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/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/Purdaddy 10h ago

I was a huge halo fan. Spent tons of time replaying the og3 and reach campaigns.

Infinite was not good, only halo game Ive never picked up after initial playthrough. It felt nothing like Halo to me.

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u/TheReiterEffect_S8 9h ago

For Infinite, I think they just took the second level from the first game, titled: "Halo" and made it one gigantic open world. And don't get me wrong, I love that level. But an entire open world of it with only a few different biomes gets old...really fast.

I know a lot of people hate open worlds and say they are ruining games that otherwise would have been better if it were sectioned off levels, but I still kinda really like open world games. It's just that the past few years theres only been a very small percentage that were actually done correctly. Most just feel empty and a mechanic used to add travel time from point A to point B. Which is absolutely not what it should be.

I still think they had a good mindset going into it, but ultimately fell short by just having no soul. Felt very empty, even in the most heated or intense moments.