May 2022 (Page 107)

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Halo: Campaign Evolved – Release Window, PS5 Debut, Trailer, Gameplay Changes, And Everything Else We Know

In: Gaming, News

The next entry in the Halo series has been announced, and it’s another remake of the original game that was released back in 2001. Halo: Campaign Evolved, a campaign-only remake of the original highly acclaimed sci-fi FPS, is set for release in 2026–and not just on Xbox this time. There is a lot to know about the new remake, so read on to catch up with all the important news so far.

When will Halo: Campaign Evolved be released?

Halo: Campaign Evolved is set for release in 2026, but a more specific release date has not yet been announced. 2025 marks the 25th anniversary of the Halo franchise, so it’s a special year.

Preorder Halo: Campaign Evolved

Preorders for Halo: Campaign Evolved are not available right now, nor has Microsoft announced a price point for the game. Keep checking back with GameSpot for more on this.

Halo: Campaign Evolved trailer

The first trailer for Halo: Campaign Evolved debuted at the Halo World Championships in October 2025, showing off a first glimpse at the game’s updated visuals and mechanics. You can check out the announcement trailer below, along with another video that shows a side-by-side comparison against the original and highlights just how far things have come.

Halo: Campaign Evolved platforms

Halo: Campaign Evolved will be available on Xbox Series X|S and PC, but that’s not all. Microsoft is bringing the game to PlayStation for the first time, and fans on Sony’s system don’t have to wait. Halo: Campaign Evolved will debut day and date on PS5 with the other versions in 2026. There were rumors and rumbling of Halo on Switch 2, but Microsoft has not yet made any announcements about that.

Game Pass

Like all of Microsoft’s other first-party games, Halo: Campaign Evolved will launch into Xbox Game Pass.

New guns and prequel missions

There are nine new weapons coming to the Halo: CE remake, including the energy sword, which was equipped by enemies in the original version but couldn’t be used by the player. As for the new missions, these are prequel missions featuring Master Chief and Sgt. Johnson in a “brand-new arc” that takes place before the events of the story you already know.

Another significant update is that players can hijack enemy vehicles and drive the Wraith–this was not possible in the original version of the game, and was introduced in Halo 2.

Players can also look forward to a “campaign remix” feature that allows players to take on any missions they want with a series of modifiers, or Skulls, to alter the experience with things like random weapons and enemies.

On the social side, the Halo: CE remake includes two-player split-screen co-op on console (not available on PC) or four-player online co-op. There is cross-play support and shared progressions between console and PC.

A glimpse at Halo: Campaign Evolved’s new visuals.

Sprint

In what may be a controversial change, the Halo: CE remake includes sprinting, which is something the early Halo games did not have. The lack of sprint is a defining feature of the older Halo games and something that players feel fondly for. Others, however, may be excited about sprinting and bringing the game up to modern standards. Sprint can be disabled if players want to do that.

“Reborn” visuals

Halo Studios is promising a suite of updates and upgrades to the classic game. The company claims “every asset” from the original was improved upon for the remake.

“Battle through the original missions, newly rebuilt with enhanced level design, updated cinematics, and improved wayfinding, refined to keep the pace moving without losing the wonder, tension, or heroism of the original,” reads a line from the game’s description.

Halo Studios promises that the game’s environments have been “reborn with all-new visuals, cinematics, and animations.” The soundtrack, too, has been remastered, with Halo Studios promising “greater immersion.” The primary cast, presumably including Steve Downes (Master Chief) and Jen Taylor (Cortana) is back, and they recorded new lines for the remake.

Unreal Engine 5

After building Halo: Infinite with a proprietary engine called Slipspace, the developers at Halo Studios shifted to Unreal Engine 5 for future Halo titles, including Halo: Campaign Evolved. This was largely seen as a positive, as the old engine had legacy code that was said to have added more complexity for developers. Switching to Unreal Engine 5 was also seen as a positive for recruitment, as Epic’s engine is one of the most widely used in the video game industry.

Not everyone likes the changes

While Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto is a big believer in the Halo: Campaign Evolved package and said the game warms his heart, another original developer has some reservations. Jaime Griesemer blasted some of the changes.

Griesemer lamented the trailer’s sequence where the Warthog vehicle moved past obstacles that were placed in its path to prevent players from being able “to steamroll the Hunters.” “When you can just smash the crates out of the way it wrecks the encounters,” Griesemer said. “But the worst part? They put trees in the landing area of the WooHoo Jump. Lame.”

AI?

Microsoft is investing heavily in artificial intelligence technologies and systems, so many wondered if the company used AI or generative AI on Halo: Campaign Evolved. The company has neither confirmed nor denied this, but said its staffers were not required to use genAI for Halo: Campaign Evolved.

“There is no mandate to use generative AI in our game development, and that includes Halo: Campaign Evolved,” Microsoft said.

Executive producer Damon Conn and Game director Greg Hermann spoke about the development of Halo: Campaign Evolved. When asked whether Halo Studios used AI in any capacity, whether that be retouching assets or rebuilding environments, Conn explained that AI can streamline workflows, but people create the games.

“I want to be very clear … People are creative. People make games. AI can improve workflows. It can do things for the game,” Conn said. “But I want to be very specific and clear that the people are the ones who are creating the game, and there’s an opportunity to improve a workflow, or something along those lines, we’ll look at it again. It really should be additive to the creation of a game.”

Hermann echoed Conn’s sentiment, saying that, like other tools developers use when making games–such as Photoshop or Unity–AI is simply the same thing. It’s the brush that helps the artist paint. It can aid in the execution, but it’s people who hold the creative spark.

“It’s a tool in a toolbox,” Hermann said. “I may go a little off message here, but some of that gets very challenging when we look at how integrated AI is becoming within our tooling. We use Photoshop. There’s generative fill, for example. The boundary lines can get a little fuzzy. I will say, though, again, to Damon’s point, it really is about that creative spark that comes from people and improving just overall workflows.”

No multiplayer

As stated, Halo: Campaign Evolved has no multiplayer support beyond the online and local co-op for the campaign. There is no head-to-head multiplayer. If players want that, they can boot up Halo: The Master Chief Collection, which includes multiplayer support for a range of titles, including Halo: Combat Evolved. The game is not available on PlayStation, however.

Not the first remake and maybe not the last

Microsoft released a remake of Halo: Combat Evolved back in 2011 Xbox 360 via Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. The game featured updated graphics and online multiplayer support for head-to-head matches, while it also gave players the ability to toggle between old and new graphics with the press of a button.

The game is included with Halo: The Master Chief Collection, a compilation package featuring six Halo games. In addition to the anniversary edition of the first Halo game, the package includes Halo 2: Anniversary as well, with campaign and multiplayer support.

According to a leaker, Halo 2 and Halo 3 are also set to receive campaign-only remakes sometime in the future.

Not the only new Halo game

In addition to Halo: Campaign Evolved, Microsoft is rumored to be working on a new live-service Halo game. Microsoft previously that it had multiple new Halo games in the works, so it may just be a matter of time before Microsoft officially announces the next game to follow Halo: Infinite. That game, released in 2021, was not the success that Microsoft envisioned, and developer Halo Studios underwent a major reorganization after it released.