Halo: Campaign Evolved is basically already here if you pay the early access tax, and while it does look incredible on high-end gaming PCs and current-generation consoles, it struggles hard on lower-end hardware, particularly handheld gaming PCs. I spent a little bit of time playing the remake on the Xbox Ally, and, well, the original Halo campaign looks a whole lot better in the Master Chief Collection.
It shouldn’t be too surprising that Campaign Evolved doesn’t run super well on low-end handhelds like the Steam Deck. The game calls for a minimum of an Intel Core i7-10700K and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Super, both of which are more powerful than the equivalents found in the base Xbox Ally and the Steam Deck. But, for some reason, the Steam page for the game says the game is Steam Deck Verified.
In order to run the game on the Xbox Ally, I set the resolution to 1280×720 and set it to the Very Low preset, with FSR set to Low. With those settings, I’m getting a pretty playable 30 fps, with occasional dips down to the mid 20s. That’s probably why the game skated by with a Steam Deck Verified label, I’ve seen games perform worse and still get that green checkmark.
But while the game is playable at these settings, it’s genuinely an eyesore. In order to keep the framerate up, visual fidelity is low, textures are entirely bland, and vegetation and other environmental objects are virtually nonexistent. Plus, the upscaling at this resolution makes the game look like a blurry, staticky mess on top of all of that loss of detail.
And while there are some elements of the game that still look alright, namely walls and other objects having a bit more detail to them, Halo just looks better in the Master Chief Collection, even if it looks like an older game (which it is). Just looking at these screenshots from the second mission when you’re fighting off a bunch of Covenant reinforcements, the Campaign Evolved screenshot has a virtually flat environment, with a blurry Elite being shot at. In the Master Chief Collection, the wall on the right doesn’t look quite as good, but there’s actually vegetation on the ground, and the enemy being shot at doesn’t look like as much of a blurry mess.
What makes this even more wild is the performance on offer. With these settings, the Master Chief Collection is getting a solid 65-70 fps most of the time on the Xbox Ally, compared to 25-30 fps in Campaign Evolved. And keep in mind that the Xbox Ally and the Steam Deck have extremely comparable performance.
I love the original Halo – there was a good decade where the only reason I kept a console in my house was to play Halo games. So while I will absolutely be playing this new remake on a high-end PC or even a more powerful handheld like the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+, if you want to play this original campaign on the Steam Deck, just download the Master Chief Collection instead.
Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra
