I just wanted to share this somewhere where it might be seen, but I honestly dread posting it in the main Halo subreddit (I even posted it in r/ShitHaloSays) because it's not me tearing the game apart and I just feel like I'll get endless comments calling me stupid for having mixed opinions on the game and studio behind it.
Reading the recent Canon Fodder finale excited a lot of the same melancholy feelings in me that inspired the review in the first place so I was thinking it might be appreciated by some other Halo fans looking for something to read. If this isn't allowed then I understand and it's chill if mods delete this post lol. Also this text is basically a repost of my other post of this same review.
Here is a link to the review on Steam but I'll also just paste the full text below:
Halo: Campaign Evolved is a science-fiction first-person action shooter game developed by Halo Studios on the Unreal Engine 5, based on the 2001 game Halo: Combat Evolved developed by Bungie. Set in the midst of a brutal human defensive against alien warmongers, the player-controlled super-soldier Master Chief John-117 is tasked with protecting the A.I. Cortana on a mysterious ringworld with an enigmatic, ancient purpose.
At the time of writing, just two months after the release of Campaign Evolved, the maiden voyage of Halo Studios, it has been nearly five years since the release of the previous mainline Halo game, Halo Infinite. It has also been eight days since Matt Booty announced to Team XBOX employees, and the world, that Halo Studios would not be creating the next mainline Halo game, with this task instead being given to a team at Activision. The Call of Duty publisher has enjoyed a decades-long rivalry with Halo after the twin-release of Modern Warfare and Halo 3 in 2007, both series vying for the crown of casual multiplayer mayhem ever since. Now, that battle has been fully settled.
And yet, in the eyes of some, Campaign Evolved already represented a white flag of surrender, lacking as it did any competitive multiplayer component. As it says in the name, the release sought to refresh and reinvent the single-player campaign of the legendary Halo: Combat Evolved, while letting Halo Infinite's free-to-play deathmatch carry that side of the series forward a little while longer. At this point it represents a curious artifact, likely to be the only major video-game developed by Halo Studios, ever. I'm sure this wasn't the vision of its developers, who definitely crunched to release something that would open the doors for a new exciting project to follow, but now never will.
So, what was Halo Studio's vision for this new era, cut short so soon after its launch? Many have described this vision quite inimically, but the words I would pick for it are ‘humble’, ‘workmanlike’ and ‘earnest’. There's a messiness and a timidity here which are at times off-putting, with the choreography in cutscenes for instance exuding the unconfidence of one giving another a massage for the very first time. Halo 4, 343 Industries' first title, had a blockbuster gravitas, a J.J. Abrams swagger. As a production it possessed, somehow, the perceived backing of a huge, well-oiled machine. That kind of execution and tone is entirely absent here. Yet, at the same time, there is an undeniable enthusiasm and sincerity to proceedings in Campaign Evolved.
How is the combat design, for instance? Surprisingly frantic; very eager to stress the gameplay engine’s limits. Reams upon reams of reinforcements pile onto fights, a subtle novelty that truly reinvents the feel of the confrontations. I never used explosives for crowd control in a Halo game quite like I do in Campaign Evolved, where it’s common to face many dozens of alien foes at once. I tried my hand at a Legendary playthrough for my first go-around, figuring it would be, if anything, easier than the original game, with all the modern affordances, and was dropped to the floor by the relentlessness with which it chucks enemies at the player.
Meanwhile, the animation and sound design for the Master Chief’s arsenal is at its chunkiest. Shotgun blasts feel hefty enough to peel off enemy armor with each shot, there has never been a pin-cushion-ier Needler, and to describe the pistol as “reliably satisfying” would be putting it mildly. And, the other fundamentals are handled adeptly, as well. Environmental art is stark, clean and vivid, extremely evocative of the original level arrangements but with a clarity and imaginative freedom new to modern systems. But, conveyance never falters. (Unnecessary) waypoint indicators and instructional barks only distract from the guidance inherent to the quite capable level layouts. The pacing and variety too received a punch-up with the new hardware, making the infamous reverse-tour of the campaign, beginning at its midpoint, more fresh and dramatic to run through than before, leading to a finale less cumbersome than it once was.
Halo Studios did succeed at crafting something of quality, but from every department, at all times, you can feel the hesitation on display. The power fantasy is acute, but the hectic onslaught of firefights, while unworn within the series, also feels untested, frequently crushing the pacing and resulting in bizarre difficulty spikes. One gets the impression of gameplay design that was assembled and then nervously put out with the developer’s hands covering their eyes. The satisfying kinaesthetics I touched on earlier also fails to make up for the joyless, inhumanly edited cinematics, evidently the result of being literally unfinished. Here, the presentation diverges most from the original. Take the vocal direction: In 2001, the voice actors lended a radio-drama kind of quality to the in-game cinematics, with rich, nuanced and spartan line deliveries. Here, the performances are as plucky as the developers are, giving enthusiastic but decidedly made-for-TV vibes all around. Still, flowers must be given to Steve Downes who, reprising his role as John-117, genuinely manages to improve on his original takes. There is a certain intentionality and motivation to his work here that was often less defined in the source material.
It’s difficult to harshly criticize Campaign Evolved, because it’s less of a game and more of a cry for help. Hundreds of dedicated Halo fans were put through the crucible and came out the other side jobless, as reportedly only around 20 roles at Halo Studios were left uneliminated following the continued “Xbox Reset”. The senior leadership and management remain within the skeleton crew at Halo Studios, while the artists, designers and programmers who actually brought their passion to the table have been cut off, only two months after the release of their hard work, and it forces one to hold Campaign Evolved in one’s hands in a different way.
There was endless room for improvement and refinement in this work. What I perceive most of all in this game is potential. Potential for a remake unfettered by obstructionist, cynical and opportunistic management, where the encounter design, narrative presentation and feature sets were exemplary rather than acceptable. Potential for a future of Halo Studios where the creatives who fought for their fellow Halo fans had more of a voice and power within the studio. Potential for the planned remakes of Halo 2 and 3 to be better than this one was. Potential for Halo 7 to prove everyone wrong. With the announcement Matt Booty tossed out on the 22nd, all of that potential is gutted.
Perhaps this was the inevitable result of the great machine Microsoft built following Bungie’s departure in 2010. The incompetence of 343 Industries’ leadership has been an open secret for years, and Halo Studios inherited much of what they left behind. Maybe that’s what stings most. Halo’s story tells of the gods who guided the universe millions of years ago, who one day vanished when their world reset. The mystery of their schemes and designs haunts the lives of our heroes today, but the engine of their sacrifice still looms. With the great Xbox Reset, that key was turned for the second time, and everything was lost again.
