Why the Halo Master Chief Collection Could be the Best Game You Can Buy this Year

With big titles such as The Last of Us Remastered, Grand Theft Auto V, Forza Horizon 2, Destiny, Battlefield Hardline and all the other yearly releases coming out this year it’s likely our wallets will be attacked by all the next-gen goodness. For me, one game stands out in particular, and that’s the Halo Master Chief Collection.

 With Halo 1 Anniversary, Halo 3, Halo 4 and the newly remastered Halo 2 Anniversary all in one package it’s a must have for any Halo fan, but there is more to it than that. At the increased price of £50 next-gen games are not cheap, and some of them lack the quality and content to justify the purchase. With the Master Chief Collection that is not the case; Halo: Combat Evolved alone has a metacritic rating of 97 ranking it among the top games of all time. 

 All four games run at 1080p 60 frames per second, something that console gamers have been waiting for since the next generation began. The biggest selling point is the remake of Halo 2. Running on a new engine, it will be the first time gamers can see what Halo on the Xbox One will truly look like and will give some of them a big dose of nostalgia in the process. Personally, I believe Halo 2 is the best out of the four thanks to it’s revolutionary multiplayer mode and its fun and engrossing story. With newly added terminals giving a sneak peak into Halo 5: Guardians (releasing in 2015), it’s sure to give old players a reason to replay this incredible game. With the addition of cross game playlists, due to the unified user interface, it will mean you can play any set of missions in any order that you wish. For example if you want to play the final four missions altogether without swapping discs you can!

With each campaign taking around 8 hours you will definitely have a lot to do, and that’s not even including the multiplayer! With 93 multiplayer maps, custom games and online multiplayer on dedicated servers, you might not even find the time to finish all four campaigns! All running in their original engines, you can experience (or re-experience) every map including 6 remastered Halo 2 maps. This means for the first time on Xbox Live, you can play all the classic Halo: Combat Evolved maps online. It’s also the first time Halo 2 multiplayer will be available on consoles since the original servers were shut down in 2010. You will have a hard time finding a console shooter with this many maps or game modes all on one disc. The amount of hours I have spent playing the Halo mulitplayer has to be in the thousands by now! The question still remains to how the ranking system and customisation will work, but I am hoping we will get more details on that soon.

 Halo 4, though maybe the weakest of the bunch, included an episodic side story called Spartan Ops. With 10 episodes and 50 chapters, each taking 10-30 minutes and each including a cinematic, there is a lot to play for. The collection will also offer speed runners a fresh new challenge to master tricks that may or may not be possible at 60 frames per second, and as someone who has done a speed run of Halo 3, I personally look forward to that challenge. Halo: Nightfall is also included with this vast package, an exclusive TV series which features the background of the Agent Locke character that will be heavily featured in Halo 5, and let’s not forget access to the Halo 5 beta! Starting December 27th people who buy the Master Chief Collection or happen to get it for Christmas will be able to access the beta when it launches later this year, and as a Halo fan, this is one of the best parts of this collection. 

With all the games coming out this year, how many games can offer you four great, high quality campaigns, an online multiplayer mode with a large amount of maps, Spartan Ops and all at 1080p 60fps? Not too many. After spending thousands of hours playing Halo’s multiplayer over the years, and as for the campaigns, I have spent many hours either playing through for fun or trying to beat my personal best at speed running the game. The sheer amount of pure quality and content in this package makes it a must have for any Halo fan or anyone looking to get into the series to prepare for the release of Halo 5: Guardians. With Nightfall and the beta just being the cherry on top of the cake, this is the game to most look forward to this year!