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Details
Publisher Xbox Game Studios
Developer Halo Studios
Release date 28 July
Format Xbox Series X|S, PS5 (reviewed), PC
Platform Unreal Engine 5
I was lucky enough to be editing Xbox and PlayStation magazines back in the 2000s (XBM and then PlayStation World), right as Halo was becoming a phenomenon, so I saw first-hand what made it feel so different. The mix of corridor combat and sandbox chaos, the high fantasy design of the looping Halo ring, the way enemies reacted to your actions, often comically running in fear, the visuals that felt like they belonged to the next generation of consoles.
As much as I love Halo, I was lukewarm to the idea of remaking the original; after all, we had a good Anniversary remaster in 2011, and it’s backwards compatible on Xbox Series X; what more could there be? Well, I’m playing on PlayStation 5, which feels unique, and it’s beautifully reimagined in UE5. When the Gregorian chanting starts, the orchestra swells, the Halo ring stretches out in front of me, and suddenly I’m right back where I was all those years ago, staring at that impossible alien landscape; I can’t resist, I need to play again.
Halo: Campaign Evolved is more than UE5
Playing Halo: Campaign Evolved is a reminder of why everyone lost their minds in the first place. The clever thing is Halo Studios hasn’t treated the original Combat Evolved like a museum piece or simple nostalgia bait, which could have been an easy sell – Halo in UE5, it’s pretty. This isn’t simply a higher-resolution version with some cleaner textures slapped over the top. Halo: Campaign Evolved rebuilds the game while looking back at what made the original work – the pacing, the enemy behaviour, the way combat constantly shifts between improvisation and strategy – and then adds in new content, including weapons and enemy design from other Halo games. This is a remake focused on allowing the ideas behind Halo rather than just the polygons to shine.
Which is why those ideas still land, even 25 years later, and on PlayStation 5 – you see, Sony finally got its Halo killer. The opening moments almost deliberately lull you into thinking this is familiar territory as Master Chief runs through gleaming grey sci-fi corridors, alarms flash, and plasma bolts cut through the darkness; it’s all very Doom 3, but, importantly, everything feels like the Halo I remember.
When the escape pod doors open, and suddenly you’re standing on the Halo ring itself, I’m reminded why this shooter felt so revolutionary. The Doom-like grey metal disappears, and I’m looking at green fields, pine forests, rocky mountains that wouldn’t look out of place in Switzerland, and a huge blue ocean stretching into the distance, and up, and over – the ring is a wonderfully Ringworld-inspired creation that just feels perfect for a video game setting now as it did all those years ago. You can run anywhere, explore at will, approach encounters from different directions and make tactical use of the environment.
From someone who was there back in 2001, that transition, the moment you stepped onto the Halo Array, felt like witchcraft. In 2026, after decades of open-world games and enormous free-roaming landscapes, it still feels special. The shift from dark corridors into bright, impossible alien landscapes remains one of Halo’s greatest tricks. It works because that contrast runs through the entire campaign. Corridors constantly give way to sandy beaches, snowy valleys, huge canyons and towering alien architecture. Halo’s sense of scale was always one of its biggest strengths, and Unreal Engine 5 gives those spaces the kind of depth and atmosphere Bungie could only hint at back on the original Xbox.
The visual upgrade is huge, and I was concerned that more detail could dampen the impact of the original’s art direction, which was built on clear, clean lines and Forerunner architecture that felt purposefully limited and alien, offering contrast where needed. But the important thing is that here, in UE5, it still feels like Halo.
Unreal Engine 5’s lighting tools don’t give familiar moments a completely different mood; instead, they lift them to new heights. Covenant plasma fire lights up environments, rain and mist hang in the air, and the eerie swamp sections of 343 Guilty Spark finally feel like the horror experience they were always reaching towards. In the early moments of the game, it’s hard not to just stop in the sand, look out up and over and just take in the sight of the ring running up the horizon. Character models, environments and animations have all been rebuilt, but the movement and weight remain recognisably Combat Evolved.
A remake with new ideas?
When I stop being a tourist and start really playing, this remake reminds me why the Halo series became so loved, because the real magic was never just the world and its glowy weapons but the way enemies behaved. The Covenant remain some of the most entertaining opponents in gaming because they behave like they’re actually part of a battle. Grunts panic and run when things go wrong, Elites regroup and push back, cloaked enemies force you to rethink your position, and larger enemies completely change the rhythm of a fight by soaking up shots and hiding weak spots.
