We’ve been spending some time with the game ahead of its release and our review, and have come away with a few useful pointers for you to keep in mind whether you’re a returning veteran or a new recruit to the cause. Let’s get right to it.

1. Leave Nothing Behind

Many previews have been pointing out that some doors lock behind you once you cross their thresholds, and that anything you leave behind on the battlefields they block off could be lost forever. It doesn’t happen to all doors as far as we’ve seen, but it’s happening consistently enough across the board to be something worth mentioning as part of our experience with the preview build. If you’re coming up on an obvious transition point, it’s a good idea to backtrack and replace depleted weapons or refill your ammo.

2. An Interesting Use For The Plasma Pistol

Fully charging up a shot with the Plasma Pistol makes it act like an EMP that can be very handy in vehicle heavy encounters if you want to save your rockets for later. It works on Ghosts, Wraiths, and other vehicles, and can be very nifty once you get used to deploying it precisely. It’s going to work very well with another tip that’s coming up, and can be quite a potent combo in situations where you could use a little breathing room. That happens quite a lot in this one.

3. Use EMP Windows To Hijack Vehicles

Vehicle hijacking is now a thing, and given that the Ghost now seats a full four-member party, it pays to have an easy way to get your hands on one. Well, the EMP from your Plasma Pistol’s charged shot opens up an opportunity for you to commandeer disabled vehicles, using its immobility to board it and turn the tables in tight encounters. Getting your hands on a heavily-armored machine can easily turn a fight in your favor, giving you a lot of control over its outcomes in the process.

4. Capture Those Wraiths

Building on our last couple of points, if you see a Wraith in action operating against you, it isn’t a reason to try and avoid it, but an opportunity to commandeer a very potent vehicle with simple tactics. The EMP is once again your best friend here, and getting your hands on a Wraith gives you some very heavy armor that protects some serious firepower in a fight. They’re a priority, and a very rewarding one at that.

5. Be Ready To Be Boarded

We’ve been talking a lot about boarding enemy vehicles, so it’s probably worth mentioning that your foes are going to try and eject you from their valuable vehicles. If you’re on the move with your enemies in pursuit, it’s a good idea to keep your momentum alive, and stay away from the enemy infantry who might get caught up in the crossfire with no reliable escape route on the ground. Try to dispose of threats when you’re in a Ghost, Wraith, or other crucial vehicles, or at least shake them off before you head for safety.

6. Share Your Best Loot With Marines

We’ve been itching to try this out ourselves, but we did catch some of our Marines using rocket launchers with devastating precision in some previews. That’s because you get to exchange weapons with them, and giving them some solid gear is going to make them valuable additions to your side of the battles you’ll be facing with them. They’re especially effective when vehicles are involved, and while there’s talk of their ammo being unlimited, we’re going to wait for the final build before making any comments.

7. Arm Marines Before Getting On The Scorpion

Once you gain access to The Scorpion, know that any gear you give your Marines before they get on it remains at their disposal in subsequent battles, making the Scorpion function as a mobile squad that’s armed to the teeth, and armored enough to shrug off some devastating attacks as it blazes a path across battlefields. It’s quite a glorious sight to see in action, and we can promise you it’s going to be a while before it gets old. If it ever does, that is.

8. Protect Your Best Marines

If you’ve given Marines Power Weapons, you might want to hold off on rushing headlong into the thick of battles with the Scorpion, as taking a more measured approach could mean you make the most of their arsenal whilst avoiding unnecessary losses. Considering that each Marine uses what you’ve given them only when they’re alive, you might want to take advantage of the Scorpion’s defense and unleash its full potential when you sense safety ahead.

9. Save Those Portable Overshields

A change we’re really happy with is the fact that Overshields are now portable, instead of activating the moment you pick one up like in the original release. That means you get to save them for truly dicey situations, which we highly recommend given that they’ve meant the difference between surviving them or eating a ton of enemy fire without one handy. Think of them as a sort of emergency counter measure and use them as you see fit from there.

