Halo: Campaign Evolved is a gorgeous remake that debuts on PS5 and Xbox in 2026

Halo Studios has created something special for the 25th anniversary of Halo next year. Halo: Campaign Evolved is a complete remake of the original Advanced combat launched alongside Microsoft’s first Xbox console in 2001. It features a completely rebuilt campaign with 4K visuals, new weapons and vehicles, four-player online co-op mode, and all-new story content.

And it’s all coming to Xbox Series X/S, PC and – for the first time – PlayStation 5 in 2026.

I played a preliminary demo section of The Silent Cartographer mission this week to get a feel for all the changes. This is the same level that was used as a demo version of Halo: Combat Evolved for Mac and PC, but this remade version opens immediately with updated cutscenes, improved voice lines, and greatly overhauled visuals and animations.

It has a distinct look and feel Halobut then I started sprinting towards a rebuilt Warthog that has an extra seat in the back and realized there was a lot going on in Advanced campaign beyond its Unreal Engine 5-powered visuals.

“We did this work on Halo Birthday. “There were certain things we weren’t able to achieve at that time, there were certain things we weren’t able to do,” says Greg Hermann, technical director at Halo Studios. “As we were building this, we didn’t just put a coat of paint on the original cutscenes. We ended up going over exactly how they were blocked, how they were sequenced, and how they were put together. We did that on every level.

Halo Studios even called on the main voice actors of Advanced combat to re-record their lines. This is something I immediately noticed when loading The Silent Cartographer mission. “It really provides a level of fidelity that we weren’t able to achieve for Halo Birthday“, says Hermann.

The iconic views of Halo were also reconstructed, along with the alien architecture and environments. It’s truly designed to be the ultimate remake of the original campaign, both welcoming to new players and built in a way that respects Bungie’s original creation and story.

“Whenever we make a change, the first thing is to be faithful to the original game,” says Dan Gniady, lead game designer at Halo Studios. Gniady joined Halo Studios last year and previously worked on Bungie’s original releases. Fate And Destiny 2 securities.

Halo Studios has access to the original source assets and code for Haloas well as the original storyboards. This allowed the team to remaster and remix the music alongside the cinematic change and huge visual improvements. All new game content is created in UE5 and adds to the systems and code used for the original game to maintain that uniqueness. Halo feel.

Advanced campaign includes three new bonus missions. “It was really important that we preserve the original story as it is, so these missions are meant to be a setup before the main chorus,” says Max Szlagor, studio design director at Halo Studios. “These new missions will provide new opportunities for character interactions between Chief and Johnson.” Missions will include new environments, gameplay, characters and enemies.

There are also new AI mechanics and behaviors. Perhaps the most obvious is the ability to sprint in the game, which makes everything from combat to moving through missions much faster. There’s even a new seat in the Warthog, affectionately called a golf cart seat or bumper seat by developers Halo Studios. This will be great for cooperative missions, as someone can now hang onto the back of the Warthog.

Up to four people can play this campaign together online, no matter what platform they’re on, with cross-play and shared progression on console and PC. There is also local two-player split-screen cooperative play on consoles, just like the original game. “We are going to expand some spaces and we also want to make sure that we are authentic to the meetings themselves,” says Szlagor. “So it’s a balancing act between the difficulty of tuning and making sure these encounters are the right size for the right space.”

All weapons have been remodeled and rebuilt with greater fidelity, so the look, feel, and sound of the weapons are much better than what Halo Studios achieved with the remastered versions; the guns’ plasma effects will even completely light up indoor environments. You can also now aim with all weapons, and there are nine additional weapons across the world. Halo series available in Advanced campaign – including the ability to collect a power sword after killing an elite. If you are a fan of vehicles Haloyou’ll even be able to hijack enemies, so you can pilot a fully flyable Wraith in this campaign.

If you want to step up the difficulty, Halo Studios is relying even more on skulls in this remake, gameplay modifiers from Halo: The Master Chief Collection. There are dozens of skull options in Advanced campaign“the most we’ve ever had in a Halo game,” says Szlagor. There are so many that the developers think it won’t even be possible to complete the game on legendary mode with all the skulls enabled. “There are a lot of them, so if you can do a real legendary run with all the skulls, let us know because I would love to see it,” says Gniady. I’m sure a hardcore game Halo However, fans will find a way next year.

The only thing missing Advanced campaign is multiplayer. The original game featured local multiplayer and maps, but it launched before Xbox Live, so there was never official online multiplayer. While the PC version added online play, Halo Studios sticks solely to the campaign element of the original. Halo game. The Halo the franchise is known for its multiplayer mode, but it really started with Halo 2. I asked Microsoft for comment on the lack of multiplayer, but the company declined to discuss it.

Even without multiplayer, Advanced campaign is a model for the future Halo games. “For future titles, we will continue to push the boundaries of technology while ensuring the core Halo the gameplay of this game can be seen, felt, heard and evolved if necessary,” explains Hermann.

Halo: Campaign Evolved arrives in 2026 on Xbox Series X/S, PC and PS5. It will be a day one game with Game Pass Ultimate/PC Game Pass, and will also support Xbox Cloud Gaming and Xbox Play Anywhere.