Halo: Campaign Evolved Review

Halo: Campaign Evolved, a remake of the original Halo: Combat Evolved game from 2001, is launching today on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC. The game has been available in early access since July 23 for those who purchased the Premium Edition, and the Xbox team generously sent me a review code so I could play it early.

There have been no new Halo games since the release of Halo: Infinite back in 2021, and Halo: Campaign Evolved ditched Halo Studios’ Slispace Engine in favor of Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5. Last year, Bethesda used Unreal Engine 5 to release The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, but Halo: Campaign Evolved isn’t a simple remaster.

I’ve played the original Halo: Combat Evolved campaign multiple times over the years, and it remains one of my favorite Halo campaigns ever. Even though some levels are very long, with some tedious backtracking in the end, Halo: CE remains much more memorable for me than anything Halo Studios (previously 343 Industries) ever shipped since the release of Halo 4 back in 2012.

To this day, Halo: CE also remains one of the most critically acclaimed games of all time with a 97 score on Metacritic. The game was a system bestseller for the original Xbox console, and after the cult-classic GoldenEye on the Nintendo 64, Halo: CE really pushed forward the FPS genre on consoles. While I didn’t experience it back in the day (I was mostly a PC gamer back then playing Counter-Strike and Unreal Tournament), Halo: CE is also remembered as one of the best local multiplayer games of all time before Halo 2 took advantage of Microsoft’s new Xbox Live online multiplayer service a couple of years later.

As you may remember, Halo: CE already got the remaster treatment with Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, which was released on the Xbox 360 back in 2011 and then included in Halo: The Master Chief Collection on the Xbox One back in 2014. Halo: CE Anniversary allowed players to switch between the original and remastered graphics on the fly, but Halo: Campaign Evolved, which is a remake with tweaked levels and various gameplay changes, doesn’t have that.

Back in 2011, former Xbox head Phil Spencer infamously said, “If we lose our way with Halo, we lose our way with Xbox.” 15 years later, I’d say that Halo is way past its prime, and the Xbox division also seems to have lost its way under Spencer’s leadership. Asha Sharma, the new CEO of Xbox, seems to be willing to invest more resources into core Xbox franchises, but it’s too early to tell if Halo can really help to bring Xbox back to the spotlight.

Halo: Campaign Evolved is the first Halo game to be released on PlayStation, a controversial decision made during the Phil Spencer era. The PlayStation 5 Pro is also the best console to play the game on, as it supports PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) and the controller’s DualSense haptics and adaptive triggers. On my end, I played the game on my Xbox Series X connected to an LG OLED TV, and the game appears to be well optimized at launch.

What’s changed in Halo: Campaign Evolved

As I mentioned earlier, this is the first Halo game developed with Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5. While I’m no graphics expert, I’d say that it looks even better than Halo Infinite, and it still “feels” like a Halo game with a controller in your hand. Just like Halo: Infinite, Halo: Campaign Evolved can also be played with a keyboard and mouse on Xbox consoles, though I didn’t try that yet.

Because this is a remake, Halo Studios tweaked the levels with redesigned environments, and you’ll also notice additional cinematics with newly recorded voice acting. For the first time, the campaign can be played in co-op with up to four players, and there are now more usable vehicles in some levels and additional weapon spawns to accommodate the higher number of potential players.

While the core Halo gameplay didn’t change much, it’s now possible to run in Halo: Campaign Evolved. The health kits from the original game are also gone, and new weapons from Halo 2 and 3 are available, including the Covenant energy sword. Halo Studios also added the ability to hijack and drive a Covenant Wraith tank, which is another thing subsequent Halo games allowed.

I also noticed that you can now carry up to 4 grenades of the same type, though grenades probably aren’t as fun to use as in the original game. I remember that plasma grenades in the OG Halo could lead to chain reactions with enemies flying around, and I don’t think Bungie or Halo Studios ever managed to recreate that explosive feeling in subsequent games.

Among other notable changes, the Assault Rifle in Halo: Campaign Evolved has a slower fire rate and a smaller clip (you had 60 bullets in the original game), though this is consistent with how the standard weapon works in other games. Halo Studios also added HUD objectives to make it easier to see where to go, though you can hide them in settings.

One of the biggest gameplay changes is the ability to play the game with a third-person camera, though this is easy to miss: You’ll need to find the Perspective skull in the bridge area of the ship in the first Pillar of Autumn mission (go down the ladder near the two pilots) to unlock it. Before that, Master Chief was only visible when you held a turret in subsequent Halo episodes, but I’ll have more on this new third-person camera below.

Speaking of skulls, which are gameplay modifiers to find across Halo levels, Halo: Campaign Evolved has changed the location of all existing skulls and added new ones, and there are now a total of 42 skulls to find. Moreover, collecting three skulls will unlock Campaign Remix, a new mode that will tweak the game’s missions even further with randomized enemy encounters, weapon placement, and more.

