So I guess I'm going to throw a few words in about the multiplayer offerings for the PC port of MCC at the moment since I've done really everything I can at this point in terms of this current "season" of progression.
I have the game marked as "shelved", but I'm certainly not shelving this game. Master Chief Collection will continue to be a game I progress in as time goes on, essentially being my ideal "forever game" with the insanely replayable campaigns and robust multiplayer offerings, but that's more the Xbox version at the moment. I really wanted to have some words about the PC port.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection on PC is a pretty great experience. While not being the most flushed out in terms of totally customizing the experience (unless you're modding), the game on PC has enough on offer at the moment to be an attractive offer for people to play. Currently, on PC we have both the campaigns and multiplayer offerings for both Reach and Combat Evolved, which are both great for completely different reasons.
To get my positives in first: Halo is just fantastic to play with a mouse and keyboard. I have heard some grumblings that PC controls feel "off" to some people, but I haven't had that issue, myself. Overall, the game just plays fantastically and it's always jarring to go from throwing down constant headshots and quick-turns with a mouse and keyboard setup, to then feeling like a fridge with little stumpy legs when playing on console. As more Halo titles get released onto this version of the game, the less and less I will be touching the Xbox version of this game.
Visually speaking, MCC's current games look rather great. There's apparently some visual upscaling done to Reach with graphics options available for toggle, but the differences for each options seem minimal to me, overall. Nevertheless, there's some good customization options on offer including a FOV slider (praise be), but there isn't a whole ton on offer to severely customize your own Halo experience, here.
The games themselves are great, at least the multiplayer offerings. I love that new modes are added to both Combat Evolved and Reach to keep the games feeling fresh as time goes on, so I can go through long play sessions of this game without getting too stale.
Lastly, the multiplayer framework for this game feels rather solid. As someone who holds a 250+ MPS download/upload speed, whenever I encounter connection issues I can pretty safely pose those complaints onto the game, itself and not my connection, yet MCC runs really without a hitch! While I may see some lagging players from time to time, my connection is always extremely stable with no rubber-banding, no server crashes, and no "time outs" when I'm in the middle of the game. As a day-one purchaser of MCC on Xbox One, seeing the game actually work the way it's supposed to is extremely refreshing nowadays.
As for the issues I have, there's one in particular that severely hampers the experience for me...
Similar to the original release of Halo Reach, MCC has an unlocking system put in place to earn armor pieces for your customizable spartan that'll be shown in both singleplayer and multiplayer. To unlock new pieces of armor, you have to progress through the free battle pass season that's on offer. As you gain XP, you can earn tokens to get armor and further progress. Everything is free, so that's all good with me; the issue lies solely within the grind.
Originally, Halo Reach was pretty freakin' grindy, like, you had to invest an ungodly amount of time in it to get anywhere within the game, and as someone who spent a lot of time in Reach both during and after its hayday, I can attest to how painful it was to progress, but there were two things done better in Reach's original release than here:
1. When you got XP, you were able to take the "credits" of said XP and allocate them to any unlocks you wanted to. Reach did have rank requirements locking off specific kinds of armor at any point in time, but once you hit that rank, you could used any banked up XP you previously had to unlock your desired armor. MCC instead has a more linear progression system where you earn tokens by passing ranks, which then can only be used on the next item available in the pass. I hear that 343 is working on changing that to make the progression not feel so linear, and I would hope that's the case because the system we have at the moment certainly works, but it's not ideal.
Next, let's complain about the grind. As I previously stated, MCC is not nearly as grindy as OG Reach, but it's still a hassle. Earning XP in matches can be rather rewarding at first, seeing great progression rewards flowing in and constantly getting new items, but soon enough, a grind wall is put in place that slows the pacing to a halt, and continues to do so as you go through the separate "tours" (prestige) of the multiplayer. Now, there's two different things I take issue with this grind.
