To say that Halo Combat Evolved was formative for me would be an understatement. While I was in my early 20s when it released, like many I became completely infatuated with it. I’ve played through the campaign countless times and of course it spawned a love of competitive multiplayer, from LAN parties and connecting multiple XBOX consoles together, to eventually competing online and in local tournaments.
Halo C.E. is one of the most influential games ever created. It showed that console FPS titles could be just as advanced as on PC (I love you Goldeneye but you didn’t clear that bar…and you’ve aged terribly). It introduced the Master Chief, who would go on to be the face of Xbox as a brand and an industry icon. And it laid the foundation for the console FPS landscape and what would grow into one of the largest genres for decades.
So, with all of that in mind, it’s absolutely clear why XBOX is revisiting it yet again after already doing so twice, right? Right? Well…
The Gun Pointed at the Head of the Universe
For the uninitiated, Halo Campaign Evolved is a full remake of Halo Combat Evolved. While the underlying guts still utilize the infamous Blam! engine for core elements, the presentation layer utilizes Unreal Engine 5; the first Halo game to do so. After 25 years, it’s also the first Halo game to launch on a PlayStation console. And in addition to being a full remake of the original Halo C.E., it also features three bonus missions that were originally planned for the original but cut. Halo Studios didn’t want to change the core campaign and so those are playable from a separate menu. Lastly, and perhaps most significantly, this package includes no multiplayer.
Jumping in, the monks welcome me back to my comfort zone and I explore the options which are extensive. It’s nice to see strong accessibility support, an aspect that XBOX has done well with over the last few years. As noted, the option for the main campaign is prominent with a separate option to play through the bonus story missions. You can also play in local split-screen co-op for two players or online co-op for 4 players.
Beginning with the original campaign, the visual fidelity is what you’re first struck by, and given this being a near 25-year old game now, you certainly wouldn’t know it. While it doesn’t quite reach the levels of a top-tier modern game or even some other recent remakes such as Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, it’s certainly the best the original Halo has looked by a large margin. This is even more apparent as the game proceeds with areas of The Silent Cartographer and Assault on the Control Room really standing out.
The cinematics benefit from a similar glow up, and seeing as additional cut-scenes and story context were added, I’m glad they have. Seeing Chief in his Mk.V MJOLNIR armor and the redesigned Cortana working together in such fidelity certainly pulled on the nostalgia strings for me and I enjoyed nearly every second of it.
I say nearly every second because the added cut-scenes and dialog became a mixed bag for me by the end. While a lot of it is well-suited and provides players context that was lacking in the original release and only pieced together later, there were also a few times where it clearly wasn’t needed. There’s a fine line of how much character development happens with Chief and Cortana in the original game, and at times Campaign Evolved pushes past it in ways that slightly disappointed me.
That said, Steve Downes and Jen Taylor reprise their roles as Master Chief and Cortana respectively, and naturally, they are brilliant. Despite some of my grievances with a few of the cut-scenes, getting to hear them in action again with new quips and commentary is a joy.
Along with an entirely new visual upgrade, Campaign Evolved also features a complete rework of the originals audio. With one of the most iconic soundtracks in gaming alongside distinct sound effects for the weaponry, “revisiting” the sound direction needed to be managed carefully, and I certainly don’t envy the team(s) that were tasked with it. And again, I feel the result is a mixed bag.
The memorable soundtrack hits at all the points you expect it to and will continue to pluck those nostalgic strings for long-time fans. I’m not sure I will ever tire of hearing On a Pale Horse just as the action begins to kick up. Though, the tracks feel a little subdued at times, with not quite the impact I expected. And this is the issue I generally have with the audio across the board. A few of the sound effects feel either subdued, flat, or changed for the worse. The most notable for me being the longshot. As such a key weapon in the franchise, that has such a distinct, powerful sound, it sounds completely generic which left me feeling almost confused. Other weapons like the assault rifle don’t suffer the same fate, so I’m not sure how exactly they finalized the suite, but I wish they had given it another pass.
In the vein of “running through the campaign” we come across one of the most divisive changes in this remake. And that is, the ability to sprint. Ahh yes, the classic “debate” that has flooded the Halo community since 2010. There will never be a full consensus here, but this is where I land with regard to Campaign Evolved. While it does change the flow of the game in aspects, it also adds some layering in how you approach various scenarios. For example, outside of the gates and elevators, you can essentially run through The Library. And because you can move faster than the flood themselves, it’s a near complete departure from the original flow of the level which felt much more oppressive. And let’s be clear, it was oppressive by design.
Meanwhile, on a few of the open areas such as within Attack on the Control Room, you now have more flexibility to approach, say, a wraith that is pressuring you without having to resort to ghosts or banshees. Another example that I wanted to test was during the “Keyes” mission. This is another area where the original Halo C.E. is designed to be oppressive, with Covenant and Flood battling through a range of tight environments. While that plays out largely the same and you can engage with all the enemies if you choose, I played through it a second time and simply ran and jumped through the vast majority of the level while barely ever engaging. Naturally, how players choose to play their games is up to them, I’m merely calling out the differences in what the design allows.
In most scenarios, I found the sprinting to be a non-issue after a few minutes as it just seems so natural in the modern shooter space. But there’s no denying that it affects the flow of some of the gameplay of the original.
One of the other notable new campaign features in Campaign Evolved is “Campaign Remix” which allows you to play through the campaign with a broad range of randomization including enemies, weapons, vehicles, etc. Alongside the broadest range of skulls in a Halo game, this results in being able to tailor your experience for you and your friends more than ever before while adding replayability. And while I haven’t had time to get to it myself yet, I can’t wait to see the first 4-player co-op attempt at Campaign Evolved’s LASO.
Brothers in Arms
Alongside the revised campaign, one of the big draws for Campaign Evolved is allowing players to engage with three missions that were never finished for the original release. Set a year prior to the events of the main campaign, it’s a Halo fan’s dream to be able to experience content that was originally cut or never finished. The missions are a separate option from the main campaign and, based on how they play, I’d say it’s for good reason.
The missions take place in vast, varied environments and from a gameplay perspective, are larger scale than most of the core C.E. campaign (though there’s still backtracking as with the rest of Campaign Evolved). Additionally, you have access to weaponry not previously seen in Halo C.E. such as the battle rifle, needle rifle, spiker, and more. I found them to be a lot of fun and as I said, any further content set in the early days of the mainline Halo games is very welcome. There are some fun-for-fan elements as well, including some dialog and characters that reference deeper lore in the universe.
How replayable they are is really going to come down how big of a fan you are. As they stand-alone, the missions don’t mesh directly with the main campaign and instead, act as a sort of “mini” campaign of their own. Whether or not Halo Studios could have found a way to include them in the campaign more organically I’m unsure, but I certainly understand the approach of not wanting to alter the core experience.
Dust and Echoes
By now you likely understand how much the original Halo C.E. means to me. In that vein, Halo Studios’ 2026 remake is a faithful remake with a few mis-steps. They don’t derail the experience, thankfully, and in spite of them, it’s fantastic that an entirely new generation of players will get to experience the beginning of Halo for the first time.
I see this as a successful technical experiment as well. With Campaign Evolved being the first Halo game to utilize Unreal Engine to any degree, it proves that the formula can be successful. And if that helps Halo Studios move the franchise forward into the future, then I’m all for it of course.
While it won’t have the same impact it did 25 years ago, and it comes with some caveats, Halo Campaign Evolved is another fun journey through the maw. With vastly improved visuals, new experiences and story context, and new ways to play, it’s a great time to revisit a classic or to enjoy it for the first time.
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