Halo: The Master Chief Collection (Xbox One)

Finally, Amazon actually deliver games on release day rather than the usual day after release that I'm accustomed to. Aside from the fast delivery, this as all we know is the release of all the Halo's related to the MC (1, 2, 3, 4) and excludes all halo titles that don't have the MC as the main protagonist (Reach and Halo 3: ODST). The Menu is well done and allows to seamlessly jump to any Halo campaign missions from the four games. The multiplayer playlists are pretty straight forward if a bit jumbled, you get told which version of Halo game each playlist uses via the cover icons towards the side but if you want to play say Big team slayer, you can't specifically choose which Halo multiplayer version you want to use, its just simply all the four titles cobbled up together. Its something 343 should work on in my opinion. There's a Halo 5 beta section on the menu which is greyed out for now come this December when the beta releases. Halo 2 Anniversary is the biggest highlight to the the bundle. The in-game visuals have been revamped and look stunning, the in-game sound has been completely changed, guns feel like they have extra punch, the classic halo background symphony during missions are a lot clearer as you can clearly hear the difference by toggling between the anniversary and original. Blur did a really good job with the cut scenes, very breathtakingly realistic, I mean Tartarus looks AWESOME. There's a bit of an issue with Miranda Keyes' voice not 'matching' her face but that's due to Julie Benz's sub par voice acting (who could forget??), something blur could do nothing about. Halo Nightfall is a welcoming edition to the game. It comes in episodes with the first one being around 30 minutes long and the others yet to be released. Similar to the forward unto dawn web series that was released, without putting spoilers, it puts you into the perspective of Agent Locke that we'll all be playing as in Halo 5 and takes place around after the events of Halo 3. Cant really say more for this part without ruining the story for anyone that doesn't want to be spoiled. Downsides, well aside from the small quirk i mentioned for matchmaking, the initial installation of the game is a bit of a pain, just takes too long to install (took me a whole day to install). It seems the installation tries to download the update and install the game disc at the same time. Now I have fibre optic broadband running at roughly 70+ megabits per second so I'd like to think their servers are overloaded. It's not a big problem, you get to play the game when its at least 18% done, but the resulting installation causes the game to act up by constant freezes to the campaign. That being said, the freeze continues even after the update, something a future update could fix i guess. Going back to matchmaking, i can rarely find a game no matter what playlist i pick, waiting a good 10 to 15 minutes to find a few players is just too long, it's a problem 343 seems to be aware of at least. Aside from the few temporary problems arising as of now, the bundle is as good as it gets, Halo 2 Anniversary looks absolutely gorgeous, 3 and 4 run absolutely smooth, almost surreal how the extra frames and no jaggies make a difference to the game play experience. They honestly couldn't have done better with the bundle itself.

Arrived on time and was as expected - though it had a tracking notice on it, and was supposed to be signed for, it was just pushed through the letterbox. No booklet enclosed, so there will be an oddly retro feel to the learning curve. I've still got my original XBox version of Halo Combat Evolved, which had a booklet which looks like it'll come in handy. Played on an XBox One X, with a large 4K TV this production doesn't have any display issues, and the scene rendering and character displays aren't overly old-fashioned. There's little if nothing in the way of modern blood and gore, though the baddies have their familiar squeaks and grunts when they die, so not a lot has changed. Scenically, if you stop on a hill and have a look around, everything looks quite peaceful and pleasant, though you don't get all the lush up-to-date shadow and light effects that you'd get in a game from 2019. Then again this isn't a holiday video, so if you notice how barren the landscape seems or that there are no animals running or flying for cover, then it's probably time to get back to playing the game and shooting a few members of the Covenant. That said, admiring the Halo ring again brings back that feeling of how empty space is, and if you're a fan of Larry Niven's "Ringworld" books, the first game has a familiar pictorial reminder. The box contains just one disc (for all five games: Halo - Combat Eveloved; Halo 2 - Anniversary; Halo 3; Halo 3 - ODST; and Halo 4), so you'll have a massive (49GB) file to download - I've a reasonably fast internet connection, so it only took a couple of hours; sat and kept half an eye on it so that my XBox didn't go to sleep or throw up any surprises, but it went through painlessly. I've only fiddled with the first game, Halo Combat Evolved, and, after all these years, it was fun to replay. Much less complicated than a lot of modern games, as it's pretty linear and if you're an XBox fan (from the old days) this is probably one of the first games you played when the XBox and this game came out - in the last century - it's not changed a bit, and still has that simplistic but engaging feel about it. I always wanted the Master Chief to do good and save the universe, and it's still got that buzz. Gameplay has just about something for everyone: I'd guess even your gran could play on Easy, and once she mastered that, well, she could go up the stages and really whizz through on Legendary! I do remember from the past that I was stuck on the ship for ages on Legendary, so unless you know and remember how things work, and are relatively adept at gaming, I'd initially steer clear of Legendary: just because it's an old game doesn't mean to say it wasn't difficult. Single player was always my favourite mode, but I do remember playing with 16 other players in an evening sesssion at work (like we did back then). The game start-up menu offers Campaigns and Multiplayer, so it'll be fun to get to play in split-screen mode with some buddies from the old days. I never played Halo 3 or 4, so there might even be some form of on-line facilities hidden under the bonnet. There's certainly enough in these five games to keep anyone well occupied for quite a long time. At the price, it's a no-brainer, and I'd definitely recommend it, especially if you're waiting for next year's releases of the new XBox (currently under the handle of Project Scarlett) along with Halo's much lauded offering: Infinite. Playing through these five games might be just the reminder (and practice) I need to be ready for the future.

