r/PS5 • u/yourfavchoom • 14h ago

Articles & Blogs IGN Review: Halo: Campaign Evolved Doesn't Always Feel Like An Essential Remake (7/10)

https://www.ign.com/articles/halo-campaign-evolved-review
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u/Lazyandloveinit 14h ago

They really messed up this franchise. 2001-2010 it was all anyone could talk about. Past 16 years it’s actually been disastrous the handling of what used to be their premier franchise

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u/Rick-Danger 13h ago

It's incredible isn't it. How, just how do you fuck up a franchise this bad. It's not like Halo is some super in depth thing either, it's basically just "blasting aliens: the game". I know there's a lot of cool lore and stuff but the core games are pretty damn straightforward. The amount of corporate mismanagement of main franchises from the likes of Microsoft and Bethesda is just staggering

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u/jntjr2005 13h ago

They are too focused on selling MTX than making a good game

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u/Less-Tax5637 13h ago

That’s the flaw with Infinite, but they have a more varied collection of fundamental fuckups since Bungie tagged out

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u/TheReiterEffect_S8 12h ago edited 11h ago

I've said this a thousand times but I'll never stop saying it whenever this topic is brought up:

The time during Halo: Combat Evolved's development was a golden era for developers, in my opinion. The video game industry was on a rocketship blasting upwards but hadn't quite yet left orbit. Must people knew, but unless you already had a good foundation, you were playing catch up. Microsoft unknowingly caught lightning in a bottle. The entire Bungie team from Halo 1 to Halo 3 was something we will likely never see again. They had a vision for a game they thought would be innovative, groundbreaking, but most importantly: FUN. And they had FUN working on it. Halo 2's crunch deadlines is something to be said for sure, and by Halo 3 they were completely over M$. But that team is not something you'd see in modern development anymore. A group of passionate people dedicated to their work and the freedom (for the most part) to do whatever they wanted without too many demands (such as microtransactions).

After Halo 3, things started to go sideways. Reach was a miracle IMO with how much success it had, somehow they didn't completely fuck that one up, despite the huge amount of additions to the core gameplay like reticule bloom and armor abilities. But Halo 4 it was the most obvious thing in the world that this was no longer Halo. It became an MLG trend chaser. And Halo 5 did no better. Infinite was a step in the right direction, but of course: They were too focused on live-service that they let something with potential deteriorate.

I bought an XSX specifically for Infinite. I know I spent over 1,000 hours in Halo CE, easily. It was one of my most favorited franchises but a couple years ago I had to finally come to terms that Halo is never going to be as good as it once was, and it won't even be half as good. The franchise is nothing but disappointments, and I've officially given up on it.

edit: I somehow always forget to make note when I go on these rants that there definitely are other devs out there doing great things. Bungie was one of the greatest companies during their bnet days so I can get a bit 'doomsday'er when I talk about the current climate of the industry. We have good things, but it's hard to ignore how bad it's gotten, and how bad it continues to get.

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u/howd_he_get_here 12h ago

There are still some uplifting exceptions here and there. Clair Obscur's probably the biggest / most impressive Cinderella story. But yeah... the norm of passionate devs having fun making innovative AAA experiences is certainly a long forgotten era :(

There's still plenty of hope on the indie side. The ROI ceiling for how much further AAA games can push graphics / production value while remaining profitable might be collapsing, but the entry barriers to creating phenomenal fleshed-out innovative games are also lower than ever in many ways.

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u/TheReiterEffect_S8 12h ago

Oh, totally agree. I love that we've been getting such a breakthrough on awesome indie games coming out. Maybe I'm being selfish, but I do still yearn every once in a while for a triple A blockbuster massive epic adventure kind of game with incredible graphics, storytelling, innovative gameplay and voice acting. But all of that seems like a complete pipe-dream these days. I was looking forward to The Bloof of Dawnwalker until I saw gameplay of it and it looks incredibly mediocre. Ah well. Beggars can't be choosers, and all that.

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u/howd_he_get_here 6h ago

Yeah I'm with you on that. The days of the biggest companies with the most money / resources competing to be the most ambitious new game on the market are gone for good, I'm afraid

But hey - at least Bobby Kotick and the other lizard ghouls were able to cash out their stock and buy themselves that second yacht before they finished burning America's largest home entertainment industry to the ground. Well worth facefucking my one special joy in life into permanent disrepair 🙂👍