The day has finally come. During the opening day of the Halo World Championship, Halo Studios pulled back the curtain on their long-rumored secret project. The leaks were true — Halo: Combat Evolved is officially getting a full remake, titled Halo: Campaign Evolved.
Halo: Campaign Evolved — A Classic Reborn
Halo Studios (formerly 343 Industries) confirmed that Halo: Campaign Evolved is a complete remake of the original Halo: Combat Evolved campaign, rebuilt from the ground up on a new engine. The remake introduces several fresh elements, including weapons from later titles like the Energy Sword, Battle Rifle, and Needle Rifle.
The game also expands its co-op experience. Traditional 2-player couch co-op returns, but for the first time ever, the campaign will also support 4-player online co-op. To accommodate this, many environments and encounters are getting touchups to handle the increased fireteam size. Developer notes mention that enemy ranks and difficulty will scale depending on the number of players — for example, Minor Elites (blue armor) may now appear as Majors (red armor) when playing with a full squad.
In addition, three brand-new prequel missions are being introduced. Featuring a side story with Master Chief and Sgt. Johnson set before the events of the original Halo: Combat Evolved.
And perhaps the biggest surprise of all — for the first time in franchise history, Halo is coming to PlayStation. Halo: Campaign Evolved will launch on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation in 2026.
Along with these new additions, it’s worth noting that sprinting is being brought to the remake as well. Which any Halo fan knows is a very hot topic that continues to divide the community to this day.
Is This What the Community Wanted?
Immediately, a topic that has begun to spring up since the reveal is whether or not the community even wanted a remake in the first place. Halo: Combat Evolved came out in 2001 and had already had an attempted remaster years ago. Not only that, but because of the success of the Master Chief collection, all mainline Halo games and campaigns (except for Halo 5) are now preserved better than ever before. So, did we really need another crack at the first game?
Many fans, like me, know these levels like the back of our hand, and despite Halo CE being extremely important in the grand history of all Video games, especially narrative and FPS games, did we really want this? Adding a few new features, such as some extra weapons, slightly adjusted levels, and other minor quirks, isn’t enough to get many fans excited.
Of course, the promise of some new missions, bringing the original cast back for more voicelines and additional cutscenes, is nice, but at this point, most fans would rather have a new Halo title with matchmaking after Halo Infinite has slowly been dwindling in player count and content for years.
You Know the Music, Time to Dance
Still, despite Halo Infinite’s low player count, the fanbase and the hype for the Halo franchise are still here. The recent Helldivers 2 crossover brought in a ton of new players, and the Halo World Championship still manages to pull in over 15 thousand views on Twitch alone. The interest in a new Halo game is there, despite the rocky recent years that Halo has gone through with Halo Infinite, the disaster of a live-action show, and more.
Perhaps Halo: Campaign Evolved is more than a remake; maybe it’s a testbed for Halo Studios using a new engine and technology. With recent layoffs across Xbox and the industry’s push toward AI-driven development, there’s uncertainty about what the future holds.
Whatever the case, fans are holding out hope that this remake signals a renewed future for the Halo franchise.
Are you excited for Halo: Combat Evolved Campaign’s launch, or were you expecting something different after years of waiting? Be sure to let us know and keep an eye on our latest news for future updates.
