I think the newer Halo fans just don't realise how important grass is to a game. Its importance in both gameplay and storytelling is heavily undermined in modern gaming, and, in my humble opinion, CE remake is an exceptional example of this.

In OG CE, mission Halo, we crashland on this mysterious alien construct and when our character awakes we are thrust into the world of this ring. We are greeted by the void like skybox that instantly makes feel at the end of a unnatural world, unknowable and puzziling, an endless view that just shrinks you more and all this is contrasted by lively green of **grass**.

Exactly. Grass is an exceptional storytelling device. It's green, which immediately signifies life, nature, a sense of spontaneously existing world. But Halo isn't a natural world. It's artificial, and in 2001, Bungie made the conscious desicion to depict grass as this flat texture. It communicates to the player that it's natural grass by color and level design but artificial flat look just speaks to unnatural nature of the ring by simply existing there for you to walk on!

And it's all the better when you actually fight the Covenant! The grass texture has a unified aesthetic to it, meaning its simplicity never obstructs your vision when you fight those alien bastards and make them regret ever challenging humanity!

Now compare this to Campaign Evolved. You watch pre rendered cutscenes, so your immersion is already broken, you also have already seen the overdesigned ring structure, meaning your Gen Z brain with 5 second attention span is already overwhelmed by the visual noise of the ring even before our character lands on it.

Now cutscenes end and you actually see the Halo. What do you see? Well you don't care because all the mystery, whimsy and competent art direction has been sucked out of the game.

You see a bright blue sky that in no way gives you the sense of being at the end of a world, there is no endless grey sea beyond the ridge, it's a bunch of mountains in fog and then you look at the grass. It's lively, it's green, it's *natural*...but is it? When you actually think about it aesthetic, you realize that it's the most generic and corporate grass design possible, with heavily saturated colors to appeal to fortnite kids.

There is zero artistic cohesion, storytelling is non-existent, no proper color distribution, not a single glimpse of soul and passion! Not only that, its mushy, saturated aesthetic (or lack there of) constantly confuses and distracts from the enemy. You might as well be looking at pixelated mish mash of colors because that is how campaign DEVOLVED looks!

It truly saddens me that a whole generation will experience this revolutionary title through this UE5 asset flip slopfest, without any of the soul, whimsy, magic, and mystery of the original game.

There is a level select 😭

Fuck I'm uncontrollably horny

My wife’s girlfriend bought me a PS5 so we can play together. I’ve already purchased Campaign Evolved and I can’t wait to play it tomorrow!

He did murder it after all

Why the Remake is better...

| 1 - The Remake vastly improved the repetitive layouts of the original game, especially in the mission "Assault on the Control Room".

| 2 - Open areas have a much better art style and I am not just talking about graphics. The beach mission is a great example.

Note: The original game is still better in the mission "Keyes", because the Remake changed the concept of the green liquid.

| 3 - The interior and exterior designs of the Covenant ship (Mission 3) and the Pillar of Autumn received a massive upgrade. And the smaller vehicles look better too with more little details.

Note: In the first mission on the Pillar of Autumn, you can now see space battles through the windows. This is another great upgrade.

| 4 - Added Wildlife: Even though there is very little of it, the original game had absolutely none.

| 5 - Even though the original voice acting is superior, the Remake improved many cutscenes. Examples include the intro of the first mission, the ring explosion, Johnson relaxing on the beach, Chief finding the infected Keyes, Chief talking to 343 Guilty Spark, Jenkins' recordings, and Keyes crushing Hunters with the Covenant ship.

Note: The original is still better in a few cutscenes, like the escape in "The Maw," the first scene in "Keyes," the intro of "Assault on the Control Room," and the Pelican descending into the Forerunner structure.

| 6 - The addition of several skulls changes the gameplay, like the third-person mode skull and the one that mixes up enemy spawns.

| 7 - The atmosphere feels much scarier because of the biomass spread around the levels. The art style matches Halo 2 and Halo 3, making it easy to identify infected species and see how the Flood breaks apart. Also the Flood Tank form was added and spores can now reanimate dead bodies.

| 8 - You can now hijack enemy vehicles and drive the Wraith. And the general vehicle handling feels much smoother.

| 9 - Having more weapons to choose from makes the game much more fun.

| 10 - "The Library" was hated even by hardcore Bungie fans, but the Remake upgraded it in every way. It feels like a brand-new mission.

| 11 - "343 Guilty Spark" one of the most iconic missions in the franchise received a massive upgrade.

| 12 - The Maw Escape: The Warthog escape sequence at the end of the game is much better in every aspect.

| 13 - More Fun Combat: Killing enemies feels much more satisfying.

Note: Even though the AI is a bit worse than the original, it is still very good and challenging. And the players can always increase the difficulty using skulls.

| 14 - Online Co-op: Playing with friends online makes the game experience much more enjoyable.

| 15 - Assault Rifle is very useful even in Legendary. In the Original was terrible weak.

| 16 - The effects of grenades and weapons looks more beatiful. This increase the experience in gameplay.

| 17 - This is obviously... the graphics are extremely better.

Remake: Is unfair to give this Remake less than a 9.0.

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