Halo: Campaign Evolved has gone live via early access ahead of its full release on July 28. In other words, the series’ most hardcore fans across PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X have gotten their hands on it, and the reception among these fans so far has been mixed, to say the least. To this end, it only has a 70% approval rating on Steam. Meanwhile, there are quite a number of negative posts about the game this weekend over on the Halo Reddit page.
Some of these posts have honed in on the various changes to Cortana, most of which are proving unpopular. These are smaller critiques of the game, though. A larger critique is the cutscenes. Where the gameplay of Halo: Campaign Evolved is great, the cutscenes aren’t. The writing isn’t that great to begin with, but the bigger problems are the various voice performances, the awkward pacing at times, complete with strange pauses, and generally stilted and lifeless scenes. By AAA video game standards, none of it is jarringly bad by any means, but it’s far from good. And fans have noticed this.
One of the top posts so far this weekend on the Halo Reddit page — which is far more sympathetic to the new release than some other social media platforms, like X — calls out the game, noting some of the cutscenes feel unfinished. To accompany this statement, there is a video of one specific scene that has been making the rounds, and making the rounds for all the wrong reasons.
In isolation, one single complaint about one cutscene in the game isn’t that noteworthy, but this post isn’t the only one to take umbrage with this particular cutscene. Many have. And there are many other cutscenes that aren’t just lackluster, but actually worse than their original counterparts, despite all the advancements and additional resources poured into games now compared to the early 2000s.
“This looks so goofy I’d believe it if it was from some kind of parody game,” reads one of the top comments on the post above. Another, the literal top comment, adds, “What made Combat Evolved so iconic was its cinematic quality. Every custscene I’ve seen so far is a bastardization of the original.”
A third comment further drives the point home: “Glad to see the name change to Halo Studios didn’t change 343 at heart. They still can’t finish a game properly.”
Halo Studios — formerly known as 343 Industries — has struggled to take the reins of the series from Bungie. This isn’t surprising for a few reasons, but what is surprising is that Xbox continues to let it weaken its flagship IP. If Halo Studios can’t remake the first game well, how is it going to develop a compelling new installment? The latter, after all, is much harder. Halo 4, Halo 5, and Halo Infinite aren’t bad games. Not even close, but they don’t come close to the games that predate them. Alas, this is just another example that Halo Studios may not be fit to lead this series into the future.
All of that said, and as always, feel free to leave a comment or two letting us know what you think, or join the video game conversations happening over on the ComicBook Forum.