Lastly, Halo: Campaign Evolved introduces Operation: Meteorite, three brand new missions set one year before the events of Halo: Combat Evolved. I won’t spoil too many details about the new missions, but most of the action happens in a Covenant ship, and there’s also a space combat section that reminded me of the Long Night of Solace mission in Halo: Reach.

What I liked and disliked in Halo: Campaign Evolved

I started my Halo: Campaign Evolved playthrough with Operation Meteorite, the three brand-new missions, which I found quite forgettable. What I liked the most about these new missions is the return of the Brute enemies introduced in Halo 2.

In these new missions, these Brutes sport a mind-controlling device on their chest that you can shoot, which will make the Brutes go berserk and attack everyone. This is a fun way to create some chaos on the battlefield, and I can’t help but think that this comeback of the Brutes is a hint at an upcoming Halo 2 remake.

On the storytelling front, however, I found that the three new missions are quite disappointing. You’ll be encountering Lieutenant Williams, an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper with a disdain for Spartan soldiers. You’ll help her find and rescue survivors in the UNSC Marine Corps, but the interactions between Master Chief and Williams are quite predictable and lackluster. In my view, the Halo saga always lacked charismatic and likable characters, and Operation Meteorite doesn’t change that.

Besides these 3 new missions, I had a great time revisiting the original missions with a slightly altered level design and probably the best graphics ever seen in a Halo game. Even levels I found quite tedious in the original game, such as The Library, have been tweaked to be more enjoyable.

The new cutscenes also add a lot to the game’s dramatic story. This can be felt right in the second mission, when you see Master Chief’s escape pod crash on the Halo, killing all Marines around him along the way.

For me, the most transformative element of this remake is the ability to play the whole game with a third-person camera. It takes some time to get used to the new perspective, and I’d say that Master Chief’s character animations look a bit rigid. However, playing the game with this third-person camera made it much more enjoyable for me. I now wish every Halo game offered that option.

If you pre-ordered the game, you’ll get the Foundry Armory Pack, which includes extra armor and weapon skins to use in the Campaign. The game’s Premium Edition add-on includes even more armor and weapon skins, but they won’t offer much value unless you play the game with this new third-person camera.

While Halo: Campaign Evolved really benefits from the bells and whistles of Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5, I missed the inclusion of a 120 FPS mode, which is something Halo Infinite had. While you get the choice between a 60 FPS mode and a 30 FPS Quality mode on Xbox Series X, it’s worth noting that the split-screen co-op mode is locked to 30 FPS, and I find that difficult to enjoy. The local co-op mode also requires the second player to log in with an Xbox account, and you may find that quite annoying.

Campaign Remix, the new mode that allows you to replay the campaign’s missions with randomized enemies, weapon pickups, new visibility effects, and other gameplay tweaks, is a great way to inject some fun into a campaign that’s almost 25 years old. This is a welcome addition as Halo: Campaign Evolved has no competitive multiplayer mode. You’ll have to go back to Halo: The Master Chief Collection or Halo: Infinite to get that experience, though the latter is no longer getting any new content.

Is this the comeback of Halo?

It’s hard to deny that Microsoft’s management of the Halo franchise has been quite lackluster since Halo Studios replaced Bungie as the series’ lead developer. No Halo game since Halo: Reach in 2010 has managed to cross the 90+ bar on Metacritic, and as of this writing, the Xbox version of Halo: Campaign Evolved has an 84 score on the review aggregator. While this is still a solid score, we’re far from the 97 obtained by the original game.

Obviously, you can’t please everyone when revisiting a 25-year-old game like Halo: Combat Evolved, but Capcom proved it’s possible to create great remakes of cult-classic games. In recent years, the Japanese developer enjoyed great success with its remakes of old Resident Evil games, and the series now alternates between new episodes like Resident Evil: Requiem and remakes like the upcoming Resident Evil: Veronica.

I’m not sure Halo Studios needs to follow the same formula, but if Halo: Campaign Evolved sells well, I wouldn’t be surprised to see more remakes of old Halo games. Halo 2 already had an “Anniversary Edition” remaster in Halo: The Master Chief Collection on the Xbox One, but Halo 3 didn’t get the same treatment.

There’s no doubt that remakes are a great way to bring old games to a brand new audience. However, it remains to be seen if Halo Studios can ship a brand new game that reaches the heights of the Halo games from the Bungie era. Halo: Infinite was one of the most ambitious games ever with an open-world structure and new progression system, but it ultimately wasn’t the blockbuster hit the Xbox team still desperately needs.

It will likely be years before we see a new Halo game, but for now, I highly recommend playing Halo: Campaign Evolved. The game is available today on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass, and it supports cross-play and cross-progression across Steam and PlayStation 5.