Halo: Campaign Evolved changes miss the point of the original’s level design, old school dev says

Microsoft and Halo Studios are looking to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Halo in a big way. The first and biggest announcement so far is Halo: Campaign Evolved, a remake of the classic Halo: Combat Evolved from 2001. The reimagined game will feature stunning 4K visuals, brand-new story content, four player co-op and something that would have been considered sacrilegious 15 years ago: releasing on the Playstation for the very first time in the game’s history.

While Halo: Campaign Evolved has Halo fans buzzing, from grizzled, old-school purists to newcomers alike, not everyone is thrilled about the announcement. Among the skeptics is Halo: Combat Evolved designer Jaime Griesemer. After watching a playthrough of fan-favorite mission “The Silent Cartographer,” Griesemer noted that even small changes, such as the removal of certain rocks along the shoreline, can undermine the careful thought and balance that defined the original’s level design.

“You aren’t supposed to be able to take the Warthog up to steamroll the Hunters,” Griesemer lamented on X. “I intentionally placed rocks in the way so you had to fight them on foot. When you can just smash the crates out of the way it wrecks the encounters. But the worst part? They put trees in the landing area of the WooHoo Jump. Lame.”

Gameplay from Halo: Campaign Evolved/Microsoft

Griesemer is referring to a sequence in the Halo: Campaign Evolved playthrough where Master Chief rolls up on two Hunters — enemies notable for being massive, heavily-armored and formidable even for Chief — with the chaingun-fitted Warthog vehicle and makes quick work of them with a Rocket Launcher and plasma grenades. Griesemer believes the removal of the rocks makes this encounter less impactful, diminishing the sense of danger and importance the Hunters once carried.

“It’s like the dance remix of a classic song that skips the intro and the bridge and just thumps the chorus over and over,” Griesemer added.

“The Silent Cartographer” won’t be the only mission seeing facets of its level design being changed in Halo: Campaign Evolved. The devs will also be overhauling one of the game’s most infamous missions, “The Library.”

“Yes, we mean The Library,” creative director Max Szlagor said in an Xbox Wire post.

“In The Library specifically,” he continued, “which features several Flood encounters, we wanted to reevaluate the pacing and enhance the environmental storytelling. We’ve added new lines to Guilty Spark, which guide players through the level, and there’s new dialogue that gives more insight into the narrative as it plays out.”

The Library level in the original Halo is infamous for its repetitive, maze-like layout, where winding, look-alike corridors can easily disorient players and send them unknowingly back the way they came.

Do you agree with Halo: Combat Evolved designer Jaime Griesemer that the Halo: Campaign Evolved changes miss the point of the original’s level design? Or do you think modern quality-of-life updates, like those seen in “The Library,” will matter more than the details Griesemer criticizes? Let us know in the comments.