Even though The Master Chief Collection is available to everybody on Xbox Game Pass and the community is healthy, this isn’t quite like the Halo 2/Halo 3 heyday where everybody and their mother was playing and you could find a game in seconds. Granted, I did often have to wait, sometimes for up to three minutes. Even Firefight has been imported (from Reach) and it’s still a blast it’s no wonder it helped fellow Xbox heavyweight Gears of War set off a wave of cooperative PvE multiplayer modes that’s still going strong today. I searched my own Halo-fan heart for the most obscure scenarios I could think of and was obliged every single time.

Are you open to any of the games as long as you get an Oddball match? Ask, and ye shall receive. Want SWAT in Halo 2 or Halo 2 Anniversary? Done. Want Big Team Battle in Halo 1? You’ve got it. As a longtime fan, it’s wonderful that MCC’s interface lets you make awesomely specific game mode requests. I’ve played around 30 rounds in the past week with no fuss, no drops, no lag, and no BS. It’s admittedly a bit later than I’d anticipated, but the love letter to Master Chief has finally been delivered.Ĭrucially, matchmaking just works. 343 Industries deserves a ton of credit for sticking with it after a notoriously bad launch and completing the long-term renovation of the house while its occupants lived (and played) inside.

It is a genuinely amazing package that now includes six of Microsoft’s classic single-player and co-op campaigns and legendary multiplayer modes, at long last free of any red-flag technical caveats. Five years after launch, Halo: The Master Chief Collection has finally fulfilled its full fan-service potential with the addition of the last missing game from the Xbox and Xbox 360 era, Halo Reach.

Buy halo 1 for pc online