Halo Campaign Evolved has been announced by Halo Studios (Formerly 343 Industries). The game from 2001 that started it all, and arguably propelled the Xbox into the console race, is taking its first steps onto “enemy territory” — The PlayStation 5. This re-make/re-master is an opportunity for Halo Studios to win back a lot of the fans that have been disaffected by Halo Infinite. Just as Halo CE is molting into a new and fresh Halo Campaign Evolved, Halo Studios is looking to shed the scent of their 343 Industries husk. But that is a larger topic for another time. Today, I want to highlight some of the indicators that this WILL be worth the time for long-time fans.

The worst kept secret was unveiled to the world on October 24, 2025. Halo Campaign Evolved was indeed real, and it was indeed headed to PlayStation 5! Reactions were initially positive with the exception of some naysayers that claim that this is evidence of Xbox becoming a 3rd party company. That is a fair and ongoing debate that will not be settled any time soon. The more pertinent question on my mind was, “is this really necessary?” Halo CE was already remastered back in 2011 as an Anniversary Edition. But this time the thing that really drew my attention were the rumored changes/additions. Word on the street was that the campaign was being remade for a “modern audience”, which is often considered as a death sentence for IP. Thankfully, it appears that the upcoming game will have a far more positive and meaningful artistic renovation. So let’s look deeper into what they appear to be.

Quoting from the official announcement from Danielle Partis - Xbox Wire:

“Halo: Campaign Evolved is a modern evolution of that iconic story, thoughtfully brought to life in Unreal Engine 5 with stunning new 4K visuals, updated animations, remastered music, and re-recorded voice lines. Halo Studios is also bringing in a roster of beloved weapons and vehicles from later Halo titles, and adding three new bonus campaign missions, all designed to expand and celebrate the adventure that started it all.”

Beginning with that first point, the graphics. Alongside this announcement was a thirteen-minute gameplay video of the campaign mission The Silent Cartographer. Any fan of the first game will surely crack a smile at the many sound bites and memorable encounters while watching. The visuals and the animations are all up to par with what you can expect from an Unreal Engine 5 product. Whether that is a dreaded prospect is going to be up to the individual, but if you ask me, the changes in lighting systems alone caused me to sit upright and pay attention. With the range of environmental lighting conditions and the multitude of plasma colors and firearm flashes, it can’t be stressed enough that this may be the most gorgeous rendition of the Master Chief to date. Playing through Halo this time might actually match our childhood memories of our first adventure with him back in the better years of the early 2000s.

The second item listed and the second nostalgia trigger for old fans like myself is the audio: “Remastered music” sounds pretty safe. In the 20+ years since Halo CE audio tech and programming has progressed and improved drastically. Although I have no technical knowledge of that myself, I can recognize that there may be room to improve on the original sound design now that a generation of players have discussed and agreed on their favorite moments. There are also new elements in this campaign, but we will get to that shortly. “Re-recorded voice lines” is great news.

The strongest part of the second nostalgia trigger previously mentioned, is the memorable voice lines and deliveries. It is very good to see that this project will utilize the legendary talents of Steve Downes (Master Chief) and Jen Taylor (Cortana), Avery Scully (Sgt. Johnson) and Pete Stacker (Captain Keyes). These voices, along with Tawnya Pettiford-Wates (Foehammer) are integral to the saga. Each line strikes a fond memory for the players who grew up with the original. Especially Foehammer’s tank drop: “You know us. We deliver!”

Finally, we come to the last element of the quote from Xbox Wire, the additions:“ Bringing in a roster of beloved weapons and vehicles from later Halo titles” is a very logical choice. These are to include things like the energy sword that we likely all remember from The Silent Cartographer. Also mentioned somewhere was the needle rifle and the Covenant Wraiths that were previously not usable. Small tweaks have been made, as there is now a fourth spot on the Warthog for another teammate. We will return to this point again. Along with the new vehicles is the ability to hi-jack enemies in combat. This was never included in the original Halo CE or Halo Anniversary Edition.

The biggest addition is stated to be “three new bonus campaign missions, all designed to expand and celebrate the adventure that started it all.” These are supposed to be prelude missions and as fans of the series will know, there was thus far no reason to think anything relevant to the MasterChief saga happened between Halo Reach and Halo CE. A roundtable discussion of a few of the developers quickly mentioned that these will offer opportunities to expand on the Chief and Sgt. Johnson’s friendship, among other story bits. In my opinion, this is a risk that the developers did not need to take, and the inclusion of this potentially badly received content indicates a good level of confidence.

Touching back on that point about the Warthog: Halo Studios has apparently learned their lesson from the launch of Halo Infinite. That is to say that there will be two-player split-screen co-op available from day one, as well as up to four-player co-op online. Online co-op can be done across platforms, meaning that Series X|S, XB on PC, Steam and PS5 players can all get together regardless of hardware.

It is a shame that Nintendo Switch 2 isn’t among these, but that is a much harder frontier to breach. What is worth noting, and perhaps my only cause for concern, is that the developers present in the roundtable discussion said that they have been expanding and tweaking the environments of the campaign to accommodate the potential four-player co-op dynamic. Although this makes sense from a difficulty balance point of view, it is precarious to tweak any aspect of this beloved classic. Further to that, it will be interesting to see what sort of shenanigans I will be able to get up to this time around with hi-jacking and different vehicles to exploit, like skipping The Control Room all over again.

As stated in the intro, this is the opportunity that Halo Studios needs to turn the page on their past and begin a new chapter of their eponymous game series. Halo is Xbox’s original flagship IP. The Master Chief is iconic to say the least. His next step into a new universe may very well be an existential endeavor. Emerging from a nostalgic ripple in time, Demon, Master Chief, Spartan 117, John Halo, The Reclaimer is back. (In 2026)

Let us know what you think of Halo's next adventure below.