Morgan Park
Halo: Combat Evolved came out when I was five years old, so I guess that means I’ve been playing Halo since before I could spell. My parents were otherwise very responsible, I assure you.
A big new chunk of the upcoming Halo: CE remake dropped online yesterday, and everyone is being normal about it. I actually mean that for the most part—there’s a lot of excitement around the Unreal Engine 5-powered do-over, which will serve as a test run for Microsoft’s next phase of Halo.
For some, including myself, Halo: Campaign Evolved (a funny title that says upfront they’re only recreating one half of the game) comes across as superfluous. The original holds up tremendously well today and is readily available through the Master Chief Collection, so its remake will have to dramatically improve on that game to make a real mark. I wouldn’t want that task.
I’m going into Campaign Evolved with an open mind—expecting different, but not necessarily better. Halo Studios’ official playthrough of mission five, Assault on the Control Room, is so far confirming that impression. I watched the 28-minute video in full and then played the original mission through the MCC to refresh my memory. What follows are some notable differences and observations:
Cortana is more helpful, and waypoints are everywhere
Watch On
“These lights seem to be responding to our proximity and guiding us to the exit,” a new Cortana voice line says as Chief enters the first of many hexagonal control rooms. It could be a little confusing to find your way around these rooms in the originals, but l always found the flashing white arrows on the ground pointing forward to be sufficient visual guidance. Now, Cortana barks that tip into your ear so you can’t possibly miss it.
Not that you actually need to look for arrows on the ground when Campaign Evolved has added HUD waypoints that are visible at all times. This is one of several ways that Halo Studios’ is applying a modern hand-holdy lens to Combat Evolved.
So bright, so very bright
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This was already clear from the Silent Cartographer playthrough from last year, but Halo Studios isn’t just making higher definition sand and snow—it’s fundamentally changing Halo’s visual identity in many situations.
That’s definitely the case as Master Chief emerges onto the bridge above the snowy valley. As you can see in the comparison above, it’s really bright out here! So bright that the weather doesn’t appear all that “inclement,” as Cortana notes. It looks nice in a vacuum, but I think the OG’s dreary palette feels more intentional. When Unreal Engine 5 is involved, the sun always seems to become a main character.
The sprint of it all
As we already knew, this remake makes sprint a default power of Master Chief. My record on this debate is consistent: Halo plays better without sprinting, and it’s strange to add such a consequential movement change to levels that were originally designed (and balanced!) around a slower, consistent pace.
Take that first open valley Chief arrives in after riding the elevator down: In the original, you’re meant to cross a wide gap while vulnerable to a Wraith lobbing plasma mortars down the valley. If you don’t get in the Warthog, or it gets randomly blown up, or you can’t snag a Ghost, you’re stuck having this tense faceoff with a tank whose mortars travel almost quicker than you can pivot. With sprint, I highly doubt Chief will be in much danger at all.
It’s nice that they’re including a “no sprint” skull modifier for the folks who want a classic moveset, but I’m here to tell you it’s “classic” for a reason. It’s not like Bungie forgot to make Chief quicker all those years ago—Halo’s methodical pace made it distinct. It placed a premium on ranged combat, forcing you to get creative with grenades and flanks in moments when the magnum was unavailable. I could embrace this change if I heard a convincing argument that moving quicker makes Halo better, but instead, the reasoning always seems to come back to sprint being ‘expected’ of a 2026 FPS. That’s dumb.
Lock-on rockets make banshees a non-issue
Banshees could be real jerks in this mission (especially on Heroic or Legendary) back in the day, but I doubt they’ll pose the same threat with the SPNKR having lock-on capabilities in this remake, as it does in subsequent games.
Health is gone
I forgot this was happening. The remake ditches Chief’s non-regenerating health bar (and med kits as a result), which seems like an out-of-pocket change, unless the goal is to make Halo 1 less distinguishable from the games that came after it. Is that what remakes are for?
Guns are super accurate now
Theoretically, the inclusion of sprint would make close-to-mid-range guns like the assault rifle more useful, but perhaps that doesn’t matter when everything appears to have laser beam accuracy from the hip. The AR, plasma rifle, Needler, and plasma pistols in this video have a tighter spread than the original, which would place them roughly in line with Halo Infinite’s rendition of those weapons. Not a great sign, as Infinite’s sandbox has always had a problem with so many guns being viable from so many distances that it hardly matters which one you choose.
The Wraith and Scorpion shoot and move much faster
Another change in line with Infinite and other 343-era Halos. The Scorpion and Wraith, the heaviest vehicles on the battlefield, now steer and aim on a dime. Their cannons also cycle much faster, which stacks the odds in Chief’s favor in at least one showdown in this mission. On Heroic in the original version, Hunters are one of the only real dangers for Chief in a Scorpion. They can often take two shots to kill, and time between tank shells is long enough for them to get off one or two Fuel Rod barrages. Not anymore: the tank’s new fire rate makes quick work of these apex predators.
What have they done to the sniper rifle…
I really like the new model for the sniper rifle in the remake, but its new sound? “Downgrade” is a loaded word, but it’s appropriate here. Sound on.
Halo CE sniper rifle: A godly announcement. A thunderclap. A warning that comes too late.
Halo remake sniper rifle: blam-o
You can’t get Sgt. Johnson killed anymore
Here’s a change that makes a lot of sense with 25 years of hindsight. Originally, Sgt Johnson is one of the marines fighting for his life in the valley with the Scorpion tank. His sniper rifle makes him an excellent wingman on the tank’s shoulder, but uh, he can also die like any other marine. The remake fills in this plot hole by taking him out of the encounter.
You can swap guns with marines
Since I’ve been complaining about features from latter Halo games that make CE less interesting, I’ll mention one I’m glad to see in the remake: swapping weapons with marines. This was a thing from Halo 2 on, and it always felt like a cool way for Master Chief to throw his rank around—”I want your sniper rifle, here take this pistol.”
But real heads know that the best use of this feature is actually to give marines all of the power weapons, since they have unlimited ammo and decent accuracy. The person on the sticks of this demo does exactly that when the tank section comes around, and it’s super effective.
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