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The review embargo on Halo: Campaign Evolved lifted on July 23, and the verdict landed somewhere between "they actually pulled it off" and "underneath it all this is still a 2001 shooter". Around 60 reviews are in, the OpenCritic Top Critic Average sits at 83 with 88% of critics recommending it, and yet this is currently the lowest-scoring Halo on Metacritic. Both of those things are true at the same time.
Early access opened the same day at 8am PT for anyone holding the $69.99 Premium Edition or the $199.99 Collector's Edition, which sold out. Everyone else, Game Pass subscribers included, waits until July 28.
What the critics actually said
GameSpot went 8/10. Eurogamer and TheGamer both landed on 4/5, VGC handed out full marks, IGN cooled things down at 7/10 and PC Gamer stopped at 70. See the pattern? Nobody is calling this a bad game. The argument is between "the definitive way to replay Combat Evolved" and "a gorgeous coat of paint on a campaign from a quarter of a century ago".
That second camp isn't wrong, either. Halo Studios rebuilt every asset in Unreal Engine 5, so levels, characters, weapons, vehicles and cinematics, all of it, but the level design underneath hasn't moved an inch. The Library is still The Library. No amount of new lighting is saving that stretch.
What is actually new
Operation: Meteorite bolts on three standalone missions set roughly a year before the main campaign, with Master Chief working a job alongside Sergeant Johnson. Around nine extra weapons come in from later games, so the Energy Sword, Sentinel Beam and Fuel Rod Gun now turn up in fights that never had them.
Co-op is the part we like most, though. Four players online with crossplay, two-player split-screen on console, and every player picks their own modifiers. Your friend can run infinite ammo and extra damage resistance while you grind Legendary the honest way. Same session, different rules per person. More games should do this.
Halo on PlayStation, for real
This is the first mainline Halo ever to launch on a Sony console. Say that sentence out loud to someone from 2007 and watch them short-circuit. PS5 owners get the full campaign, crossplay, and early access too if they bought the Premium Edition.
On the Xbox side it is a day one subscription release on July 28, covering Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. The Essential and Premium plans are sitting this one out for now.
Want the obvious comparison point? The 2011 remaster is still kicking around, and plenty of people are about to re-litigate which one looks better.
Release: 3 Mar 2020
So where do you land: buying in early, or waiting to see how it holds up after launch week? Drop it in the comments.
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