My my my, how opinions change! When I first reviewed this game I called it “Utterly broken and unplayable.” I even sent the game back to Amazon and got a refund. Originally i got this game at launch as a present from my wife, it was a gift for our 10-year anniversary. I was so looking forward to playing it, and what Halo fan wouldn’t? All 4 main games with all of their multiplayer modes and maps intact! Halo 1 remastered, Halo 2 remastered, Halo 3 and 4 all in one package and running at 60 FPS in 1080p and with all the multiplayer maps and modes from all four games?! Sounds amazing right? Well at launch, no…it wasn’t. The multiplayer was utterly broken, at launch people would sometimes wait 30 to 60 minutes for the game to connect with a lobby (i never waited this long of course, as that's just silly) and if it did connect the lag would make the game unplayable, or you would be disconnected mid match. You couldn't party up with your friends, and if you by some miracle were able to party up the game would split you up into totally different teams or in the worst cases totally different matches! (that is of course, presuming you could connect to a match at all!) I must have searched a thousand times for a lobby but 9 times out of 10 it would fail. The matchmaking simply did not work. I stuck with this game for 4 months after launch, hoping that with each new patch the game would become playable for me. It never did, which normally would make me pretty angry, but because this was a 10-year anniversary gift from my wife, something I was supposed to love and treasure I was even more pissed off and disappointed. I think by the time i was done i must have downloaded 20 gigs worth of patches (the game itself was only 40 or so!!) with so called "fixes" to make the matchmaking work and not one single patch even helped just a tiny bit. Not one. 343 stated it had fixed the issues and that the game would be stable and playable after every patch, but that never happened, at least not for me and many MANY others. It seemed there was no hope left. And I was not the only one of course, this game has become infamous for being one of the worst releases of this generation. The single player campaigns even had issues, plagued by frame rate issues and bugs, and the campaigns were the most important part for me. At this point I gave up on the game completely, after waiting months (which no customer should have to do, you pay your money and you should get a working product at launch. Not have to wait 6 months for patches to fix things) and months. I was super angry, and begrudgingly sent the game back to Amazon for a refund. My wonderful 10-year wedding anniversary gift which had sentimental value was ruined and gone and the great brand of Halo had been tainted forever. So, I wrote a scathing review, and gave the game 1 out of 5 stars. Recently, thanks to the release of Halo 5 I felt like going through the old Halo campaigns again. To do this I had to dust off my old 360, but after getting used to the 1080p and 60 fps resolution of Halo 5, they just didn’t feel right. Then I remembered how good these old games felt when I played them back when I still had the Master Chief collection (the few times I actually managed to play the campaigns and enjoy them that is), so I went onto 343’s forums and checked to see if the game had been fixed at all since I last played it (around 5 or 6 months go now at this point). Things weren’t looking good. I was still seeing complaints about multiplayer not working etc etc, but overall the mood was much more positive than it was the last time I looked. So I figured “screw it” and re-bought the game, used for cheap. To my utter amazement, many of the game breaking issues I encountered had been sorted! Campaigns ran smoother and were less buggy, finally I could enjoy these epic campaigns how they were intended to be enjoyed! Smooth 60 fps and only minor frame rate dips on a few large levels, it worked great! What’s even more amazing is I tried the multiplayer again and to my utter amazement, out of the 10 games I played 8 worked flawlessly! One game refused to find players for a BTB match, but as soon as I restarted the search it found a full match instantly, and the other occasion I joined a match and the lag made the game unplayable, but apart from that it was all working fine! Not perfect, but it WAS working, which is infinitely better than how it was before where it wouldn’t work at all. I can’t speak for parties as I haven’t tried that yet. So, do I still think this game is an utter disaster? Hell yes. Regardless of how well a game might work a year after it was released and patched hundreds of times, no game should be released in that sort of a state, and we as gamers shouldn’t have to deal with that kind of nonsense. We pay our hard earned cash; we deserve a working product at launch. Simple as that. However, if you are coming into this game for the first time and have no previous experience with the games’ disastrous launch you are in for a real treat. Looking at the game as it is now and not how it was, it’s a pretty good game. Is it perfect? No it still has issues, but they aren’t as game breaking as they used to be. Anything that lets you play those iconic Halo campaigns at 1080p and 60 FPS is worth playing, and I’m loving every minute of reliving halo 1, 2, 3 and even 4. And since the multiplayer works (for the most part) now, experiencing all those games’ maps and modes Is an experience not to be missed. You can start up a game of BTB on Halo 4, then the next match you’ll be playing classic Halo: CE multiplayer with that oh so satisfying, infamous overpowered Magnum! Glorious. So, in short, this game has redeemed itself to me. Yes it still has issues which should not exist, and no it shouldn’t have been released in the state it was in and that will always be unforgivable. But now that it works at least 95% of the time, its easier to overlook its issues and easier to actually enjoy the game now. So, if you are a fan of Halo you should still check this game out, or if you like me returned the game its worth coming back to, especially now it is significantly reduced in price. Id give the game 3 and half stars but I cant so it gets a 4. Certainly an improvement over 1 out of 5 huh?

