Halo: Combat Evolved is one of my favorite games of all time. The memories I have of playing it non-stop back in 2001 with my brothers are still fresh in my mind because of how impactful this game was. I’ve played it countless times, beat it on Legendary; it truly is a great game. And it wasn’t just impactful in my life, it defined the console FPS and there has been countless games that have tried to capture what made Halo: CE so special. With all of that said, I was actually a bit worried about Halo: Campaign Evolved. Would moving it to UE5 with some reimagined aspects change how it felt and played? Luckily, it is a great remake of the original. Let’s get into it.

I’m not going to bother getting into the nitty gritty of the base story beats, as I feel like even if you haven’t played it before, you likely know the premise. What I want to focus on is how Halo: Campaign Evolved changed these base elements, and if it was for the better or worse. I also want to focus on the three new prequel bonus missions and if they really add to the story.

The lighting and detail to this entire level is fantastic.

First off, the game is gorgeous. That’s really the main aspect that stands out with this remake. Clearly it is leveraging UE5 to produce a very bright and colorful world. UE5 Lumens and Nanite are on full display here and it overall looks striking. What impressed me the most is how they reimagined some of these levels while still holding true to the iconic visual identity. The beach and water in Silent Cartographer is superb and the little added details like alien-looking sea life is a nice touch.

The flood have never looked better, and more disgusting, with their slimy overgrowth taking over the environments, and their disfigured bodies as the Covenant and UNSC soldiers get twisted into monsters. That being said, there are some drawbacks to the UE5 transition, with that in some aspects it has that distinct UE5 look. Although, certain areas are simply too clean and shiny, like the Forerunner architecture and the human faces have that smooth, unnatural look to them. The Forerunner buildings show no signs of stone and metal architecture, nor any wear from age to give it an authentic look.

While overall it looks great, being able to turn off Film Grain and Chromatic Aberration would make this look so much better.

What hurts the visuals the most for me though, is not being able to turn off some of the post-processing visual effects. The only option to turn off is Motion Blur, but Chromatic Aberration and Film Grain are always on. I don’t know why these aren’t options to turn off, but the image would be so much more clean if we could turn those off. Halo: Campaign Evolved does have a Quality and Performance Mode, but if I’m honest, the Quality Mode is almost unplayable. It looks great in still shots, but it makes the gameplay feel so sluggish. It’s like I was moving and turning through oatmeal. The visual bump was not worth the downgrade in gameplay feel.

Performance mode luckily stays somewhat high consistent in the 60fps range, however, there are still some dips here and there when action gets real hectic. Performance is what I suggest to play on currently until perhaps some stability patches come for the Quality Mode. The only other issue with stuttering is during the cutscenes. Again, these are very well done and almost look at the quality of those Halo 2: Anniversary Blur Studios CGI cutscenes. I even really enjoyed the bit of restructuring they did here for some scenes. That being said, in almost every scene transition there is a stuttering issue. UE5 seems to have these issues frequently, so its another aspect of the transition that I hope gets worked out.

The cutscenes look like something from the Blur Studios Halo 2: Anniversary cutscenes, but the stutter issue is distracting.

Now to get to the gameplay. Halo: Campaign Evolved has a lot of additions that bring it to current FPS ideals like sprinting and regenerative health. Also, they have added the ability to hijack which isn’t new for the series, but was never in classic Halo: CE. They also brought in the SMG, Needle Rife, Sentinel Beam, Energy Sword, Fuel Rod Cannon and in the prequel missions the Brute Spikers. I know sprinting is a hot debate for Halo purists, so luckily you can turn it off and honestly, it doesn’t feel like you’re missing anything or that you’re too slow.

The other additions I think add to the sandbox brilliantly. Having so many more options for weapons as well as being able to hijack adds a lot more flavor to these missions. Being able to hijack in Assault on the Control Room allows for so much more fun in those big open snowy sections. That goes for the inverse as well, having the Elites be able to hijack you just adds to the chaos. They also changed the Overshield and Cloak to auto usage, being able to have them like Halo: Reach equipment and toggle them when you want it.

Splitscreen co-op runs wells and I love that it’s full width instead of having the black bars on the sides.

I wasn’t able to play four player co-op, but I did split screen co-op most of the game with my son. This was his first time playing it and his reactions to it were perfect. He absolutely loved the hijacking as well and was enamored by how open some of the levels were and it allowed such a variety of vehicles. That just goes to show how great the base formula for this game is. His reaction to the Flood was also priceless, but lucky for him, he didn’t have to play through the original Library level. That has been reworked and I feel for the better. It has far better pacing now and the enemy encounters are better while still keeping that dreadful feeling.

