Halo: Campaign Evolved Review
Table of Contents
Back in November of 2001, almost 25 years ago, the whole world was introduced to Master Chief and Halo: Combat Evolved. The game would move on to become one of the highest-rated games on Metacritic, giving birth to a franchise that would then spawn several games and become a cornerstone of XBOX.
Today, we have Halo: Campaign Evolved, a remake built in Unreal Engine 5, but more importantly, one that will be known for its controversial arrival on PlayStation. It may be the first in what could be a remake of the original trilogy, and while newcomers will enjoy this with eager eyes, fans who have fervently played the original may have some issues with certain decisions made.
Halo Never Looked So Good
Rebuilt from the ground up in Unreal Engine 5, Halo: Campaign Evolved is stunning. If you’ve played the original, you’ll know how memorable that experience was, but it looks even better this time around. Outdoor environments are lush and expansive, with dynamic lighting and weather effects that breathe new life into familiar landscapes, especially during the darker night scenes. Visually, this is the part of Halo: Campaign Evolved that has quite possibly received the biggest turn for the better, especially when you see the effects of the Flood.
Cutscenes also receive improvements, with Cortana receiving expanded dialogue and a design closer to her appearance from the later Halo titles (specifically Halo 3). That said, there’s always the argument of “losing” some of the art direction when a remake is done, and while the same is true of Halo: Campaign Evolved, it feels that the good outweighs the bad in this case.
Indoor tells a different story, and it probably has less to do with how the remake was done and more to do with what Halo was before the remake. The original game already featured several boring corridors and hallways, and while Halo: Campaign Evolved cleans them up nicely and gives them a modern shine, they remain fundamentally unchanged, meaning the visual uplift could only do so much to improve them. That’s not to say that everything was retained as is, because some levels like The Library have been improved.
The Chief is Back
Halo: Campaign Evolved is a remake, but it is also a generally faithful remake, bringing along the original ten missions that would span around 10 hours to finish depending on your playstyle. This is not generally a bad thing, because the original title had extremely memorable levels like Two Betrayals, The May, 343 Guilty Spark, and who could ever forget The Silent Cartographer, a defining mission from the series.
Halo: Campaign Evolved adds something new, too, bringing three brand‑new prequel missions that expand the narrative, featuring large‑scale battlefields, cinematic set pieces, and even a climactic space combat sequence where players pilot a Covenant Seraph. These missions with Sergeant Johnson, called Operation: METEORITE, add context as they build up to the first actual mission of the base game, which takes place about a year earlier.
These missions could be a hit or miss, depending on who you ask. While generally “okay,” their inclusion could be argued as non-essential but more of a nice-to-have.
A campaign remix mode has also been added, giving players who have memorized all encounters and levels from the original a fresh take by randomizing things. Collectible skulls are also back, including one that lets players experience the game from a third-person point of view, which is quite novel.
On top of this, the game also brings some very necessary improvements in terms of gameplay. Gunplay, in general, feels like it has taken notes from the later entries like Halo Infinite, while some additions might be a bit controversial to classic enjoyers, like the addition of a sprint. Other additions like aiming down sights, vehicle hijacking, and more round up Halo: Campaign Evolved, which greatly modernizes the game.
Give and Take
And with all these additions, there are subtractions as well, none as glaring as the absence of PVP multiplayer. It is “Campaign Evolved” after all, but old-timers who were looking forward to slugging it out once again on the classic maps will be sorely disappointed.
That being the case, Halo: Campaign Evolved does bring in robust co‑op options, offering two‑player split‑screen and four‑player online play, reviving the social roots of the franchise. Personally, I would have loved to have a multiplayer mode in exchange for co-op, but the addition of co-op does make the lack of multiplayer sting a bit less.
Performance is generally smooth, though not flawless. Large battles can trigger frame drops, and audio stuttering and syncing issues occasionally disrupt immersion. Master Chief also feels a little bit chattier this time around, and while it didn’t bother me as much, purists may not appreciate that change.
My memory probably fails me, but the higher difficulties of Halo: Campaign Evolved do feel a bit harder than I remember. Enemy AI is a bit sketchy at times, charged plasma pistol shots have become the bane of my existence, and mobs felt unmanageable and overwhelming at times, requiring multiple reloads.
Verdict: 8.5/10 Buy it!
Halo: Campaign Evolved generally delivers on its promise as a love letter to longtime fans and a gateway for newcomers. Its expanded missions, cinematic presentation, and modern mechanics breathe new life into a 25‑year‑old classic. It is surreal to see the game launch on the PS5, and whether this is the first and last Halo title on PlayStation has yet to be determined, but it is still historic nonetheless.
There’s good and bad, with a glaring issue being the removal of PVP multiplayer, holding it back from being the definitive version of Combat Evolved. That said, Halo: Campaign Evolved does its best with the unenviable task of balancing nostalgia with modernization, and it is a great way to experience the classic from over 20 years ago that provides a peek at what could be next.
*Halo: Campaign Evolved was reviewed on an Xbox Series X with a review code provided by the publisher.
