Halo: Campaign Evolved review - the return, but not the triumph

If you've been a fan of the saga since the Bungie years, Halo: Campaign Evolved deserves your attention - provided you accept a remake that plays it safe rather than bold. For newcomers, it's objectively one of the best entry points into console FPS history. That said, don't expect a 97 on Metacritic.

What exactly is it?

Halo: Campaign Evolved is a complete overhaul of Halo: Combat Evolved (2001) built on Unreal Engine 5 - the first Halo to run on this engine since 343 Industries rebranded as Halo Studios in 2024. The story stays the same: Master Chief, an AI named Cortana, an alien space ring, and hordes of Covenant to gun down. The gameplay loop - alternating between human and alien weapons, managing your two slots, driving vehicles - remains intact. What's changed: 4-player co-op (absent from the original), the ability to sprint, the option to hijack Covenant vehicles, and the addition of the Brutes right from the start, whereas originally they only appeared in Halo 2.

What really works

The heart of the game - that organic chaos of open combat on Installation 04 - has been carefully preserved. The original level design still holds up, and Halo Studios was smart enough not to butcher it in the name of modernization. VGC awarded it a perfect score, noting that

"for younger players who didn't get the chance to experience one of the best shooter campaigns in history, it feels even more essential."

That's an understatement.

The three new missions with Master Chief and Sergeant Johnson, set a year before the events of the original campaign, are a genuine surprise. They don't reinvent the wheel, but they flesh out the lore in a way that will satisfy veterans. The addition of the Flood's infection form - absent from the original game - right from this first episode is an intriguing narrative choice.

The limitations that weigh it down

The problem is capped ambition. GamesRadar+ sums up the frustration well in its 7/10 review: the game plays it so safe that you end up wondering whether Xbox really needed such a cautious remake to relaunch the franchise. PvP multiplayer was cancelled during development - a glaring omission for a franchise where the versus mode was as foundational as the campaign itself. Game Informer notes in its 85/100 review that Campaign Evolved "stops short of a full restructuring" of the original game. Honestly, that's the impression that dominates.

Compare that to the saga's Metacritic scores - the original Halo at 97, Halo 3 at 94 - and this 82 speaks volumes about the franchise's current state. It's not a bad game. It's a good remake of a great game, which is not the same thing.

Who's it for, compared to what?

If you enjoyed Metroid Prime Remastered or the Dead Space remake - productions that respect the original work without revolutionizing it - Campaign Evolved falls in that same lineage. Not transformative, but solid. Faithfulness to the source material is a strength; the lack of risk-taking, on the other hand, is an editorial choice you're free to judge for yourself.