8 Halo Games to Play Before Halo: Campaign Evolved

It's been a week since Halo: Campaign Evolved had its release date officially revealed during the Xbox Games Showcase 2026 and, since then, Halo Studios has released an ever-increasing amount of images, gameplay clips, and details of the upcoming remake of Halo: Combat Evolved.

Despite all of this new information and gameplay footage revealed from official marketing videos and content creator-made videos based on an early build of Campaign Evolved released to a few people, Halo's latest game is still over a month away from launching on Xbox PS5, and PC platforms on Tuesday, July 28th.

However, this gives many players, both old and new to the Halo franchise, ample time to play eight other Halo titles in preparation for Campaign Evolved's release, with these games having important lore, gameplay, and development-related connections to the soon-to-be released FPS.

8 Halo 3: ODST

Playing as an Early Form of Supersoldier

Halo is famous for its various types of Spartan supersoldiers that star most entries in the series, but there's one game that doesn't feature Spartans at all and instead has players embody a less elite type of UNSC supersoldier with that game being Halo 3: ODST.

Set in between Halo 2 and Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST has players control the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers of Alpha-Nine as they're deployed to the Earth city of New Mombasa to help combat invading Covenant forces, regroup, and retrieve a mysterious entity for ONI before the city is glassed.

Fans of Campaign Evolved should strive to check out ODST as Sergeant Major Avery Johnson served alongside ODSTs several times during his career and his past as an ORION supersoldier, retroactively referred to as Spartan-Is, helped influence the modern training and equipment of ODSTs.

7 Halo Infinite

The Basis for Campaign Evolved's Visuals

The latest game in the Halo timeline is Halo Infinite, which sees Master Chief and UNSC Infinity forces battle The Banished, a Brute-led Covenant remnant faction, on Zeta Halo from 2559-2560 for control of the ring, and it's ancient, potential galaxy threatening secrets.

The world of Halo Infinite was specifically designed to harken back to the environments and exploration seen in Halo: Combat Evolved to coincide with the game's 20th anniversary in 2021, despite Zeta Halo actually being the oldest and smallest ring among the modern Halo Array.

With Halo Infinite being the last Halo entry made before Campaign Evolved, Halo Studios reused many of its assets to help develop the remake, with the Covenant in the remake actually reusing many of the designs of The Banished which can be seen in Campaign Evolved's Grunt Majors and Elite Zealots to name a few examples.

6 Halo 2

Delving Into the Covenant's Infrastructure

While Campaign Evolved is a remake of Combat Evolved first and foremost, it's introducing several elements that first appeared in later Halo titles, such as Brutes, Prophets, and a plethora of weapons that didn't appear in the original CE.

It's currently unknown how elements such as the Brutes and Prophets will be introduced in Campaign Evolved's main campaign beyond the three prequel levels, but if new fans want to learn more about these alien species and the overall makeup of the Covenant, they should check out Halo 2.

Set roughly a month after CE, Halo 2 primarily focuses on the unraveling of the Covenant following the discovery of Delta Halo, with the manipulative Prophets and savage Brutes betraying the honorable Elites to gain total control over the hegemony, resulting in the Elites allying themselves with the UNSC.

5 Halo Wars

The Early Years of the Human-Covenant War

Campaign Evolved will finally see Master Chief be depicted in his Mark IV Mjölnir armor for the first time in a Halo game via the remake's three prequel missions set during Operation: METEORITE in 2551, but if players wanted to see more Spartans use their Marek IV armor early in the war, they have to check out Halo Wars.

An RTS game and Halo's first spinoff, Halo Wars is set in 2531, six years after the Human-Covenant War began and 21 years before CE, focusing on the UNSC Spirit of Fire as it attempts to defend the colony worlds of Harvest and Arcadia from Covenant invasions before discovering a Forerunner Shield World.

The Spirit of Fire isn't alone in these fights, however, as during their trip to Arcadia, they're joined by the Spartan-II Red and Omega Teams, with Omega staying behind on the colony world while the three Spartan Red Team joining the Spirit's crew to the Shield World and beyond to stop galactic threats.

4 Halo: Reach

The Fall of Reach

Campaign Evolved is reusing many of Infinite's designs, but much of its gameplay reuses animations from the prequel Halo: Reach, which directly leads into the events of the Battle of Installation 04, Alpha Halo.

Set in mid to late 2552, Halo: Reach follows Noble Team, an elite squad made up of five Spartan-IIIs and one Spartan-II, as they're deployed throughout the planet Reach, the UNSC's military stronghold, to combat Covenant invasion efforts and help evacuate the planet even if it means sacrificing their lives.

While it's expected that Campaign Evolved will tie in more to the events of Reach, it'll still be a good idea for players to play Reach before CE debuts to better understand everything that led up to the UNSC Pillar of Autumn's discovery of Alpha Halo and the critical state of humanity at the time as Reach was Earth's last defense.

3 Halo: Fireteam Raven

Alpha Halo's Forgotten Tale

There are several Halo books, comics, games, and even films that have adapted parts of the Battle of Installation 04, with many highlighting events that weren't depicted in Combat Evolved and a perfect example of this can be seen in the arcade shooting game, Halo: Fireteam Raven.

Fireteam Raven follows the titular ODST squad concurrently to the events of CE, with the ODSTs aiding in the evacuation of the Autumn, Master Chief's deactivation of the ring's phase pulse generators, and the eventual self-destruction of the Autumn.

However, Fireteam Raven is notable for depicting events only originally seen in the novel Halo: The Flood, such as the raid on the Autumn and the defense of Alpha Base, with the arcade game further being the first time Flood pure forms were depicted during the events of CE.

2 Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary

Halo's First Remaster

Campaign Evolved is the franchise's first proper remake, utilizing Unreal Engine 5 and assets from Infinite and Reach, but it wasn't the first time Combat Evolved was updated for new platforms, with the first instance of which being 2011's Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary.

The first official game developed by Halo Studios, then known as 343 Industries, CEA was made to celebrate Halo's 10th anniversary, with 343 and Saber Interactive remastering CE's campaign visuals to better align itself with Halo: Reach, such as the Marines looking like UNSC Army troopers and Zealots donning ceremonial battle harnesses.

While CEA is often lambasted for its visuals deviating too much from CE's original designs, it's still a fun, unique piece of Halo history thanks to its video terminals expanding upon the story of 343 Guilty Spark and the Halo Array overall, and players being able to quickly switch from remastered to original graphics with a press of a button.

1 Halo: Combat Evolved

Master Chief and Cortana's Original Adventure

If there's one game veteran Halo players and new fans alike should play before Halo: Campaign Evolved debuts in about a month, it's the original Xbox flagship game itself, 2001's Halo: Combat Evolved.

Whenever a remake of any video game is developed, players should strive to play the original product to compare and contrast the differences and try to determine why the remake expanded upon certain aspects, got rid of others, and if those decisions were good choices in the long run.

For example, Campaign Evolved will notably change the climatic Warthog run in the Autumn to make it more lore-accurate to the ship's internal structure, and the remake will greatly change The Library to make it less repetitive and infuriating for players, though every Halo player should strive to complete the original Library solo on Legendary at least once.