10. Use Active Camo Wisely

We know its tempting to just take a stealth approach with Active Camo as soon as you see it on the battlefield, but given that it’s also usable later, it’s a good idea to save it all for a rainy day. They’re best used when you need some breathing room to reposition, or when you’ve got a priority target you’re trying to take out first before all hell breaks loose. Traditional backsmacks work exactly like they used to, and getting to enemies undetected is a lot easier if they can’t see you.

11. Sprint When You Need To

Sprinting’s quite a useful addition to the gameplay loop, and it’s a great way to cross open spaces if you anticipate coming under fire when you do, and is a good way to break contact if the need arises, perhaps getting behind cover before enemy fire gets too overwhelming to effectively respond to. However, it’s going to work against you if you end up sprinting into unfamiliar rooms, as you’re going to need to find cover to figure out enemy formations in time to come up with a viable strategy.

12. The Elites Are More Intelligent

The enemy AI is pretty good for the most part, and most enemies are able to identify opportunities to withdraw from the fight to recover their shields and come back into the fray. That’s going to be quite prominent in co-op sessions on higher difficulties, and if you’re up against an Elite, you might want to make it a priority as much as possible since allowing those potent foes to come back into the fight with more protection is definitely a bad idea. Preventing regeneration on your targets should be something you try to do as much as you can as a rule of thumb anyway.

13. Switch Between Cover Positions

Speaking of Elites, we’ve found that they like to flank your position quite often this time around, effectively trying to force you to break cover while Grunts and Jackals try to pin you down the moment you try to make a run for it. Switching between cover often forces them to reset their strategies while opening up options for you to counterattack while they scramble a response. Identify multiple defensive positions and weave in strategies unique to them as you go along to maximize your effectiveness in the field.

14. The Magnum’s Precision

The Magnum has returned in all its glory, and its potency might make you mistake it for an emergency side arm, but if you use it against exposed infantry and suitable targets, you’re going to find battles going in your favor more frequently than before you holstered it. If you’ve got something on hand for breaking shields and other defences, the Magnum is going to be a finisher like no other, and is worth weaving into your battle plans as much as possible.

15. Replacing Empty Enemy Weapons

Those enemy Weapons can seem like they’re indispensible, but having to collect them only after you’ve expended uses on the one already in your possession makes them less practical than they could be. We wouldn’t recommend getting too attached to having one on hand, instead treating them as convenient options to use if and when one is easily accessible. Their limited ammo doesn’t allow them to be more than that, sadly.

16. Save Your Grenades For Targets That Matter

Grenades are definitely powerful, but they’re quite scarce enough to justify saving them for bosses or groups that are proving too troublesome for your other tactics. Regular Grunts and weaker targets must always draw only gunfire, with potent explosives saved for the ones where your guns aren’t making enough of a dent to leave you in control of the fight. They’re especially effective against enemies in large clusters, positions that come heavily defended, or places where some area damage is going to even the odds.

17. The Faster Scorpion and Wraith

The driving mechanics are certainly a highlight and the Scorpion and Wraith are now much better than their original counterparts, with better handling, tuning, and battle capabilities on board. They’re great ways to tear through stiff opposition as long as you keep moving to avoid being boarded, and be quite liberal with using their cannons to devastate enemy locations. They fire quite fast, which means that staying mobile and maintaining pressure means your enemies don’t get a chance to regroup and come at you with better strategies than the losing one.

18. Take On Specific Roles In Co-Op

If you’re bringing your buddies along, it’s a good idea to approach the game with a plan, and with each of you serving specific roles on your team. To that end, you’re going to want to share the best weapons, gear, and loot that suits those roles as and when you find them, ensuring that your teammates are well-equipped enough to have your back when things inevitably get nasty. It also ensures that you spread important functions like precision fire, shield removal, explosives, and close-range fighting across the board, with each of you knowing what needs your attention, and what to leave to your pals.

