Written by Jonathan Lee. March 8, 2020, 2:00pm. Tweet to: @Writerscube
It’s been a long time coming. The general crowd sentiment was that eventually Halo would make its way onto PC in all earnest. We just didn’t know when. The first two Halo games had come to PC before in the past, but after that the ports had stopped. People who did not own an Xbox 360 or beyond had no way to play the games from Halo 3 on. Then, on December 3, 2019, the Halo: Master Chief Collection arrived on Steam, just a little over five years since the Master Chief Collection was released on the Xbox One.
PC Players Rejoice, Slowly
Since the collection’s release late last year, only Halo: Reach and Halo CE Anniversary are available. Slowly, but surely, players can expect all the Halo titles to be chronologically slow-dripped onto their Steam libraries (up to Halo 4). Along with each of the Halo games, players can expect some PC optimizations along the way. The collective team of 343 Industries, Ruffian Games, Saber Interactive, and Splash Damage have been very busy.
Immediately, when I first opened Halo: Reach, the first thing I noticed was how mappable everything was for buttons. For those who love their 4k displays and high FPS, there’s that to enjoy as well. I haven’t toyed much with the FOV settings, but I suspect some users will be thrilled to have that depending on their display setups. And then, there’s the multiplayer. It was refreshing to get back into Halo multiplayer again, and with all the modes and maps they’ve included so far. With each Halo title released, more maps will be on the way.
The Master Chief Collection Experience Up to Now
With Halo CE Anniversary now out for the PC version, I’ve had a chance to finally make a comparison with the only other released title, Halo: Reach. It’s important because of how these games are getting released one at a time, rather than all at once. This would seem to give the developing team time to work on the bugs in one title, and apply lessons learned for the next release.
When Halo: Reach first came out, it had a variety of issues. Some of the more noticeable ones involved audio and matchmaking problems. But since the team began working on those issues, a steady stream of patches vastly improved the Halo: Reach experience. Then the Halo CE Anniversary drop went practically without a hitch. I suspect this had to do with all the team had learned from working on Reach. Since playing Halo CE Anniversary, my favorite feature has to be the ability to switch between classic Xbox graphics and the new-and-improved graphics. It warmed my nostalgic heart to see those old graphics, even though the new ones were impressive.
While visually appealing, both Halo: Reach and Halo CE Anniversary seem to still have some audio quirks going on. On one hand, Halo: Reach’s audio is smooth, the music comes out nicely, but the weapons fire SFX still feels subdued and muted. Meanwhile, Halo CE Anniversary has powerful weapon SFX and music, but with instances where voices seem to get dampened. I’ll continue to track these details as more patches roll out and more Halo titles are dropped into the Master Chief Collection.
Halo Multiplayer is Alive! But Xbox/PC Crossplay?
It’s no surprise that Halo’s multiplayer is still alive and kicking, but I was unsure of how well the multiplayer community would translate from Xbox to PC. I was hoping for Xbox vs PC crossplay capabilities, but unfortunately there is still no ability for us PC players to go head-to-head with any of our peers on Xbox. This makes a sort of sense, however. I can imagine there may have to be a great deal of balancing out between aim adjustments, shot dispersion, accounting for controller aim vs mouse speed, and more. And the team’s already working hard on just getting the Halo titles out one at a time.
Sadly, that makes me feel like there might not be Console/PC crossplay any time soon. But on the bright side, it seems that the multiplayer has grown just nicely on PC. Initially, the multiplayer had some annoying matchmaking problems. But since the early patches, the matchmaking process has been running smooth.
Final Thoughts on the Master Chief Collection… So Far
I’m just relieved to finally be back to playing Halo again! It’s great to see that these titles are coming to PC and in a neat collection as it is. I was initially disappointed that not all games were available for a massive Halo binge, but it may be fortuitous. With issues being patched as they are, each game is released better than the last. I do hope the collection of developers will look back to Halo: Reach and Halo CE Anniversary to address the ongoing sound imbalances, however. Judging from the health of the multiplayer, there seems to be many players who have purchased the Master Chief Collection (Almost 2 million copies were sold, according to DualShockers). This gives me hope that once this collection is complete, perhaps Microsoft will also formally release Halo 5 onto PC. (There is the Halo 5: Forge out there in the Microsoft Store)
Another thing to look out for is Halo: Infinite coming out this year in late 2020. While details are still on the light side, here’s what we know will be coming out with Halo: Infinite so far:
- Will be built on the new “Slipspace Engine”
- Will feature another Halo structure
- 343 Industries promises that Halo will “always have split-screen going forward” (DICE Summit, 2017)
- Forge Mode
- Will come out for Xbox and PC
2020 is looking to be a great year of Halo nostalgia… and our next steps into Halo’s future.
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