Halo 3 (2007) by Bungie

Space bros

This PC release of Halo 3 is a bit of an uneven experience, which surprised me because I've heard some reviews calling it "the best remaster of the bunch thus far". I strongly disagree with this, but I still consider this game worth playing—especially for the $10 asking price.

While Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 both featured extraordinarily remastered graphics, Halo 3 falls a bit behind them. Perhaps this is because the devs believed they could get away with simply porting the newer generation graphics, but the difference is remarkably noticeable when coming from the fully remastered Halo 2 to the simply ported Halo 3.

In addition to this, the awful sound quality from the Halo: Reach port, which was absent in Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 (both of which have great, remastered sound) is unfortunately back in Halo 3. Guns have very soft sounds with extremely low impact, and they sound ridiculously silly when compared to the gun sound effects of modern day shooters.

Despite the poorer remaster granted to Halo 3 than the previous two titles, it remains worth playing mostly due to how strongly it improves on the faults of its predecessors. Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 both suffer greatly from portions of cookie-cutter level design repeated ad nauseam. Thankfully, the level design in Halo 3 is far more enjoyable. Each stage seems far fresher than the last, and the improvements made to the storytelling in Halo 2's campaign continue here. While I personally do not consider Halo 3's campaign superior to that of ODST or Reach, it's still well worth playing as it concludes the stories from the past two games in relatively satisfying fashion.

Halo 3 is well worth playing, especially if you played and enjoyed Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2. It's worth paying full price, and a supreme bargain on a discount. But make sure to manage your expectations properly; don't expect it to look and like a shooter from 2020, despite the remaster.

⭐⭐⭐

Halo 2 (2004) by Bungie

Halo 2's remastered PC port improves noticeably on its predecessor, Halo: Combat Evolved in several aspects, but falls short to some of the same flaws.

The story is more fleshed out here, with a split narrative that is welcomed after the drudgery that was Halo: Combat Evolved's campaign. It's far better paced as a result, but unfortunately falls victim to some of the same level design pitfalls. Often times it seems as if you're running through repeated templates which make up an entire level. There is some added freshness as far as some more aesthetically pleasing levels and some additional variance, but I still found myself bogged down in running through several similar-looking hallways repeatedly. This campaign is also far longer than Combat Evolved's, and while this is welcome in terms of its better story, it doesn't do any favors for the player when it's padded with these kinds of repetitive levels.

Another complaint I have is that the soundtrack seems to ditch most of the incredible orchestral work of Combat Evolved for a heavy, driving rock soundtrack. It's not terrible, but it also doesn't 'feel' like I've come to expect a Halo campaign to feel. Games in this series such as Halo Reach, Halo 3: ODST, and Halo: Combat Evolved have much, much better soundtracks. Reach and ODST in particular are some of the greatest soundtracks of all-time, so Halo 2's soundtrack feels far poorer by comparison than it does in a vacuum.

Those are only minor complaints, though. The remastered work done to the original graphics remains stellar and breathes new life into Halo 2's arenas. Additionally, the newly rendered cutscenes are stunningly gorgeous and impeccably crafted. They're state of the art, adding new depth and investment in Halo 2's story. The story of these games has always been underrated, in my opinion. People seem to find Reach predictable, whereas I found it somber and affecting. And Halo 2, despite its campaign being criticized for its cliffhanger ending back in 2004, seems to have stood the test of time and is now praised with the release of Halo 3 assuaging players' collective hunger for an end to the story. Combat Evolved's story is relatively bare-bones, so Halo 2 is where the story that so many players now love all began.

As with the other two games, this one runs phenomenally on PC. The mouse controls feel fine to me, and the framerate runs rather high without stuttering issues. The sound, which was poor in Reach, is fine here. Gunshots have impact, the score is remixed and well balanced.

Despite its flaws, Halo 2 remains compelling both from a storytelling standpoint, as a gorgeous science fiction adventure, and as a pulse-pounding action shooter. If you're considering playing Halo 2 on PC, there's not really any reason not to pick this up. It's a bargain at full price (currently $10 on Steam) and a steal on discount.

⭐⭐

Halo: Combat Evolved (2001) by Bungie

A great remaster that still manages to show its age

Argh, so this is another difficult one for me to recommend against because although I loved it so much back when it released, it is undoubtedly showing its age. Like many old games, it's aged rather poorly and I'm afraid most modern shooter fans coming to it now will not see what made it so great in the first place.

If you—like me—played this back in 2001, and you're considering purchasing it again for nostalgic purposes, then I would probably recommend it. The remaster work done here is pretty solid. The new textures look like the original game does in my idealized memory, which has without a doubt been colored strongly with nostalgia. I'm in awe when flipping back to the original textures, which look pretty terrible by comparison. It also runs extremely well on my machine; I'm pretty much locked at 144 frames per second, no matter how many enemies or explosions are on-screen.

