I think the point has been missed. Why was it that it was called Combat Evolved in the first place? Its because the AI was goddamn alive compared to everything before. I dont think I even need to go into detail if you're a gamer, it slapped that hard. But is that interesting today? Do they even reimplement that? Or is it trying some meta marketing as being "the first halo again". Either way, the changes you mention with no focus on what the original sold on tells me what I already know, they are lost in the sauce of the IP. They dont know what made the original what it was.