1. THERE ARE NO CAMPAIGN PROGRESSION REWARDS! Besides a "pat on the back" in form of achievements to flush out your Steam/Xbox profile(s), MCC has no XP or token rewards for playing the campaigns. If you want to go out and play any campaign, you're earning jack for playing them. 343 is supposedly working on a challenges screen for players to do specific in-game things to get rewarded with XP/season tokens, but they're still seemingly a long ways away, and as someone whose put in 95 hours on the PC version of the game alone, not to mention the time I've put into the Xbox version when I'm sick of just playing CE and Reach, that's absolutely crazy. I am just now approaching the end of the current season's pass. The amount of time needed to get these rewards is just unacceptable, even with the permanent XP increase we were given a while ago. I know it de-incentives people from investing in multiplayer in the long run, but the XP caps per match need to be increased, or the XP per medals needs an increase; either way, it would shorten the grind and make it more manageable. The combination of giving campaign rewards and having the multiplayer dull out higher XP caps would make this whole system flow much better, especially when there's insane XP requirements to hit a single rank.
As an example, I just barely hit "tour 4", and there's 11 total. Right now, I hear that you can't pass 6, and that makes sense because I rarely see people much above my current rank, but I've seen people in tours 5 and 6 from time to time. To leave tour 3 and enter 4, you have to earn a total of 400k XP to rank up. Now, on a double-XP event, that's not too bad as long as you perform well, but not everyone is going to have banger matches after banger matches, meaning that it takes hours even during an XP event to hit those requirements. Just think how long it takes to hit those milestones without the assistance of 2x XP! I cannot begin to imagine how much time people in significantly higher ranks than I am have invested in this game! If it's already getting to be borderline unbearable to grind in tour 3 of 11, then there's a serious issue that needs to be addressed.
Okay, this has gone on long enough, and I doubt anyone will actually read this to conclusion, but right now, MCC is an attractive offer on PC. I would say that even if you're considering on picking this up that you do so at your earliest convenience, because it's worth every penny. Hopefully as more titles are released and we get more features, that the game shapes up to the masterpiece potential it has. In the meantime, the PC port of MCC is great, but far from perfect, yet is still something all FPS fans have to pick up.
I have the game marked as "shelved", but I'm certainly not shelving this game. Master Chief Collection will continue to be a game I progress in as time goes on, essentially being my ideal "forever game" with the insanely replayable campaigns and robust multiplayer offerings, but that's more the Xbox version at the moment. I really wanted to have some words about the PC port.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection on PC is a pretty great experience. While not being the most flushed out in terms of totally customizing the experience (unless you're modding), the game on PC has enough on offer at the moment to be an attractive offer for people to play. Currently, on PC we have both the campaigns and multiplayer offerings for both Reach and Combat Evolved, which are both great for completely different reasons.
To get my positives in first: Halo is just fantastic to play with a mouse and keyboard. I have heard some grumblings that PC controls feel "off" to some people, but I haven't had that issue, myself. Overall, the game just plays fantastically and it's always jarring to go from throwing down constant headshots and quick-turns with a mouse and keyboard setup, to then feeling like a fridge with little stumpy legs when playing on console. As more Halo titles get released onto this version of the game, the less and less I will be touching the Xbox version of this game.
Visually speaking, MCC's current games look rather great. There's apparently some visual upscaling done to Reach with graphics options available for toggle, but the differences for each options seem minimal to me, overall. Nevertheless, there's some good customization options on offer including a FOV slider (praise be), but there isn't a whole ton on offer to severely customize your own Halo experience, here.
The games themselves are great, at least the multiplayer offerings. I love that new modes are added to both Combat Evolved and Reach to keep the games feeling fresh as time goes on, so I can go through long play sessions of this game without getting too stale.
Lastly, the multiplayer framework for this game feels rather solid. As someone who holds a 250+ MPS download/upload speed, whenever I encounter connection issues I can pretty safely pose those complaints onto the game, itself and not my connection, yet MCC runs really without a hitch! While I may see some lagging players from time to time, my connection is always extremely stable with no rubber-banding, no server crashes, and no "time outs" when I'm in the middle of the game. As a day-one purchaser of MCC on Xbox One, seeing the game actually work the way it's supposed to is extremely refreshing nowadays.
