RIP Dustin Echoes (Gaming)

by cheapLEY , Sunday, July 26, 2026, 20:29 (2 hours, 41 minutes ago) @ Kermit

I take it you've watched some of the cutscenes. What do you think? Although I like some of the original deliveries better, they're just what I'm used to. The cutscenes I've seen so far seem to take the material more seriously, and I like what they've added.

I take it you've watched some of the cutscenes. What do you think? Although I like some of the original deliveries better, they're just what I'm used to. The cutscenes I've seen so far seem to take the material more seriously, and I like what they've added.

It's a bit of a mix, for me. I like a lot of the new stuff, but miss some of the old. The Assault on the Control Room cutscene where we deposit Cortana is great, I think. It's less . . . frantic, I guess, but it really sells her absorbing everything about Halo in a way it didn't before.

I'm more mixed on the opening scene. In the new version, Halo isn't in the background, it's on the other side of the planet. It makes for a cool reveal, as we see it for the first time while we're on the escape pod, and it goes a lot further to really sell the Autumn being under assault with all the extra guns firing, leaving tracers everywhere in the skybox.

The redesigned levels are great, though. They changed the interior of Truth and Reconciliation a bit. Likewise, Assault on the Control room layouts have been changed, so it feels a bit less like it's just the same rooms and hallways copy/pasted throughout the level. The Library is the best change (and I didn't even dislike The Library). Instead of using the elevator to go up, we start at the top and work our way down, deeper into the facility, and every level gets more Flood infested. The Flood is significantly overhauled, too. It's basically the Halo 3 Flood, with Juggernauts showing up occasionally (no snipers, though, thankfully), and bodies being infected in real time. The Guilty Spark level looks great and has great atomsphere. And overall the game is impressive looking. The lighting is all great, as are all the effects. Subtle bullet trails from the assault rifle, the way the plasma shots light the environment. The beach on Silent Cartographer is the best looking beach I've ever seen in a game; the way the waves roll into shore is top notch. And this is probably my favorite iteration of Master Chief ever, they really nailed the design.

There are some nitpicks. The aim assist/bullet magnetism is far too strong. It's so strong that hitting the hands of the Jackal through the little shield notch with the pistol is damn near impossible--the bullets all track straight to the body and impact the middle of the shield even if you're aiming right at the little notch. While annoying, it has made for a bit more interesting fights, as Jackals can be a real pain with easily being able to knock them from behind their shields.

Performance is also occasionally a problem. It's not super awful or super frequent, but it is noticeable when lots of enemies are on screen, especially in Two Betrayals in the bigger outside battles.

My biggest nitpick is also the dumbest, but I miss real time cutscenes that use the actual game state. In the original, I loved parking the Warthog next to the Pelican at the end of the level Halo, then throwing grenades at it right before the cutscene started to try and flip the Warthog onto the Pelican in the cutscene. And early in that level when you activate the light bridge. I always broke the glass under the control panel so that the Chief dropped like six inches when the scene started--it made me laugh.

Also sort of a silly nitpick is that all the ice is gone! Assault on the Control used to have ice everywhere, now it's all just snow and mud. No more sliding the Warthog around on the ice. ): Although, otherwise the Warthog feels really good to drive (after switching the controls to classic). 343i has never made the Warthog feel good, but they kindof nailed it here, even if it doesn't feel exactly like the original.

Overall, though, I'm actually really enjoying Campaign Evolved. It feels very good, it looks good, and it even sounds great. Probably the best sound design 343i has pulled off, and it even changes convincingly based on environment (shooting inside the caves sounds really cool).

EDIT: I was in Keyes when I typed all that up. I just finished the game. I played on Heroic. It's been like five years or so since I lasted played through the original game, so maybe I'm wrong, but Heroic felt very easy in Campaign Evolved. There are some tricky sections, but not many. The enemy AI doesn't seem as aggressive. I've seen people saying they're using the Reach AI and behaviors, but they don't seem as aggressive as that, either. The Flood especially don't seem to rush as much. They make up for it in numbers, though. Again, maybe I'm misremembering, but enemy density seems higher, which is neat.

The Warthog run was cool. They did a lot of environment design there--it feels pretty convincingly like driving through a crashed ship. The Maw in general was really great with the visual overhaul. All the windows are blown out, so the ship is filled with sand and dust.

I haven't played the new missions yet, but I'm eager to. I've come away liking this game quite a lot.