“Halo” really needs a win. Things for the series got so off track that 343 Studios had to rebrand as Halo Studios before embarking on the next chapter of the franchise. That chapter was kicked off with a remake of the first “Halo” campaign.
Humanity is on the losing end of a war against fanatical aliens called The Covenant. After blindly jumping through space, the UNSC (space navy) finds itself near a bizarre structure. A giant ring that looks like a carved section of a planet, Halo. With Covenant forces on their heels, it’s up to the legendary soldier Master Chief to turn the tide of the war and uncover Halo’s secrets.
This is one of the most popular shooters to exist on console, so the expectations for this remake are high, especially among diehard fans desperate for a big comeback. This is also the first time a “Halo” game has been released on PlayStation since it’s always been an Xbox exclusive. An enticing addition to this remake is three new missions that see Master Chief fighting alongside Sergeant Johnson.
The three missions are pretty good overall. Even though they all take place on a large Covenant ship, there’s a good amount of variety in the environments. It’s also fun to fight the Brute enemy types that weren’t in the first game. On the story front, it comes off as an unimportant novela, but you do get to see more interactions between Chief and Johnson that flesh out their buddy cop dynamic.
This is the first “Halo” game to use Unreal Engine, though that’s mostly for graphics; the core of the game still uses old “Halo” code to preserve the feel of the games. The new graphics are solid and make the world of the first game look more detailed than ever. The beach from “The Silent Cartographer” looks especially good.
Another appreciated touch is that later levels show more examples of the Flood (zombie-like enemies) spreading their biomass through the environment. It makes their presentation feel more in line with later games, but their AI seems to be less aggressive for some reason.
It should also be noted that performances from characters like Cortana and Sergeant Johnson just don’t measure up to the original. The script is mostly the same so it all comes down to delivery. Cortana’s in particular comes off as overdramatic and lacks the sharpness the original recordings had.
While Halo Studios has done a decent job of preserving the original campaign while incorporating new weapons and other tweaks from later games, it also feels like more work was necessary. The back half of the game is notorious for feeling too repetitive. Levels like “The Library” have been changed to have more variety, but there’s only so much that can be done to cover that the last three missions are retreads of earlier levels.
It’s the main reason why this first campaign hasn’t aged as well as others. While the general gunplay is still good, it’s hard to look past the flawed level design. Nostalgia could cover that problem for older players, but I don’t see new players being so forgiving.
One great addition is four-player co-op across all platforms when the original was two players max. It goes a long way in making this a more enticing purchase for friend groups since the original competitive multiplayer is gone in this remake.
The hard pill to swallow here is that the original “Halo” campaign is more dated than some would like to admit. Halo Studios is playing it safe with this one, but it’s another symptom of a longtime problem. The series needs bold new ideas that will push the series forward instead of half-hearted attempts to recapture the glory days. A remake that took more risks could have been fantastic; this is just fine. “Halo Campaign Evolved” earns 3 stars out of 5.