Halo: Campaign Evolved Review. A beautiful but problematic remaster that’s being passed off as a remake

Over the past few years, Halo has transformed from a legendary franchise into a conveyor belt of unsuccessful sequels, laughed at not only by casual players but also by dedicated fans. If earlier, watching trailers for the third installment or Reach would literally take your breath away, everything that came out not from Bungie's pen evoked only yawns and a desire to watch something else. 343 Industries just couldn't capture that certain Halo vibe. And despite Halo Infinite being a decent game in terms of gameplay, its story, direction, and game design decisions were far from the perfect formula set by Bungie.

Halo: Campaign Evolved is a remake of the very first game, which should become the foundation for another franchise reboot. Xbox even renamed 343 Industries to Halo Studios, hinting that the series is about to get a new breath of life and return to the ranks of key projects. On one hand, the remake idea isn't the worst: developers could thoroughly study Unreal Engine 5, which will be used for all subsequent games, and, most importantly, figure out "Bungie's magic" and learn how to create blockbusters. On the other hand, making a remake of a 25-year-old game engaging and interesting is no easy task. So what is Halo: Campaign Evolved like in the end, and can it give new players the same emotions the original once did? The answers to these and many other questions are in our review.

The original 2001 Halo is a product of its time. A console shooter with comfortable controls, interesting AI, distinctive direction, intriguing visuals, and an unforgettable soundtrack. Halo simply had no competitors, which is why it very quickly gained cult status. However, not every cult classic stands the test of time. Give a modern player Fallout 2 or the first Deus Ex — and they will most certainly turn up their nose. Even if you attach modern graphics to these games, they won't get better. The main problem lies in outdated game design decisions that are hard to appreciate nowadays. In 2011, the first Halo received a large-scale remaster with the subtitle Anniversary, for which 343 Industries and Saber Interactive redrew all the graphics while keeping the gameplay core unchanged. Fans were undoubtedly delighted with the re-release, but newcomers, after trying the game, couldn't understand: how did this become a cult classic?

From Halo: Campaign Evolved, I wanted to get a "true" remake of the first game in the series, one that would improve all outdated moments, cut unsuccessful game design decisions, refresh the gameplay, while preserving the key strengths: the unforgettable atmosphere and decent story. After all, that's the key difference between a remake and a remaster. However, after finishing it, it's hard to call Halo: Campaign Evolved a remake. Yes, Halo Studios tweaked the weapons a bit, changed the length of some locations here and there, and fixed some problematic moments of the original. But essentially, it's the same Halo: Combat Evolved from Bungie — with sluggish reload animations, monotonous corridors, prolonged shooting at enemies, and an old-school spirit. In short, another product for dedicated fans who don't care about the opinions of a new audience.

The remake's story is nearly identical to the original. Protagonist Master Chief wakes up during a sudden alien invasion of a flagship starship. Fleeing, he lands on a mysterious ring-shaped planet, which turns out to be a weapon of mass destruction. Despite all its simplicity and straightforwardness, the main plot of the first Halo, even 25 years later, doesn't feel like second-rate sci-fi — largely thanks to a meticulously thought-out universe, good direction, and the close connection of the script with the gameplay (read our material: Best Space Games on PS4 and PS5: Exclusives and Hits for PlayStation).

The remake authors added new cutscenes to the story, making the narrative thread stronger and laying the foundation for subsequent sequels. Overall, the remake turned out more cinematic and spectacular than the original, but there are still a few botched iconic scenes that Bungie once directed with much more effort. However, if you're not a fan of the series or played the first part about ten years ago, you might not even notice these directorial issues.

There's no point in dwelling on Halo: Campaign Evolved's story and detailing which specific shots were changed in the remake and how they differ from the original. Thanks to the rich visuals, increased detail, and lack of technical limitations, the game looks good. Most importantly, the story wasn't rewritten or adapted for a modern audience, and you don't really feel like nitpicking camera angles and overall direction. Especially since the original, which once impressed with its direction and unconventional transitions, now feels more like gaming arthouse than a blockbuster (more about: Best Space Games on PS4 and PS5: Exclusives and Hits for PlayStation).

Updated cutscenes and a completely new visual are important but still secondary elements of a remake. Much more critical is how the game feels in your hands, because Halo was always about gameplay. And no matter how good the shooting mechanics are or how smart the enemies are, all games in the series share one specific problem that travels from installment to installment — balance. If you've never played Halo and decide to play through it on Normal difficulty, you'll almost certainly be in for the most dull, monotonous, and bland shooting gallery imaginable. This problem is known not only to franchise fans but also to the developers. Yet the latter didn't even try to do anything about the balance in the remake, once again forcing players to choose their difficulty manually.

Playing on Normal difficulty, you simply won't understand how Halo differs from other shooters. The shooting won't be too exciting, the animations will lack dynamism, and the firefights themselves will become dull and monotonous by the second hour. And it would seem the player just needs to increase the difficulty — and the gameplay will immediately shine with new colors. But either the developers at Halo Studios broke something in the enemy AI logic, or they deliberately simplified the gameplay even further, as changing difficulty has no impact on the gameplay experience. This is the first game in the series where I didn't worry about positioning, didn't combine weapons, didn't hide behind cover, and didn't pay much attention to the color of alien armor to figure out which gun to use.

In corridor sections, enemies simply rush headlong and don't even think about their own safety. With the upgraded assault rifle (more on that later), you can effortlessly clear entire levels without switching weapons — and this is on Heroic difficulty. On open arenas, the remake still offers one of the best sandboxes, where thinking is much more important than aiming directly at enemies. But that's only because there are too many aliens, and they use grenades much more often than in the original. Otherwise, those amusing situations from past games in the series — like an enemy simply throwing the Chief out of a Warthog and taking the turret — almost never happened.