19. Co-Op Increases More Than Just Enemy Numbers

If you’re indeed bringing the boys along, know that the campaign scales according to how many of you are jumping in, and the difficulty you’re taking on. That means you could see more enemies instead of just more powerful versions of existing ones, and more intelligent responses to your attacks such as avoiding grenades, better targeting, and more tactical retreats for shield recovery. It gets harder the more of you there are, which is what’s going to make your victory feel that much sweeter when it finally arrives.

20. Use Your Personal Difficulty Modifiers Generously

While we’re still on the subject of co-op, you get to adjust important parameters like your damage resistance, the recharge speed on your shields, your melee damage, and even ammunition options. If you’re teaming up with pros and need that extra hand, Campaign Evolved has got you and you don’t need to sit out the action or force your more experienced comrades to insult their skills on a lower difficulty. However, certain challenges focused achievements are going to be out of your reach when they’re on, so keep that in mind and try to phase them out once you get into your groove.

And that’s about it. You’re going to be dominating the battlefield in no time once you remember these little nuggets of wisdom. Master Chief’s already a force to be reckoned with, and in the right hands, he’s a powerhouse like no other. Well, you now have everything you need to make that your reality, and have a hell of a fun time doing so.

Not all games will be available to stream, however, and players will need to buy and own games. Since this ad-supported service is expected to be entirely separate from the company’s Game Pass subscription service, the fact that it lacks a built-in library of games shouldn’t be too surprising.

Xbox has also noted that the ad-supported cloud streaming service is completely optional, and that players can continue to play the games they own through other means, like a console or PC. Supported games include 2026 releases like Forza Horizon 6 and 007 First Light along with older titles.

Offering further details on how the advertisement system will work, the company has noted that it has no plans to interrupt the flow of gameplay during a session. Ads are also supposed to meet “the same quality bar as our content”, and are going to be clear about what they’re selling. The company also wants to make sure that ads shown to a player fit that player’s needs and platform.

“Advertising has existed in gaming for decades, from in-game placements to free-to-play models,” explains the company. “But it hasn’t always been built with the player in mind. When done well, advertising can help lower the cost of access. It creates another way for players to get into games without an upfront streaming purchase and expands audiences through new ways to play.”

As is always the case with new features being tested out by Xbox, Insiders can offer feedback through the Player Voice platform that was introduced earlier this year. Xbox Insiders also have a subreddit for discussions and feedback.

This announcement comes after rumors from earlier this year indicated that Microsoft was going to launch ad-supported cloud streaming this year. At the time, reports also indicated that this would have nothing to do with Game Pass, and that the ad-supported version of Xbox Cloud Gaming is going to be available freely for anyone who has access to a compatible device.

Microsoft had confirmed that it was internally testing a free tier of Xbox Cloud Gaming supported through ads back in October 2025, following shortly after its incredibly controversial decision to raise the price for Game Pass subscriptions. The report also indicated that players would get a total of five 1-hour sessions each month, and that pre-roll ads would be around two minutes long. The statement came after rumors indicated that the ad-supported tier was in the works.

Xbox introduced the ability for players to access games they own through cloud streaming all the way back in November 2024. Before this, the only titles available through the service were the Game Pass catalogue. Since then, the company has worked on making more Xbox Series X/S and PC games playable through cloud gaming.

It is worth noting that the layoffs across Bethesda as a whole, which includes teams from ZeniMax Online Studios and Bethesda Game Studios, have been quite extensive, with the former losing 213 of its employees. As for the latter, in an official statement, the company has said that its “primary development focus” is the long-awaited The Elder Scrolls 6.

“With over 65 million copies sold, players are still exploring Skyrim 15 years later, but we know it’s been a very long wait for the sequel. We’re where we planned to be, loving how it looks, and playing it every day.”

Previous reports have indicated Bethesda Game Studios has lost more than 50 of its employees due to the layoffs, which included “key, high-performing people in the trenches” across “a mix of every discipline: programmers, artists, and designers” that were working on the open-world RPG. “Their loss will have a substantial and cascading effect on the game and morale of this studio,” said one employee.

