Halo: Campaign Evolved review: "An FPS in its purest form, but also a wasted opportunity for Halo Studios to put its own spin on a classic"

It takes a moment to adjust to the fact I'm using a DualSense controller and my PS5 to play a Halo game – something which seemed like heresy only a few years ago. But from the moment I fire the iconic M6D Magnum pistol in Halo: Campaign Evolved, my muscle memory from years past kicks right back in. Navigating space cruiser Pillar of Autumn's rat's nest of corridors before crash-landing onto Installation 04 and mounting up in a warthog remains one of my favorite openings for a video game, and Halo Studios has recreated it with stunning accuracy.

Despite being a ground-up remake of the game that started it all for Halo (and arguably Xbox) 25 years ago, it's impressive not only how instantly familiar Halo: Campaign Evolved feels but also how well it holds up. But, after a full run of the campaign and its three new bonus missions, I can't help but feel that such a faithful approach might be to Halo: Campaign Evolved's detriment. It certainly looks the part, but there are so few flourishes that I also can't find many reasons to play it over what's come before.

Sacred Icon

Playing through the opening half of Halo: Campaign Evolved reminded me that The Pillar of Autumn through to Assault on the Control Room really is an all-timer sequence of levels. You get to see almost the whole gamut of Halo environments, from claustrophobic spaceships to lush landscapes, rugged canyons, and esoteric Forerunner facilities.

These have all been beautifully and vibrantly rendered in Unreal Engine 5. Levels like 343 Guilty Spark and The Library benefit greatly from some significant visual improvements. Advanced lighting, a ghostly knee-high fog, and plenty of Flood goop all add to the mysterious atmosphere of these ancient installations, break up the monotony, and even amp up the horror.

I also can't deny that such dedication to realism means Campaign Evolved lacks a certain charm compared to the polygonal and yet timeless look of its precursor. Even so, it's also much kinder on the eyes compared to the brightly lit and overly detailed Anniversary remaster in The Master Chief Collection.

The visuals for Halo: Campaign Evolved are where the most obvious changes to the original lie, though there are a few mechanical additions to bring the original up to modern Halo standards. Namely, Master Chief can use smart-link aiming with any weapon and is now allowed to sprint. I found that both can be safely ignored for a classic feel (there's even a Skull that fully disables sprinting if you hate it that much), with sprinting being a nice addition to simply get around some of the larger levels a bit faster. It hardly dictates the flow of combat with the only foes that really pushed me to sprint mid-combat being aggressive chargers like Hunters, energy sword Elites, and the hulking Pure Form Flood.

Although, I was a little disappointed to see health packs have been cut in favor of Chief regenerating health. This always felt like a nice separation between his Mark 5 and Mark 6 Mjolnir amor, with the latter appearing from Halo 2 onwards along with fully regenerating health – a reminder that Master Chief isn't quite so invincible that encouraged you to play a little more tactically rather than charging in like a barbarian.

With that said, going in guns blazing at all times on Normal difficulty is where Halo: Campaign Evolved really shines, feeling closer to the original game's Heroic difficulty. Measured aggression in the face of the Covenant and using every tool in Chief's arsenal means you can play more like Doomguy, strafing around and filling each enemy with lead or pistol-whipping them before charging to the next. And it’s still as satisfying as ever to perfectly Hail Mary a plasma grenade into a cluster of Grunts, sending them wailing and flying.

So, with the 2001 classic acting as such a solid foundation, it's practically impossible to not have a good time playing Halo: Campaign Evolved, at the very least. I was initially apprehensive that these relatively simple 25-year-old design principles just wouldn't hold up in a time of fast-paced movement shooters and vast open worlds. Surely such a basic feel would make for a terrible first impression for PS5 players who may have no idea what Halo even is, let alone never played it before. But I think it's this simplicity that makes it shine. As such a faithful remake of its forerunner, Halo: Campaign Evolved is a first-person shooter in its purest form.

Unnatural formation

The more I play Halo: Campaign Evolved the more I also realize that this commitment to faithfulness is a double-edged sword. How can a game titled "Campaign Evolved" claim to be an evolution if it sticks so closely to its source material?

