Halo: Campaign Evolved Review

Halo Studios rebuilt Combat Evolved in Unreal Engine 5 rather than remastering it, and the difference shows most in the places the 2001 version was weakest. The Library, twenty five years of punchline about copied corridors, has been redrawn with landmarks and a route you can actually read. Wayfinding is better everywhere, sprint is present and can be switched off, and the Warthog now seats four and can be hijacked.

Nine weapons from later games, the energy sword and battle rifle among them, sit alongside the original arsenal, and forty two skulls are there for anyone who wants the campaign harder or stranger. Operation Meteorite, three prequel missions set a year before the ring, is competent filler rather than a reason to buy.

The real omission is competitive multiplayer. The first Halo was a split screen phenomenon, and shipping the campaign alone, however good four player co-op with crossplay turns out to be, leaves a hole nothing in the package fills. The rendering is clean and a little anonymous, Unreal's house look rather than Bungie's. As the way to play this campaign it is now the default. As a Halo release it is half a game.