Former Halo CE dev talks Halo Campaign Evolved: "There's plenty of ways to improve Halo 1 without breaking it"

After Halo: Campaign Evolved’s recent reveal at the Halo World Championship in 2025, many fans and original developers voiced their opinions on the remake of the 2001 original. One of these voices is former Halo: Combat Evolved designer, Jaime Griesemer, who has a few reservations about changes shown in the 13-minute gameplay demo of the mission “The Silent Cartographer.”

Jaime Griesemer worked on The Silent Cartographer’s environment and layout in Halo: Combat Evolved. He had also helped wrap up Halo 3: ODST and Reach. In a post on X, he shared a few gripes about the gameplay that didn’t sit quite right with him. He stated,

You aren’t supposed to be able to take the Warthog up to steamroll the Hunters. 

I intentionally placed rocks in the way so you had to take them on foot. When you can smash the crates out of the way, it wrecks the encounters. But the worst part? They put trees in the landing area of the WooHoo Jump. Lame.

In this section of the original game, Master Chief is supposed to walk on foot to take out the two Hunters. Instead, in Halo: Campaign Evolved, Master Chief commandeers a Warthog and quickly takes out the two hunters, which, in Griesemer’s experience, ruins the entire pacing of the mission.

He further added, “It’s like the dance remix of a classic song that skips the intro and the bridge and just thumps the chorus over and over.”

Others, like Halo co-creator and original art director Marcus Lehto, were happy to see the new direction. Lehto stated on X, “It’s good to see the new and familiar faces building the Halo Team. Chris Matthews is an excellent choice for studio AD. The exploration looks fantastic.”

Halo Studios, formerly known as 343 Industries, has been pretty transparent about updating the 2001-era cult-classics' quirks, like those in the “The Library” mission, to support four-player co-op and improved pacing.

Grieisemer further called the effort of making remakes “soul-destroying,” potentially due to the change in leadership and Microsoft’s goals. However, he urged that developers should respect the game’s proven designs, stating, “There’s plenty of ways to improve Halo 1 without breaking it.”

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