The exclusive war between PlayStation and Xbox has come to an end. It was an open secret, but today Microsoft has opened the doors of its last bastion. After Forza and Gears, it is the turn of a multiplatform Halo. In 2026, the Master Chief will embark on a new mission into unknown territory: Sony consoles. During the Halo World Championships, Microsoft officially announced the remake of Halo: Combat Evolved for PS5, Steam and Xbox Series X|S.
“We are very excited about bringing Halo to those who may not have had the opportunity to play it in the past“explained Damon Conn, executive producer of the game. “At its core, Halo is about connecting and we are thrilled to connect with a new generation of gamers so they can fall in love with Halo like we did, but on their preferred platforms. We’re not trying to rewrite Halo’s legacy; we’re trying to immerse you in it like never before.”
Halo remake will use Unreal Engine 5
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Despite its latest controversies (in the remakes of Metal Gear Solid 3 and Oblivion, for example), Unreal Engine 5 has been the chosen graphics engine by Halo Studios for this remake of Combat Evolved. A remake that will be called Camping Evolved and that promises to “effectively incorporate 25 years of technological advances”.
From Halo Studios they assure that “It is not a completely new ecosystem“for the team, but many of its members already had experience with the engine. The developer also insists that “all new content created in Unreal Engine 5 is overlaid on top of the original code“. They consider it essential to rescue that to maintain the playability and ensure that despite the facelift, the game offers “halo feeling”.
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Why make another remake of the first Halo and not, for example, Halo 3?
From Microsoft they explain that “Halo: Combat Evolved is where it all began and for the Halo Studios team there was no better place to start building.” a new generation of Halo“Damon Conn says he wants to create.”the ideal entry point for new players“.
Even though there was already a remake of the game (Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, released in 2012), Conn insists on starting over “so that people who have never played the game can understand the story from the beginningThey want to focus on capturing “the atmosphere, tone and emotional impact that made the first campaign so original and iconic.” Still, the producer promises “modernize areas like The Library” and reveals that this is only a starting point to “plot new Halo stories”.
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Halo Camping Evolved improvements: crossplay, new levels, 4K…
These are some of the first improvements already confirmed for the new Halo remake:
- 4K resolution
- Updated animations
- Rewritten dialogues
- Remastered soundtrack
- Possibility of running by pressing the stick
- Three new missions for the campaign mode
- Weapons and vehicles that came out in later deliveries
- Split screen for two players
- Four-person online co-op with cross-play
- Cross-platform progress
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New levels and weapons from other deliveries
“Some of the weapons that were in Halo: Combat Evolved only enemies used them; you couldn’t pick them up“, explained Max Szlagor, creative director of the game. “Now you can and it feels natural because you were already able to do it in later installments; reflects the evolution of the saga“Among the examples that have been given are the battle rifle, the BR55 that was introduced in Halo 2 and had many successors, and the needle launcher (not a stinger), originally from Reach. The same goes for vehicles. It will be the first time you can pilot a Wraith Covenant during the original campaign.
“The most skulls ever seen in a Halo campaign.”
Without a doubt, the great addition is three unpublished missions that “act as a prequel and are set before the events of the Halo: Combat Evolved campaign.” In them there will be “completely new” scenarios, characters and enemies. Some skulls will also be new. From Halo Studios they confirm that they will offer more ways than ever to modify the experience and they have hidden “the most skulls ever seen in a Halo campaign”.
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How will the Library level change in the new remake?
The Library is the example most repeated by Max Szlagor when explaining changes from old levels. It is the seventh mission of the game, always criticized for forcing us to climb identical floors and do the same battles over and over again. “A key case to create a new experience that balances nostalgia and the expectations of modern gamers”.
“From Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary we learned that (at that level) people wanted to be able to orient themselves better and a greater diversity of confrontations. We had to reevaluate the pace of the Flood fights and improve the narrative. We add new lines of dialogue to Guilty Spark to guide us and provide context and narrative as we moved forward.” The developer clarifies that It is not about changing history, but about refining itto add context to keep players engaged.
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First impressions of MeriStation
Despite how excited we are about the announcement and as much as all the news sounds really good to us, we are not going to lie to you. Our first contact with this remake has left us a little cold. Specifically, we have tested the first twenty minutes of the fourth mission (The Silent Cartographer). The part that goes from the warthog landing on the beach until the confrontation with the hunters at the installation. Until then, the development was traced to the original except for the cinematics.
Playably it is true that “feels halo” and sprinting doesn’t hurt you at allbut graphically we have seen it a little green. The performance of this demo was alarming, especially on the beach and in the vehicle. We have suffered serious drops in framerate, significant popping, texture errors typical of Unreal, lip desynchronization and in short, too many problems for presentation in society of a similar titan.
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Ignoring those problems, the game has not impacted us too much visually. It’s true that Halo was never about the graphics and that there is a big jump compared to Anniversarybut that one is twelve years old and is normal. In this generation it is not the remake with the best graphics that we have seen. Where it has seemed most attractive to us has been in the environments and especially in relation to explosions and light effects. Hopefully we also have a button to switch to the original graphics and compare, like in the 2012 version.
However, we are clear that “this is work in progress and is not indicative of the final experience that will be marketed next year.” So, having achieved the most complicated thing, recovering the unmatched experience at the controlsand bringing additions such as 4-player cooperative with crossplay, we choose to believe that Halo Studios will polish its performance and appearance between now and launch. I hope it ends up being up to par, conquering new audiences and bringing with it more installments of the saga. Halo fans deserve good news and Campaign Evolved has everything to be.
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