Talking Point: 10 Years Later, What Do You Think Of 'The Master Chief Collection' In 2024?

These days it's pretty great but it did take a long time to fix the look of some of the games, I think Halo 2 was only sorted a couple of years ago. A great collection that was visually inconsistent for a long time but is in a good spot now and a bargain for the price. The only slight issue now from memory is that you have to download the entire thing before being able to remove games, whilst on Steam you can just select what you want up front

Had it downloaded forever and do mean to play through them all.

The fact of having to download the entire thing was always a sticking point. Not sure if that has changed or not, although it's not a big deal now as it will play from external drives rather than having to be on the internal.

That's the big issue at my end now. Way too little space internally and I refuse to pay extortionate prices for a new drive.

MCC is something you must have and it is the best way to get into the Halo world. I have a physical copy (and I'm digital only since the last gen).

I don't think anything of it. After finishing the campaign of all the Halo games, I've moved on.

It was definitely meaty with its content, though! So, it's a great value. I think I have a physical copy, too.

Honestly it was one of the biggest disappointments I've ever felt in my gaming life.
Not for the collection itself (I played it a couple of years ago as my first Halo experience), but for the individual games.
Despite being very keen on finally trying out these legendary games, I just found them boring, bland and unengaging, and I still to this day don't understand how they're held in such high regard.

It’s looks and plays great for me … thanks for the nine years of beta testing for me!

I can't find a Match for Vanilla Reach BTB on the MCC but still could on the actual Reach before they shut down the servers so I just use it for FireFight and Daily Achievements.

I still play them online with friends to this day. It's a treasure trove of content. I actually bought it again on steam during the christmas sales to play the single player campaigns on the steam deck.

I love MCC. I'm happy 343 stuck with it. It's one of my top played games across any platform.

It's great but Halo infinite is superior and the one I play regularly.

I have full confidence in 343 going forward. They knocked it out of the park with Infinite.

@clvr Games are a product of the time they're made/released. Impossible to experience the same going backwards.

MCC was really awful at launch. The connection issues made playing actually impossible in many/most cases. But, as games go now, it got better with every patch and has landed in it's rightful place.

I still play from time to time, but Infinite has gone through a similar cycle and is now a lot of (consistent) fun. That's the main Halo for me.

Play a campaign every 12 months and currently playing through Halo 4 on Heroic. I have the collection installed all the time on a Samsung T7 SSD 1 TB Drive and the whole collection looks and plays lovely on my Series X.

I highly recommend both the collection and the SSD Drive to anyone who don't yet have them.

been playing coop

My biggest issue with the collection is online coop. As some games namely halo 3 and odst have pretty substantial issues with its software being dated. It often lags out because the system hasn't been updated

@Zochmenos yeah I know that, but the difference is I can have a whale of a time with Doom 1993 or Goldeneye 007 even in 2024, while Halo just bores me to tears.
I appreciate the impact the series (and the original in particular) had at the time, but none of the games in the series hold a candle to the best in the genre, even contemporaries like Timesplitters 2.

343 is so garbage they couldn't even add Firefight correctly. Even with the Composer thing to search, it doesn't match what Reach was. All anyone played on Reach was ARCADEFight. NOT Plasmafight. Nadefight, or any of the other garbage. They should've had just arcadefight and updated it to use saved loadouts like H4's SpartanOps so we wouldn't have to suicide to get our loadout the way we want.

Also, the skulls. Every Halo should have the same skulls and have them working the same way. Bandanna on H2 left out plasma weapons. WTF? I would've been much happier if every Halo ran on the same engine so we didn't have to deal with sniper rounds bouncing off banshees in Halo CE, etc. QoL improvements are better than accuracy, IMO.

Infinite has long been deleted from my Series X, but MCC is a permanent fixture.

£15 on cdkeys with reach and odst 2 years ago. One of the best deals ever. This is very regularly on on the series x

It looks and plays great. I wrote about it here a few days ago:

https://www.purexbox.com/forums/xbox-series-x/now_playing_on_xbox_series_xs?start=520#reply-535

Besides, I can't believe how excellent Halo Infinite is after how bad the campaigns of 4 and 5 were.

@clvr Good time or bad, something is lost when visited later. It's like playing a game with multiplayer but only completing campaign and wondering what the fuss was about.

