This past December 343 Industries released the new expansion to the Master Chief Collection along with a new platform port and quality of life updates. This update has been much anticipated as it has seen Halo Reach return. Included in this is also a progression system similar to the one that was originally in the game. Additionally Halo also finally came to PC! In this review I will go over its history, features, gameplay. If you want to get to the single player and multiplayer portion of the review skip to paragraph four.
The original Halo Reach, released September 14th of 2010, was the last halo game by Bungie. At the time, most of the community believed it to be the last halo game to be released. The reception it got initially was a bit divided, many loved it especially the campaign. However others did not like the armor abilities and other aspects of its gameplay. For better or worse, this was not the last Halo game. November 6 2012 just two years later Halo 4 was released and Halo 5 in 2015, as well as Halo Infinite later this year. 343 also gave us The Master Chief Collection, all the mainline Halo games and ODST. Now Halo Reach has been added to this Collection. Personally I am Happy that they continue to update the MCC. Especially after its initial failure at launch of being buggy and unstable. The quality of life updates are applied regardless of purchasing this expansion. However, it should be noted that the update to the MCC was made to add the functions for the Reach content. So if you wish to participate in unlocking armor and firefight you have to purchase Reach.
Right now it is 9.99 on Steam and Xbox store. This is only for Reach and its multiplayer, including firefight. Now that's a statement that makes Microsoft a liar. Long ago they told the Halo community only Halo Combat Evolved and Halo 2 would be on PC. They also said it certainly would never be on steam. But now all the Halo games will be on steam, and with a boot option to enable mods. Boosting the staying power of the game on the PC greatly as modding has helped extend the original two games popularity. Talented individuals and teams in the Halo community have been unleashed. Sadly this is not available on Xbox One. But as for the other Halo games in the MCC they are not currently released on PC yet but you can by them. As of writing it is 39.99 for the whole collection. This is also a cross platform game. The game also has a progression system now for the reach armors. It works very similar to the original system. The player earns exp for multiplayer performance and finishing games. This is then used to unlock armor. The difference is instead of saving up for armors at a shop you unlock them through tiers. Each time you level up you can unlock a tier, which has an unlock. Unfortunately, you cannot skip over tiers, and must progress in a linear fashion. Though as seeing how the most big name companies have a love affair with loot boxes lately I'm just happy it's an actual progression system. Another unfortunate lose is the daily and monthly challenges. These are also not in the game. This could be added at a later date, though 343 Industries as of now have not announced any plans to do so.
Now onto single player. As for keeping the single player the same 343 did a relatively good job. You can play through the whole campaign. But before I get to my praise there was some issues. First there was a glitch that kept me from
playing the mission Long Night of Solace. I would click resume my campaign and then it loaded but then fail back to the level select screen. Eventually I resolved this by selecting the level directly. Other than that the single player is just as I remember.
Halo multiplayer has always never really died. People are still playing Halo 3 online and Halo Reach as well. Though these both have shrunk greatly. However on the MCC barring any glitches you probably won’t have to wait long to find a game. Just from the opening week there was more than 130,000 concurrent players, as reported by wccftech.com. This actually out paced some long time games on steam for concurrent users. Sadly, like the MCCs initial launch, this launch is not without its issues. Multiplayer is where a player will encounter the most issues. Just to name one, after viewing the carnage report I tried to back out of matchmaking. However the back didn't respond. Another time in the middle of the match it kicked everyone. These are just two examples from my experience. Though online there are other reports of more happening. Despite this though when there wasn’t bugs the multiplayer was really great and earning XP was not as grindy as it could have been. Also thankfully they recreated the armor customization, allowing you to edit the individual armor pieces again. Unlike what they did to Halo 3 and Halo 4 armors in the MCC. Firefight was also added along with the regular multiplayer. It’s clear from these improvements that 343 is willing to listen to fan response. Also from the staggered release of the ports of the other games campaigns to the PC, that they learned from the failed launch in 2014. I just hope they fix the multiplayer bugs in a timely manner. On a brighter note, 343 is going to be getting invasion up soon so that will definitely be a big event.
Now I do have a few criticisms of the control mapping they did for the computer. First Q is the default bash button. This was very frustrating as Q is usually used to cycle between two weapons. But that had been mapped in the MCC on PC to 1. To give 343 credit, they probably thought that since 1 is used to select primary fire and Q is easy to hit in a jam that it wouldn't be confusing. But no, it was fairly frustrating. Lucky I could change this to a more familiar set up. Also 343 for reference, F is good for the flash light or night vision, not the 4 key. Now to the thing that can’t be remapped. The vehicle controls. This was annoying, controlling the direction of right to left with the mouse isn’t the best. For some like the falcon they did make the player able to use A and D to strafe. But for the warthog and mongoose you have to use the mouse. It would have been easier to control with A and D being used to turn wheeled vehicles and the mouse the camera. But it was done in the interest of keeping it the same as it is in the Xbox version. Probably won't change but makes driving the warthog just feel strange. But as for overall gameplay with my changed key bindings the game feels really nice.
In conclusion, the Halo Reach on MCC is still a very good game, and was one of the highlights of my year. The mods coming out will help improve the single player beyond its already outstanding campaign. Also if bugs are fixed in a timely manner the multiplayer can only continue to improve. Plus with cross platform it increases the amount of people available to play with. Over all if you want to buy on Xbox just know you cannot mod it. Also those who want all the games you might want to wait for a sale again. Unless you don't mind paying the 39.99 tag and waiting months possibly years for the other games besides reach. If you want it on PC I would recommend Buying Reach now and deciding to get the rest maybe later, or wait for a sale. Meet y'all in forge world.
By Rooty
1/10/2020
edited 1/11/2020
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