Halo: Campaign Evolved Review – Evolving an FPS Icon

Halo: Campaign Evolved Review

The iconic Halo series has returned to its roots with Halo: Campaign Evolved. This remake is a complete overhaul of the franchise’s first game, Halo: Combat Evolved. A new game engine, Unreal Engine 5, has been added to the original game’s code, ensuring that this remake feels like Halo, while also looking incredibly good. Halo: Campaign Evolved brings significantly improved visuals, updated gameplay, and a handful of new content. And in a bizarre twist, Halo has shed it’s Xbox console-exclusivity, bringing Halo: Campaign Evolved to the PlayStation 5. Sacrilegious!

Halo, Is it Me You’re Looking For

Halo: Campaign Evolved includes the full campaign story that Halo fans know and love. All the story beats from Halo Combat Evolved are here, including Master Chief’s first meeting with Cortana, arriving on Halo, and so on. Tying the missions together are extended cutscenes that provide so much more depth and character to the Halo universe. Cortana, for example, seems to appear quite a bit more, with a lot more dialog, in the cutscenes, which helps to flesh out her character. It’s also great to see Cortana appearing with her more iconic look from Halo 3 & 4, and not the toned down versions which came afterwards.

In addition to the classic campaign, there are three bonus missions included. These see Master Chief and Sgt. Johnson involved in a covert operation about a year prior to the events of the Halo campaign. These three missions are incredibly well done and feel a bit like of “best-of” Halo in terms of gameplay. After completing the missions, I was left wanting much more. This is the type of Halo fans fell in love with, and not the convoluted mess that came later in the franchise. If you’re new to the franchise, you can play the three bonus missions before or after playing the main campaign. In terms of story, one doesn’t really impact the other.

Halo for a Modern Gamer

While much of the gameplay from Halo: Combat Evolved remains intact, there are some enhancements that help modernize Campaign Evolved. These enhancements were included in later Halo games, so they don’t feel too out-of-place. For example, Master Chief can now hijack enemy vehicles, though in my gameplay, I don’t think I was able to successfully accomplish this once. Either my timing was way off, or the game is a bit bugged in this way. I didn’t have this issue in previous Halo games.

In Campaign Evolved, you can now aim down sights (ADS). It’s wild to think that older Halo games forced us to shoot from the hip. Oh, and now Master Chief can run, which is a huge help considering how large some of these levels are. It’s worth noting that many of these enhancements can be disabled by activating certain skulls (more on that later) – so purists can enjoy the game in a more “Combat Evolved” kind of way.

Visually Stunning

Visually, Campaign Evolved is oftentimes quite gorgeous. Some of the outside vistas, like the opening moments of the second level, just look stunning. I spent so much time looking out the horizon, splashing in the water, climbing rocks, etc – just taking all the beautiful visuals in.

Unfortunately, and this is in part due to it being Halo, the levels weren’t always so stunning. Many of the later levels where we’re stuck traversing seemingly endless corridors, we’re bombarded with bland, mundane inner workings of the Forerunner bases. This was an issue 25 years ago, and still an issue today. Even the visual upgrades do little to take away from the level designs. The levels are huge, with not a lot going on besides running and gunning. And maybe a little driving. For fans new to the franchise, it’s worth noting that level design vastly improves as the franchise moves along, so don’t let Halo: Campaign Evolved’s level designs deter you from future entries.

Movie-like Cutscenes

Cutscenes in Campaign Evolved were incredible. Honestly, there were more than a few times where I almost wish they just remade the entire Halo: Combat Evolved into one movie so I could enjoy the story without having to put the work in. The voicework, character designs, story and lore, it all just works, and conveyed so perfectly in those cutscenes. Despite vast graphical improvements, the gameplay doesn’t look nearly as good as the cutscenes, which can sometimes be a bit jarring. Going from a cutscene to the actual game often feels a bit lackluster.

