[h1]To sum up how I feel about this game in two words, it would be that Halo: Campaign Evolved is faithfully unfaithful.[/h1]
[h2]Short review:[/h2]
What I mean by faithfully unfaithful is that Halo Studios has taken the liberty to change certain aspects of the game to the benefit of the player's experience. The game is not even close to a 1:1 remake of the original, but it feels like the natural next step in the evolution of what Halo's gameplay should be like. Visually, Halo: Campaign Evolved is a stunning game. The combat feels like something out of an original Halo title but modernized. The enemies and their AI are some of the best iterations I have seen from the franchise, drawing from the other game's cast and their behaviors to create more interesting enemies. A lot is different from the source material, but I think it is for the benefit of the quality of this game as well as the future of the franchise itself.
[h2]Below is the more in-depth review:[/h2]
[h3]Graphics[/h3]
Personally, I'm not one to care for good graphics much, I'm a Halo fan for crying out loud! That being said, Campaign Evolved is a visually stunning game. The ring feels alive and vibrant while Master Chief is doing his thing, but also feels dead and dreary when it needs to. Of course, the drawback to good graphics is that you need a good computer to boot. Thankfully this game runs on the Xbox pretty well and doesn't require a NASA computer from what I've heard from others. Anyways, I think the graphics are where the devs made the most changes as compared to the original game, as a lot of the visual changes also bled into gameplay, map design, and visual feedback to the player. Almost all of the changes are also pulled of exceptionally well and improve the game. Most of the visual changes that the fanbase are not liking are debatably nitpicky, such as the shade turret's design being much closer to it's own future designs and Cortana looking the way she does. The cutscenes are very well done too, and are both pleasing from a visual standpoint and from the standpoint of just watching them like a movie. To top it off, if you don't like a change to something like the hud, you can customize just about any part of it.
[h3]Performance[/h3]
As stated, the game does require either a new generation of Xbox console or a solid PC. That being said, if you meet either the minimum or the recommended, you will be running the game completely fine. my specs are attached to the review, and my game was running completely fine, never dipping below the 70-80 frames per second range. Interestingly, other users with a similar level of hardware to what I have are experiencing issues with the game's performance and are even crashing, but that may be a separate hardware issue causing that. Do keep in mind to update certain aspects of your build, such as your graphics drivers.
[h3]Glitches[/h3]
The few glitches I experienced in the game were, at the very worst, minor inconveniences. The worst one I encountered myself was that certain settings like to toggle to default when the game is closed. Neither me or my friends have experienced a single crash yet. Other bugs in the game honestly fall in line with some of the glitches featured in other Halo titles, such as the ever-comedic corpses freaking out a bit or a physics glitch. The game is honestly pretty well put together, so congrats to Halo Studios on that one.
[h3]Weapons[/h3]
The pre-existing weapons function in their respective roles just about the same as compared to their original weapon roles within Halo: Combat Evolved, and the new weapons only add onto the weapon sandbox laid out by the original game. When shot, enemies stagger naturally and visually react to each bullet, making combat very engaging. Ammo has been made less scarce and weapon pickups are much more plentiful now that there are more opportunities for weapons to appear in a level. Certain weapon abilities, such as the plasma pistol's EMP and the rocket launcher's lock on have been backported from the future games, and add into the game's mechanical depth and overall balancing. Most of, if not all, weapons are viable to use in combat. Weapons are actually fun to use! Overall, the weapon play is pretty good in Campaign Evolved.
[h3]Enemies & Allies (spoilers below, remove the censorship at your own risk)[/h3]
Halo: Campaign Evolved has some of the smartest and most entertaining AI to fight in the series. Familiar behaviors are carried back from many of the games and benefit the overall combat loop of Campaign Evolved greatly. Elites retreat when harmed, jackals group up to create defensive walls, and grunts kamikaze in a blaze of glory. There are so many behaviors put into place that it would take forever to list them all off, but they all make the game so much more fun and add a lot of depth to the combat loop. Allies have seen a glow up too when it comes to what they can do. They are much, much smarter as compared to other Halo titles, and it seems that Halo Studios has really taken the time to learn from the lackluster AI of Halo Infinite's marines and used that knowledge to create a much, much more fun ally to fight alongside us down on the ring. [spoiler]The Flood and their respective missions have received almost universally good changes. Their numbers are much greater than in the original game since modern hardware can support more enemies. Tank pure forms have been added to the roster to add more variety and act very similarly to their Halo 3 counterparts. The same goes for most of the flood roster, with infection forms able to reanimate corpses and combat forms acting as they do in Halo 3 as well. They visually are much more disgusting, and their fleshy biomass can be seen everywhere they infest. The entire faction is just better in about every way.[/spoiler]
[h3]Mission (re)designs[/h3]
Many Halo: Combat Evolved missions ended up just being repetitive drags, such as T&R and the Library. Thankfully, multiple missions were given significant redesigns that either made the missions shorter, such as T&R , or completely different in the first place, such as the Library. Other changes include visual changes, such as new foliage, different design directions for rooms, or entirely new coats of paint to change the atmosphere of a level. [spoiler] Guilty Spark saw the most atmospheric redesigns, all of which I think improved the level and the unsettling atmosphere it is trying to create for the upcoming Flood reveal.[/spoiler] I think that some of the prequel missions added had a bit of a problem with being too repetitive, but there are still many good ideas implemented within the three missions that make them fun to play anyways.
[h3]What to take away from this game[/h3]
Halo: Campaign Evolved is an excellent Halo title and one of the best games to come from the franchise in a very long time. Every time Halo Studios releases another game, they get closer to the original Halo formula that the community fell in love with all those years ago. If you like Halo games, and I mean any of them, feel free to try this game out. A lot of people are very doom and gloom about it, but I think this game is worth both the time and money it asks for.