Their are some… let’s just say “interesting” default settings that I do suggest changing right away. First off, turn off all the HUD Mission markers and hints. The objective marker is fine, but turned on by default are HUD markers that mark remaining enemies or close objective. The reason this is troublesome is when that objective toggles to eliminate remaining enemies, it places a large marker over the last enemies. Well, in levels where your have cloaked Elites, that kind of defeats the purpose. Next up is to turn off the HEAVY Aim Assist. Holy moly is this thing strong. It makes aiming head shots hard or to stay on target because when enemies move by where you’re aiming, they will drag your reticle away.

Having Skull modifiers and Campaign Remix are fantastic editions that add to replayability.

Besides that, I liked the changes and updates to the gameplay. I feel the added moves and weapons just add more to the sandbox ideals of Halo and it doesn’t take away the classic flow of the game. I’m sure some will argue that stance, but having more Halo 2 gameplay in Halo: CE I felt was great. It’s a nice compilation of all the mainline game’s ideas and I feel it bolsters what made the original great.

Unfortunately, there are quite a few bugs I did run into during my time with Halo: Campaign Evolved. During split-screen co-op I did have a full crash to the Xbox Dashboard. One annoying thing about co-op is you can’t resume your last save and will need to start back at one of the main checkpoints. I also ran into quite a few graphical bugs where textures were just smeared, or in one case on the level Halo, the mountains where you rescue the marines were black. I also had audio bugs where the music would just play these strange grinding sounds and the Warthog engine would just repeat the same rev-up sound over and over while driving.

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Funnily enough, none of these issues happened in the bonus prequel missions. I guess this is a good time to talk about these missions. There are three prequel missions and these take place one year before the Halo: CE game. Master Chief and Sergeant Johnson are on a mission to gather intel about what the Covenant are up to. They sneak aboard the Prophet Harmony’s ship and uncover their sinister plan and have to destroy it.

For the most part I really liked these missions even though I feel they were a bit lackluster overall. There are some cool concepts and ideas, especially in the second mission and a fun surprise of having space dogfights in the third. However, the space section was too simple. I feel like they left a lot on the table that could have made it much more engaging and intense. However, if this is a taste of what Halo Studios is cooking up for the next full Halo entry, then it’s a step in the right direction.

Give me more of this for Halo 6. Unique missions with different biomes.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved Halo: Infinite, but the open world held them back from being able to explore more biomes, and that is always something I loved about Halo in general. While the prequel missions in some ways felt formulaic, I felt that they stuck true to the philosophies of classic Halo. The first prequel mission feels like something out of Truth and Reconciliation where you board one of the covenant cruisers and are on enemy lines. The next level was in some crazy canyon area inside an artificial biome to simulate battle areas. It featured big vistas and alien flora. Then the third mission had a space battle with dog fights. Keep giving me more of that, tighten up the experience and story bits, and I’m all in for Halo 6.

Audio design and soundtrack remain fantastic in Halo: Campaign Evolved. There are some changes to dialogue and voice actors, but honestly all the new voice actors did a great job keeping a similar tone to the original. The voice actor doing Sergeant Johnson does a fantastic job and Commander Keyes, while the most different, sounds just fine unless you’re really comparing side-by-side. Reworked audio for the guns are all very punchy and heavy, which I like. The Assault Rifle has some chunky sounds to it, which I really enjoyed. The Shotgun blast as well is deep and powerful. Then, on the other hand, the updated Needler sounds are crisp, and the explosion large and powerful. Overall, I don’t have much to complain about with the sound design.

The soundtrack is obviously still iconic, and I continue to get goosebumps when that theme comes on. The rousing “Brothers in Arms” song as you’re going into battle and the insane build up of the Truth and Reconciliation set list. It’s a flawless soundtrack that always hits the right emotional push and there is a reason why it’s one of the best video game OSTs in history.

Halo: Campaign Evolved I feel is the best way for newcomers to experience the classic game, as there are a lot of additions in here that are for the better. While I still love the flow, pacing, and the health packs of the original, since that is my main source of memories and nostalgia, I feel this is a better option for those just now getting into it. It really cemented this opinion for me when my son was gushing over the details in this game that weren’t present in the original, like being able to hijack. Is it perfect? No, there are some things that need to be ironed out because of bugs and some odd settings, but overall this is a great nostalgic trip for older fans and a great entry point for newer fans.

Halo: Campaign Evolved is available now on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5.

Reviewed on Xbox Series X.

A copy of Halo: Campaign Evolved was provided by the publisher.