While these current and former Bethesda employees aren’t quite sure how the studio will continue developing the game going forward, one has expressed worries about being “replaced by cheaper contracted labor.” Some also believe that Bethesda might “hire folks to replace them that will need to be onboarded (our tools are proprietary, other devs aren’t going to know how they work), resulting in more delays, and we’ll need to crunch to make up the time.”

Bethesda, for its part, has been generally quiet about the release window for The Elder Scrolls 6. In a recent Q&A session, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier has posited that it might still be at least two years away. Even director Todd Howard hasn’t revealed much, simply saying that it’s “our biggest project right now” and that the team knows “we need to get it right, and it’s been a long time.”

The closest idea we’ve gotten about the state of The Elder Scrolls 6’s development has been a statement by Xbox CCO Matt Booty from back in June, when he said that it was “coming along well.” He went on to say that the team wants to “wait till the right moment” before it reveals more details.

“And when you decide to show it, you want it to be the best you’ve got. And also that when you show the game, you’re also giving them a promise of, hey, it’s coming soon. So I can tell you, having visited Bethesda and sat with Todd and seen Elder Scrolls playing, it looks amazing, and it’s coming along well. And we’ll make sure to announce it and really reveal it at the right time.”

For more on The Elder Scrolls 6, take a look at our thoughts about how troubled it seems.

Unfortunately, no other details about this canceled project have been revealed. Jones’ note about working on cross-team coordination at Bethesda Softworks as a whole rather than just for Bethesda Game Studios indicates that it could have been in development at one of the studios under the company.

A likely candidate for this is a project that was reportedly being developed at MachineGames, which was described as being similar to Rainbow Six Siege. While the studio itself hadn’t confirmed any details, the title is believed to involve attacker vs. defender gameplay similar to Ubisoft’s shooter.

In the meantime, the studio has spoken about wanting to make more games in its Wolfenstein series. Last year, having wrapped up development on Indiana Jones and the Great Circle’s The Order of Giants expansion, studio co-founder and director Jerk Gustafsson said that MachineGames saw the Wolfenstein series as a trilogy.

“So that journey, for B.J., even during those first weeks at id when we mapped out New Order, we still had the plan for, at least, that character; What will happen in the second one, what will happen in the third one. I think that’s important to say, because, at least, I hope, that we’re not done with Wolfenstein yet. We have a story to tell.”

Reports following Xbox-wide layoffs have indicated that development on a new Wolfenstein game has begun following studio restructuring that led to Gustafsson being made president of Arkane.

Other reports have also indicated that there are no plans to stop working on games in the Wolfenstein, Doom, and Quake franchises. Taking to social media, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier noted that these games will be developed despite significant reorganization across ZeniMax.

“ZeniMax will be impacted significantly by the reorganization but will NOT be reduced to only Fallout and The Elder Scrolls, despite rumors over the last few weeks. The publisher will also still work on Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake,” he posted.

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced the layoffs at the beginning of the month, confirming that around 1,600 jobs were being cut. She also said that approximately 1,600 more cuts are planned for before the end of the current fiscal year.

“I know this is painful. These changes will directly affect people who have poured their creativity into building Xbox,” she said. “Many joined us through acquisitions, while others were recruited here, or sought us out because they loved this industry and loved Xbox. Today’s decisions do not reflect their talent or dedication.”

The layoffs were followed up with significant restructuring across Xbox, which included the appointment of Helen Chiang as the division’s new chief operating officer, who would be directly accountable for its profits and losses moving forward.

“Last Friday, Xbox flooded news sites announcing every expansion, sequel, and remake they could. That same day, they told their laid-off Bethesda Montreal employees that they would receive the smallest severance legally possible without bargaining with the union.”

Further in its statement, the union also noted that Microsoft had spoken to US and Canada-based employees affected by the layoffs that it would negotiate severance with OneBGS. However, on July 17th, the company has allegedly changed its mind and sent out termination letters to affected employees through email.

