Review: The Master Chief Collection

Master Chief is back! And this time he is bringing the full 1080p 60fps goodness to a new generation of gamers. Take on Classic Halo games from the first ever one, Right up to Halo 4. One and Two have been given the Anniversary treatment bringing new collectibles and terminals plus new graphics and textures. Halo 3 and 4 get a buff as they too now look sexual. Jump on in and see if its worth your time and money.

Pros:

• Graphics are fantastic. i mean Halo 1 and 2 have had the full remaster treatment. Cut scenes have been re shot, Assests have been vastly improved. Halo 3 and 4 have had a lick of paint but come across as upscale rather than full rework.
• Hao 1 and 2 have an option where you can swap between new and old graphics at any time in game with a simple button press. Along with changing the graphics, It also changes the music from original to remastered.
• One unified menu system.
• All missions are unlocked from the begininng with all checkpoints also unlocked.
• All armour variations for online multiplayer is unlocked.
• Forge mode included.
• Theatre mode is back and still allows you to record clips, save films and take screenshots.
• File share is present so you can have your friends download your clips and screenshots.
• Halo Master Chief Collection is halo 1 and 2 anniversary editions and Halo 3 and 4. All games include all DLC ever released.
• 4500 gamerscore.
• You can skip cut scenes.
• Many controller layout options and has the option to set the control layout for individual games or set it to work across all games.
• Fast checkpoint/Level restart loading.
• All skulls are unlocked from the off but are still in game to be found, Finding them still gives an achievement.
• Scoring and times are available in a few flavours. Go for the standard score/time tracker so you get the medals popping up as you play. you can also set it to be competitive so you can try and beat other players scores.
• Every level has par time and par score and can be seen at any point in the pause menu.
• Online leaderboards with filters like friends only, particular game or even a single level within a game. When configuring a level to play, it will display a top 5 friends leaderboard.
• Campaign playlists, collection of set levels with a theme. For example you have a Warthog playlist where you do all the Warthog levels from each game in a row. All the way up to the full Halo campaign where you have to play every Halo game in order on Legendary with all skulls enabled. A great addition to add some variety and depth to the collection.
• cheap price point considering you get 4 full games in one package.
• Halo channel integration, Unlock emblems by watching films on the channel. Halo 1 and 2 terminals are viewed through the channel.
• Halo Waypoint website is the new Bungie.net for Halo fans. here you can see your stats, visit forums and generally keep up with all things Halo.
• Lobby options are friends only or invite only.
• MP still has the vote option on what game mode/map you play on.
• Achievements have progress bars in game.
• Clan tag support once unlocked.
• Halo 2 online is the only playlist that has ranking. it uses the traditional Halo 2 ranking system.
• MP continues the playlist method. You can select certain games like Halo 2 anniversary or Halo 2 normal, Halo 3 or Halo 4. Big team battle is back along with Team slayer.
• Name plates are viewable and unlockable in game. You get to see what you can unlock but also the criteria for unlocking it. it can vary from complete a certain level all the way to certain amount of wins to beating par scores on levels.
• Rival mechanic, Set a friend as a rival so you can compete against each others times and scores.
• Game play is untouched and apart from the graphics, you feel like you are playing the same game from all those years ago.

Cons:

• No campaign matchmaking.
• No firefight game type.
• Slowdown in a lot of places across all four games. Found Halo 1 and Halo 4 to be the worst affected.
• Checkpointing system seems a bit flaky. Sometimes they work and sometimes they do not. you could see a lot of replaying the same area over and over.
• Network help is not in this game. Before, Especially in halo 3 you had a world map, notification of your NAT type etc.
• Playlists are very limited with no lone wolves section.
• Would be nice to be able to filter the play lists down like doteam slayer matches but only on Halo 3 maps.
• Had few instances of weapons not showing up or the HUD messing up.
• Saving/using the same loadout across all games can mess up and save properly.
• Achievements are glitched and wont unlock or are delayed anywhere upto a few hours.
• Spartan ops is missing.

in Summary, The collection is a huge success and a brilliant collection of games. We have chose to not go on about how bad the online part is as it is very well documentated and fixes are coming on a near daily basis. With a few niggles happening through the game, Especially performance with slowdown the game is still a real blast to play.This collection is a perfect purchase for long time fans and is even better for new players as you get to catch up on everything Halo and still play online! The online servers really need to get up and running properly as its the best part of the game, Being able to play any Halo game online at any time is just awesome. the game brings a huge amount of replayability with scores,leaderboards and playlists. Achievements aside you do have a div todo everything so you can unlock those name plates to show off with online. A worthy purchase even now with its problems as Halo 3 and halo 2 are the most solid of versions. Oh and i almost forgot to say how brilliant Halo 2 looks and plays, With new re shot cut scenes the game really does deliver on all fronts. So stop reading and go grab this awesome collection!