Halo Campaign Evolved Review: An Unreal excuse to revisit a classic

Like many critics, I wasn’t entirely convinced that Xbox’s original Halo game needed a remake. As one of the most iconic and influential shooters of its time, 2001’s Combat Evolved is a genuine classic that still holds up today.

However, playing Campaign Evolved changed my mind. Halo Studios’ Unreal Engine 5-powered upgrade of the original Halo campaign is an utter graphical feast, elevating the original with some truly sublime visuals. More importantly, it respects its source material, retaining the essence of what made Bungie’s FPS so captivating, while adding smart tweaks that are so subtly implemented you might think they were there to begin with.

Its new bonus missions feel inessential, and the beloved PvP multiplayer is sadly lacking, but otherwise this is about as complete a revitalization of what made the original Halo game special that fans could’ve hoped for. By going back to the start, Halo Studios reminded me why I fell in love with this series in the first place, while simultaneously providing the perfect entry point for newcomers – particularly those playing on PlayStation for the first time.

There are few launch games in history as crucial to their platform than Halo was for Xbox back in 2001. Microsoft’s entrance into the console market was viewed cynically by many, but with one single shooter, it blasted, melee thumped, and teabaged those doubts back to the lobby. Many players, this writer included, purchased an Xbox on the back of those 10/10 reviews and didn’t look back.

Combat Evolved was, and is, a seminal shooter. In an age of linear action games, Bungie delivered a genre-shifting FPS sandbox where every encounter felt unique. Halo’s skirmishes versus the Covenant alien forces were unlike anything available at the time, with memorable level design, iconic weapons and characters, and a swelling music score cementing Combat Evolved as an outright classic worth buying a console for.

25 years later, some creaking joints aside, it still holds up. Like every bona fide classic, the thought of Halo conjures countless, incredible moments: Escaping the Pillar of Autumn and stepping onto the Halo for the first time, the iconic beach assault in The Silent Cartographer, and the brilliant complexity of later stages when The Master Chief battles both The Flood and The Covenant simultaneously.

There are few scenes in Campaign Evolved that haven’t been elevated by two-and-a-half-decades’ worth of technical improvements. Whereas stepping from the drop ship in the original revealed a brown smudge on the ground, now the scenery is a detailed destruction, with trees and grass realistically aflame. Similarly, the snowy Assault on the Control Room mission, already enormous in 2001, matches its scale with gorgeous detail, like icicles hanging from Forerunner tunnels, and snow dynamically swooshing beneath the tire treads of your speeding Warthog.

Not all of the art direction is a triumph – I’m not a huge fan of the brutalist Forerunner architecture being redecorated with a chrome sci-fi sheen – but otherwise, Campaign Evolved feels like one of the more successful gaming remakes when it comes to understanding and respecting its source material.

“There are few scenes in Campaign Evolved that haven’t been elevated by two-and-a-half-decades’ worth of technical improvements.”

The bit Halo Studios hasn’t meddled much with too much, crucially, is how the game plays. Within seconds, the muscle memory returned, as I dived straight into Legendary difficulty, Plasma charging Elites and popping grunts with a scoped Magnum, before getting flanked and sent ragdolling through the scenery by a surprise grenade. Campaign Evolved feels exactly like classic Halo in all the best ways.

Of course, this is only the game you think you remember. Put the Xbox game side-by-side, and you’ll notice a multitude of tweaks to the formula, some large (players can now sprint, Call of Duty style), and others less so (reloads are faster, and health packs are gone). Levels have been subtly resized to accommodate 4-player co-op, but otherwise the campaign felt exactly as I remembered.

The smartest decision behind the remake turns out to be the integration of weapons and features that didn’t appear until subsequent Halo games. Players can now pilot (or hijack) Wraiths, for example, or collect SMGs, Needle Rifles, or Energy Swords. The latter is so integral to the Halo experience, I’d forgotten it wasn’t equipable until the sequel, and alongside the other additions it feels like a smart refresh that brings Combat Evolved up to date.

There are more significant changes in the addition of new skulls which, once found, will activate changes like remixed weapon and enemy placement, a permadeath mode, or even the ability to play the game in third-person, which should please players whose formative shooter experience comes with a Travis Scott skin. Speaking of which, there are also unlockable cosmetics which, among other things, can make Chief and his guns look like their 2001 versions.

The most significant actual new content is arguably Campaign Evolved’s weakest. Alongside the Halo 1 story, three separate prequel missions are available to jump straight into from the main menu, which take place a year earlier when Master Chief and Sgt. Johnson team up to infiltrate a Covenant research vessel.

These missions again integrate content from future Halo games, notably Brutes, and space combat, but they still struggle to stand out next to the stellar main story, with a narrative core that tries to evoke emotion, but never quite lands. Ultimately, they end up feeling like how they’re advertised: as bonus content that’s far from essential.

As an excuse for old fans to rediscover a classic, Halo: Campaign Evolved is irresistible. For younger players who didn’t get the chance to experience one of the best shooter campaigns ever, it feels even more essential.

In recent years, the Halo series has lost its way. By returning to the beginning, Halo Studios reminded me why I fell in love with the series in the first place and hopefully sets it on course for the comeback it’s long deserved.

If this signals the start of a series of Unreal Engine remakes for all of Halo’s classic games, then there’s reason to be optimistic that the series’ best days could still be ahead.