Halo: Campaign Evolved & Franchise Updates: Fireteam Raven on PC, Bungie-Era Stats, and Mod News

You are going to be heading into one full week of Halo news, with Halo: Campaign Evolved being right around the corner in releasing its game, coming right after the Forza game for Xbox. This makes Halo: Campaign Evolved all the more evident as the next best thing from XBOX. At the same time, Fireteam Raven is also coming to the PC platform as well, for the first time.

It is that Halo arcade shooter game which will come to mind when you think of Dave & Buster's and how it would be played in a corner cabinet in those arcade rooms. You will play as part of the Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (ODST) squad Raven, taking on the Halo campaign from a totally different angle, relating directly to the first Halo ring experience, which comes under Halo: Campaign Evolved discussions.

In Fireteam Raven, Alpha Halo is experienced differently, as you are now playing as a fireteam member.

You are tasked with securing objectives to help the UNSC advance their position on Halo. You are making your way to the landing zone where the Pillar of Autumn has touched down and establishing a strong UNSC position. This will also be an experience where you face resistance from the Covenant during the increasing tensions on the installation.

As you play along, you eventually reach the stage of a Flood outbreak, which means that the Flood will be released and you have to survive as the game becomes more challenging. Ultimately, your goal will not only involve achieving the objectives but surviving long enough for the Master Chief to complete the mission. You eventually have to sacrifice yourself to ensure that Master Chief completes Halo: Campaign Evolved.

Fireteam Raven also deserves special mention due to the way it draws on a number of Halo eras aesthetically and mechanically. For instance, there are many locations within the game that appear similar to Forge World in Halo Reach, and at certain instances, you can see Falcons flying around. In addition to that, the Flood pure forms from Halo 3 have been used in the game.

The inclusion of pure forms makes the game all the more interesting. It implies that in the Halo universe, this enemy has not been seen earlier in any of the games, although it is one of the first games to include this enemy form. The other enemy included in this game is the Flood Juggernauts, which were once planned to be cut out from Halo 2.

Fireteam Raven players who will play the game on the PC will have access to unlimited credits and 4K assets.

Apart from Fireteam Raven, another exciting feature in store for you is the release of an incredibly comprehensive Halo statistics database for all players who have ever participated in Halo 2, Halo 3, or Halo Reach within the Bungie era. This is a resource you may access now if you were playing any of these three popular Halo games during their Bungie period. Your whole match history can now be searched.

This covers not only your match history but also the players with whom you were most closely affiliated in your matches, your regular partners, the actions taken by your friend list, and the players who once were your opponents. Then comes the turn for Halo Infinite Forge, where everything changes completely. This is where you will find Doom inside Halo Infinite, where it is done by utilizing maps like Calamity in Forge mode.

All this refers to community-made maps that include scripting and sandbox aspects to make Halo Infinite a game similar to Doom Multiplayer. One of the factors that helps this become a reality is the usage of the weapons, especially the Mutilator melee animation, where there is an interruption in the middle of the screen while being played in slow motion.

In addition to the creation of maps and other mechanisms like the grappling hook, as well as scripting, this gives users a feeling that is similar to playing another game in Halo Infinite. It is evident that there have been great advancements made to the Forge technology, given that Halo Infinite Forge is now being used to create other genres of games, including battle royale, Warzone-like games, re-maps of normal maps, competitive maps, among others.

The possibilities are endless at this point, and it is hoped that Forge support will become available on future Halo: Campaign Evolved games right from the start. You will also benefit from community scrutiny on the Halo 4 Reclaimer mod aimed at aligning the game in line with the design direction of the original Bungie trilogy through updated weapons and Covenant visuals, among others. However, in the current form, some aspects are not in line with each other.

The Covenant designs are very vivid and vibrant, whereas the environments are very dull and lack depth, making the whole picture somewhat inconsistent in nature.

Some of the textures appear to be too clean or "power washed," resulting in a loss of depth. There are, however, many good things in the mod, such as Master Chief and Cortana models as well as the weapons. It should be remembered that you have only played one level and thus only seen a fraction of the actual game, maybe ten percent or even less.

This means that there is much work ahead before achieving a fully Bungie-like experience, at least in terms of environment and playability, if that is what you are striving for. This leads you back into the anticipated game's upcoming release. This is something confirmed by XBOX, as Halo: Campaign Evolved is up next for release following Forza and hence, falls in the pipeline.

The expectation is that Halo: Campaign Evolved will be showcased during the XBOX Games Showcase in June and early access granted in July before it is fully released. It has, therefore, emerged as one of the most anticipated XBOX titles. On top of all these, there is anticipation surrounding the Halo Fest event, which marks the 25th anniversary celebration coming in December. Halo Fest has had to be relocated due to increased demand, while the tickets for the show have been exhausted.

Even the performance of the Halo soundtrack by an orchestra is fully booked. At the time of the Halo Fest celebration, Halo: Campaign Evolved would have been fully launched, creating room for another Halo announcement. This statement could refer to everything ranging from Halo: Campaign Evolved: part 2, Halo 7, and any other type of development regarding Halo multiplayer, based upon what direction XBOX decides to take things in the future.

In a situation where you are responsible for marketing, this would be the exact place to put the next announcement. However, this all comes down to one thing: Fireteam Raven is now available for everyone on PC; the original Bungie stats are available to search through. Forge is taking its gameplay into new dimensions, and Halo: Campaign Evolved will go on to shape the future of this franchise.