Halo: Campaign Evolved launches to the lowest Metacritic score in the history of the Microsoft franchise

The full release of Halo: Campaign Evolved arrived last week, but the reception has been a bumpy one. The Unreal Engine 5 remake sits at 82 on Metacritic, making it the lowest-scoring main Halo title on the platform, and is currently rated "Mixed" on Steam, where a frustrated PC playerbase is blaming crashes, performance issues, and a mandatory Microsoft sign-in requirement for souring what should have been a landmark return.

The details:

• The 82 Metacritic score undercuts Halo 3: ODST's 83, the previous low point in the series. Critics broadly praised the nostalgia and modernised gameplay, but took issue with the game's new missions being too short.
• PC players have had a particularly rough launch. Stuttering, crashes, and sign-in authentication failures have been widely reported since the game entered early access on July 23, and the Steam user review score sits at a 69% approval rating.
• Fans have also taken issue with changes to Cortana. Her visual redesign has been criticised since it was first shown, with some community members describing it as lacking the artistic polish of the original. In-game, she is also significantly more talkative than she was in Combat Evolved, frequently interjecting with hints and tips in a way many players say undercuts the exploration that defined the original.
• Halo: Campaign Evolved is the first game in the franchise to launch on PlayStation, and is available day one on Game Pass.