Disclaimer
The copy of the game used for this review was provided by the publisher at no cost to the reviewer.
Introduction
25 years. That’s how long Halo has been a franchise, at least in its publicly retail releasing form. Kind of feels strange to think that, in a way.
As a gamer without sight, though I have played all of the main-line entries (Reach, Combat Evolved, 2, 3, 4, 5 and Infinite), I had to do so with constant sighted assistance. This, if you’ve read my various reviews and other content over the years, you know is nowhere near ideal and something that not everyone has access to, only really being employed by me when there is no other viable option in my personal experience.
As much as people dislike remakes and remasters, if they embrace accessibility (such as with The Last of Us Part I), more people will buy the game, talk about it, and tell their friends, thus selling more copies and starting the cycle anew. Going into this review, I hoped that I’d be able to do the same with the latest version of a game that has shaped so many over the years, whether through memes, external media or the games themselves. I hoped to be able to let them know that finally they’d be able to be a part of a universe that has captivated everyone for a quarter of a century.
But as usual, the question remains and thanks to a free review code, we get to answer it: Just how accessible is the remake of the iconic original without sight?
First Boot
After a couple of non-audio described logos, we get a robotic, slightly grating voice telling us to press enter to start, as I was on PC. As much as I appreciate menu narration and I understand the need for cross-platform solutions given this title is on PS5 and other systems, I would very much appreciate it if the voices used were of at least a little higher fidelity, as the compression and quality of the voice can very much ware on you over time.
Getting over that small hurdle (as it’s arguably better to have some form of narration than none at all), the fact that this narration setting is listed as “narrate screens” did have me worried, as that can often mean that only the main and submenus are read, rather than covering other useful information as well.
In this instance, the feature does cover extra elements, as seen later, but one of the main issues I noticed is what I would describe as “run-on narration”. With most narration, you get pauses between elements like “previous tab, E. Next tab, Q.”. With the current implementation in the build I played, it would be closer to “previous tab Q next tab E”.
This means that regardless of how much you have to listen to, in situations where this phenomenon occurs, it’ll be harder to process than if speech was correctly separated. This doesn’t just impact gamers without sight, but anyone using the narration functionality irrespective of reason. Here’s hoping this can be patched later, though again, issues like this are best resolved as early as possible, with he knowledge and insights as to why this occurs and how to resolve it folded into future projects.
Having scanned through the settings, seeing subtitles and various other fairly standard elements and noticing a lack of audio description, navigation or aiming audio elements being mentioned, I thought I might as well dive in.
The Game Itself
Once I got into gameplay, after the cutscenes of course, I had a character speak to me and give me an objective. I was able to follow their voice (some unintended accessibility), which led to a character saying “stand on the red square please”, with the exact same line, repeatedly delivered in rapid succession.
This made me feel pressured into trying to either find this square (which would be impossible given there’s no clear sound cue to point me towards it), or leave the tutorial and skip it, which I couldn’t do without restarting the game and skipping the tutorial right at the beginning.
Additionally, though I understand they might not have re-recorded everything, it would’ve been good to see alternate takes recorded, or even simply the timer for the line repeats being reduced (as was discussed with God Of War Ragnarok’s hint system).
Choosing to restart the mission, skip the cutscene and the calibration , I found myself trying to wander through corridors, just following the swooshing of opening and closing door apatures. Whilst this might sound easy and made me feel like I might be on to something, this relative elation lasted all of two doorways, ending when I couldn’t hear where I might go next.
This was a real shame as it looked like things might be unintentionally accessible to a point, but given they weren’t and I was stuck as to where to go, I thought I’d try the prequel missions just in case anything was different there.
Prequel Missions
Filling in more of Master Chief’s story and set before the events of the campaign, these prequel missions sound like a really cool idea in principal. However, on loading in, there is an even longer, less distinct audio described cutscene (meaning you have to guess what’s going on) and you are thrust into combat immediately.
Though I did manage to get through this encounter, it was more by luck than judgement, following the enemy audio and running around trying to punch them rather than being able to use my guns as I would want to in these kinds of situations.
That being said, there were narrated cues for when I could swapping weapons, something that was not present in any previous version of this particular game. Even so though, it still very much did not feel that different to the original title I played years ago in terms of the amount of effort I had to put in and what I was able to achieve in return.
Being unable to play any of the game without what would be constant assistance, I focused a little on listening to any audio updates I might be able to pick out form the 2001 original or its 2011 anniversary port.
Voice Acting, Score and Sound Design
Johnson and keys, iconic roles that are burned into my brain at this point from sheer cultural osmosis, let alone playing the original trilogy of games with assistance, surprised me. Not because they are bad, they are just delivered in ways that I wouldn’t expect in some cases and sound different to how I’d anticipated in certain scenarios. Those hearing these roles for the first time might not think much of it, but if people were to go back and watch the game where everything in Chief’s story began, they might find it a rather different experience.
On the music front, everything sounds like it’s been mixed with a greater attention to detail, along with the weapon audio getting a quality lift (though with the sounds themselves not necessarily changing). Whilst I like this approach, I feel like a remake could’ve reimagined some of the audio to give it more punch, something that felt lacking in the limited experience I could actually get with the title first-hand.
The elites, grunts and jackals (which I’ve actually seen in other people’s footage of the game) all sound great and as recognisable as ever, which is fantastic, with Chief and Cortana’s voice lines being delivered expertly by their returning actors as well.
All in all, whilst this mix doesn’t absolutely amaze me, I do feel it is a serviceable update to what was already a classic soundscape.
Summary
Pros
- Menu narration is present and boots up by default, at least in my experience.
- Narration covers areas other than just the main and sub menus, which is always appreciated.
- A fair amount of subtitle-related and other accessibility-centric options that should help players who might need them, always good to see even if they do not positively impact me directly.
- Solid sound design, mixing and voice acting
Cons
- No audio cues for aiming, navigation or other useful elements that would assist gamers without sight in being able to progress through levels
- No audio description, which I would’ve hoped for in a remake 25 years on from the original
- Partly feels like an updated port of the original game, not like a full-on remake.
- Will require constant sighted assistance to get through
Conclusions
Halo: Campaign Evolved was a remake that, though I was looking forward to, I could already see the potential for inaccessibility, given that most remakes fail to add in features that gamers without sight will need (like navigational assistance and aiming cues). Menu narration being present, as much as it was expected after the content i’d seen, was much appreciated, but this is not a game I could recommend without constant sighted assistance.
With no word on when the next Halo title will release, I only hope lessons can be learned from this remake of a sacred icon of gaming history, particularly when it comes to accessibility and that bar surpassed to allow any gamers without sight who want to do so to fully experience one of these great journeys.