It’s especially noticeable on greater difficulties, where sheer numbers combined with Halo’s AI become a test of your tactical knowledge of the underlying systems – the risk and reward of the shield recharge, the use of plasma weapons to strip shields, kinetic weapons to tear through armour, and the best moments come from grabbing whatever is available and making it work. You’re constantly adapting because enemies adapt to you, in a combat loop that still encourages that same improvisational style.
Campaign Evolved expands that sandbox with weapons pulled from across Halo’s history, including the Sentinel Beam from Halo 2 and the Needle Rifle from Halo: Reach. Thankfully, these additions don’t feel like random fan service, and they don’t leave you overpowered; they simply give you more ways to play and test the AI.
The same goes for the wider additions Halo Studios has made, such as new (old?) vehicles from other Halo games, an expanded sandbox, and new ways to approach encounters. Still, the feeling remains the same: you are dropped into a situation, given a collection of tools and left to figure out the solution.
That philosophy carries into the new story content, with a new three-mission prequel arc featuring Sgt. Johnson that expands the original campaign. On paper, it sounds good and adds value. Still, in reality it feels like an expanded training mission that introduces the core weapons, the shield mechanic (it soaks up hits, drops, and recharges), and the blend of corridor skirmishes and open-world agility. In many ways, these new missions are Halo distilled, and while enjoyable and lore-fans will love the additions, it’s not essential to replaying Master Chief’s first adventure beat-for-beat.
The biggest test of the remake is The Library, famously one of the weakest sections of the original game; its endless metallic corridors, repetitive layouts, and constant Flood encounters – the zombie-horde-like creatures introduced in the third act – made it feel like Bungie was padding. Here, it’s been reworked into something far more focused. The Flood still arrive in waves, but they feel less like filler content and more like a genuine threat to manage and contain. The Flood doesn’t endlessly respawn, but it does follow you, track you and continue to hunt, meaning you can’t simply run from an area and forget about them.
The Flood itself remains a strange love-hate creation. Watching these bugs pour across the battlefield is still impressive, especially when they reanimate fallen Covenant enemies and UNSC allies, and suddenly turn your previous victories against you. I found myself constantly returning after fights and blasting bodies with a shotgun just to make sure nothing came crawling back. In Halo Campaign Evolved, I feel the Flood gets a better shot at being the turning point Bungie always envisioned; it forces you to rethink how you approach combat and gives each new encounter a new layer of unpredictability.
Remixing Halo’s classic campaign
Halo: Campaign Evolved also understands that the series has always been a game people return to, to test new ideas or simply to feel the chug of its weapons, which remain incredibly satisfying. The new Skull system and Campaign Remix features add another layer for longtime fans, allowing you to change the rules, remix encounters, alter weapon drops and create new versions of familiar missions. There are also deeper control options, online co-op improvements and the ability to tweak the experience until it feels as close to classic Halo as you want. Yes, that includes turning sprint off if you want the most authentic 2001 experience.
There are some technical issues, though, and they can’t be ignored. Playing on a standard PS5, even in Performance mode, Halo: Campaign Evolved struggles when it throws everything onto the screen. The snowy Assault on the Control Room mission is one of the biggest offenders, with the frame rate dropping into almost stop-motion territory as vehicles, enemies and explosions jitter across the battlefield. It’s disappointing because this is exactly the kind of spectacle Halo is built around – large-scale battles, multiple enemy types, Wraith tanks, Ghosts racing around the map – and this should be the moment where the remake shows off what Unreal Engine 5 can do. Hopefully it’s something that gets ironed out before launch, but at review it’s a noticeable problem.
Thankfully, it doesn’t ruin the experience of replaying Halo (again) because this remake works for the same reason Combat Evolved worked 25 years ago. It understands that great shooters aren’t just about shooting things – I know, weird? – but they’re about creating situations where you have to think, react and improvise. Halo’s campaign still moves beautifully between tactical firefights, horror-inspired Flood encounters and huge vehicle battles, constantly changing its rhythm before you get comfortable.
That’s why this remake feels worthwhile, because Halo didn’t need fixing, but it was time this Xbox classic was given the same love and attention as other historic releases, like Resident Evil Remake series, and while Halo: Campaign Evolved doesn’t quite reinterpret the original game to the same degree as Capcom, the rebuilt environments, expanded weapons, new missions, remix options, and co-op additions (two-player local split-screen on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S and four-player co-op) give enough reasons to return beyond nostalgia.
