I’m not sure what was more shocking: Realizing Halo: Combat Evolved will be turning 25 this November, or coming to the conclusion that Microsoft’s Unreal Engine 5 remake Halo: Campaign Evolved is irritatingly good in the most predictable, mundane fashion possible.

Campaign Evolved had my nostalgic attention from the moment I saw it shown at one of the recent Xbox showcases. Developer Halo Studios was promising a return to the big ring in the sky, and this fresh revision would be vastly improved beyond 2011’s Xbox 360 remaster, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary .

Better visuals, better (and re-recorded) dialogue, remastered music, revamped controls, retooled maps and missions and vehicles—the whole graphical, gameplay and quality-of-life gamut, if you will. Plus, there would be three new prequel missions included with the retold campaign, following Master Chief and Sgt. Johnson as they infiltrate a Covenant research ship one year before the events of the first Halo adventure.

Well and good, because the gamer populace has generally played the original Halo to absolute death at this point, and it’s arguably one of the enduring classics of modern gaming, so it definitely deserves a new coat of paint. And this new coat of paint turns the Halo we all know and love into a proper modern experience fit for newcomers and returning players alike, even original Xbox purists. Although it’s that latter group who might take the most issue with it, I’d wager.

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Graphically, Campaign Evolved is stunning to behold, unless you’re playing it on a handheld like the Steam Deck or Xbox Ally, apparently . And I didn’t go that route; I played through the entire campaign on a PC outfitted with an RTX 5090 and 32GB of RAM, in 4K and at a blazing 240fps, with every setting turned up to Ultra. That said, I’m not sure how it runs on console, but on a high-end PC, the game is sharp, snappy and compulsively playable. Cutscenes can sometimes stutter, however, and I’m not sure what’s going on with that. They’re also a bit low-quality, if I’m being totally honest.

Textures look shiny enough to touch, and assets are upgraded and polished. Additionally, the sprawling alien environments present just as good as you remember them from back in 2001. But also… not exactly, because if you reference Halo: CE Anniversary (which allows you to toggle between Halo 2001 and the 360 remaster on the fly) you’ll see just how rudimentary even Anniversary’s graphics are compared to those in Campaign Evolved . And if you play CE again, you’ll immediately notice its glaring lack of sprinting, perhaps the best addition to Campaign Evolved .

Older versions of Halo now feel downright sluggish, almost impossibly slow to control, because you can literally run through this new remake. The aforementioned purists will take issue with this, no doubt, but you can always ignore this added option and traverse normally. The insane wacky Halo physics do remain, reliably proving both funny and frustrating.

Also updated is the button layout, which is much appreciated (no more awkward reloading and vehicle boarding via the right front bumper, thank God), in addition to giving the Warthog traditional car controls, if that’s your preference. I was hoping for updated flight controls in this regard, but no dice. Health packs have been removed, too, in favor of the expected shield recharge status quo.

Overall, Campaign Evolved (thankfully) plays a lot like the later, more refined Halo entries. It also adds various weapons from those titles. You can even hijack Covenant vehicles, and it’s fun zipping around in a Ghost or causing aerial mayhem with a Banshee. That said, at its core, this is very much still Halo from 2001.

It still absolutely feels like an old game, even if it’s a lot prettier now and the inputs are more common sense. Levels come across as vast but empty, architecturally interesting but lacking vitality, extensive but same-y. Even notoriously boring maps like the reconfigured Library still seem frustratingly held back by a pervasive monotony. I found myself wishing Halo Studios had gone back and added some of the content cut from 2001’s Halo , like ambient wildlife and the ridable blind wolves, just so the game wouldn’t feel so damn lonely. That’s early 2000s game design, for better and for worse.

Speaking of cut content, Halo: CE’s excellent competitive, LAN-party multiplayer didn’t make the jump to Campaign Evolved , which is a real shame. You can play through the campaign with three other people over the online network, and there’s two-player split-screen co-op for the console ports, which is great. But man, what a disappointment that we can’t battle it out across Blood Gulch or Battle Creek, just like the old days.

The campaign itself does indeed stand the test of time, though. Marty O’Donnell’s remastered soundtrack still shines and cinematically propels the whole game forward, and I’ll argue it’s perhaps what actually makes Halo , well, Halo . The story is compelling as ever and a reminder that Xbox stumbled onto some real magic back in 2001. And I had a blast gunning my way through all the missions again, culminating in the classic Warthog escape. It never loses its luster!

That said, despite how well-made Halo: Campaign Evolved is, I felt rather underwhelmed as the credits rolled. I’m torn: The new controls are fantastic, the new visuals bring a retro masterpiece into 2026 with style and class, and I even like the other add-ons, like how you can customize the look of Master Chief and his weapons. I, of course, went with the purposely low-poly assault rifle.

But… the prequel missions are somewhat forgettable, minus the exciting flying bits, and they really only made me want a brand new Halo game. Add to that the lack of classic multiplayer, a feature that made the original Halo endlessly repayable, and you’ve got a remake that’s somehow missing something special.

Ultimately, the work here is solid, and the campaign is very much worth diving back into, or playing for the first time. I think it’s appropriately priced at $49.99, and if you’re a Game Pass Ultimate Subscriber, you can play it day one there, on July 28 (if you didn’t pay for early access, that is). I’m sure lots of people will be buying it on PS5 simply for the console war novelty alone.

In the end, Campaign Evolved is a predictably good time, only not the great time I was truly hoping for. That won’t stop me from tracking down all those hidden skulls, though.

Platform: PC (Reviewed), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S

Publisher: Xbox Game Studios

Disclosure: Xbox provided an early review code for coverage purposes.