When Halo: The Master Chief Collection was announced at the Xbox conference all those months ago the euphoria was so great you got the feeling something special was coming through your door by the end of the year. So much hype and expectation from 343 studios to deliver the true homage to Xbox’s greatest hero, you wouldn’t be forgiven if you predict a fall from such a high pedestal. Finally then Halo has arrived on the next generation but have 343 just made a quick buck or is this a true celebration that Halo truly deserves?
The first thing that truly hit me when they announced the Master Chief collection was what was included in the bundle, all 4 games, so that’s every one bar Halo: ODST, fully re-mastered, as well as the original graphics which I’ll come onto later. The multiplayer, from all games, the ground breaking Halo 2 multiplayer which plays just like it used to when I was a young lad, as well as every single halo map in existence. The additional extras including, the making of Halo series, Halo: Nightfall which is the live action series directed by Ridley Scott (Director of Alien), but it’s the little things in the collection which truly make this edition slightly magical. It hasn’t lost any of its original charm when it’s been pulled up to Xbox One standards and that is probably its greatest asset.
However it’s not all rosey in the Halo rose garden. It is sadly besot with matchmaking issues almost 2 weeks from launch which has prompted some users to manage to get a refund from Xbox. They have stripped down the matchmaking playlists and applied so many updates trying to fix these issues with no avail. In the space of 10 days it has gotten better but when nothing was working on day one the only way was up really. It’s a real shame because it’s hard to enjoy a game when it’s not working and firing on all cylinders.
When I did get into a game online it was like I flew back in time, the game runs exactly how I remember it with its fast pace chaos and the way everything was set out was just a joy to behold. I must admit that I never truly gave the multiplayer the time it deserved even though I gave so much time to Halo 3 but playing through Halo 2 was a treat that made me come back for more. Sadly I’d like to talk more about the multiplayer but because Halo has lost many of the playlists originally on at day one it is very hard to give a full and fair opinion on multiplayer within the Master Chief Collection.
Graphically Halo has been pulled in line with its future design. By this I mean that Halo CE and Halo 3 looked completely differently when they were first released, you can see this when you play with original graphics on for both games in the Master Chief Collection. Everything looks slick and the sound is impressive, it’s amazing to see how far gaming has come when you line up both versions of Halo CE. Changing graphics is easy and doesn’t suffer any performance issues and playing in the old graphics doesn’t take away anything from the experience.
All 4 campaigns have been remastered in the collection with all these missions you’d be forgiven for getting lost in it all, the beauty of having them all in one place allows you to do a quick switch between each of them, finishing Halo 2 and jumping straight into Halo 3 feels very satisfying, but a nifty addition which I think is brilliant is the playlist option. This allows the player to select the missions they wish and play them in the order they wish, back to back. So essentially you can play all the finales across the 4 games with exceptional ease and this really adds value to the game.
Speaking of adding value, the content which was spoken about earlier, Nightfall and the making of Halo are all in one place, the newly added Halo Channel. The beauty of the Xbox One when it first came out was how easy it is to navigate across different games and apps, the master chief collection has made great use of this, there are small videos within each of the games which add value to the game and back value which wasn’t seen in previous game releases. This best represented in Halo CE following the origin of the Oracle and the others which added a story I hadn’t previously seen, these videos are hidden away from plain sight and aren’t forced onto the player.
This is also one of the prongs which The master chief collection has which draws the players back in, through the massive 4500 gamerscore on show, the multiple videos available, skulls and additional extras which made halo stand out from the other campaign based games at the time of release. Nothing has been lost which is a real triumph for the game. Normally I don’t have a section on sound but the game has had a new and updated soundtrack, but I was so astounded by the quality on show. It surprised me how well this has been improved, from noise of the battle riffle to that oh so good halo theme tune kicking off in the background, it really adds to the feel of the collection.
Overall the Master Chief collection promises so much but has yet to deliver on some of its promises. Plaguered by issues at launch it has had a sour start to its Xbox One life however you can see promising signs ahead when 343 Studios finally fix the issues. The campaigns alone are enough to warrant a purchase in my eyes. So when the other features finally start working well enough to hammer through, the master chief collection could well earn its place in the disc tray. Its safe to say that if the multiplayer was working well and actually able to be fully reviewed, i'd probably be looking to give this a 5 star. But you have to consider the issues when coming to an overall score so 4 stars i think is fair, time will tell if 343 studios gives anything back to the fans for there patience, you would expect so.
