Halo: Campaign Evolved: PS5 Review

Developed by Halo Studios
Published by Xbox Game Studios
Platform: PS5

MasterChief is back. 

But this time, he's come to a new console, bringing the iconic combat and fighting style he's renowned for on the XBox and upgrading it with this from-the-ground-up remake of the 2001 Halo: Combat Evolved game.

It's interesting that as a linear story, Halo: Campaign Evolved is singularly about shooting one thing, shooting the next and moving onto your next objective. Deep it isn't, but fun it certainly is thanks to a fluid combat style, no real jarring on the graphics front and an idea that really, these games are just about corralling chaos and unleashing it on screen.

Perhaps that won't be for some - during the 10 hours of campaign, there's little else to do but shoot as enemies drop, your weapons run out and you steal from others before unleashing hell. It's not like it's filled with side quests and in some ways, that 2001 simplicity is both the game's winning strategy and its Achilles Heel.

After a while, combat can simply start to feel quite repetitive, no matter how well thought out the corridors and maps are - it's just the reality of a game that's not there to do anything other than release bullet sponges and enable you to go mad with them.

From plasma rifles to Needlers, the weapon list is relentless, and delivers plenty of options to fire up your arsenal. Battling through spaceships, fighting the Covenant and its masses, the game's pretty full on and while the haptics are not well deployed on the PS5 version, the game's fluidity and speed makes up for the fact some of the simpler basics are missing.

With zoom in handling, better capabilities for driving vehicles and the chance to keep on playing without noticing any breaks in the Unreal Engine upgrade, Halo: Campaign Evolved will appeal to those who've always loved the MasterChief franchise.

But it's perhaps a harder sell for newer fans who've never really been exposed to the gung-ho world of the Halo franchise, given it's a remake of a 2001 game with a simpler ethos. The game's playable enough, yet crucially, it occasionally feels like it's too disposable to simply put down and leave for another time.

With bonus missions though and a commitment to space-age carnage, Halo: Campaign Evolved is a solid enough game to blast away the time.