“This was contrary to what they had been told in the Monday calls,” explained OneBGS. “These letters stated that the Canadians are to receive the bare legal minimum in terms of severance: eight weeks of pay in lieu of the minimum legal notice, any outstanding vacation pay, etc. They were to also immediately lose their group benefits health insurance.”

“We’re not going to take this lying down. We’ve filed yet another legal complaint against Bethesda for continuing to violate labor laws in Canada. Bethesda and Xbox leadership depend on our labor to make them millions, and yet when we do, we are disposed of. The cycle of workers paying for the mistakes of management ends here.”

In a now-deleted Bluseky post (via GamesRadar), lead character artist Ben Carnow reiterated the union’s claims that Microsoft had not negotiated with OneBGS despite being legally required to do so. “Folks lost their healthcare with zero notice. Unconscionable.”

Bethesda’s Todd Howard recently acknowledged in an interview that the layoffs were a “really tough” experience for him and his colleagues. However, he also said that the company is going through a change that will allow it to “focus best on the franchises and what we need to do to deliver for everybody.”

The company has confirmed that it will work on Fallout 5 in the future, and in the meantime, will work on remasters of Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. Along with this, it is also working with Obsidian Entertainment on an entirely new Fallout project. Development on Fallout 76 is also slated to continue as planned, with its team currently working on the Raven Rock expansion.

Aside from this, Bethesda is currently also hard at work on The Elder Scrolls 6. Earlier this month, the company reaffirmed that it remains its “primary development focus today”, and that “the majority of our team” is working on the project.

“With over 65 million copies sold, players are still exploring Skyrim 15 years later, but we know it’s been a very long wait for the sequel.” It then went on to assure that, “We’re where we planned to be, loving how it looks, and playing it every day.”

Bethesda Games Studios’ Montreal workers are being treated especially poorly by XBOX and we won’t stand for it. Here are the details.If this upsets you let Microsoft know: feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/ide…

— OneBGS – Bethesda Game Studios Union (@bethesdaunion.bsky.social) 2026-07-22T14:50:07.511Z

Touting the classic 4v4 format, they’ve been designed to be symmetrical. We’ve seen a few new gameplay mechanics, like how sliding can be used for mobility and jumping can create new flanking opportunities. But the number of maps and other modes remains to be revealed. There’s also Horde Siege, a 12-player take on the long-running co-op mode which spans the entire city of Kalona.

An open beta is slated for August, so perhaps we’ll learn more about dates, timings and how content is included (as well as how to gain access). Gears of War: E-Day launches on October 6th for Xbox Series X/S and PC, and should include a swathe of additional content outside of the 14+ hour campaign.

But that’s not the end, as The Coalition promises a robust seasonal roadmap. As if addressing concerns from previous years, all new content additions can seemingly be earned by completing challenges. Of course, for those who don’t really care about cosmetics, there should be new maps and weapons. As always, stay tuned for more details.

However, the inability of the service to reach a critical mass of subscribers that was needed to sustain it is what ultimately led to it not working out. Due to this, the service also couldn’t be used to fund more projects.

“I think it’s really sad, and I think it’s really unfortunate,” said Brown, “because they’ve honestly invested a fortune in the concept of Game Pass as a service, which led to loads of teams being acquired, loads of games being funded, loads of people getting jobs, all with a vision of getting regular games landing in this service for players. And I think the reality is not enough people have subscribed to it at the prices they needed to pay in order to make that business viable.”

“And that’s actually just really sad because we’re now going to see studios getting shut down or spun off. Loads of people are going to lose their jobs. And that is honestly just a result of a well-meaning, player-focused concept of Xbox Game Pass not working out. And that’s just a real shame.”

Brown also defended some of the Xbox employees that have been catching criticism from people, especially in light of the recent layoffs across the division.

