Halo: Campaign Evolved is now available across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S, and within days of launch the community has already been poking at what the release does and doesn't include. The headline oddities: a missing PC feature that modders quickly restored, a wave of cosmetic codes to redeem, and at least one joke mod that pitch-shifts nearly every voice in the game.
The split-screen that was there all along
According to Eurogamer, all versions of Campaign Evolved are nearly identical, with one glaring exception: the PC build ships without local split-screen co-op, even though PS5 and Xbox Series consoles support it. That left online co-op as the only way to team up on PC.
A new mod on Nexus Mods (spotted by PC Gamer) changes that. Its creator says the split-screen functionality is actually present in the PC version, complete with the UI elements consoles use, but Halo Studios simply switched it off. "This mod calls the code that is already sitting there," the description reads, adding that it works by adding a second local player at runtime through UE4SS rather than patching the game's executable.
The fix comes with caveats. It supports only two players (consoles allow four), requires a hotkey to activate, was built and tested only on the Steam version rather than the Game Pass build, and some users report it works only if both players use controllers. There's also a quirk where subtitles stretch across both screens instead of per player. Notably, the creator used Anthropic's Claude Code AI to do part of the work.
AI shows up in the mod scene
Rock Paper Shotgun reports that AI use is already a running theme in the early Campaign Evolved mod scene. The split-screen mod leaned on Claude, while another mod that swaps Cortana's lines for her original Combat Evolved dialogue was made with OpenAI Codex. RPS advises that searching for mods right now is "very much a game of avoid/try to spot the AI use" for players who prefer to steer clear of the tech.
Not everything is AI-flavored, though. A mod called Halo - Chipmunk Edition, from modder Omniscye, pitch-shifts the voices of almost every character. Its description claims to have chipmunked "approximately 15,391 English dialogue files." RPS notes the mod isn't tagged as containing AI content, though it flagged that the creator has AI-generated music videos on their YouTube channel, so the outlet held off on fully endorsing it as a manual job. The same modder has also been swapping every Covenant grunt for Lieutenant Williams.
Codes and cosmetics
Campaign Evolved skips competitive multiplayer but still leans into redeemable cosmetics, a trend VGC compares to Assassin's Creed Black Flag's recent resync. Codes are redeemed through the Halo Waypoint website using the same Microsoft account you play on, regardless of platform. Two armor styles, Sandstone Ancient and Damascus Prototype, can be entered instantly, while others come from promotions tied to Discord, Twitch drops, Unidays, and a Fanta pack, several of which expire in early to mid August.
What it means for players
If you're tracking Halo: Campaign Evolved, the takeaway is simple: PC players who want the same split-screen consoles get can currently only reach it through a mod with real trade-offs, and the modding pool is already mixed with AI-assisted work worth checking before you download. Grab the free Waypoint codes soon, since a chunk of them expire within the next few weeks.
