Halo: Campaign Evolved Review

343 Industries, or Halo Studios as they preferred to be called now, (though I can't really identify any discernible difference between the two studios besides some personnel shakeups that don't really affect their end-products or work culture much), has become seemingly accursed to never make a proper entry into the Halo franchise. While Halo 4 pushed some boundaries and created genuinely interesting directions for the story to embark upon, the sequel Halo 5: Guardians doubled-down on the worst aspects of its predecessor, ranging from the ugly Call of Duty emulating artstyle to the unnecessary emphasis on the boring Promethean robot enemies to the obsession of replicating Call of Duty games and scrubbing away the unique gunplay and identity Halo cultivated around itself. Then came Halo Infinite, which many were praying would become the breath of fresh air the franchise desperately needed. A light in this omnipresent Post-Bungie darkness. And for a short while, it really was. The campaign was Infinite's flagship achievement. An intriguing story against a Covenant-esque faction called the Banished, (whom are basically the same thing, except they fight for money and power rather than religious zeal), and introducing cool new antagonist characters that became fun boss battle for the Chief to fight against.

But even these victories were short-lived. The broken state of the Multiplayer on launch, combined with constant predatory microtransactions broke any nascent goodwill the game's audience had. The game promised as the foundation of Halo's next ten years would ultimately meet its grave only a measly four to five from its 2020 launch. The once mighty flagship of Xbox couldn't be in direr straits, and many were left wondering how 343 could possibly advance forward from this grievous loss. Well, they changed their name to Halo Studios to distance themselves from the abominable failures of yesteryear, promising to deliver on what the gamers and longtime enjoyers of Master Chief's epic adventures sought; a classical title true to the intentions and designs of Bungie's masterpieces. And what better way to create a new era of goodwill then by remaking a beloved classic, a centerpiece from that golden heyday of FPS glory? Halo: Combat Evolved, the title which began this entire journey all the way back in 2003.

To give the studio credence, this was a damned if you do damned if you don't type of situation. If they attempted Halo 7 with Infinite and 5's disasters still fresh in their consumers' minds, even the greatest title imaginable wouldn't be able to wash out the pre-existing suspicion. Opportunistic critics would likely make endless videos nitpicking at miniscule aspects of the game simply to galvanize clicks and digital clout, destroying its online reputation before it even had a chance to properly formulate. To remake a beloved classic that few could argue about regarding its importance to Halo and gaming as a whole was their best option; albeit only because they created such an unwinnable scenario for themselves.

And... well, Halo: Campaign Evolved is alright. Having played through both the Bonus Missions set a year before the Campaign chronologically and the campaign itself, I can safely say it's kilometers beyond anything 5 attempted and avoids the problems of Infinite, but only through actively omitting certain gamemodes and options entirely. What I mean is, Infinite's bad press was acquired primarily through 343's multiplayer malpractices. So this time... they axed multiplayer entirely. Campaign Evolved is purely a campaign experience, only alleviated by it also being co-op. Crazier is the fact there are STILL microtransactions in the form of optional skins that Master Chief can wear through his alien-killing odyssey, but since there's no multiplayer, you're only showing off that purchasable bling to unthinking NPCs and the few friends you're able to summon together for a cooperative playthrough. Not to mention the skins themselves are not that impressive, but that's mostly just a personal opinion.

The cutscenes are something else entirely, and I don't mean that in a good way. While the main campaign's are serviceable, (albeit several having awkward, elongated pauses for no reason other then to show us the upgraded graphical fidelity of character models, which is merely just my best guess), the bonus mission snippets are the closest we might get to videogame cutscenes being utilized as a torture method. One in specific, when the villain is introduced, is so bumbling, weightless, and sloppy that you have to wonder if it was quality-tested whatsoever. It's undoubtedly the worst cutscene in all of Halo, and I mean that wholeheartedly.

Speaking of the cutscenes, the characters speaking and interacting in them really don't feel like their authentic selves from the original CE. Cortana and Chief are mostly fine in the main campaign, but during the bonus missions, Master Chief, whose meant to be a mostly silent protagonist, appears to have become a chatterbox, speaking unnecessarily and responding to constant quips all the time when in prior titles, he'd merely give a one-word answer or ignore the jabs made by fellow UNSC soldiers outright. Captain Keyes looks very similar to Ronald Reagan as the internet has hilariously pointed out, and Sergeant Johnson is just... it feels more like a skinwalker inhabited the real Johnson's body and tried emulating his voice from memory best it could. They should've just reused the old voice actor's lines for the main campaign and not included him in the bonus missions, because by God do some of his lines sound uncanny. It's like some five year old kid trying to sound cool by pretending he's Sergeant Johnson!

Well, as for the gameplay itself... it's pretty fun, I cannot lie. I enjoy the hitmarkers because it fulfills my dopamine sensations, the weapons are pretty fun to handle, and I cannot really cite any genuine complaints about the flow of the game's combat. While I've heard online that more seasoned Halo veterans than I are noticing issues with the enemy AI or particulars with their movement, I am once again merely a humble plebian making my way through the universe, and so cannot really give credence or argument on either side of that debacle. For me, the game felt smooth and every kill felt earned, and there were numerous points in every mission where I fought through crowds of enemies and felt like a scythe carving through wheat, truly embodying the 'Demon' term the Covenant has ascribed to Petty Officer 117.

So overall, if you're looking for some time to kill and don't mind obvious quality reductions, you can play Campaign Evolved, I guess. Or just play the original title, which is honestly what I recommend more. Anyways, you all have a good one, more posts coming soon, and God Bless.