Halo: Campaign Evolved Review (Xbox Series X|S)

Halo: Campaign Evolved, much like the newly minted Halo Studios behind it, represents a fresh start for Xbox’s flagship shooter. It’s a remake that doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel, instead drawing on lessons from the past. Stripping Master Chief back to his original MJOLNIR Mark V armour, it reminds us why the series’ 2001 debut became such a culturally significant moment.

I’ll admit, I felt an immense pressure to properly enjoy myself going into Halo: Campaign Evolved. After all, it’s a remake of arguably the most important game of my life. There are plenty of new and shiny features to experience across its faithfully recreated levels, whilst the additional missions are an absolute blast. It stands as the most visually stunning Halo adventure yet, and more importantly, it’s a breathtaking history lesson for one of gaming’s most storied franchises.

Campaign Evolved returns to Bungie’s classic blueprint, embracing linear level design, straightforward-but-satisfying gunplay, and backtracking techniques that once helped circumvent the hardware limitations of the early 2000s. Halo: Combat Evolved remains a technically impressive original Xbox co-operative sandbox shooter, offering plenty of opportunities for player expression and shenanigans that have kept it beloved for decades.

If the mission here is to, as the name suggests, ‘evolve’ the original campaign for a modern audience, then Halo Studios has succeeded. It would be unfair to judge Campaign Evolved for features it never set out to include, even if PvP would have been really cool. Thawing Master Chief aboard the Pillar of Autumn for the third time, then spending the next 15 hours blasting through the campaign and its new prequel missions on Legendary difficulty, made for the most fun I’ve had with a Halo campaign in well over a decade.

Of course, the key ingredient behind Campaign Evolved’s overwhelming success is - yep, you guessed it - nostalgia! Having spent my first 20 minutes simply vibing to the main menu music, I jumped straight into the main campaign and wore a smile through all ten missions, even after enduring death after death at the hands of the fresh-faced Covenant in Truth and Reconciliation - it’s just as difficult as you remember.

For me, it’s been such a warming experience, allowing me to relive my favourite shooter all over again thanks to Halo Studios’ move to Unreal Engine and the sweeping graphical enhancements across its levels and cutscenes. Now I get to watch Longsword fighters dogfight Covenant craft outside the Pillar of Autumn, whilst inside, eagle-eyed fans can uncover references to the legendary Chips Dubbo and even the Sergeant Johnson Impersonation Contest through consoles, bulletin boards and duty rosters. Cutscenes also properly introduce the Bumblebee and Pelican pilots who ferry Chief across the ring, helping to flesh out characters who were little more than background figures in the original.

Campaign Evolved delivers on the bigger picture, creating a genuine sense of the wider battle unfolding around you. It’s exactly the kind of additional storytelling I’d have spent hours watching my favourite Halo deep-dive nerds dissect back in the day.

Halo Studios has respectfully modernised the original campaign, its characters, weapons, locations and vehicles, ensuring everything still feels exactly as you remember it. I especially loved the way Warthogs leave tyre tracks in the sand, how much darker the forest in 343 Guilt Spark has become, and how the incredible tonal shift into horror with the arrival of the Flood is just as effective, if not more so, than it was 25 years ago.

Time after time, returning players will catch themselves doing exactly the same things they did back in 2001: sitting in the command centre’s empty seat, checking on the pilot after crash-landing on Halo, jamming ghosts through narrow corridors, and flipping your Warthog in the exact same spots during The Maw’s explosive finale. I felt nine years old again, filled with that same sense of wonder for incredible visuals, massive explosions, and the iconic Master ‘Bleddy’ Chief. Phwoar.

You may need some time to adjust to the new sounds of your Spartan arsenal. Weapons like the Assault Rifle, Magnum, Shotgun and Sniper Rifle all sound noticeably different, and at first that can interrupt the nostalgic rhythm. New additions like the Sentinel Beam and SMG feel perfectly at home in Campaign Evolved, with the latter promptly becoming my go-to companion alongside the Shotty whenever it was time to keep the Flood at arm’s length.

The Bonus Missions are a real treat too, and if they’re any indication of what Halo Studios has planned for the next original Halo game, then there’s plenty to be excited about. You play as the legendary Master Chief alongside the wise-cracking Sergeant Major Avery Johnson, infiltrating a Covenant ship to uncover enemy intelligence and put a stop to some shady Covenant experimentation.

Set before Master Chief meets Cortana, he talks a lot more than usual - and more Steve Downes is always a good thing. The banter between ‘John and Johnson’ makes for a comedically entertaining partnership, with the pair battling new Covenant variants whilst introducing what is canonically Chief’s first encounter with the Jiralhanae Brutes, long before they would go on to form the Banished in Halo Infinite.

The Battle Rifle, Needle Rifle, and Fuel Rod Cannon feature heavily throughout the three-hour prequel campaign, which culminates in a thrilling slice of spaceship combat not seen in the series since Halo: Reach. I don’t want to spoil the finer details, but rest assured, they're some of the better modern Halo missions in recent history.

None of the new stuff feels out of place or tacked on simply to justify the price tag. Sprinting perfectly encapsulates the remake’s design philosophy. New players are given the freedom of modern controls, but the classic level design never forces veterans to abandon the experience they remember. There’s even a Skull to keep things old-school.

Speaking of Skulls, Halo: Campaign Evolved’s replayability comes through Campaign Remix and its 42 collectible Skulls, each introducing different gameplay modifiers to keep the experience fresh. Remix completely randomises encounters, creating scenarios where the Flood and Brutes replaced Covenant boarding parties during the opening mission aboard the Pillar of Autumn.

It’s understandable that replaying campaign missions, even with randomised weapons, enemy encounters and visibility modifiers, may not be enough to keep some players invested beyond their first full playthrough. However, I’m the kind of Halo fan who takes on LASO (Legendary All Skulls On) challenges with my mates, and the additional remixed offerings are more than enough to encourage repeated runs.

If Halo: Campaign Evolved is your first experience with the series, whether you’re playing on Xbox or joining on PS5, there may be moments where its age begins to show despite its modern presentation. Beneath the stunning visuals, the bones remain largely unchanged from 25 years ago, meaning some of the later mission backtracking may feel a little dated to newcomers.

Personally, it wasn’t an issue for me back in the day, and it still isn’t in Campaign Evolved. The jaw-dropping visual overhaul, the way the Flood gradually consumes the later levels, the expanded arsenal, and even the addition of sprint all help keep the experience feeling fresh from start to finish. Halo Studios made the right call by stripping Master Chief of his grappleshot and other modern gadgets. What you’re getting here is Halo in its purest form, with nothing to distract from the series’ core strengths. I genuinely believe returning to those roots is exactly the reset the franchise needed, giving Halo the strongest foundation it's had in years.

As for performance, I played Halo: Campaign Evolved on Xbox Series X and found the smooth 60FPS offered by Performance Mode to be the best option. In my opinion, Quality Mode doesn’t enhance the visuals in any meaningful way, but if you’re a real OG who played back in the day, you shouldn’t have any issues with 30FPS. Splitscreen co-op works very well too, although capped at 30FPS in both modes.