The legacy of the legendary John-117 lives on in the PC port of Halo: The Master Chief Collection announced earlier this week, during Microsoft‘s latest Inside Xbox episode.
The anthology collection first featured on the Xbox One in 2014, featuring the original Halo trilogy by Bungie, with Halo and Halo 2 getting their anniversary HD versions, Halo 4 by 343 Industries, and two spinoff titles, namely Halo 3: ODST and the prequel title Halo: Reach.
This is truly quite the definitive Halo experience, with all titles (sans Halo 4) being made by original developers Bungie, meaning it’s as “original flavour” as it can get with the critically-acclaimed first-person shooter series (no disrespect to Halo 4, of course).
However, players will be drip-fed the titles as the months roll by, and in chronological order, instead of being introduced altogether in one shot. This means that Halo: Reach will be the first game made available, and then the classic Halo: Combat Evolved afterwards. Before you groan in disappointment, hear out what the folks at Microsoft have to say regarding this:
The Master Chief’s arrival on PC will happen in stages with each title releasing one by one over time -– giving the development teams the ability to ensure each one is right, while giving players a chance to jump in right away, rather than having to wait for the entire suite of games to be completed. Our current plan is for this journey to begin with the launch of Halo: Reach – the fictional beginnings of Master Chief’s saga – with the rest of the titles following in chronological order thereafter. Halo: Reach, Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST (Campaign), and Halo 4 will each be available for individual purchase within MCC as they become available. And each game will evolve and grow over time with community input.
It’s not all that bad. Reach was a title that was previously omitted from the Xbox One version of the MCC. Now fans will be screaming with joy knowing that this well-received prequel is coming to the PC port.
“For us, it’s really exciting to finally bring this saga to PC in a meaningful way, in the right way,” said Brian Jarrard of 343. “This is something the team is very passionate about. We’re not only going to be true to the base games but add in PC features like mouse and keyboard controls, FOV sliders, Ultrawide resolution, remappable keybindings.”
It seems 343 and Microsoft have learnt a lot moving forward with the Master Chief’s journey, and have decided to take things slow to deliver the best possible experience to fans, new and old. And what better way to (re)introduce the beloved shooter franchise than to do it in chronological order?
Halo: The Master Chief Collection will be made available on the Microsoft Store and has a Steam page already available for viewing, but has no official release date as of yet. It will be announced at a later date.
Marion has a serious RPG addiction. Sometimes it bleeds into real life; he forgets to sleep because he thinks he has a Witcher’s body clock. Forgive him in advance if he suddenly blurts out terms such as “Mind Flayer” and “Magic Missile”, because never once does he stop thinking about his next Dungeons & Dragons game.
Si Jia
