Microsoft just announced Halo: Campaign Evolved, a remake of Halo: Combat Evolved. More than just a remaster, Halo: Campaign Evolved is brought to life through Unreal Engine 5 and will offer new missions, four-player missions, and more.
And for the first time ever, Halo will be released on the PlayStation platform. Halo: Campaign Evolved is expected to release in 2026 for Xbox Series X|S, PC through various storefronts, Xbox Cloud Gaming, Game Pass, and PlayStation 5. The Xbox brand has been releasing games on PlayStation for a while now, but seeing a confirmed, official announcement that the Halo franchise is coming to PlayStation is still absolutely mind-blowing.
Halo: Campaign Evolved will utilize Unreal Engine 5. Similar to Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Campaign Evolved will use the new visual engine (UE5) "on top of code and systems carried directly over from the original games." This remake will include new and updated animations, remastered music, and re-recorded voice lines.
There are three entirely new campaign missions coming with Campaign Evolved. Old missions will have some changes made to them, but specifics on all of those changes were not shared yet. Weapons and some vehicles from other Halo titles are being added to Halo: Campaign Evolved.
“Because this is a remake, we’ve been able to carefully rebuild almost every level and every encounter with more fidelity,” says Max Szlagor, Creative Director. “As we’re building the technology for this game, we’ve had to do it piece by piece, which included reevaluating all of the individual elements as we’re revisiting them in the original game.”
“And now the campaign supports up to four-player co-op, we had to think about how all of the original encounters and spaces can scale to accommodate that many players.”(...)
“We learned from Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary that there was still an appetite for things like better wayfinding, navigation, and diversity in enemy encounters,” Szlagor says. “In The Library specifically, which features several Flood encounters, we wanted to reevaluate the pacing and enhance the environmental storytelling. We’ve added new lines to Guilty Spark, which guide players through the level, and there’s new dialogue that gives more insight into the narrative as it plays out.”
“We’re not changing the stories, it’s about refining and adding context to this moment, and other levels like it, so players can stay on track.”
“And now the campaign supports up to four-player co-op, we had to think about how all of the original encounters and spaces can scale to accommodate that many players.”(...)
“We learned from Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary that there was still an appetite for things like better wayfinding, navigation, and diversity in enemy encounters,” Szlagor says. “In The Library specifically, which features several Flood encounters, we wanted to reevaluate the pacing and enhance the environmental storytelling. We’ve added new lines to Guilty Spark, which guide players through the level, and there’s new dialogue that gives more insight into the narrative as it plays out.”
“We’re not changing the stories, it’s about refining and adding context to this moment, and other levels like it, so players can stay on track.”
Players will also be able to pick up weapons dropped from enemies, hijack vehicles, and sprint.
“Some of the weapons we’re bringing in could be used against you in Halo: Combat Evolved by the enemy, but you weren’t able to pick them up yourself.” Szlagor says. “Now, you can, and it feels natural because of how you can do that in other Halo games, it reflects the evolution of the series.”
Players can also look forward to two firsts for the campaign — you can now hijack vehicles and even pilot the Covenant Wraith tank for the first time in Halo: Combat Evolved.
For challenge seekers, Halo Studios is also featuring the most Skulls ever in a Halo campaign, for even more ways to modify the campaign experience.
And perhaps most exciting, the team has added three brand-new prequel missions set before the events of the Halo: Combat Evolved campaign, which introduce entirely new environments, characters and enemies, which we’ll find out more about very soon.
Players can also look forward to two firsts for the campaign — you can now hijack vehicles and even pilot the Covenant Wraith tank for the first time in Halo: Combat Evolved.
For challenge seekers, Halo Studios is also featuring the most Skulls ever in a Halo campaign, for even more ways to modify the campaign experience.
And perhaps most exciting, the team has added three brand-new prequel missions set before the events of the Halo: Combat Evolved campaign, which introduce entirely new environments, characters and enemies, which we’ll find out more about very soon.
For those looking for even more gameplay footage from Campaign Evolved, here are 13 minutes from the campaign mission The Silent Cartographer.
