Halo: Campaign Evolved is getting Firefight as a free update, though I'm not sure it'll do much to change the remake's fortunes

Xbox has announced the first update for Halo: Campaign Evolved since August, one which will add Firefight to the remake's overhaul of the original game's story.

Firefight is Halo's cooperative PvE mode which debuted in Halo 3: ODST. It's a round-based defence affair where players must survive as long as possible against increasingly dangerous waves of enemies. Following ODST, the mode appeared in every subsequent Halo game with the exception of Halo 4, which featured a mode called Spartan Ops instead.

In its announcement, Xbox was extremely light on details regarding the addition of Firefight. But the company said it'll share "additional details" about the Firefight update during Halo Fest, which takes place over the weekend commencing December 12.

I'm pleased to see Campaign Evolved getting some more features, but the announcement also increases my sense that Xbox really doesn't know what to do with Halo at present. Campaign Evolved itself felt like a collective shrug from Halo Studios, a glossy but unambitious overhaul of the original game, with three new levels that nobody liked and shorn of the multiplayer that the PC version so enjoyable in the early 2000s.

Morgan Park felt similarly in his Halo: Campaign Evolved Review. "It was cool to see another interpretation of a game special to me, but the glitzy coat of paint primarily highlights how right Bungie got it in 2001, and how its modern stewards are nudging Halo in an unremarkable direction," he wrote back in July.

A Firefight mode, coming nearly six months after launch with almost complete radio silence since August, smacks more of "We need something for Halo Fest" than the start of a bright new future for the remake. Not that I expected it to magically rejuvenate Halo. But that lack of expectation, of anticipation, is in itself part of the problem.

I could be wrong, of course. As part of Xbox's "reset"—which has included laying off thousands of staff and saying sayonara to several studios—Xbox also handed control of Halo over to Activision. So perhaps bringing back Firefight is the first step in Activision's plan—whatever that is. Some have suggested that Xbox wants Halo to be a more Call of Duty-like experience, which would certainly make sense from Xbox's perspective. Whether Halo can actually be that is, of course, another matter entirely.