Halo: Campaign Evolved review: Specs
Platforms: PC, PS5 (reviewed), Xbox Series S|X
Price: $49 / £44 / AU$74
Release Date: 28 July, 2026
Genre: First-person shooter
Halo: Campaign Evolved is a groundbreaking entry into the Halo franchise. Not because it’s anything particularly special, but because it’s the very first time a Halo game has been available on PlayStation. Since I’ve been playing Halo games on Xbox since 2002, I expected this to be a fairly surreal experience — but this wasn’t actually the case.
Halo fits right at home on the PS5, and jumping into Campaign Evolved was a remarkably familiar experience. It just so happened that I was using a DualSense controller this time around.
The game itself is generally fine, though long-time fans will recognize the many changes and alterations Halo Studios has made to the campaign. These range from incredibly effective, modernizing the 25-year-old game for new audiences, to seemingly random alterations that feel unnecessary and awkward.
Still, Halo Campaign Evolved manages to recreate the first Halo game in stunning detail, and in a way that should appeal to existing fans of the franchise and newcomers alike. Just as long as you don’t expect to enjoy Halo’s famous competitive multiplayer because, for some reason, that has been completely skipped over for this re-release.
Halo Campaign Evolved: The Basics
- What is it? A remake of 2001’s Halo: Combat Evolved rebuilt from the ground up
- Who is it for? Nostalgic Halo fans who miss the Bungie-led days of the franchise and new gamers who didn’t have a chance to play the original game (or the 2012 remaster)
- What’s the price? $49 for the standard edition (digital and on disc), $69 for the Digital Premium Edition, $199 for the Collector’s Edition (sold out)
- What other games has the developer made? Every Halo game since 2011, including Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, the Master Chief Collection and Halo 4 through Infinite
- What games is it similar to? Other Halo games and modern sci-fi first-person shooters.
Modern releases require modern mechanics
Halo may have been an iconic game that changed the first-person shooter in ways that are still felt today, but there’s no denying it still feels somewhat dated in comparison to modern titles. It’s unlikely that a one-to-one remake of the 2001 game would have gone down very well with anyone who never played it. And not just because we already got that 15 years ago with the Combat Evolved Anniversary.
So things have changed to make Campaign Evolved look and feel more like a
much newer game than its source material. That includes mainstream FPS mechanics like a sprint button, alongside features and weapons that appeared in subsequent Halo games.
Weapons like the Energy Sword and Fuel Rod Gun, which were absent from the original Xbox version of Halo, have been added — as has the previously-unusable Wraith tank. However, this still comes with some drawbacks of older games, such as being unable to use the tank’s cannon and turret simultaneously.
Skulls and terminals make an appearance too. 13 terminals with snippets of lore can be found throughout the campaign, while 39 of the 42 collectible skulls are hidden throughout Campaign Evolved’s 13 levels — each unlocking a new and unique game modifier for future playthroughs. The other three are automatically unlocked with the Campaign Redux mode, which is available after discovering your third skull.
Enhancing the campaign
Campaign Evolved has made some changes to the campaign that I don’t agree with, but these are mostly harmless and inconsequential. It is worth noting that the second half of the game has undergone a complete tonal shift, and the game is all the better for it.
One of the things I liked most was that the original game’s repetitive level design is gone. Two Betrayals and Keyes no longer feel like rehashes of previous levels, and that helps them to stand on their own. But part of that change stems from the fact that the second half of the campaign really leans into the story’s horror aspect.
Halo 1 did attempt this, but in 2001 the options to do so were limited, and while the debut of the Flood made the game creepy and more disturbing, Campaign Evolved takes it all to a whole new level. Borrowing a few cues from Halo 3, the game really emphasizes just how much of an impact the Flood are having on the Halo ring itself. They’re not just another faction to shoot through; you can feel them slowly taking over as you progress.
More to the point, the Flood themselves are actually a lot more menacing, even on lower difficulties. Not only can infection forms swarm, but they can also do some serious damage if you’re not paying attention. The sheer number of infected enemies makes traversing later levels genuinely scary — particularly if you find yourself cornered and low on grenades.
A major graphics overhaul
Halo’s graphics have aged, and the less said about the anniversary edition’s questionable choices, the better. With that in mind, it’s great to see that Campaign Evolved has been given a major glow-up, and the graphics look pretty incredible — even for those of you with a launch-edition PS5 instead of the PS5 Pro.
The cutscenes are easily an exception to this, and at times the character models can look a little uncanny. Cortana is particularly noteworthy here, because the holographic AI has undergone yet another redesign, roughly the ninth time she’s changed her look throughout Halo’s history.
Sadly, performance can be a little choppy at times, notably during larger areas with increased enemy activity. We’re talking serious drops in frame rate, to the point where you can see the character models blinking across the screen. Switching out of Performance mode and into Graphics mode did help, though this comes with the caveat of reduced frame rates across the board.
The bulk of playtime in Halo Campaign Evolved will be playing through the campaign itself, but Halo Studios has done players a solid by adding three bonus missions to throw something new into the mix. Serving as a prequel, these missions feature Master Chief and Sgt Johnson on a mission to assault a Covenant ship.
While nothing to write home about, and with dubious links to the existing Halo canon, these missions are a nice extra for Halo fans. Not only do they include weapons and enemies that weren’t present in the original campaign, but they also give players an insight into the wider Halo universe — before Halo, and even before the fall of Reach.
I’m not sure whether newcomers will appreciate them as much, so I’d suggest waiting until after you finished the 10-level main campaign before giving these missions a try.
Losing part of what made Halo so iconic
As much as I’ve been a fan of Halo’s lore and story over the years, it doesn’t change the fact that skipping out on competitive multiplayer was a bizarre choice. Halo’s campaign is great, but the multiplayer is what made it the success it became — even before the days of Xbox Live and Halo 2’s online multiplayer.
Halo Studios said it aimed to make Campaign Evolved stand alone, and not try to replace “what is a masterpiece in the original.” Local and online co-op is available, but it doesn’t change the fact that no competitive multiplayer is a big loss for the remake — especially for PS5 gamers who can’t play older instalments.
There are lots of other things that detract from what made Halo great, including some personal pet peeves in the level design. However, my biggest gripe is that the Warthog controls have been completely butchered, and it makes what was one of the biggest joys of Halo 1 into a stressful chore. Frankly, the driving in GTA 4 was better than this, and I have no love for that game’s driving missions.
Those who have played the original know that the jeep plays a major role in the game’s climax, and I had been dreading it for the entire playthrough. My fears were not unfounded, and what should have been a fitting ending to the remake turned into something I never want to experience again — especially on higher difficulties.
Halo Campaign Evolved review: Verdict
Halo Campaign Evolved is a perfectly capable remake of the original Halo game, befitting of the Xbox classic’s 25th anniversary. It’s not really a game anyone needed, but given the dire straits the Halo franchise has been stuck in recently, it makes sense that Halo Studios would want to go for a soft reset and return to the game that kicked off the whole franchise. It’s also rather appropriate that the first Halo game released on a PlayStation revisits that point.
There are things I don’t like about Halo Campaign Evolved, particularly in the way various aspects of the gameplay have been changed for seemingly no reason. It’s almost as though they took a lot of inspiration from George Lucas’s constant tinkering with the original “Star Wars” trilogy. But that isn’t to say that this is a bad game, and whether you’re a long-time Halo fan or a total newcomer, there’s something for you to enjoy here. Even if it isn’t really the must-have game of the year.