Halo: Campaign Evolved introduces a special modifier that allows you to play the upcoming remake in third-person. That’s a big shift, given the franchise is best known for its first-person perspective.
Campaign Evolved isn’t third-person by default. Instead, players must toggle on one of the game’s 42 gameplay-modifying Skulls to play in third-person. The specific Skull you need for third-person is called Perspective.
For anyone new to Halo, Skulls are collectibles that players can find during campaign missions that unlock modifiers. Exactly how to find the Perspective Skull, however, remains a mystery for now. Check out the new gameplay footage for the third-person mode below.
The Halo series has featured limited third-person gameplay before, as games like Halo 3 allowed players to briefly enter third-person when driving vehicles and after ripping off chainguns.
Campaign Evolved includes 26 legacy Skulls from past Halo games, along with 16 new ones, one of which is Perspective. Another new one is called Floor Is Lava, and with this one, players take damage every time they touch the ground. The Speed Limit Skull, meanwhile, prevents players from sprinting. The original Halo: Combat Evolved didn’t have sprint, so you can use this Skull for an OG experience.
You can see a list of all the legacy and new Skulls for Campaign Evolved below, as shared by Halo Studios.
Additionally, Halo Studios announced a new Campaign Remix feature for Campaign Evolved. This is a new mode that lets players replay completed missions with randomized enemies, different weapon pickups, and new visibility effects. Players need to collect any two Skulls to unlock Campaign Remix.
The developers said at a group interview at Summer Game Fest attended by GameSpot that the Campaign Remix mode gives players yet another way to replay missions and experience them in new ways. “It really is a completely different way of playing the game, and really makes those missions feel very different,” Halo Studios said.
GameSpot played some of the remade missions for Halo: Campaign Evolved at Summer Game Fest recently, and we came away pretty unimpressed.
Halo: Campaign Evolved launches on July 28 for $50, and in addition to coming to the places you’d expect like Xbox and PC, it will also be available on PS5. People who pay more for the $70 premium edition can start playing on July 23.
There is no multiplayer support in Halo: Campaign Evolved, but another upcoming Halo game is rumored to be like Fortnite with a live-service multiplayer approach.
Preorders for Halo: Campaign Evolved are live now, for the game’s standard and premium editions.
Legacy Skulls
| Angry | Enemies fire their weapons faster and more frequently |
| Black Eye | Your shields will only recharge when you melee enemies |
| Blind | HUD and Weapons do not appear onscreen |
| Catch | Enemies throw and drop more grenades |
| Eye Patch | All auto-aim is disabled for all weapons |
| Famine | Weapons dropped by enemies contain half the ammo |
| Fog | Motion Tracker is disabled |
| Foreign | Players cannot use weapons from another faction |
| Iron | Dying in co-op resets you to your last checkpoint, dying while solo restarts the level |
| Mythic | Enemies have increased health |
| Recession | Every shot expends twice the normal amount of ammo |
| That’s Just… Wrong | Enemies have increased awareness of the player |
| Thunderstorm | Upgrades the rank of most enemies |
| Tough Luck | Enemies always go berserk, constantly dive out of the way, and never run away from a fight |
| Bandana | Infinite ammo and grenades |
| Boom | Explosion radius is increased by 2x |
| Ghost | Enemies no longer flinch when taking fire |
| Grunt Birthday Party | Grunt headshots produce legendary celebrations |
| Grunt Funeral | Grunts die in a blaze of plasma |
| Malfunction | Upon respawn a random element of your HUD no longer appears |
| Piñata | Punching enemies makes them drop inert grenades |
| Cowbell | Physics mass of objects is reduced, making them more easily displaced |
| They Come Back | Flood Combat Forms reanimated by Infection Forms are much more dangerous |
| IWHBYD | It would have been your dialogue |
| Tilt | Enhances both positive and negative damage multipliers. EX: Plasma does MORE damage against shields, but LESS damage against health |
| Acrophobia | The Corps: Now issue rifles AND wings… |
New Skulls
| Speed Limit | Take your time, enjoy the sights! Disables sprint |
| Pop | Shooting Flood in their weak point causes them to explode |
| Endurance Spec | UNSC vehicles cannot be damaged |
| Give & Take | Firing your weapon drains your shield, but dealing damage to enemies recharges it |
| Stowed Reload | Weapons continue to reload while stowed |
| Hip Fire | All weapon zoom functionality is disabled |
| Temperamental | Allies will attack the player more quickly if the player kills a friendly |
| Floor is Lava | Take continuous damage whenever touching the “ground” |
| Magnified | 60-round magazines for the AR are now standard-issue |
| Johnny Ammo Seed | When reloading you lose the ammo remaining in the discarded clip |
| Leadhead | Headshots no longer provide extra damage or instant kills |
| Efficient | Enemies killed while the player is at full health drop more ammo |
| Perspective | Changes the player camera to third-person |
| Adaptation | Randomizes the enemy factions present in the mission |
| Reload | Randomizes the pre-placed weapons for the mission |
| Armistice | Enemy factions never fight one another |
