00:00I can't stop this!
00:30Halo Campaign Evolved is the next project coming out of Halo Studios. It is the ultimate Halo
00:44CE campaign remake. It is coming to Xbox, PC, and for the first time, PlayStation. It'll be
00:51arriving next year. To talk more about it, we've got Dan, Max, and Greg from the development team.
00:56Guys, let's get into this. Why is this the right game for right now?
01:00We did this work on Halo Anniversary. I felt like there were certain things that were left unsaid.
01:04There were certain things that we weren't able to achieve at that time. There were certain things
01:07we weren't able to do. It's a great time to revisit Combat Evolved for new players, for established
01:13Halo players, and maybe even for old friends playing on different hardware today to allow
01:17them to play together and enjoy the franchise together again. Going back to the Halo ring
01:21again for the first time. For the first time is really important for them to be surprised by new
01:25content and feel excited again about exploring the ring world. For new players, this is the right
01:30time for you to jump in. Think of this as your introduction into this huge franchise we've been
01:35building for the past 25 years. I'm curious how you're going to focus on capturing the essence of
01:42the original, knowing that you need to evolve to kind of move the experience forward. Yeah, from design,
01:47we don't take that lightly at all. Whenever we make a change, the number one thing was to be true
01:51the original game. For every one of those topics that comes up, there's someone who is incredibly
01:56passionate on the other side saying, like, that is sacred. We do not move that crate. It's really
02:01about looking across, you know, what we've learned over the years, what technology we've built, and
02:05how we can tie that back into this experience. So in this game, up to four people can play the
02:09campaign together, regardless of which platform they're on. And then, we're kicking it old school,
02:14we can play two-player co-op on consoles, on the couch together, just like we did back in the
02:19original. What do you have to do differently to account now for four people running around?
02:25For different co-op counts, we will make some of the spaces larger. We also want to make sure
02:29we're authentic to the encounters themselves. So it's a balancing act between that difficulty
02:33tuning and, you know, making those encounters the right size for the right space.
02:37I understand that we've done some special tune-up works to the beloved Warthog.
02:42We have, there's a new seat, what I like to call the golf cart seat, or the bumper seat.
02:47This is on the back of the Warthog, so now you can bring everyone with.
02:51Mind if I join you?
02:52Let's talk a little bit about one of my favorite aspects of the Halo franchise.
02:56What is a skull? What's cool about it? What does it do?
02:59A skull is a gameplay modifier, generally mean-spirited. It makes the game more challenging for the player.
03:06The combination, the pairing of these different skulls and how that's going to create that new
03:11gameplay experience. Huge amount of replay options for folks.
03:14I love the replayability that skulls bring to a campaign. It's just, there's, it is almost endless variety.
03:20We have dozens of skulls this time.
03:21The most that we've ever had in a Halo game.
03:23Are you a lasso guy? I think you yourself told me that you don't think anyone would ever be able
03:27to complete this game with Legendary All Skulls On?
03:30I don't think so. I mean, there's, there's a lot. And so if you can do a true Legendary All Skulls On run, let us know.
03:38Because I'd love to see it. I think, I mean, that'd be really hard.
03:41If there's one thing that this community has shown us is do not underestimate them and they will find a way.
03:46So Halo's always been known for a sandbox. How has this evolved?
03:52We made sure that anything we included isn't going to drastically change the way the game plays.
03:56To change the sandbox in a drastic way. But there's some really fun kind of additions.
04:00And that's across, you know, enemies, weapons, vehicles, things that in the original CE weren't able to do before that you now can.
04:06You finally kill the elite with the sword. That weapon hits the floor and you can pick that up and just, you know, kind of really take it to the, take it to the enemy.
04:13All these weapons, by the way, have been painstakingly remodeled, rebuilt, higher fidelity.
04:22How do all these things kind of come to life?
04:25That comes across through the way they look, the way they sound, the effects, the actual panels on the weapons themselves, the ammo counters.
04:33With Unreal, the fully dynamic lighting within Lumen allows us to get those effects, right?
04:37That rich plasma lighting up and brightening the environment.
04:40Of course, one of the hallmark elements of Halo CE is what becomes kind of a three-way battle with the introduction of the flood.
04:48There was quite a bit of development between Halo CE and 3 to kind of how the flood behaved and just how they interacted with the player.
04:55So we've pulled a lot of those flood behaviors into this game.
04:58And I would say this is a learning specifically from CE to anniversary, which is just kind of that mood, the atmosphere, the tension, the horror, and really delivering on that from the way that we staged the encounters and the setup and how we reveal the flood.
05:12In Halo Legacy, there were some pure form units.
05:15We've pulled in a familiar friend, familiar fiend, if you will, to challenge the player.
05:20Talk to me just a little bit about how we're approaching the narrative aspects to bring it up to the same level as the rest of this game.
05:30We want to tell an authentic story and we want to level up the cinematics from the source.
05:34As we were building this out, we didn't just kind of put a new coat of paint over the original cinematics, right?
05:41We ended up revisiting exactly how they were blocked out, how they were sequenced, how they were put together.
05:45And we've done that across the board.
05:47We have access to original source assets, original source code, and access to the original storyboards.
05:51We are remastering, remixing the music to go along with these cinematics.
05:55We also had the core principal cast come in and re-record all the lines.
05:59How much firepower would you need to crack one of the engine shields?
06:02This really provides a degree of fidelity that we weren't able to do for Halo Adversary.
06:06Now would be a very good time to leave.
06:10I'm super excited that this game will include three brand new bonus missions.
06:15Tell me a little bit about that.
06:16It was really important that we preserve the original story as it is.
06:20So these missions specifically are meant to be a prequel setup for, you know, the main course.
06:24These new missions are going to offer some new opportunities for character interactions, maybe between, you know, Chief and Johnson.
06:30We've got some new mechanics, maybe some new AI behaviors, things that haven't been done before in Halo CU.
06:37I think we're just getting started.
06:42So where are we right now at this stage in development? What can you share with us?
06:44In the past few weeks, we've been able to start engaging and sending builds out to some of our community members.
06:49We can now see so many of the elements of the level really coming together.
06:53There's a point in every game's life cycle where it kind of just comes online.
06:59Seeing really high fidelity versions of the cinematics, elements of the sandbox and encounter tweaks and the lighting.
07:05You go to someone's desk and give feedback live on an experience.
07:08And to me, that's like a really exciting time in game development.
07:11The ultimate love letter to the game that started it all.
07:14I would call upon our entire Halo community to welcome with open arms this next generation of players.
07:21I'm excited to just relive these experiences again for the first time.
07:44PlayStation.
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