It's a shame, but it just isn't something that can be done later except for maybe some RPGs. But I wonder about those too out of their original context.

@clvr you mean as a campaign or a multiplayer experience?

I don’t generally enjoy FPS campaigns though. I played Halo’s back in the day but now I wouldn’t dream of it. Massive levels with bits to do here and there. I can see how that wouldn’t appeal to fans of any of those games you listed. I’ve not played Doom 93 but have played the rest of those games back in the day.

Halo multiplayer however generally holds up because of the quirks each entry has. I generally stick with the latest Halo for the population and modern touches.

I got my first Xbox (a Series X) a couple of years ago and played through all of the games in the MCC as single player campaigns. It was great.

Recently installed it… never played halo before, but it’s always taking a god chunk of my hard drive…. I just never got around to play it yet…

It’s phenomenal and one of the best deals in gaming. It’s up there with the Final Fantasy Collection.

A forgotten gem. shame it ended up in 343’s hands . they’ll never be halo developers in my eyes

@nomither6 This is an attitude I don't get. It's just so childish to me. What do you not like about them? I've asked this question a few times and nobody can give me a response beyond waxing nostalgic about the old days. 343 have brought Halo into the modern age and stopped it from falling into antiquity. Much like a person restores old furniture. No, it's never going to be the same, and maybe they've screwed up. But look at Destiny. It's a p2w mess with players gatekeeping harder than Halo fans. Unless you're willing to invest hundreds, maybe even thousands of dollars and hours, you're going to get crushed. Halo is much easier to get into while still requiring actual skill to be good at.

@RunGMhx I highly recommend playing them. The games are all very good. Halo:CE is definitely going to feel dated by modern standards but remember it's from 2001. It's a very good experience.

@AshKirin19 all 3 of their games are garbage , anything they tried to attempt with the franchise bungie did better . i’ve never seen a different team do better with another teams creation yet, it’s as if it’s impossible .The only reason 343’s games are “modern” is just by virtue of time .

also , destiny is not halo so i fail to see the correlation . two different franchises irregardless if it’s the same dev.

It's a chunky bloated mess that takes way too long to download, and a poor replacement for just having the original versions on backwards compatibility. But the games themselves are fantastic, and there are plenty of moments that bring tears to my eyes because they're so emotional. So yeah, I guess I like it.

Just completed halo 3 legendary last night. Again.my favourite collection of games ever tbh.

@clvr ah you fool. You must not have given the games the time that they deserve and probably played on normal difficulty……. The bungie games are the best FPS experience you can get!

@clvr can you please try them again?!

@Baler wow, calling someone a fool just because I criticized something you like. Very mature.
Also I played half of 1-4, all of Reach, and replayed the whole of CE with my brother to see if co-op would finally make it fun. It didn't.
Edit: I can name you a bunch of FPS that Halo doesn't even hold a candle to.

@ParsnipHero I'm referring to the campaigns, they're dreadful.

@Zochmenos dude, I said I get it.
It's just they were not that good to begin with.
Doom 1993 I played for the first time in 2020, and it became my most played game that year.
So yeah, you can definitely decouple a game from its context and evaluate it on its own merits.

@clvr it was a joke don’t take it personally. Erm what difficulty did you play on because I only play legendary as it’s way more fun than normal to me.

Bought it 10yrs ago and haven't touched it in the past 9.5 yrs - but then I have played the OG halo games and cannot stand the Multi-player. I really don't know why I would still be playing a 10yr old game that in itself has content that is much older as it compiles 'old' games in one new package.

The Campaigns don't exactly take that long and Halo CE is very dated by modern standards. Being impressed by the scale of levels and 'freedom' that gave when it released etc is no longer 'impressive' and as I said, I can't stand the MP so no reason to return to MCC

@clvr only thing I agree with you here is halo 4 is awful! I also don’t like 5 but obvs that’s not in the collection

@Baler i agree , the halo experience is heroic and above . if you’re playing it on normal you’re doing it wrong

@AshKirin19 Fully intend to play both Halo and Gears of war… I just have to find the time… hopefully the Xbox bought for little break at my workstation will allow me to do so…

I've never played Halo, it just past me by even when I had a 360. I like the look of infinite but have no idea of anything going on in the story. Are the older games still fun and worthwhile going through? Are they long campaigns?

