A single frame from Halo: Campaign Evolved depicts Master Chief standing on the Ring’s beach, with sunlight cutting through palm fronds so sharp you can count the veins. Twenty-four years after the original Halo debuted on a clunky Xbox, the same shore shines in Unreal Engine 5.
When you open the first clip at 0:12, the original Halo portrays the Pillar of Autumn crash site as flat greens and blocky grays, with a solid slab of cyan for the sky. Flipping the option in Anniversary gives you finer textures and a faint glow, but everything still feels painted on. Switch to Campaign Evolved, and the wreckage emits real-time embers. Volumetric fog swirls around twisted metal beams, collecting sunlight that bounce three times before hitting the sand.
After reaching the Silent Cartographer island, you’ll see that the original waves lap in two-frame loops, providing a humorous contrast to the remake’s ocean. Water now conveys Nanite-driven data down to the individual grains of sand churned up by the Warthog’s wheels. Lumen illuminates the cave mouth ahead: blue bioluminescence pulses against orange torchlight, integrating seamlessly into the Chief’s visor. Anniversary had more stunning caverns, but Campaign Evolved allows you to watch condensation drop from stalactites and shatter on the ground in little physics-driven pieces.
The character models all tell the same story, with Cortana’s initial hologram flashing like a corrupted VHS tape. The anniversary made her face softer and brighter. The remake reconstructs her strand by strand; individual hair threads absorb stray light, and her eyes track you via subsurface scattering, which gives skin a lifelike aspect. Sgt. Johnson’s cigar ash now descends in slow motion, with each flake lighting a spark before striking the deck.
Weapons can feel heavier, as evidenced by the MA5B assault rifle from 2001, which spit flat orange blobs. Anniversary updates include muzzle flash and shine. Every bullet in Campaign Evolved is enveloped in heat distortion; brass casings spin and shine before pinging off rocks with directional audio cues that can be felt in your teeth. The Energy Sword has a bloom that overexposes the camera for half a second, similar to how a real plasma sword would blind you.
The Anniversary remaster has the most trouble with vegetation because the trees basically shook in rigid loops. The remake on the other hand, features grass blades that bend beneath boot treads and spring again with novel mechanics. Palm leaves create dappled shadows that move across the Warthog’s hood as you drive. Stop the video, zoom in, and you’ll even see the serial number on a fallen Marine’s dog tag—details that old engines never thought to preserve.
Halo’s Campaign Evolved demo runs at a silky 4K 60 on the Series X with ray tracing reflections turned on, and on the PS5 Pro it maxes out at 120 Hz in performance mode. And don’t forget about the load times – they’re almost gone – one blink and you’re standing on a planet, which is exactly what happened back in the day when the original Halo took 30 seconds to stitch levels together; this new version smoothly streams the entire ring.
However, pausing either of the game videos and looking at any frame reveals that the 2011 remake was merely a cosmetic touch-up. Campaign Evolved, on the other hand, is a completely new edifice built from the ground up, with every rock, reflection, and glimmer off that famous visor present because they are necessary.
But then money comes into play, and guess what? Because of that day one Game Pass feature, new Xbox customers can play this without having to pay anything up front. Anyone buying the game outright may expect to pay $60, but if you shop around in the spring, you’ll be lucky to get it for $50. On top of that, you’ll get not one, not two, but three brand-new prequel missions, four player co-op, and the ability to play with all of your friends (PlayStation, PC, and Xbox users alike) – all wrapped up in a shiny new package with visuals that make last year’s blockbusters look a little rough.
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