“As much as people point fingers and call different people within Xbox the villain of the piece, the concept of Game Pass was good. It’s a good idea. Like, let’s have a subscription, make it affordable, try and get games to more people. We’ll have a really diverse selection of games on there. We’ll get a load of studios involved. We’ll make some games that probably couldn’t exist otherwise. And if more people had subscribed, that it makes enough money and it works and all of those studios go on, and those games get made again, and those teams will make other games. Unfortunately, it never reached the number that would make the $70 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard make financial sense.”

Brown is far from the first person to have spoken about the business behind the Game Pass subscription. Just last month, CEO of Moon Studios, George Broussard, had similarly noted that the subscription service had the potential to work out. However, his criticism largely revolved around Microsoft pushing out “mediocre content like a factory” on the service.

“You need those games your studios are producing to become smash hits, cultural events that everyone wants to play – but what was the big Xbox game in recent years that was just delightfully good? That game doesn’t exist,” he said, before going on to say that Microsoft needs to “deeply, fundamentally understand gamers and what they want”.

“Personal update: I’ve joined Cognition to lead engineering. I’m grateful to Asha Sharma and everyone at Xbox for an amazing year. Excited for this next chapter with Scott Wu and team.”

Palmer’s appointment as VP of Xbox Engineering from back in May was part of a broader leadership shake-up brought along by Sharma. He was joined by Tim Allen taking on the role of CVP of Xbox Design, Johnathan McKay as Xbox head of Growth, Evan Chaki as Xbox general manager of transformation, and David Schloss as head of Xbox subscriptions and cloud.

“I’ll be focused on building world-class tools, services, and experiences for developers and players across the Xbox ecosystem. Grateful for the opportunity and excited to get to work,” said Palmer about his role at the time. Before joining the Xbox team, he had previously worked with Sharma at Microsoft’s CoreAI division.

“Our goal with this [leadership] change is simple: build a platform that is affordable, personal, and open by staying close to the work and the people we serve,” said Sharma in May.

The leadership changes at Xbox also included several reassignments, like making Jason Ronald – former VP of Xbox gaming devices and ecosystems – “accountable for Project Helix and the Xbox platform”, and former VP of Xbox experiences Jason Beaumont heading up product services and serving as the interim head of engineering.

“Xbox needs to move faster, deepen our connection with the community, and address friction for both players and developers,” said Sharma. “Today, we promoted leaders who helped build Xbox, while also bringing in new voices to help push us forward. This balance is important as we get the business back on track.”

“As part of this shift, you’ll see us begin to retire features that don’t align with where we’re headed. We will begin winding down Copilot on mobile and will stop development of Copilot on console.”

Palmer’s departure comes less than a month after Sharma announced massive layoffs across Xbox, affecting around 1,600 jobs in the process. In her announcement, she also confirmed that 1,600 more cuts were planned over the course of the fiscal year.

“I know this is painful. These changes will directly affect people who have poured their creativity into building Xbox. Many joined us through acquisitions, while others were recruited here, or sought us out because they loved this industry and loved Xbox. Today’s decisions do not reflect their talent or dedication.”

The layoffs were then followed up with further changes across Xbox, including the appointment of a new chief operating officer for the division in the form of Helen Chiang, who took over the role from 17-year veteran of the company Dave McCarthy.

The most notable refinement is in Campaign Evolved’s rebuilt levels. In essence, a handful of the original levels became repetitive, with Bungie forced to balance their ambition with memory limitations and processing power. Countless corridors, for instance, jutted and zig-zagged to hide internal loading, interrupting momentum with unnecessary deviations, while room templates were re-used across countless arenas.

The Library’s changes have been heavily publicised in the lead-up to Campaign Evolved’s release, and we highlighted its redesign in our “15 Things to Know” feature already. But, in summary, The Library has undergone wholesale restructuring, with each floor now harbouring its own identity through unique architectural detail and colour palettes. Meanwhile, clearer navigation and less Flood repetition ensures more consistent pacing throughout the level.

