Download the Halo: Campaign Evolved Game Informer cover art for free

Game Informer unveiled its new cover story for Halo: Campaign Evolved and is giving the cover art away for free — no logos, no text, just the full image in multiple resolutions for mobile, desktop, and ultra-wide screens.

Lead concept artist Sam Wood created the piece, drawing heavy inspiration from the late Drew Struzan, the legendary movie poster artist known for Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Studio Art Director Chris Matthews pushed for a classic sci-fi movie poster layout — a hero pyramid with Master Chief at the center, surrounded by an ensemble of allies and enemies. Wood used deliberate warm and cool color zones to make the complex composition readable at a glance, a technique straight out of the Struzan playbook. His process ran from black-and-white thumbnail sketches through color studies, then into Unreal Engine to light and pose individual characters before compositing everything in Photoshop and painting the final image by hand.

The art is designed to celebrate 25 years of Halo while also welcoming new players to the franchise ahead of Campaign Evolved's release. Master Chief anchors the center, flanked by Cortana and 343 Guilty Spark — the two companions who defined his journey in the original game. The characters float in an undefined space rather than depicting any single scene, which Wood says gives them a larger-than-life, timeless quality and invites viewers to reflect on how those relationships span the entire Halo saga.

Game Informer's full cover story includes interviews with original creators who worked on Halo: Combat Evolved 25 years ago, pairing the look-ahead at Campaign Evolved with a retrospective on the franchise's origins.