This game is a marvel, it really is. I am aware that initially, it had issues with online multiplayer and various other things, but given the task they were given, I cant say im surprised that it wasnt 100% when it came out. But that seems to be the norm these days, not just with this game, but most games in general will recieve a day one patch or have game breaking bugs out of the box, or glitches etc. These are no longer problems, and certainly at least when I purchased it, there were none. So what is this? It is all four Halo games featuring Master Chief. Halo 1: Combat Evolved Anniversary (this game is also on the 360), Halo 2 Anniversary (Halo 2 was never released on the 360. However, it was playable using Backwards Compatibility. It also has a PC port which added the ability to earn achievments, although whether this is still possible is anyones guess), Halo 3 Halo 4. Halo 3 ODST is available to download at an extremely cheap price, and it intergrates itself into the collection. Also included is every multiplayer map from every game, and the ability to cross between any of them and do any game kind you want, will make people happy, and also adds a new way to play older maps. Halo 1 is the most difficult game in the collection in my opinion. On the normal difficulty I couldnt even manage and had to draft in my partner to play it in co-op with me. Halo 1 is generally considered that hardest of them all and the fact that I couldnt get very far on my own is a testament to that, or im just not very good at FPS games, which is the case anyway, but I managed to complete 2, 3, 4 and 5 on my own, so I wouldnt say I was that bad. You have the ability in this game to switch between the original graphics and the remastered ones, which makes for some interesting comparisons at times Halo 2 was redone for this collection. I dont know if that was the plan at first, but this collection is where it has ended up. It has had remade cutscenes which look incredible including a new ones at the begining and end to integrate spartan locke into the series. The re-done visuals also look stunning and the ability to switch between the old and the new, as in Halo 1 Anniversary, remains. Some of the multiplayer maps have also been remade. Halo 3 is pretty much the Halo 3 people know and love, with a few improvements here and there, such as resolution, lighting etc. The same can be said of Halo 4 and probably ODST. With the exception of Halo 1 which was mostly a pain in the bum, playing the rest were incredibly fun, and it was nice to go through them and try to remember everything I had done the first time around, such as finding skulls, finding the terminals in Halo 3, etc. Sadly, I havnt really bothered that much with the multiplayer side of this game. Mostly because I feel like I've done all that, in fact I did it to death in Halo 3. I prefer Halo for the stories, always have done. So that is why I played them all.

Halo is a game that will fill many with nostalgic moments and have them relive their childhood/teen years all over again. However, 343 have sadly let us down on this one, whilst the campaigns are full of remastered elements and some truly incredibly story writing, it's still a buggy game. This game was clearly released too early to the consumers, and therefore launched with some major issues, such as not being able to play online as you were unable to find a match for up to 3 hours. Also, some of the campaign levels are iffy on the frame rate, or have weird bugs that mean Plasma guns don't fire properly after jumping, or when "saving and quitting" your game isn't actually saved. Although 343 Industries have released several major updates, it's still not quite there yet. Players are now able to find games in less than 3 minutes, but sometimes you'll be booted from the lobby before the match starts, or teams will be uneven. This game is great, don't get me wrong, I've had hours of play from this, but if you're looking for a polished game, then this isn't one. Take it with a pinch of salt, enjoy it for what it is. Personally, I'd recommend buying this in a couple of months time, when hopefully, all the issues will have been ironed out so that we can begin to enjoy Halo for what it is and was.

