Halo: Campaign Evolved Promo Shot
Image: Halo Studios & Xbox Game Studios

As a fan of Halo since the very first game, you'd think that I'd be thrilled to see another release, even if it is a (glossy) remake of the original campaign from the original Xbox. With the full release of Halo: Campaign Evolved (not counting the few days' head-start that premium-price early adopters got) landing on Steam today, my enthusiasm is slightly muted. And judging by the initial user reviews, I'm not the only one reacting to it with a nonplussed shrug.

As the title implies, this is a slightly expanded, questionably enhanced remake of the original Halo: Combat Evolved's main campaign. A famously controversial romp with some all-time classic high points (The Silent Cartographer), and some low points, such as several missions that backtracked through reused environments with new enemy placements. It just seems to lack many features that the previous Master Chief Collection anthology release includes as standard.

Lush at this remake looks in places (admittedly shifting the aesthetic towards pseudo-photorealism), this is a weirdly compromised release. Halo's iconic competitive side is entirely absent, and while you can play the campaign with a buddy in co-op, the PC version is online-only, bizarrely missing the split-screen mode from the console release. There's also no sign of mod support (a key feature of the Master Chief Collection), meaning this one's a surprisingly expensive way to play a classic that frequently goes on sale for under £5.

The one thing evening up the equation a little is a trio of new prelude missions, filling some gaps in the story that were previously only covered in the Halo novels. And while Morgan Park over at PC Gamer (who did a great comparative review, stacking it up against the original release) didn't dislike them, he also wasn't that impressed either.

Halo: Campaign Evolved is out now on Steam for £50/$50 (that math doesn't math), or an eye-watering £20/$20 more if you want some extra cosmetic goodies. And lastly, it's always worth a note that Microsoft still falls under the BDS boycott. As such, this is one Halo release I won't be picking up, much as I love the series.

Y'know what's cool and doesn't require you giving any money to Microsoft, though? Halo SPV3 - a fan-made, more ambitious reimagining of the original Halo's campaign running on a heavily modded version of the original Gearbox-developed PC port of the game. All done with Microsoft's blessings under their surprisingly permissive fan-works license. You can snag it over on ModDB. The SPV3 team is now busy working on an open-world, Metroid-inspired campaign for the Master Chief Collection, too.