Master Chief is back again, and again, in a remade adventure that thrives off of the series’ nostalgia as a genre-defining FPS.
It’s been 25 years since Halo: Combat Evolved launched with the OG Xbox, and its remake Halo: Campaign Evolved is here to celebrate what could be (and hopefully will be) a fully remade romp through the legendary original trilogy.
Back to basics
Halo: Campaign Evolved is exactly that: an “evolved” version of the original Halo: Combat Evolved campaign that launched alongside the original Xbox console 25 years ago. And so the company has decided to once again revisit the series in remaster/remake form, although in a more ground-up, deep-dive method than the Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary and Halo 2: Anniversary games, which were more of an optimization run than anything.
In that vein, Campaign Evolved is mostly a one-to-one recreation of the original game, but with vastly enhanced visuals and audio. Utilizing Unreal Engine 5, the game is gorgeous, especially on PS5 Pro (yeah, I had to be that guy and play Halo on PS5 because it’s just hard to fathom it happened). The dialogue has been fully re-recorded, too, making this feel like an actual remake as opposed to just an upscaling of graphics.
Beyond the aesthetics, Campaign Evolved does not add too much else to the original that would potentially disrespect it and anger many purists, but there are some optimizations to certain encounters and enemy spawns. You can now sprint, which I personally enjoy, but that option can be toggled off in the settings. There are also nine new weapons added from across the franchise that weren’t there in the original, including the iconic Battle Rifle, Energy Sword, Needle Rifle, and more. I think they make for welcome additions, especially as you’re constantly forced to swap weapons when running out of ammo throughout the campaign’s 10 missions.
Enemy AI has also been revamped to be more “reactive,” and the number of foes you face throughout the campaign will scale to how many players are in your party. With co-op up to four players, the difficulty ramps up the more Master Chiefs you have running around, and encounters have been slightly redesigned in general to keep things fresh.
This is still Halo 1, though. It’s got the same missions, same vehicle segments, and same Library that players have come to love and hate over the years. They’re just way prettier now. And there’s nothing wrong with that, especially considering this year marks the game’s silver anniversary. My hopes are that this same care will be tendered to assumed Halo 2 and Halo 3 remakes, two games I think both have way better campaigns than the original, which relied a lot on its mystery and simplicity before things got more frenetic and exciting in the sequels.
You can “remix” the campaign in subsequent re-plays by utilizing Skulls, like in the original, but 28 new ones have been added to further the fun if you wish to make things easier or harder on yourself. There’s even a Skull to swap the perspective to third-person if you so choose, so some replay value is there for you if you wish for it to help justify the $50 launch price.
Xbox hasn’t been secretive about the fact that this is just the Halo 1 campaign remastered with no multiplayer involved (it’s in the title, after all). But that still doesn’t take away the sting that the classic multiplayer action is missing (beyond the addition of four-player co-op with full crossplay).
To me, and many others, Halo has always been about the competitive multiplayer experience, running and gunning, capturing the flag, and grabbing power weapons with friends. That’s still possible with the Master Chief Collection on other platforms, but for PS5 players especially, this feels like the game is missing a large chunk of what made it so legendary in the first place.
Operation: Meteorite is a smash
The main differentiator between Campaign Evolved and Combat Evolved (other than there being no multiplayer) is the addition of three new missions starring Master Chief and Sgt. Avery Johnson called Operation: Meteorite. Some slight spoilers will follow.
These three new missions are awesome, and a welcome prologue-like addition to the events of the game, serving as a prequel that takes place about a year before the main campaign. It contains the same cheesy military jargon, enemy ambushes, and bombastic combat you’d come to expect, although the setting is hit-or-miss.
Operation: Meteorite takes place on a Covenant agriculture ship that Chief and Johnson infiltrate looking for something, and of course, plans change while on board the vessel, which is half mundane alien corridors and half open fields with a really pretty view. Although Chief and Johnson are the stars, the three missions serve as a way to give some shine to ancillary UNSC Marines while also setting up the events to come.
The biggest highlight, however, is a climactic mission where you dogfight in space while inside a Covenant Seraph ship. This mission gives me hope for future remakes or new Halo titles, because this sort of vehicular combat has been vastly underused in the franchise, and I hope it could become the norm moving forward. Outside of a few hectic infantry encounters, this mission was easily my favorite in the game.
The Operation: Meteorite missions don’t add too much to the overarching Halo story, so I’d caution anyone hoping for some sort of revolutionary lore drop to shatter the foundations of the universe. But they are still a welcome addition, whether you’re a newcomer or someone who’s getting long in the tooth and has been playing these games on various consoles for decades (like me).
