Halo Campaign Evolved Preview: More of the same

Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary is looking pretty good right now... and I already own it.

Ahead of Halo Campaign Evolved‘s late July launch, Stevivor was given access to a hands-on preview in order to play through two of its missions — The Silent Cartographer and Assault on the Control Room — alongside a new feature called Campaign Remix.

Our takeaway? This is more of the same Halo that we’ve played time and time again — and already own on multiple platforms — albeit slightly prettier.

In case you’re not aware, Campaign Evolved is a remake of Halo Combat Evolved, the 2001 Xbox original. That title was remastered in a fantastic way via Halo Combat Evolved Annversary back in 2011, a title that allowed players the opportunity to switch back and forth between the original 2001 graphics and newly-crafted modern ones. Campaign Evolved removes multiplayer PvP offerings, though you can join up with one other in couch co-op or three others online, to play through the campaign, at the same time dropping old graphics in order to just pretty everything up.

The problem is, Campaign Evolved looks and plays like I remember Combat Evolved Anniversary looking and playing… and to that extent, to what I have of the original Combat Evolved in my mind’s eye. I know some modernisations improve sprinting and aiming, but I always scoped with the magnum anyway.

While Microsoft and Halo Studios confirmed that Campaign Evolved will offer three new missions set ahead of Halo Combat Evolved, all featuring the charismatic Sgt Johnson, we didn’t get to see those in this preview; instead, it was more of the same. The Silent Cartographer was trotted out yet again, though this time with the ability to play it in Campaign Remix mode.

As I say in my preview video above, Campaign Remix is Halo on steroids, mixing things up with skulls, new enemy placements, and new weapon placements. Mission structures remain the same, however; in The Silent Cartographer, you storm the beach, clear out enemies and wait for Foehammer to drop a Warthog, regardless of whether you’re playing the vanilla campaign or Campaign Remix.

I tried Campaign Remix twice on The Silent Cartographer, facing off against Flood and Sword Elites in once instance, and Sword Elites and Jackals the next. There’s fun to be had in everything seemingly being turned up to 11, but underneath it all, it’s still the same Halo Combat Evolved that I’ve played a bunch of times and already own. Does Campaign Remix justify spending $90 AUD for the base game, or worse yet, $119.95 AUD for five-day early access?

Frankly, no. I can dig out my Xbox 360 and play Anniversary, or use my Xbox Series S to play Master Chief Collection instead. And have access to PvP multiplayer.

I walked away from Campaign Evolved less than impressed; maybe offering access to The Library mission, newly massaged of widely criticised pain points, would have been the best foot to put forward here?

Our hands-on preview was capturable playing Xbox Series X or a PC only (and my capture was done on an ageing NVidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super on low settings, I state for the record). It looks great for what it is, price and previous availability notwithstanding. I did play on Xbox Series S too, not that I can show you any of that, and honestly thing it looked and ran better than on my PC; I’m not sure why Microsoft is so worried about hiding its performance there (especially running in performance mode, as we were told to).

And hell, if you’re curious as to how it performs on PS5, a newly released story trailer captured on PS5 Pro, above, helps to scratch that itch.

Nevertheless, Halo Campaign Evolved is available from 23 July on Windows PC via Steam, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, and PS5 if you’re willing to pay through the nose to beat FOMO, or on those same platforms and through Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass on 28 July if you have some patience.