The new Halo remake is a reminder of what Xbox used to be

There are changes to the gameplay as well. Some are relatively small, like the new ability to hijack enemy vehicles or the larger arsenal of weapons at your disposal. The biggest change, though, is something that seems small: the addition of a sprint button. Early Halo games didn’t let Master Chief sprint, and the addition to Campaign Evolved makes the action feel much faster and more fluid. It’s especially useful if, like me, you spend a lot of time running away from the bigger enemies. Campaign Evolved also introduces a trio of new missions while making some changes to existing ones. Unfortunately, I don’t have the kind of encyclopedic Halo knowledge to pinpoint exactly what has changed, but I will say this: Much like the remakes of Shadow of the Colossus and Resident Evil 4 , Campaign Evolved plays the romanticized version of Halo from my memory, which is exactly what you want from a project like this. The changes enhance something that was already great and smooth over (most of) the rough spots. And while I played through all of it solo, the game also supports co-op for up to four players.

While the remake is excellent, it’s unfortunately launching at a very awkward time, just a few weeks after new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma kicked off a “reset” that will eventually see more than 3,000 people laid off over the next year and iconic studios like Doom developer id Software dramatically scaled down. In many ways, Halo as a franchise is illustrative of Xbox’s fall from grace. Since Microsoft assumed full responsibility for the series through its internal Halo Studios (formerly known as 343 Industries), the gap between new releases has become larger and larger, while at the same time the company has tried to broaden Halo through mostly ill-fated ventures like a streaming TV series and a live-service push . Campaign Evolved itself represents some of this disorder. Not only is it the first new Halo game since 2021, it’s also coming to the PS5 in addition to Xbox and PC as part of Microsoft’s consistently confusing console exclusivity strategy .

So as much as I’ve enjoyed fighting off the hordes of the Flood once again, I can’t help but see Campaign Evolved within the larger context of Xbox. The original Halo felt daring, proving that action and narrative could be complementary strengths, and it went on to influence a generation of first-person shooters. In the years since, the franchise’s prominence has steadily diminished, to the point that now Microsoft is trying to reinvigorate it by going back to the beginning instead of doing something actually new. Five years after Halo Infinite , instead of the next entry in the franchise, Xbox has opted for the safe choice with a remake. And Campaign Evolved comes at a time when the future of the Xbox lineup looks increasingly murky given the dramatic studio cuts.

Campaign Evolved does a remarkable job of re-creating the experience of playing Halo for the first time. But that’s not enough to make Halo — or Xbox, for that matter — feel as essential as it once was.

Halo: Campaign Evolved launches on the Xbox, PS5, and PC on July 28th, with early access on July 23rd for those who preordered .