@nomither6 it annoys me when people only half heartedly try halo then say it’s rubbish or nothing special. 😆

All these comments saying playing on normal is wrong...my dudes, if the Devs intended the game to be experienced like that it's on them to either make the standard difficulty higher, or making normal difficulty more engaging.
Again, just goes to prove my point that they're not that well designed.

@clvr it literally says in a description underneath the heroic selection that it’s meant to be played on that difficulty . they were just compensating for potential whiners that would complain about the game being “bad” because it’s “too hard, unfair,” etc by adding the option to choose other difficulties. i’d do the same too if i were a dev , it’s something for everyone . you chose easy mode and then think your criticisms hold much weight 💀you want more engaging ? play higher difficulty then

@Baler the only rubbish halo is 343 halos 😂

@nomither6 And this is why point WHY do you think it's garbage? You only give vague notions that means nothing. What did 343 do that Bungie did better? If you can't actually make a single aspect then don't bring it up. Also you completely fail to see the point of me bringing up Destiny. Bungie left Halo to develop Destiny. It was an exercise in "what if." And no, it is nothing like comparing Mario games. As the games you named are two very different games. Halo and Destiny are both modern next shooters with millions of active players. 343 Halo games are modern by virtue that they follow the same trends all modern games do. Do you even understand Halo's origin? Do you even know the name Quake? Ever heard of Arena shooters? CE was an innovation of the classic arcade arena shooter. Every game since has been a further innovation and adaptation of that genre for modern players. I absolutely love people like you. Whining about something but never actually giving reasons on why you don't like it beyond "it's different."

If 343 would've did a full graphical update to the game it would have been perfect. I still play the game but because the graphical assets did not get a full update it falls a bit flat in that category.

Gears collection now please 🙏 makes sense really

I've never played the mp, but I've played Reach & CE. Quite liked them, slowly making my way through the campaigns though.

played reach and CE last year, for the first time, just never was into FPS when they came out. now playing Halo 2 campaign with a mate... having a great time

@eire-shabba The only way a Gears collection would be good is if it's 1-3 ALL on Unreal 5 with no separation in engines/compatibility. Everything available everywhere. Like the ability to run the campaigns of 1 and 2 in "arcade" mode with mutators just like Gears 3. All maps, all characters, all modes universally available.

It's come a LONG way since release. Multiplayer was so broken I didn't touch it for years and honestly forgot about it. But they've got it in a great state now.
I started playing at Halo 4 originally, so I'll drop in occasionally for some Halo 4 swat, which is always fun.
It illustrates just how far multiplayer has come though. The MP game play in Infinite is so much better, but the H4 maps were awesome and had great sci-fi settings.

It's a great game now, has been for a while actually.

@clvr No you don't, but I get that you think you do.

Halo, Doom, Goldeneye, Timesplitters (Youtube's favourite), and every other "name drop" game you could mention has an experience that's linked to the time it released and the age of the person playing it. Sure, you can enjoy them today, but the flavour of the original experience is forever lost to you.

Liking or not liking them isn't you "getting it," it's just a preference you're trying to give more weight to.

To put it simply, you had to be there.

@Zochmenos and that's why I hate RE4, 5, and Oblivion getting so much love. I thought they played ***** even when they were fresh, but everyone is still eating them up. It's crazy. I'm all about the gameplay. That said, Goldeneye didn't age well, but at least they fixed the controls in the remaster...unlike the PD remaster. ugh

@AshKirin19 lol , youre whining about my opinion , but yet im the one crying ? cope

343 sucks and you wont change my mind , just move on .

@NoLifeDGenerate This is the one thing MCC is missing, IMO. Give me full control. Let me run through ODST as Chief or play with Reach loadouts in CE. As you said, stick it all in "arcade mode" and let it be broken/fun.

I'd love to play through all the OG Gears but with the option play with Gears 3 weapons and controls for the entire run, start to finish.

@Zochmenos i think that would probably be a coding nightmare to achieve something like that

idk i could be wrong

@NoLifeDGenerate Hopefully it will have that but it's not essential for it in my view

@nomither6 Yeah, it's too cool to actually happen, lol.

@clvr 'just goes to prove my point that they're not that well designed.'

This is complete bobbins. There have been lectures on the quality and level design of the first half of Halo CE.

I understand if you find them boring, not every game is for every person. However you did need to have the full original experience to understand what makes Halo 1-3 special.