Sprinting, regenerating health, and other modernizations are joined by minor tweaks to level design and dialogue, and an expanded arsenal. The Energy Sword, Sentinel Beam, and Wraith tank, all previously tantalizingly out of reach for Chief in the original, can now be wielded to great effect on the ring – they're even joined by the Needle Rifle, SMG, and Fuel Rod Gun, further fleshing out the already excellent weapon sandbox.

The Library, my least favorite level in Halo: Combat Evolved for its monotonous and labyrinthine structure, has been redesigned a little to trim the fat and inject a bit of variety to its vast halls. You go down instead of up now! That vastness certainly had its own appeal, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't glad that it's a considerably more intuitive place to navigate in Halo: Campaign Evolved. It still feels maze-like without you getting lost, providing a greater sense of momentum even as the incessant monitor orb Guilty Spark dawdles and spouts nonsense. But it's a crying shame that Cortana no longer tells him to "sod off" at the start of Two Betrayals.

The stunning scenery that is arguably one of the main draws of Halo: Campaign Evolved also comes at the cost of Unreal Engine 5 choppiness. I noticed that whenever there were lots of enemies on screen or plenty of particle effects going off at once, animation frame rates would noticeably plummet. Nothing game-breaking, but hardly what I'd expect from something that is so otherwise polished.

Hopping back into Halo: Combat Evolved via The Master Chief Collection made me realize that this remake's changes are unfortunately quite inconsequential. Halo Studios has imitated the original so well that there is little that Halo: Campaign Evolved does that makes it an essential play. Obviously, if you only have a PS5, then Halo: Campaign Evolved is your sole option – that's also ultimately who this game is for too – but I find it difficult to recommend to anyone else when The Master Chief Collection, and therefore the original Halo, is widely available.

I think we're just getting started

Of course, Halo Studios already thought about this and so Halo: Campaign Evolved also includes a new three-mission prequel campaign, Operation Meteorite. These bonus missions see Master Chief teaming up with his best non-AI pal and fan-favorite Sergeant Johnson to investigate a mysterious research vessel to hopefully learn the location of the heart of the Covenant.

To be blunt, these missions are quite unremarkable. Despite taking place one year prior to the main campaign, what transpires is of no real relevance whatsoever. It essentially just establishes that Johnson and Chief are two bros who like to kill aliens together and find themselves in an almost Rogue One-style plot-hole-that-didn't-need-explaining story. Narratively, these missions end up being more relevant to Halo 2's story, so Halo fans can do the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme while it flies right over the heads of PS5 greenhorns.

These missions are also the only place in all of Halo: Campaign Evolved where you'll get to use the Battle Rifle and fight Brutes. Couple that with the limp narrative and Operation Meteorite ends up feeling more like a chance to deploy some fan service in the form of mild banter between Chief and Johnson, who wears Chief's 1999 MacWorld demo Orion armor, while also testing some things for the surely inevitable Halo 2: Evolved – there's even a gondola section!

Halo Studios clearly has a lot of respect for Bungie's legacy but has also avoided doing anything particularly interesting or new with it. I would have liked to have seen more substantial structural changes to levels given that the developers aren't bound by the technical limitations of the original Xbox. That resulted in recycled environments and backtracking through levels, which are neatly woven into the narrative, but it feels like a wasted opportunity to leverage such modern technology and then not put your own spin on those classics.

However, after trying to go bold with Halo 4, Halo 5, and Halo Infinite and having to go back to the drawing board every time, I'm hardly surprised that this is how Halo: Campaign Evolved turned out. A modern recreation is certainly the safest option for Halo Studios and Xbox Game Studios, and it's a solid effort that resurrects what feels like a bygone era of single-player shooters. But, only because it copies the genre-defining Halo: Combat Evolved so closely. Why iterate on near-perfection? Yet, the promise of an evolved campaign experience, like Installation 04 itself, rings hollow, and I'm left wondering if playing it safe is really what Xbox should be aiming for with Halo right now.

Halo: Campaign Evolved is one of the best FPS games you can play this year, and if you're interested in the rest of the Halo series, take a look at our list of the best Halo games.