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We've just gotten our first look at even more of Halo: Campaign Evolved, and boy, do we have a lot to go over. Halo Studios has revealed that the game will feature 42 skulls to discover, with three hidden in each mission, alongside an all-new Campaign Remix mode.
That's a lot to unpack, so let's dive into everything shown in the latest trailer and find out exactly what Halo Studios means when it says you'll be able to play "Halo your way."
If you're not familiar with skulls, they're hidden collectibles that have been part of Halo since Halo 2. Scattered throughout the campaign, they act as gameplay modifiers, ranging from fun visual effects to major gameplay changes that can completely alter how you experience the game.
Some of these modifiers will be familiar to longtime Halo fans, such as Grunt Birthday Party, which causes confetti to burst from Grunts when you land a headshot. Others are entirely new, including a skull that lets players experience the campaign from a third-person perspective.
To give you an idea of what Halo: Campaign Evolved has in store, here are the skulls and modifiers shown in the trailer:
- Grunt Birthday Party (Triggers a celebratory explosion when landing headshots on Grunts.)
- Bandana (Provides infinite ammo, battery charge, and removes magazine limitations.)
- Acrophobia (Allows players to fly and explore freely.)
- Perspective (Switches the game into a third-person camera view.)
- Adaptation (Randomizes enemy factions and encounters throughout a level.)
- Speed Limit (Disables sprint.)
- Armistice (Prevents the Flood and Covenant from fighting each other.)
- Stowed Reload (Enables backpack reloading, allowing weapons to reload while stowed.)
- Magnified (Restores the MA5B's classic 60-round magazine and appears to increase its fire rate.)
- Floor Is Lava (Damages players whenever they touch the ground.)
There's plenty more skulls to discover, of course, but these were the ones that stood out to me the most. What's particularly interesting is that skulls don't just modify gameplay anymore.
Some of them can also dramatically alter the visual presentation of a mission. One example shown off was a modifier that blankets entire levels in Flood fog, giving familiar environments a much darker and eerier atmosphere. It's the sort of change that can make even a level you've played dozens of times feel fresh again.
That naturally leads into Campaign Remix, which appears to be Halo: Campaign Evolved's answer to replayability. Rather than manually selecting skulls yourself, Campaign Remix automatically applies a variety of gameplay and visual modifiers to create a completely different experience each time you play.
According to Halo Studios, Remix Mode can combine multiple skulls and modifiers at once, resulting in random combinations to give you something different each time you play. Whether that's fighting randomized enemy factions, navigating levels under different conditions, or experiencing missions with entirely different visual styles, Campaign Remix looks designed to encourage players to keep coming back long after they've finished the campaign for the first time.
Honestly, Halo: Campaign Evolved is shaping up really nicely, and everything we've seen so far has left me excited to get my hands on the full game later this year. Between the huge number of skulls, the visual modifiers, and Campaign Remix, it feels like Halo Studios is putting a real emphasis on replayability this time around.
Of course, we've only seen a small slice of what the game has to offer, but it's certainly left me wanting more. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below, and be sure to take part in our poll below:
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