@BAMozzy well that's a fat lie mate. You helped me finish some of the Halo 4 team operations about 2 years ago.

@Zochmenos ok dude, it's impossible talking to you cause you're fixated on this mentality in which you're right and everyone else is wrong.
Ok, games cannot be evaluated if not the second they come out, noted.
Have a nice day.

@themcnoisy I'll just say that if I had to be there to get how good they were, they were not that great in the first place, cause quality tends to resist the passing of time.
Idk, Halo apologists are the only fans that insist on this notion of "you had to be there", and I don't get why. Is it a way to admit that today those games are just boring and bland?

@themcnoisy Oh god yes - I forgot about that Sorry LOL.

I was thinking just about the Multi-player and the single player Campaigns and forgot about those co-op missions.

OK - apart from those few Co-op missions we did together a few years ago, I haven't touched Halo MCC for about 9.5 yrs and unless a friend wants to play it specifically, I doubt I'll return to it in the near future...

@clvr Maybe try to say that you don't like them instead of saying that they are bad, because they aren't bad. You admitted that you didn't even beat them completely. I beat all Halo games in 2023, most of them for the first time. 1, 2, 3, 3 ODST and Reach have a kind of strategy and level design I haven't seen in any other shooter, very solid gameplay and great audio. Yes, they don't throw a lot of things to the players' faces. That would destroy the strategy and the ambience they do masterfully. Halo 4 and 5 are very Hollywood-like and mess the strategy and the story up, but maybe they are more what you like. 4 and 5 don't play like Halo games, the gameplay is super repetitive and have an awkward story and script. Surprisingly, Halo Infinite is the best modern shooter that I have played along with Doom Eternal. Lastly, it's somewhat unfair what you say about Halo fans, since Xbox fans are generally more respectful and open-minded.

@nomither6 It really shouldn't be that hard. All the games were Unreal engine anyway. It's still ridiculous they dropped all the content from 4 to release 5 so bare bones. It didn't have to be that way, but you know they'll pull the same garbage with 6.

@Banjo- never said they're bad, they aren't. They're boring, but the actual fundamentals of moving and shooting are top-notch.
It's just that the level design is basically non-existant, and the games quickly devolve in a mindless shoot fest without much engagement on my part.

@clvr That isn't what I'm saying, you just want your take to have weight it doesn't.

Feel free to evaluate whatever you like, people do it all the time. But you not liking something doesn't say anything at all.

"Boring!"

You kinda played some of them on easy mode 20yrs later (no multiplayer, of course). Congrats. Great "evaluation." Much insight. Def gave CE a playthrough and called it.

@clvr I'm going to be honest, and I've heard a lot of condemnation for Halo. Saying the level design is none existant on a gaming forum is actually ridiculous.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XxuINZZYkF0&pp=ygURSGFsbyBsZXZlbCBkZXNpZ24%3D

The games are years old. First person shooters have evolved arguably as much as any genre. Of course they have issues now in 2024. But the level design and open nature of the combat led to a multitude of differing battles and situations. The level design is fine.

A better argument are the copy and paste nature of certain locations or the story being a bit crap.

@BAMozzy rofl 🤣 love you bro.

@clvr I was going to say to give something besides Halo 1 a try (as that one can be a slog), but it seems that you've already given the campaigns a good chance to win you over, and found that they're not for you. That's understandable and respectable.

I enjoyed the campaigns much more than you did, but I'd agree that the games' mechanics and feel hold up better than many of the level designs.

Halo is good, and I can recognize that, but it was Goldeneye that really "clicked" with me, despite my playing it similarly late!

The MCC is an amazing value, with its staggering amount of content, but I wish I could roll back to a 2019 build. It used to run beautifully for the most part, but somewhere along the line, a patch destroyed its performance on Xbox One, making it so Halo 1 and 2 have to be played with their original graphics- and even then, they can dip below 60fps. H2 even crashed after I played it for a bit with the Anniversary graphics enabled.

@smoreon wow, someone who finally respects my attempts at getting into it instead of piling on me like a bunch of fanboys, thank you!

@clvr No one is "piling on." We're just "letting you know in the comments below."

That's what you do to Youtube clickbait takes.

I love the Halo games and these are the best way to play them now. Still boot it up to reminisce with my buddy. In lockdown we played Matchmaking everyday. Halo 3 custom rotation. Sumo!!!!

Excuse me?