Halo: Campaign Evolved

Дата публикации: 27-07-2026 09:00:00

My story with Halo began even before the game had been released in Europe. I had a friend who was going to New York in 2001, and I asked him to bring back an Xbox and {Dead or Alive 3}. He was happy to do so, but only if he could also buy {Halo: Combat Evolved} and have a go at it. Sure, I was completely uninterested, but I agreed.
<bild>Master Chief is back in his original form, with voice actor Steve Downes contributing several new lines.</bild>
Dead or Alive 3 was certainly played a lot and was a top-class beat 'em up, but it was Master Chief's adventure that turned out to be the better game of the two. I realised just how curious people were about it when friends, online acquaintances, and even the local press got in touch to check out the legendary and brand-new (and as yet unreleased in Europe) Xbox, along with its killer app, {Halo: Combat Evolved}.
Although {Halo: Campaign Evolved} isn't the first remake of the game, it's by far the most lavish, and it arrives at a time when Master Chief feels a bit past his prime, just like the whole Xbox venture. Now that 343 Industries has become Halo Studios, the graphics engine is set to be replaced by Unreal Engine 5, and both the game series and the Xbox could do with a bit of a boost, it's the perfect time to return to the adventure that started it all: Halo: Combat Evolved.
<bild>It gets a bit chaotic at times, but the Halo series' wonderful gameplay loop is still going strong, and can be further customised with the more than 40 skins available to find.</bild>
This bundle includes the first adventure in a heavily remade form, as well as a new prequel campaign. What's not included, however, is multiplayer. The original offered split-screen action and even supported LAN gaming, features that are completely absent here.
For my part, I hesitated a little over what to try first, before deciding that, after all, it's the original game that appeals most. No sooner said than done, I returned to the Pillar of Autumn, which had just drawn the Covenant in its wake and discovered a strange ring-world in the middle of nowhere. For anyone familiar with Halo, it's exciting to see just how much has changed, and the sequence of events leading up to the ship's final crash onto the ring's surface has never been as dramatic as it is now.
<bild>Kicking the Covenant out of Ghosts is still just as much fun as it was back in 2004 when the feature was added to Halo 2, and it fits in perfectly here too.</bild>
Bungie's dead-serious storytelling has picked up the pace, and it also feels as though a lot is happening with a twinkle in the eye, not least thanks to Sergeant Major Avery Johnson (played by Keston John, who is taking over from David Scully). I'm a bit unsure what to make of this, but perhaps it's necessary to have a narrative that matches all the colourful monsters, not least the comic-relief-style Grunts.
Be that as it may, it still gives me goosebumps to step out onto the ring world and see the lush, paradisiacal landscape, only to be met by scouting Covenant forces on the hunt for survivors. Just like in the original, there's support for two-player split-screen co-op, as well as the option to play with up to four players online. The story really comes into its own when played solo, but with more players it's naturally more fun to fight your way through, and above all, to drive Warthogs with real people manning the machine gun.
<bild>You'll come across both enemies and weapons that weren't in the original.</bild>
Halo Studios has also retained several features from later instalments in the series, such as the ability to sprint and aim using the L-trigger, which, to be honest, feel very natural. I'm struck by the fact it feels like playing Halo as I remember it, not as it actually was. If I close my eyes, that's roughly how impressive the graphics felt and how innovative and polished the gameplay was. So I'm grateful that these features are there, but for those who wish, it's also possible to disable most of them using various skulls, and you can even customise where enemies, weapons, and other elements appear, which is a nice touch. Some parts of the levels have also been redesigned, in some cases quite significantly (not least "The Library"), which is, on the face of it, an improvement, although in certain places I suspect things have been scaled up to accommodate four players in co-op - something the original, as we know, never supported - and this makes them feel a bit empty when I'm playing on my own.
In short, it feels like Halo in all the right ways, and hearing Martin O'Donnell's and Michael Salvatore's compositions once again reminds me very clearly why I fell so in love with this universe in the first place. Halo: Combat Evolved was truly a masterpiece from start-to-finish, and that feeling has survived in this remake.
<bild>Master Chief comes across as consistently solid, but Sergeant Johnson is dangerously close to being a caricature.</bild>
Perhaps the single most important aspect of a remake, however, is the graphics. After all, that's how we can visually see something has changed since the last time. I've been alternating my play sessions with a bit of {Halo Infinite} to see just how much has changed since then, and with the switch to Unreal Engine 5. And... there's no doubt this is miles and miles more stunning. Some sections are absolutely striking, and the later parts of the game featuring The Flood are particularly impressive. In short, it seems the switch to a new graphics engine was absolutely the right move.
The new mini-campaign included is called Operation: Meteorite, and consists of three levels. The story follows Master Chief and Sergeant Johnson on a mission prior to the main campaign, set above the recently destroyed planet Promise. This makes for a rather fateful mission, but as mentioned, it features a bit more light-hearted banter than the original games offered. It does still offer frantic action and several really intense encounters, not least with the Brutes (whom we'd otherwise only have encountered later in the series) before everything culminates in a truly brilliant finale, which I won't spoil for you.
<bild>Ringworld is more captivating than ever before. Don't forget that it's also coming to PS5 and is included with Game Pass.</bild>
The fact that Halo Studios is capable of delivering something that feels so much like classic Halo bodes very well for the future. Apart from the obvious fact that multiplayer is missing, something that could have given the game much greater longevity and allowed us to recreate those glorious Blood Gulch battles on a split-screen, and the fact that the tone feels a bit more light-hearted and like an action pastiche rather than Bungie's tightly controlled universe, this is Halo as it should feel.
<video>
The enemies are iconic, the weapons feel consistently good, the vehicles in this game are still better than virtually anything else in the genre, the graphics are superb, and the adventure and variety are top-class. Experiencing "The Silent Cartographer" the way I remember the level, through rose-tinted retro glasses, almost brought a tear to my eye. In short, this is a game that's easy to recommend to Halo fans, but also to those of you who haven't yet had the chance to experience Master Chief's first, and perhaps still finest, moment.

Схожие новости

#	Наименование новости	Тональность	Информативность	Дата публикации
1	Halo Ready for PS5 Debut, Campaign Evolved Goes Gold	3	7	13-07-2026
2	Halo: Campaign Evolved really, really wants you to know you can get a physical disc even if you buy it on PS5	0	5	05-07-2026
3	Halo: Campaign Evolved получит переработанный ИИ и механику передачи оружия ...	5	7	03-07-2026
4	В Halo: Campaign Evolved нашли сразу два намека на ремейк ...	0	7.14	24-07-2026
5	Сейчас Campaign Evolved доступна на PS5, Xbox и ПК владельцам ...	0	9.77	24-07-2026
6	👀Лутаем эксклюзивную броню для Мастера Чифа в Halo: Combat Evolved ...	1	5.08	29-07-2026
7	PC gamers can now play Halo: Campaign Evolved in split-screen thanks to modder	0	15.1	29-07-2026
8	⚡Живые фото коллекционного издания Halo: Campaign Evolved уже в сети! ...	5	7	14-07-2026
9	Halo: Campaign Evolved ушла «на золото» Это ремейк оригинальной Halo, ...	0	5	14-07-2026
10	„Halo Campaign Evolved“ im Test: Früher war alles besser	0	7.84	24-07-2026

Классификация: . Схожих патентов: 0. Схожих новостей: 10. Тональность: 0. Информативность: 7.6. Источник: www.gamereactor.eu.