The Yappening - NO spoilers! The Halo franchise from Combat Evolved - Reach is bar none my favorite series of games. Words cannot describe how ingrained each game is to my childhood, the titanic waves of emotions I’ve felt, and the dear memories/friends I made along the way! All of which compels me to yap way too long about this remastered collection. Next paragraph is my TL;DR thoughts. Despite one of the worst video game launches of all time and some persisting issues, The Master Chief Collection in its current state is solid. It’s VERY much worth the full asking price, nevermind the sale price. It’s just sadly apparent once Microsoft's plan to monetize cosmetics failed, they cut support prematurely. A big problem that stands out is a surprising lack of feature parity between games, which can make the experience confusing to navigate. For example, did you know that only 2 of the 6 campaigns support cross-play? There’s also some collection-wide graphical and mechanical issues that make the games all look and play just a little bit worse than they originally did. Finally, none of the original menus, loading screens, and credit sequences are included. These all really creatively contributed to the tone of each game, so it's a shame they've all been cut. That all being said, I’d be lying to everyone if I said that MCC’s enhancements didn’t make up for these shortcomings. If you'd like to see summaries of my individual campaign thoughts, a "2024 numerical score", and my recommended order to play through the story, keep reading. 1. Halo: Combat Evolved - 8/10 Halo CE not only completely redefined what a “console shooter” could be, but 23 years later its impact can STILL be felt in almost every shooter that comes out. I still remember "playing" The Silent Cartographer demo disk at my neighborhood friend's house back when we were 6 or 7. His parents noticed how absolutely in love we were with it, and later purchased him the full game and Halo 2. We were hooked. The overall art direction and gameplay are some of the best in the entire gaming medium. Given its emphasis on those things, it’s also very easy to overlook just how much happens in its underrated story. Sure it’s mostly world building and surface level action, but it still feels inspired, holds up, and beautifully sets up the more involved stories the sequels tell. Unfortunately, it's also clear that this was made by a small team even by 2001 standards. Simple and dated design goals like remixed assets and backtracking levels take center stage in the third act, and are probably the parts of the games that have aged the worst. As far as MCC-specific complaints are concerned, I'm going to strongly recommend that classic music/audio/visuals are used for CE. The remastered assets aren't very well polished, some are direct rips from other games, and most aren't suited for CE's unique style. There's also some music missing in a couple areas for both classic and remastered audio, which can make the game feel more empty and boring to play through than originally intended. 2. Halo 2 - 9/10 Oh yeah. This is that good shit. Use the remastered audio/visuals, they more of less nailed it. What Halo: CE's campaign did for console shooters mechanically, Halo 2 did for narrative and budget. The only noteworthy con for Halo 2 is that the moment-to-moment gameplay is probably the weakest in the series. But for the shooter genre as a whole, it’s still a high bar that's really fun to experience. Also go ahead and pretend the Legendary difficulty doesn't exist, unless you REALLY like pain. There's a couple small quirks with the MCC version of this game too, but it's nothing worth getting into. It's easily the game that received the most love. 3. Halo 3: ODST - 10/10 This is my favorite game in the series, and the only time I'd recommend someone to play these games out of release order. Halo: CE sets the stage, Halo 2 fleshes out one side of the conflict, and ODST handles another before the epic conclusion. That being said, if you're planning to play this one for the first time, there's two things that you should ABSOLUTELY be aware of. First, you owe it to yourself to find and listen to the 30 logs throughout the city as you play through the story. This isn't a small side-story like most collectible story entries in games, this IS the A-story of the game, which interweaves with the third act of what you're playing through beautifully. This "detective clue-finding" style of gameplay is prevalent throughout the main story, and the exploration sections are intentionally designed so that you have enough time to listen to these while you make your way to the next objective. Second, while co-op is always a great time, ODST is the one I recommend people play solo for your first time. Only caveat I would make here is if your friend(s) are very quiet. But yeah, I adore so much about this game. The only thing I could ever complain about it is that it's getting old, and long overdue for a sequel or remake of some kind with some modern-day budget and tech. Microsoft also mismanaged the original release of this Halo 3 expansion, instead deciding to release it as a fully priced standalone game. But thankfully that’s not an issue anymore. 4. Halo 3 - 8.5/10 The late night of September 24 2007 outside my local GameStop with my dad and neighborhood best friend is a memory I'll never forget. Halo 2 split-screen tournaments, game fuel, a MASSIVE line throughout the mall. We were pretty close to the front of the line, and were the first ones to buy a copy of that beautiful Legendary edition. It was a hell of a night. This jump started a tradition of going to midnight launches with friends for years until the rise of digital ownership killed it off. For anyone who may not be aware, the hype behind this game was unprecedented at the time. This was prime-time in the golden age of AAA video games, where budgets started to bloom but creatives were still able to achieve their uncompromising vision. And the best part? Halo 3 lived up to that hype, and we finished the fight. EPIC is the word I would use to describe Halo 3's campaign. Everything feels properly important and dramatic, even if the writing is a step down from the earlier three games. Despite that, the second half is unbelievably satisfying, and the gameplay feels like a proper return to form after Halo 2. It manages to find a perfect balance between CE and 2's design and is considered to have the best “gameplay feel” out of the entire franchise by a huge portion of the player base, myself included. Side but important point, I have no idea if this is an MCC exclusive issue or if this was present in the original release, but none of the Arbiter's voice lines will play in-game if a player is controlling him in co-op. This really undercuts a lot of the narrative momentum with him after Halo 2 and should definitely be fixed. 5. Halo: Reach - 9/10 An encore send-off by Bungie before they moved on to Destiny. This is the “better Rogue One” of the franchise and cements just how well this team understands the video game medium. From the beginning, you know how it ends. I recently replayed through this campaign and was stunned at how modern the design of this game still feels, despite being almost 15 years old now. While it’s up for debate, this game also has the best audio/visual art in the series. I can’t even mention Reach without hearing those haunting chants that permeate throughout the entire soundtrack. While the gameplay shoots for new heights, the story also manages to take all of the lessons learned from each game, and mix it into a big fan favorite. This is a fantastic prequel best experienced after you’ve played through the previous 4 stories, albeit with some problems in structure due to some cuts late in development. I’d yap more about this one, but unfortunately I’m hitting the character limit. Halo 4 - 6/10 343i’s first Halo game is here too.
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