Assault on the Control Room – one of Combat Evolved’s largest levels – has seen significant redesign as well. The aforementioned loading corridors have been replaced by straight transitional run-throughs, while this level more than most has been tweaked to accommodate up to four co-op players. And again, like The Library, individual rooms have been redesigned to be distinct from one another. Now, what could have been felt as a repetitive slog is revitalised.

343 Guilty Spark broadens its outdoor swamp sections to encourage exploration while giving the narrative more time to marinate. Meanwhile, iconic level The Silent Cartographer is bringing more than bigger beaches. Yes, one of Combat Evolved’s best levels is a prime example of how the remake scales classic spaces for four-player co-op, all whilst making the environment easier to read through more distinct Forerunner architecture which now act as visual landmarks rather than set dressing.

"The most notable refinement is in Campaign Evolved’s rebuilt levels."

While Campaign Evolved’s structural redesigns should make individual levels more enjoyable to play, they’re also solving one of the original’s most persistent problems: getting lost. Back in 2001, it was an understandable consequence of the hardware limitations Bungie faced, but it’s aged poorly in an era where readable environments are crucial. Updating the repeating geometry and near-identical corridors of Forerunner outcrops and interiors is the surface level solution Halo Studios have implemented to ensure you don’t lose your bearings, but the remake also offers subtler guidance in the form of updated Cortana dialogue and environmental signposting. Going back to The Silent Cartographer, extra Forerunner structures have been added to the skyline, imposing themselves as natural orientation points as you battle along the coastline. This philosophy has been copied across the entire remake, resulting in a campaign that isn’t just easier to follow but one that maintains a stronger momentum. See, by making environments easier to read, Halo Studios preserves your natural inclination to explore by removing the tendency for it to devolve into aimless wandering. And, of course, these refinements allow Campaign Evolved’s firefights, storytelling, and set pieces to flow into one another with far less friction than before.

Elsewhere, Campaign Evolved’s improvements aren’t limited to level design. No, the remake also broadens Combat Evolved’s sandbox, introducing new weapons from later titles alongside smarter enemy behaviours to create encounters that are more emergent and less predictable than before. Enemies, for one, haven’t just received a boost in difficulty, or had their numbers increased. Instead, through the remake’s wider tactical toolkit, the Flood can be dealt with in a myriad new ways.

Before we get into that: the remake’s expanded arsenal fills several gaps in Master Chief’s 2001 collection. Halo 2’s Battle Rifle introduces a dedicated mid-range option, while the luminous Energy Sword finally becomes a fully usable weapon after only existing in the grip of an Elite. Furthermore, additions such as the Beam Rifle, Sentinel Beam, Fuel Rod Cannon, Needle Rifle, Brute Plasma Rifle, Spiker, and SMG all broaden your possibilities, fostering encounters that simply weren’t available in the original game.

And, even the original game’s arsenal hasn’t been overlooked. The Assault Rifle’s accuracy has seen a tweak, while the Plasma Pistol’s EMP capabilities, the SPNKr Rocket Launcher’s lock-on functionality, and the Needler’s tracking all now feel more in line with more modern Halo titles.

Now, onto the remake’s enemy AI, which has been polished wholesale to complement the expanded combat tools. Enemies will now react more intelligently to your positioning and weapon choices, retreating to cover when vulnerable and co-ordinating flanking manoeuvres more believably than before. Marines, for their part, have become more active participants during engagements too, advancing alongside you while making use of the remake’s new weapon-sharing mechanic – a mechanic available throughout co-operative sessions too.

"Enemies will now react more intelligently to your positioning and weapon choices, retreating to cover when vulnerable and co-ordinating flanking manoeuvres more believably than before."

