John 117 has finally made landfall on the Xbox One. The Master Chief Collection brings together the core titles of the Halo series so far, and is rounded out with an enhanced online multiplayer component featuring the maps and play styles of all four games. In short, it's everything a Halo fan could want - apart from Halo 5: Guardians, which is expected to arrive next year.
Halo 3 and 4 come as they were on the Xbox 360. The former looks good, but dated, but Halo 4 was born ready for the Xbox One. Halo: Combat Evolved features as a shinier version of its 2011 anniversary remaster, and if you played both the original and the high-definition remake, as I have, then you'll be playing this game for the first time for the third time. Hashtag: Odd.
Halo 2 is the linchpin here. The 10th anniversary remake gets a full visual and audio makeover for Xbox One - you can flick back to 2004's style at any time - and a new set of cut scenes which are beyond anything you'll have seen on a console before. The freshly-repainted Prophets, who rule the intergalactic religious nutters of the Covenant, now look like menacing politicians rather than rubber jerks in silly hats. Curiously, the game sometimes plays better in its classic mode - some enhanced corridors are too dark or too richly detailed for their own good, and stealthy enemies camouflaged too well.
The lifespan of a game's online component is usually determined by how long it takes for the next big thing to arrive. Halo 2 had two years of unparalleled popularity before Gears of War arrived to take the crown. Halo 3 snatched it back within a year. Now online populations go with an ever-increasing flow, inspired by Call of Duty's annual updates. Who will still be playing this when Guardians arrives?
Possibly as few people as are playing it right now. Even Halo is not immune to the launch-day dud syndrome, and the Master Chief's beef is that online matchmaking is stuffed. All those amazing Halo 2 and Halo 3 maps, the wicked technological advances of Halo 4, and the first-time ability to play Halo: CE online against other Xbox owners, out of reach to all but a few players because games are virtually impossible to come by. How impossible? I've had just one in three weeks of reviewing this game. It's dangerous damage. It's like picking up a new copy of a book you've loved for years, and finding half the pages have been defaced with a thick, black marker pen.
