Coop. While writing this story, I even saw a Zombies playlist; I haven't thought about Halo's once-popular community-made Zombies mode since probably 2007. This brings me to the game's wildest addition. It supports up to 128-player multiplayer and co-op. Halo: CE was practically my entire life in high school, and if you'd shown 14-year-old me OpenCE, I don't think my brain could've handled a Halo multiplayer match with that many players. You can also export saved games and take them to another browser or platform OpenCE has been ported to (I might do this at some point so I can keep playing the same file directly on my gaming PC). I was even shocked to discover you don't have to configure your controller at all. All I needed to do was connect my Xbox Elite Series 2 gamepad over Bluetooth, and it instantly worked with the browser version of OpenCE (of course, I increased my aiming sensitivity from three to four, as any long-time Halo: CE player would). It also supports mouse and keyboard controls. If you're longing to jump into a Halo: CE match, this is a quick way to do that When you sit back and think about it, it's wild that HaloCE exists Are 128-player Halo death matches actually fun? Not really. The browser port lags a bit, and overall, it's just too chaotic to actually figure out what is going on most of the time. That problem is even worse in co-op, with players chaotically shooting each other and throwing Plasma grenades everywhere. Still, it's a fascinating experience, especially given how many times I've played Halo: Combat Evolved over the years. I've also had a lot of fun revisiting multiplayer maps I'd forgotten even existed, like Chill Out and Boarding Action, alongside more open mainstays Bloodgulch and Sidewinder. OpenCE also works great as a single-player experience if you want to play through Halo: Combat Evolved's campaign. The browser port of OpenCE also has pretty snappy controls, though I do sometimes feel a slight input delay with my controller (it's not that bad). As a long-time Halo fan who's been pretty disappointed by the closure of Halo Studios and the series being unceremoniously handed off to Activision (I genuinely thought Halo: Campaign Evolved was a pretty solid game), fan-made projects like this HaloCE browser port are awesome to see. Now that HaloCE is out in the wild, it'll be interesting to see what other cool things fans do with the decompilation. OpenCE