The next chapter for Halo is a return to its beginning, with Halo Studio unveiling Halo: Campaign Evolved during Halo World Championship 2025.
Utilizing Unreal Engine 5 for new visuals, this is a full remake, and as such there are a large number of changes compared to the original game and the 2011 remaster that's bundled into The Master Chief Collection.
To make things simple, I've compiled a full list of everything new in Halo: Campaign Evolved that we know of so far, and I'll be updating it as more information comes to light.
Aiming
Players can now aim with all ranged weapons, not just the handful that have scopes. This is a change introduced to the series back with Halo 5: Guardians and carried into Halo Infinite.
Cinematics
In addition to the new visuals, the game's cinematics have all been redone, with new camera angles and re-recorded voice lines for the main cast.
Co-op
Halo: Campaign Evolved supports four-player online co-op, while both prior versions only supported two-player co-op.
This has required a few small knock-on changes, such as giving the Warthog a tiny fourth seat and tweaking some enemy encounters.
Additionally, the game has full cross-play and cross-progression support, so players can team up with their friends on Xbox, PC, and PlayStation, all with no restrictions.
Enemies
Many enemies have updated behaviors, acting in ways they were capable of in later Halo titles, while removing bugs or weaknesses from the first game.
Hunters can no longer be killed with a single pistol shot directly in the back, making them far more challenging to fight.
The Flood are getting reinforcements, with the Pure Forms from Halo 3 joining the infected swarm on Installation 04.
Hijacking
The ability to hijack enemy vehicles (and have Elites try to hijack you) was a huge addition to the Halo series with Halo 2. It's been added into Campaign Evolved, shaking up the flow of certain levels.
By extent, the Covenant Wraith tanks can also be piloted, which was another feature added in Halo 2.
Missions
The original campaign is being faithfully rebuilt, with some small tweaks for pacing, such as in The Library.
There are also three entirely-new missions. This mini-campaign focuses on Master Chief and Johnson, and is set prior to the events of the main story.
Sprint
Sprinting (first introduced in Halo: Reach as an armor ability before becoming a standard feature in later games) is introduced to the first game with Campaign Evolved. It can be disabled via a toggle if players prefer a slower pace.
Weapons
Halo: Campaign Evolved massively expands player arsenals, bringing in nine new weapons that weren't in the first game or the 2011 remaster. Some of these, like the Energy Sword, were technically present but couldn't be picked up by players until Halo 2.
Other weapons, like the Needle Rifle, were introduced in other games entirely. Here are the new weapons we know about so far:
- Battle Rifle
- Energy Sword
- Fuel Rod Cannon
- Needle Rifle
- Sentinel Beam
An ambitious retelling for new and existing players
While I had a lot of concerns before playing, I'm quite excited for Halo: Campaign Evolved, and after going hands-on and talking to the developers, I believe all these changes are going to add up in a big way.
Halo: Campaign Evolved is slated to launch at some point in 2026 on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC (Steam and Xbox on PC), and PlayStation 5. Like all Xbox first-party games, it’ll also be available in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass at launch.
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