As for the issues I have, there's one in particular that severely hampers the experience for me...
Similar to the original release of Halo Reach, MCC has an unlocking system put in place to earn armor pieces for your customizable spartan that'll be shown in both singleplayer and multiplayer. To unlock new pieces of armor, you have to progress through the free battle pass season that's on offer. As you gain XP, you can earn tokens to get armor and further progress. Everything is free, so that's all good with me; the issue lies solely within the grind.
Originally, Halo Reach was pretty freakin' grindy, like, you had to invest an ungodly amount of time in it to get anywhere within the game, and as someone who spent a lot of time in Reach both during and after its hayday, I can attest to how painful it was to progress, but there were two things done better in Reach's original release than here:
1. When you got XP, you were able to take the "credits" of said XP and allocate them to any unlocks you wanted to. Reach did have rank requirements locking off specific kinds of armor at any point in time, but once you hit that rank, you could used any banked up XP you previously had to unlock your desired armor. MCC instead has a more linear progression system where you earn tokens by passing ranks, which then can only be used on the next item available in the pass. I hear that 343 is working on changing that to make the progression not feel so linear, and I would hope that's the case because the system we have at the moment certainly works, but it's not ideal.
Next, let's complain about the grind. As I previously stated, MCC is not nearly as grindy as OG Reach, but it's still a hassle. Earning XP in matches can be rather rewarding at first, seeing great progression rewards flowing in and constantly getting new items, but soon enough, a grind wall is put in place that slows the pacing to a halt, and continues to do so as you go through the separate "tours" (prestige) of the multiplayer. Now, there's two different things I take issue with this grind.
1. THERE ARE NO CAMPAIGN PROGRESSION REWARDS! Besides a "pat on the back" in form of achievements to flush out your Steam/Xbox profile(s), MCC has no XP or token rewards for playing the campaigns. If you want to go out and play any campaign, you're earning jack for playing them. 343 is supposedly working on a challenges screen for players to do specific in-game things to get rewarded with XP/season tokens, but they're still seemingly a long ways away, and as someone whose put in 95 hours on the PC version of the game alone, not to mention the time I've put into the Xbox version when I'm sick of just playing CE and Reach, that's absolutely crazy. I am just now approaching the end of the current season's pass. The amount of time needed to get these rewards is just unacceptable, even with the permanent XP increase we were given a while ago. I know it de-incentives people from investing in multiplayer in the long run, but the XP caps per match need to be increased, or the XP per medals needs an increase; either way, it would shorten the grind and make it more manageable. The combination of giving campaign rewards and having the multiplayer dull out higher XP caps would make this whole system flow much better, especially when there's insane XP requirements to hit a single rank.
As an example, I just barely hit "tour 4", and there's 11 total. Right now, I hear that you can't pass 6, and that makes sense because I rarely see people much above my current rank, but I've seen people in tours 5 and 6 from time to time. To leave tour 3 and enter 4, you have to earn a total of 400k XP to rank up. Now, on a double-XP event, that's not too bad as long as you perform well, but not everyone is going to have banger matches after banger matches, meaning that it takes hours even during an XP event to hit those requirements. Just think how long it takes to hit those milestones without the assistance of 2x XP! I cannot begin to imagine how much time people in significantly higher ranks than I am have invested in this game! If it's already getting to be borderline unbearable to grind in tour 3 of 11, then there's a serious issue that needs to be addressed.
Okay, this has gone on long enough, and I doubt anyone will actually read this to conclusion, but right now, MCC is an attractive offer on PC. I would say that even if you're considering on picking this up that you do so at your earliest convenience, because it's worth every penny. Hopefully as more titles are released and we get more features, that the game shapes up to the masterpiece potential it has. In the meantime, the PC port of MCC is great, but far from perfect, yet is still something all FPS fans have to pick up.