Halo: Campaign Progression is a modern remake of the classic Xbox game with all the improvements you'd expect. Compared to the 2001 original and its 2011 remaster, Halo: Campaign Progression looks prettier, plays more smoothly, and features several gameplay changes that are intended to modernize the decades-old gameplay experience but may prove divisive. For example—and this fact will either make you happy or angry, depending on where you find yourself in one of the Halo community's eternal debates—Master Chief can now run.
After the 2011 remaster for Xbox 360 Halo: Campaign Progression is the third re-release of the 2001 Xbox shooter from Bungie. Halo: Combat Evolved. (Fourth place if you count its 2003 port on Windows PC. Fifth if you count its inclusion in the 2014 version. Master Chief Collection.) However, this latest version is a little different: instead of being built on a proprietary game engine like previous Halo games, developer Halo Studios manufacturing Campaign development with Unreal Engine 5. And this is a full-fledged remake, not just a graphical overhaul.
These are the positions Halo: Campaign Progression at some crossroads. By the time the remake releases – currently scheduled for release in 2026 on PlayStation 5, Windows PC and Xbox Series X – the original Halo will be 25 years old. So Campaign development must do two things. It's meant to serve as a vehicle for nostalgia, reminding longtime fans what they loved about the original. Halo. But it also needs to attract new audiences; this will be the first time Halo will be playable on a PlayStation console, opening up the series to players who have never left the Sony ecosystem. For these players, a new Halo game should feel at least somewhat modern.
Earlier this week, Polygon began putting Halo: Campaign Progression at an in-person event at Halo Studios. The demo covered the first half Halo: Combat EvolvedThe Silent Cartographer, right down to the moment when the Master Chief knocks a rock off a ledge – if, like me, you've played that original campaign so many times that you've memorized every moment of it, and that context grounds you.
Nostalgia can often mean viewing things through rose-colored glasses, but this version of the campaign feels like exactly that. [age redacted]It seemed to me, a two-year-old child, that it looked like it did in 2001. Gone are the boxy gray buildings and dirty beaches of The Silent Cartographer, replaced by gleaming steel architecture and sand so crisp you can practically count the individual grains. But these improvements don't exactly sacrifice the sci-fi brutalism that has defined Halo's art style for 25 years. In other words: if Halo: Combat Evolved this is an eye diagram, Halo: Campaign Progression this is the same eye chart but viewed with the corrective lenses you should have. Whatever diabolical deal Halo Studios made to work their tech wizardry here, I don't want to know; the extent to which Halo: Campaign Progression actively feels that the Halo game is overwhelming.
Darling Halo: Combat Evolved The pistol has not gone away and remains a completely unbalanced hand cannon. The soldiers are still shouting: “No, not again!!!” when you poke them with a plasma grenade. This time capsule effect is only enhanced by the re-recorded vocals of key actors, including Steve Downes (who plays Master Chief) and Jen Taylor (who plays Cortana), making it feel like it's still Halojust more beautiful.
But underneath the shiny surface are a lot of small changes that Halo fans will notice right away. That rock I mentioned earlier? This is not a stone Campaign development. This is a plasma pistol. According to Halo Studios, you can wield an energy sword in this remake, although this feature is not available in the accessible portion of the demo. You use the left trigger to aim, which is standard in modern shooters but practically blasphemous in classic Halo (though it's worth noting that this was the default control scheme for 2021). Halo Infinite). First aid kits have been completely removed. You can steal vehicles. And yes, you can run.
The Sprint debate has divided the Halo community since Bungie first added it to the series in 2010. Halo: Reach. In addition to arguing about its impact on competitive integrity in multiplayer modes, players have defended its absence in the campaign stages as well, often approaching it from a narrative perspective. The fact that you couldn't run in the original Halo trilogy contributed greatly to the feeling that you were playing as a super soldier wearing nearly impenetrable space armor. There was no need to move quickly. You were invincible. You could take the hits. Other fans refute this argument: Well, you can do this in every game. Why not Halo?
At first glance, Halo: Campaign Progression it's the answer to the question “Why not Halo?” Geographically, The Silent Cartographer is a small mission that takes place entirely on a circular island that you can drive around in a Warthog Jeep in a matter of minutes. If you let you run, it will become even smaller. Battlefields full of enemies, including some of the game's toughest, are now mere obstacles to walk past. (I played the demo on both Normal and Heroic difficulties.)
Hunters, giant worm hiveminds with heavy armor and rocket launchers for weapons, are generally considered the most powerful enemies in Halo. The secret to defeating them is in the original Halo: Combat Evolvedwhich involved carefully circling around their backs and shooting through the exposed part of their armor – the joke being that this tiny weapon could destroy the toughest enemy in the game. IN Campaign developmentHowever, your pistol cartridges bounce off them. This is also a consequence of allowing yourself to run. It can't be that players are just running around them to kill them in one shot.
To be fair, there are settings that allow you to disable sprinting in Halo: Campaign Progression. As it is, I barely noticed the addition of sprinting in the tighter areas of the level, so I'm curious to see how it affects some of the game's more claustrophobic missions, like “The Library” or “The Pillar of Autumn,” if at all.
Halo: Campaign Progression promises to be a stunning visual achievement, but some of the upgrades may go against the soul of Halo. It's a more presentable version of the game that leaves less room for what I lovingly call “fucking around.” Original Halo: Combat Evolved a popular exploit known as the “Warthog Jump” was introduced, where you could place a grenade under a vehicle and then jump into the vehicle just before it exploded, allowing the explosion to catapult you great distances. Now the grenade will simply kill you.
However, there are some obvious ways to solve these problems. Halo: Campaign Progression there will be more skulls—gameplay modifiers that make things more challenging, such as doubling the speed of explosions or removing the minimap—than in any previous Halo campaign. Representatives from Halo Studios declined to share the effects of all unlockable skulls, but told Polygon one such mod makes vehicles invincible, allowing players to replicate the Warthog jumps of yesteryear. How this will work in action remains unknown, but that such a modifier exists at all suggests the level of customization that 2026 could bring Campaign Development closer to the chaotic physics of the 2001s Combat Development. But why they are needed at all is a completely different question.
Sanding down the rough edges of a wooden chair can result in a more comfortable piece of furniture, but if you go too far, you risk ruining the wood. What I've seen so far Halo: Campaign Progression – a short portion of a single level in a demo played in a controlled environment – is by no means enough to gauge how Halo Studios will handle this balancing act. I can't wait to see how Halo: Campaign Progression is being formed. If they can actually pull this off, I won't be going to see him on launch day. I'll run.
Halo: Campaign Progression will be released in 2026 for PlayStation 5, Windows PC and Xbox Series X.
