The release of Halo: Campaign Evolved seems to have garnered a strange type of discourse from players, with some taking to social media to talk about non-existent issues, like a “rainbow lens flare” in the in-game menu. Marcus Lehto – former co-director on the series and the designer for protagonist Master Chief – believes that the hate for the game is overblown, and that he has been having quite a bit of fun while playing it.
In a social media post, Lehto acknowledged that, while Halo: Campaign Evolved has its fair share of issues, these problems are “taking a back seat to the fun”. Among his favorite things about the remake have been its lighting systems, animations, cinematics, and movement.
“Been slowly playing through Campaign Evolved on Heroic (the diff we designed the game for 25 years ago),” he wrote. “Overall, I really love the upgrades – movement, cinematics, visuals – damn the lighting is brilliant. Do I have gripes? A few, but they are taking a back seat to the fun.”
Responding to another user who noted that “so many people [are] hating it just for the sake of hating,” Lehto said that it’s the nature of social media that fosters the hate.
“This platform fosters that hate,” he wrote. “Get us all in a room – in f***ing person – and I bet we would all eventually have a pretty damn good time playing the game together.”
As for his criticisms about Halo: Campaign Evolved, Lehto acknowledged that, while plenty of liberties had to be taken with the in-game cinematics that stemmed from the development team moving to Unreal Engine 5, he has been liking them, aside from “a few” that he described as “absolutely cringe.” He also noted that the remake might be a bit “too heavy-handed” with the hints it provides due to its “pandering to a new era of players with 0% attention spans.”
Lehto had spoken about Halo: Campaign Evolved back in October 2025, calling it “gorgeous” and saying that it “feels genuine”. While his only experience with the remake was the trailer released at the time, he said that it looked like what the team wished it could make back in 2001.
“My honest impression of seeing the new Halo: Campaign Evolved is this: I absolutely love where this is going. The game looks and feels genuine. It’s gorgeous in a way I wish we could have built it originally back in 2001. It warms my heart to see Halo [Combat Evolved] like this.”
Halo: Campaign Evolved was recently released on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. For more details, check out our review. A few days after its release, however, it looks like the milestone of being the first in the franchise to come to PlayStation hasn’t been helping out in terms of sales. According to Rhys Elliot of Alinea Analytics, the title only sold around 351,000 copies on the platform in its release month and was overshadowed by the shadowdropped Call of Duty: Black Ops and Black Ops 2.