Co-op Fun

Halo: Campaign Evolved features co-op multiplayer for both the campaign and the three bonus missions. This includes two player split-screen, a staple of Halo that was lost along the way. It also includes four player online co-op. What’s missing is Halo’s legendary multiplayer. Yes, multiplayer is still available in the Master Chief Collection, which includes the weapons & maps from Halo: Combat Evolved. However, a scaled back multiplayer that only featured Halo: Combat Evolved levels & weapons with the upgrade visuals would have made this remake so much better.

During my review, I had a chance to dive into some split-screen co-op. The experience went relatively well. For those familiar with co-op in previous Halo games, the rubber band effect is still in play. If a player reaches a certain point in a level, all other players will automatically warp to that player. If a player dies, they must wait until the remaining player is not engaged in combat and they’ll spawn right near them. When both players die, you’ll return to the previous checkpoint. Options like friendly-fire can be configured as needed. One option not available – much to the disappointment of my son – was the ability to change split-screen to side-by-side/vertical. Instead, we’re stuck with, as he affectionally put it, “hamburger” (read: horizontal) split-screen. While I imagine most folks prefer horizontal, having vertical split-screen should be considered.

Technical Hiccups

Halo: Campaign Evolved isn’t without it’s technical hiccups. Throughout the campaign, the game’s audio had bizarre stuttering issues, as if it was lagging behind. This happened during gameplay and cutscenes, at least 5-6 times during my playthrough. The issue would usually work itself out after a minute or two. Restarting the game would also clear it up. It wasn’t exactly game breaking, but was distracting.

Another hiccup, or rather, limitation, was the drop in framerate when playing in split-screen. Playing solo, the experience was generally quite smooth. Playing split-screen, there was a noticeable drop in frame rate. It was still absolutely playable, but just something that was easy to notice.

Skull Hunter

Throughout the campaign, including the three bonus missions, are three skulls hidden in each level, plus three bonus skulls will be unlocked with Campaign Remix. The total number of skulls are 42 (I wonder if there are any Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy fans on the Halo dev team). On one hand, finding these skulls on your own is a huge accomplishment, they are often well hidden. On the other hand, I can understand if folks rush to the internet to learn the locations of the skulls. Some of these vast levels have far too many possible places for skulls to hide. During my playthrough, I probably only found 1/4 of the skulls.

Campaign Evolved includes a mode called Campaign Remix. This is where the skulls you’ve found will really come into play. In Campaign Remix, you’ll be able to replay any level you’ve completed, with any number of skulls activated, to offer some unique and interesting adjustments to your gameplay. Some skulls are designed to offer a more classic Halo feeling, such as removing ADS and sprinting. Others add challenges such as enemies that fire faster or headshots that don’t do as much damage. Honestly, I can’t imagine spending too much time with Campaign Remix, but maybe if I had a few buddies to play co-op with, it might be fun to change things up a bit.

The Next Evolution in Halo

Halo: Campaign Evolved is a worthy remake of the original Halo game. On one hand, the devs have done a pretty solid job modernizing Halo for a new generation of gamers. Modern FPS staples such as ADS and sprinting are now included. The ability to play the campaign in both two-player splitscreen or four-player co-op should make for some fun gaming nights among friends. The updated visuals, especially the cutscenes, really helped keep the story fresh, but there were still times when the lengthy levels just overstayed their welcome. Including weapons and enemies from future Halo installments was a nice touch. On the other hand, Campaign Evolved is stuck with some dated gameplay and level designs. There are some technical issues that need ironing out. I also wish we got the classic PVP Halo multiplayer here, especially with these updated visuals.

If you’re a die-hard Halo fan, you’ve probably already experienced this first campaign countless times before. There are some good reasons to replay it again here with Campaign Evolved, especially if you’ve got some buddies to play with. Campaign Remix is an okay touch, but I do wish there was a bit more to it. The three bonus missions included are excellent and worth a playthrough – but they definitely left me wanting more. Who knows where Halo goes from here, but Campaign Evolved should open the door to some new fans.

***Halo: Campaign Evolved key for Xbox Series X was provided by the publisher for review.***