Microsoft’s Halo Studios, formerly 343 Industries, invites players to revisit the first chapter in Master Chief Petty Officer John-117’s adventures with Halo: Campaign Evolved.
It’s been nearly 25 years since Bungie first introduced players to the Halo universe in 2001’s Halo: Combat Evolved. Building on the success of first-person shooter trailblazers like Doom and Quake, the Halo games offered us an entirely new sci-fi game franchise, thick with lore and epic world-building.
As Master Chief, we fought our way through hordes of alien creatures, collectively known as The Covenant, across six mainline games. These spawned a further six spin-offs that included Halo: Reach, Halo 3: ODST, the Halo Wars RTS games, and the twin-stick shooters Spartan Assault and Spartan Strike.
Getting a sense of déjà vu is no surprise, as the first game, Halo: Combat Evolved, has already seen a rerelease as the remastered Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary in 2011. The remaster was also included in Halo: The Master Chief Collection released on Xbox One in 2014, PC in 2019 and for Xbox Series X|S in November 2020. So, unless you are a very new player, there is a good chance that you’ve played a version of the first Halo game before.
Halo: Campaign Evolved is, however, so much more than just a remaster.
Unlike the original, Halo: Campaign Evolved features just the story campaign; there’s no competitive multiplayer. The game does, however, support four-player co-operative gameplay via local split-screen and online cross-platform play. As well as including the original campaign, there’s also the exclusive three-mission Operation: Meteorite serving as a prequel to the main story.
The campaign follows the cybernetically enhanced Master Chief, the last of an elite fighting force, brought out of cryosleep on the starship Pillar of Autumn as it is under attack by the alien forces of the Covenant, who see humans as heretical abominations that must be eliminated. Crashing on a mysterious ringworld, the titular Halo, Master Chief, his AI companion Cortana, and the surviving members of the UNSC Marine Corps must battle their way through the alien horde to uncover the Halo’s secrets and escape.
The first-person shooter places the emphasis on firefights fought across vast landscapes and sprawling underground chambers. The enemy AI is just as ropey as it ever was, but it’s still easy to get overwhelmed by the quantities of enemies that are often unrelentingly reinforced on the battlefield via dropships.
There’s a lot of vehicle combat, with the UNSC Warthog providing transport and firepower via the mounted machine gun, and the Scorpion battle tank for when the big guns are needed. The enemy has the Ghost ground vehicle, the Banshee aircraft and the Wraith tank.
Players that like to experiment with different weapons will enjoy the variety of firepower in the game. Master Chief usually carries his trusty MA5B UNSC assault rifle and M6D Magnum but can also use the many Covenant weapons dropped by the fallen enemies. Other UNSC weapons can be obtained from other Marines or found in caches in the field.
The game plays close to the original, but with a more modern flow. It incorporates elements from later additions to the series, such as weapons, enemies and abilities (like hijacking alien vehicles). There are also collectable skulls as introduced in Halo 2 (and added to the anniversary edition) to modify the game.
Whilst purists may call for some museum-accurate revision of the original game mechanics, this is a modern interpretation that reflects how far the genre has come in the last 25 years. Older players are still going to be struck with bouts of nostalgia, but younger players are going to find the game better meeting their expectations.
The game uses Unreal Engine 5 as opposed to a proprietary game engine. This gives the game a massive graphical boost, even over the anniversary remaster. Halo: Campaign Evolved is effectively a new game, a total remake of Combat Evolved. The dramatic landscape and technological subterranean vaults of the Halo have never looked so good. The modern lighting and ray tracing give the game an almost photo-real look.
On the Xbox Series X (and I believe that this is the same across all platforms), I could choose from quality and performance graphics settings. Whilst quality provides the best image quality, the frame rate is set at 30fps. Performance reduces the quality but maintains a frame rate of 60fps. I saw very little difference in the quality and personally preferred playing at the higher frame rate rather than with the higher visual setting.
Just as with the original, Martin O’Donnell’s haunting soundtrack, a mixture of choral music and heavy rock, completes the spectacle. The ethereal otherworldly vocals play off against the guitar rips as you go into battle. It’s got to be one of the all-time greatest game soundtracks.
Halo: Campaign Evolved is a game remake done right. It offers players both nostalgia and a totally fresh experience. The game reintroduces Master Chief, the Spartans, the UNSC Marine Corps and, of course, the alien Covenant for a next-gen experience that feels as fresh as the original some 25 years ago.