The second major problem of the original — the unevenness of interesting missions and situations — also wasn't fixed. Some segments are too stretched with monotonous corridors, which, while prettier thanks to the new graphics, are still just corridors. The "Library" level was shortened compared to the original, but it didn't stop being monotonous and tiresome. The following chapter "Two Betrayals" remains just as boring. The levels got detailed textures and new lighting, but due to strict design decisions, there's simply nothing for the eye to latch onto at some point.

Only in open spaces does the game truly shine. Here you have vehicles and at least some planning of actions. Even on higher difficulties, you can't just dive into a crowd and shoot everything living. You need to figure out who you'll be fighting and assess the overall threat level before acting. In these moments, the remake feels a bit like the original Halo.

Additionally, the authors made targeted tweaks to the gameplay that aren't particularly noticeable if you haven't played the original in a long time. For example, vehicle physics were reworked, and the Warthog now resembles the one from Halo: Reach. Animations and AI behavior, in turn, were taken from all the modern installments at once. The arsenal was expanded with new weapons, and old ones received upgrades, now resembling those presented in Infinite. The basic assault rifle, which you wanted to drop as soon as possible in the original, has become an ultimate weapon with which you can complete the entire game, forgetting about all other guns. Yes, this breaks the original intent where human weapons were ineffective against alien shields, but I wasn't particularly upset — now I could focus on shooting without needing to scavenge bodies for replacements. The developers even got rid of medkits in favor of auto-regeneration. And there are quite a few such minor changes, so you don't think Halo Studios just updated the graphics.

The funniest part is that even these changes were met with a rather harsh reaction from the fan community. Special criticism was aimed at the added sprint function, which seriously changes the rhythm of the entire story campaign. And by the way, it fits perfectly. I previously mentioned the lengthy and monotonous corridors — well, running through them is now much more pleasant (related: Best First-Person Shooters: Top FPS Games on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox, and Switch).

Another new feature of the remake is three new missions set a year before the events of the main game. In the story, Chief and Sergeant Johnson conduct a rescue operation to free infantry captured on a Covenant ship. While the story adds references to the Halo universe, it feels like a filler action movie built on tired clichés. Unfortunately, you won't see anything new in these missions. Halo Studios didn't even try to work on the mission design and added more dull runs through ship corridors shooting hordes of enemies. As if we didn't have enough of that in the main game. The only memorable part was an aerial battle, but it ended so quickly that I didn't even have time to fully enjoy it.

Campaign Evolved has nothing else new to offer. No multiplayer mode is included. You'll have to make do with boring bonus levels and co-op, which, by the way, I don't approve of: it negatively affects immersion in the main story and significantly eases the already not-too-challenging battles (more: Best Co-op Games 2026: 290+ Picks for PC, PS5, Xbox & Switch).

The new visuals are what the remake was made for. Halo: Campaign Evolved runs on Unreal Engine 5 and delivers very impressive graphics by modern industry standards. However, the shift towards photorealism, overuse of reflections, and excessive contrast negatively impacted the overall style and art direction. If you were shown any random frame from past Halo games, you'd immediately recognize which game it's from. But if you show a screenshot from the remake, you'd probably start listing all the recent Unreal Engine 5 games instead. (Read our article: Halo: Campaign Evolved heads to PS5. What to expect from the UE5 re-release).

If you don't focus on aesthetics, Halo: Campaign Evolved can deliver beautiful landscapes, detailed locations, and pleasant lighting. The game looks especially good in open spaces. But since most of the adventure takes place in monotonous corridors, you can't truly enjoy the visuals. Running through the same huge rooms with shiny surfaces is just as tiring as in the original with its muddy textures and angular objects. There are few objects on the maps, and the truly breathtaking places you'd want to admire away from combat can be counted on one hand.

Character and enemy models look great. Weapons are designed well, but the shooting and reload animations detract from the enjoyment of firefights. It feels like Halo Studios has no employees familiar with firearms or specialists who understand the dynamics of combat encounters.

Optimization in Halo: Campaign Evolved is at the level of "Unreal Engine 5 out of the box." Frame drops, dancing with a tambourine for stable performance, and other unpleasant FPS loss moments — it's all there. I played the remake on PC and was frankly surprised by the number of graphical artifacts I saw. In open spaces, light and shadow effects broke down into tiny dots, which was hard on the eyes. At the same time, distant objects were often blurred, as if I'd launched the game on a PS5.

Halo: Campaign Evolved is yet another controversial revival of a classic, feeling more like a solid remaster than a full-fledged remake. The project failed to bring anything new and, apart from graphics, has nothing to boast about. The in-game balance, already quite debatable, turned out to be completely broken: enemy AI no longer tries to outsmart the player, weapons became more lethal, and only the added sprint function makes the game feel livelier, allowing you to run through the boring and monotonous corridor levels. Yes, the visuals are impressive, but due to optimization issues and graphical artifacts, it's hard to truly enjoy them.

Campaign Evolved became a testing ground for Halo Studios, where developers were trying out Unreal Engine 5, and Microsoft simply decided to sell it under the guise of a full-fledged game. The quickly assembled prequel missions are clearly not worth buying this pseudo-remake for. At the same time, Halo is an important milestone in the gaming industry, and it deserves your attention. If you really want to dive into the subject, it's better to get the Master Chief Collection. It has working multiplayer and all the best games in the series created by Bungie.