Xbox’s oldest system-seller is officially getting the full modern-remake treatment.
During Sunday’s Xbox Games Showcase, Halo Studios confirmed that Halo: Campaign Evolved will launch July 28, 2026, with early access beginning July 23 for Premium Edition and Collector’s Edition buyers. The game is a ground-up remake of Halo: Combat Evolved’s campaign, rebuilt for Xbox Series X|S, PC, Steam, cloud, and PlayStation 5. It will also arrive day one on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.
The core pitch is simple: this is the original 10-mission campaign, rebuilt with high-definition visuals, updated cinematics, refined controls, improved wayfinding, remastered music, rebuilt sound design, and new voice performances from the primary cast. Halo Studios is also expanding the sandbox with nine additional weapons from across the series, including the Energy Sword, Battle Rifle, and Needle Rifle. Vehicle play is getting a similar update, with hijacking, a drivable Wraith, and even a Warthog tweak built for four-player co-op chaos.
Halo: Campaign Evolved: What we know about the remake
The biggest new showcase reveal was the New Missions Trailer, which focused on Operation: METEORITE. This is the new three-mission story arc included with every edition of Halo: Campaign Evolved.
The trailer finally moved the remake beyond the familiar beaches, cliffs, corridors, and Forerunner geometry of “The Silent Cartographer.” Xbox showed Master Chief and Sgt. Johnson operating before the events of the original game, pushing through Covenant-controlled spaces, fighting new threats, and bringing the battle into space.
That last part is especially important because Halo has always had a strange relationship with scale. The fiction is galactic, the stakes are apocalyptic, but the best missions often work because they make the player feel like one armored body moving through impossible machinery. Operation: METEORITE seems designed to widen the frame without losing that boots-on-metal texture.
What is Operation: METEORITE?
Operation: METEORITE is a brand-new three-mission prequel arc set one year before Halo: Combat Evolved. It features Master Chief and Sgt. Johnson on a clandestine UNSC operation aboard a Covenant research vessel.
The premise starts as a “smash and grab,” according to Xbox, before the mission turns into something more complicated. That is good Halo grammar. The series is at its best when military certainty collapses into cosmic dread. The squad goes in for an objective, the room opens beneath them, and suddenly everyone is standing inside a much older story.
Operation: METEORITE will include new locations, new enemy variants, more weapons from across the Halo series, and new ways to play inside the Halo sandbox. Xbox also confirmed a new threat called the Brute Berserker, plus story collaboration with Troy Denning, a longtime Halo novelist whose work gives the new arc some useful lore credibility.
That detail matters because new Halo story content can go wrong fast. Fans tend to notice when the military cadence, Forerunner weirdness, or Covenant texture feels off. Denning’s involvement suggests Halo Studios is at least trying to make the new material feel authored inside the universe, rather than stapled onto a remake as anniversary padding.
How many missions are in Halo: Campaign Evolved?
The full package includes 13 campaign missions.
The original Halo: Combat Evolved campaign had 10 missions. Halo: Campaign Evolved includes all 10, rebuilt for the remake, plus the three Operation: METEORITE prequel missions.
That makes the remake broader than a one-to-one visual restoration. Halo Studios is keeping the spine of the original campaign, but it is also using the remake to add context, character time, and mechanical variety around the edges.
What gameplay changes are coming?
The remake adds a wider arsenal, expanded vehicles, refined controls, improved level design, and more Skulls than any previous Halo campaign.
Halo Studios has confirmed nine additional weapons from across the series. The list includes the Energy Sword, Battle Rifle, and Needle Rifle, which immediately changes how Combat Evolved’s old encounters can breathe. The original game’s weapon sandbox was beautiful because it was stark and readable. The remake’s challenge will be adding later-series toys without flattening that elegance.
Vehicle play is also getting modernized. Players will be able to hijack enemy vehicles, pilot a drivable Wraith, and use a modified Warthog with an extra rear-bumper seat so a four-player fireteam can ride together. That is a small touch with big couch-chaos energy, which is exactly where a Halo remake should be shameless.
The Skulls system is also being expanded. Players can return to missions and remix the campaign with modifiers affecting weapons, enemies, player attributes, environmental conditions, and other variables. That should give the remake much more replay texture than a straight nostalgia run.
Will Halo: Campaign Evolved have co-op?
Yes. Halo: Campaign Evolved supports two-player split-screen co-op on consoles and up to four-player online co-op.
The online co-op support spans Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, Steam, and PlayStation 5, with cross-play and cross-progression. Console players also get split-screen, which is not merely a feature checkbox here. Split-screen is part of Halo’s cultural architecture. For a certain kind of player, Combat Evolved is inseparable from a couch, bad posture, a too-small TV, and someone yelling because the Warthog flipped again.
Bringing that back matters. Modern Halo has often felt caught between service-game expectations and legacy obligation. A campaign-first remake with split-screen, online co-op, and cross-platform support is a cleaner promise.
Halo: Campaign Evolved FAQ
When does Halo: Campaign Evolved come out?
What platforms is Halo: Campaign Evolved on?
The game is coming to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Steam, cloud, and PlayStation 5. It will also be available day one through Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.
Does Halo: Campaign Evolved have new missions?
Yes. Operation: METEORITE adds three prequel missions set one year before Halo: Combat Evolved, starring Master Chief and Sgt. Johnson.
Does Halo: Campaign Evolved have co-op?
The biggest additions include seamless sailing into major locations, updated graphics, dynamic weather, reworked combat, free crouching, expanded Eagle Vision/Observe tools, more flexible tailing missions, improved parkour, recruitable Jackdaw officers, new sea shanties, ship pets, new story content and expanded arcs for characters like Blackbeard and Stede Bonnet.