An absolutely worth while purchase. Bringing in four games on to your Xbox One console for the price of one (plus additional content!) Halo: The Master Chief Collection will keep you busy for hours on end. I'm not going to go too much in to detail but here are a couple of worthy pointers: -Visually stunning, runs smoothly. The Xbox One handles the game well. -Control settings easy to swap around (a moment of silence for all spartans that have lost their lives because a friend chucked a grenade near them in co-op instead of trying to look down their sights) -The ability to switch between old gen graphics and new gen by simply pressing the back button. Players approach this differently; some actually prefer to keep the old look on. Personally, I only switch to quickly compare and amaze. There's no delay/lag at all when switching between graphics. - Playtime: over 100 multiplayer maps split between each game, forge the ability to create your own maps, Halo nightfall, Halo 5 beta, every campaign mission... need I say more? - Everything is unlocked. This enables players to literally play any mission they like from the campaign without having to go through missions they do not want to do. - Smart and easy navigation for the menus. - Enemies are smart, probably even smarter than they were before. I'm not sure if it is a coincidence but they will run/duck for cover if they are outgunned. Even run you over with vehicles. - The music, OH GOD THE MUSIC. Everyone knows Bungie knew how to make an epic moment even more so with the addition of the right music at the right time. As pointed out by a friend and soon after realizing myself 343 have actually increased the volume of tracks. This can be noticed when you switch between old and new graphics. It's always nice to see they are looking at the smaller details. I'm not a Halo fanatic, in fact when they Halo games came out originally I did not own an Xbox or 360 and would usually pick CoD over Halo. What 343 have done is essentially what Destiny should have been, a huge game packed with content to keep players interested. This kind of quantity is just unseen today for the price it is being sold at which I find a huge shame and even more is supposedly planned free of charge. Lets just say if Activision made/published, each campaign would have probably been £40. I'm sorry Destiny, you've simply been outclassed here. Dan

I bought this when I heard the new Halo 5 Guardians was announced. I wanted to understand the story about the Master Chief and figure out how the story got to the stage of whatever happens in Halo 5. Halo 1: I thought this was a little boring and the gameplay was poor. But looking at this realistically this was only released on the original Xbox so this must have been good in its time. The story gave me a good base to start on and to understand what the games were all about Halo 2: The story for this was much better, The Halo 2 game was remastered for this collection and the cut scenes are brilliantly worked. You can see what they looked like on the original Halo 2 by pressing the back button. The remastered version is a big step on. The gameplay was much more engaging as well. Halo 3: The story for this game was unreal! A fitting ending to the original Halo trilogy, the gameplay again stepped on from the first 2 but it was friendly enough not to make it much more difficult from the older versions. The story was really entertaining and made me continue to play this for hours. Really well done Halo 4: From what I gathered Halo 4's story links to Halo 5 and we are introduced to a new enemy. The gameplay is not too dissimilar that the original 3 but it's a little more difficult. After playing the first three Halos I found the difficulty much harder so my skills were put to the test. The story was really entertaining from the start and I really enjoyed playing this Overall: From someone who has never played Halo before I really enjoyed the stories of the original collection, it didn't answer all my questions before playing Halo 5 but I learnt a lot. I had a go at the multiplayer and this was really fun. The different maps and modes for online makes this really refreshing and challenging everytime I play

Really enjoyable to play through all of the Halo games again in 1080p 60 FPS. Halo: Combat Evolved (Anniversary) was fairly decent on the 360, however due to the 360's outdated hardware it wasn't as enjoyable as it could have been. The graphics look much better on the Xbox one, with the added crispiness of a higher resolution (1080p) and the smoothness of 60 FPS - this makes playing through Halo 1 again a fantastic experience. Halo 2 Anniversary looks tremendous remastered, and the new cut scenes make it feel a lot more cinematic. The only complaint I have is the low field of view, however this probably isn't an issue for someone playing on their TV and sitting further back on the couch (I am using my computer monitor and sat up to my desk). Other than that the game runs well and sounds great. Halo 3 feels more or less the same as the 360 version, the added resolution and FPS does make for a better experience though. It also suffers from a low field of view like Halo 2, but this is a minor complaint and probably isn't a problem for most players. The same can be said about Halo 4, looks and feels much better on this version, however it is more or less the same as the 360 version. All of the Halo campaigns are really enjoyable and immersive to play, this is a must buy for any fan of the Halo series or somebody who is interested in playing them. I haven't played much of the multiplayer as I do not want to pay for gold membership, but from what I played it seems fairly good, just lacking an active player base and it can sometimes take a while to find a game.