And here’s the thing – the improvements outlined so far aren’t just designed to benefit the single player, but arguably grow more significant in co-op. We already highlighted layout redesigns, where resizing gives you room to breathe without competing for the same sightlines, but the remake does more to accommodate extra Spartans beyond that. Larger squads, for instance, face more aggressive enemy compositions, including an increased likelihood of encountering higher-ranked enemy units. The idea here is for you and your team to focus on co-ordinating together rather than functioning as a unit of solo-minded players all vying for the same kill. Combined with cross-platform play and shared progression, Campaign Evolved’s co-operative offering feels like more than simply ticking a checkbox – it’s woven into the remake’s design philosophy.

Perhaps Campaign Evolved’s biggest deviation from its forebear is how it transforms repeat playthroughs into something more unpredictable through the enormous expansion of Skulls. Featuring forty-two Skulls in total, with twenty-six returning gameplay modifiers plus sixteen entirely new entrants, the Skulls’ effects range from subtle gameplay tweaks to drastic overhauls. You can alter enemy behaviour or make the Flood appear earlier in the game. Weapon handling, HUD functionality, visibility filters, game physics, overall difficulty, enemy grenade use – there seems to be a Skull for every imaginable scenario. Better still, collecting three Skulls on a level unlocks Campaign Remix, which is an all-new mode that randomises enemy factions, weapon placements, and a host of gameplay modifiers for that particular level, keeping you on your toes throughout your revisits across Alpha Halo.

However, Campaign Evolved’s Skull system isn’t just a way to increase replayability. It’s a means toward fundamentally reimagining the experience, putting you in the driver’s seat to reshape the campaign to your design. And, furthermore, the Skull system underlines the remake’s core philosophy: we said it at the outset, but Halo: Campaign Evolved isn’t a replacement for the original experience, but it is an opportunity for one of the most seminal shooters in history to finally reach its definitive version. If the finished product delivers everything Halo Studios has promised, this won’t simply be an act of preserving a bonafide classic. It will be the game Combat Evolved players remember playing back in the early-2000s, even if the hardware of the time never allowed Bungie to create it.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

“I don’t agree with Hugo’s statement, and many who were laid off were upset by those comments and saw it as viewing their contributions as insignificant to the success of our games,” said one. “I’ve been a gamer my whole life. If you cut a stat in half, everyone would call that nerfed. In truth, the DOOM team is half here, half thrown away.”

They also went on to note that the fact that the current team size at id Software is similar to its size during the development of DOOM (2016) shouldn’t really be celebrated. Development of the game has been described as “brutal”, since it went through several iterations over the course of seven years and “an absurd amount of crunch”.

“It’s also of note that DOOM (2016) development was brutal. With the infamous DOOM 4 reboot included, it took about seven years and an absurd amount of crunch to finish. The icing on the cake is that there were several key individuals who worked an unsafe number of hours to make that happen who were also part of the layoffs.”

A former employee brought up the fact that id Software suffered from “massive turnover and exodus” between 2010 and 2011, which in turn left the studio in an “awful spot”. To finally ship the game, the studio had to ramp up hiring in 2013-2014, which included the hiring of Crytek’s CryEngine team.

“Hiring ramped up tremendously around 2013-2014 for the final push—or the studio was going to go under,” they added. “On top of the internal hiring spree (which involved a small miracle of picking up Crytek’s engine team almost wholesale), we also contracted out a support studio of 21 people (Escalation Studios, which was purchased and turned into Bethesda Dallas) and Certain Affinity, which consisted of around 140 developers at the time.”

In his statement from last week, Martin noted that id Software still had 50 workers, and offered assurances that id Tech is “very much alive” thanks to its teams existing in Frankfurt and MachineGames.

“You have to understand we have id Tech engineers both in Frankfurt and at MachineGames – we collaborate quite a bit. So id Tech is there, the DOOM team is here, and we’re excited to share with you guys more of what we’re working on in the future when it is appropriate and approved.”

Layoffs affecting id Software are said to have been quite rough, with around 50 percent of its workforce being cut. The move was part of larger layoffs across Xbox that affected roughly 1,600 jobs. CEO Asha Sharma has confirmed that more layoffs are on the way, with 1,600 more cuts slated to happen before the end of the current fiscal year.