Halo: Combat Evolved featured several groundbreaking new ideas that made it far-and-away the best console-based shooter when it released. It features an epic science fiction story with quality voice acting and a superb soundtrack (see below video)—I'm talking all-time great caliber video game original soundtrack, to the level of something akin to a John Williams film score. It's so good it's half the reason I still play this game. This was also one of the first console shooters to feature wide-open spaces and vehicles, like something you'd find in a PC-style multiplayer shooter such as Unreal Tournament. And the AI in this game was the best console players had ever seen. Watching enemies clash with other enemy factions and with your allies was so entertaining back in the day, and this game helped to inspire other which also include dynamic AI such as this.

That said, some of these levels are bad. Like, really bad. They often feel like poor multiplayer designs, shoehorned into a single-player game. Your trek to the control room and through the library are so poorly laid out that the devs had to put giant arrows on the ground to help you find your way. They don't feel organic and they're not at all fun to traverse. Some of them are reused ad nauseam and make up entire stages of the game, such as the infamous library, which is literally just the same room repeated nearly a dozen times, which you traverse repeatedly while being swarmed by the same 3-4 enemy types. The entire game is thus permeated with a feeling of tedium and pacing issues. While the shooting feels good and the assault rifle and shotgun have an excellent impact to them, there are only so many times you can satisfyingly shotgun an enemy in the face, or time your melee perfectly so that an enemy elite's shields break when your assault rifle magazine runs empty and you execute him with a rifle butt to the face. The rest of the gameplay has to rely on its level traversal, or its story which—although inspired—is extremely bare-bones, and the game often falls flat due to that. In the later stages the game throws a seemingly endless horde of enemies at you, which becomes extremely repetitive, tedious, and frustrating. You end up trying to navigate these labyrinthine levels in which each turn looks the same as another while battling a seemingly inexhaustible stream of the exact same enemies. Additionally, vehicles all have some overly floaty physics and clipping issues which make them a chore to use in any kind of environment other than an extremely wide open one.

Despite loving the game back in 2001, replaying it today has left me with a strong opinion that an awful lot of Halo: Combat Evolved is a tedious slog that's severely lacking in fun. Playing this immediately after Reach has been eye-opening. But if you can properly look at Halo: Combat Evolved with 2001-era eyes, you might see a lot of what made it so special back then. It's got a lot of heart. It's got one of the best plot twists in video game history. And every time you're moving from cover-to-cover, shotgunning flood in the face, with that epic soundtrack pumping, perhaps you'll touch a bit of what made this game so special to us old farts, and perhaps you can enjoy it like we did back on the original Xbox in 2001.

But if you're looking for a solid shooting experience, this entry of the Master Chief Collection is completely skippable. Try Halo: Reach instead, which features a far better campaign in my opinion.

⭐⭐

Halo: Reach (2010) by Bungie

(Note: I played the remastered version of Halo: Reach released in 2019)

343 has done a lot of work with the textures, and it shows—the environments have been spruced up a bit, but the character models especially have been retooled to near-modern standards. While it runs exceptionally on my system on paper—I'm managing 200+ fps nearly constantly (depending on how much Michael Bay is going on on my screen)—there is a persistent stutter which makes things look rather jagged. Normally this would be excusable, but it's rather bothersome in a shooter. Some of the settings are welcome in a remaster such as this; the field of view slider is particularly nice. It shows the team remastering this were listening to the demands of their potential PC customers. I'm sure adding that took some extra work on the part of the devs, and it's much appreciated. TotalBiscuit would have been so happy to see it.

Additionally, mouse and keyboard controls are fantastic. I'm somebody who played all of the original Halo: Reach when it released in 2010 and it plays exactly as I remember it—which is odd because I played it with a controller back then, and I'm playing with a mouse and keyboard now. That goes to show the hard work the development team has put into making mouse and keyboard controls feel so good they come naturally in a game that was never originally meant to have them. There is mouth smoothing and acceleration available, but thankfully they are set to 'off' by default. Another little thing I appreciated as a PC gamer.

In addition to the odd framerate stutter, another complaint regarding the port would be that the sound is relatively poor. Guns are far too quiet and their sound design lacks pop, which makes them feel like little more than plastic toys, and there is no dynamic range here whatsoever which hampers the realistic feel of gunfire and explosions most shooters feature these days. Additionally, the mix in general sounds a bit muddy to my ear—the bass of the music often blares too loudly and drowns out the dialogue that is occurring. It shows how far shooters have come, as I recall Halo: Reach being completely competent in the sound department back in 2010. Sadly, it shows Reach's age, whereas the updated textures make you feel like you're playing a modern game.

As far as stability is concerned, the port has been wonderful. I haven't experienced a single bug thus far.

Maybe you're new to Halo? Perhaps you're a younger gamer, or you've been a old-school PC gamer who never picked up Halo: Combat Evolved or Halo 2 back when they released on PC in the early 2000s. If that's the case, the Halo series represents a sprawling, thrilling adventure that's ambitious and action-packed, and it's a completely competent shooter even in the modern day. My opinion is that you owe it to yourself to check it out, and if you like Halo: Reach, then you'll probably dig the rest of the series, too.

Time to manage expectations, though. Don't expect a fully modern shooter with Halo: Reach! Even with the fresh coat of paint, Halo still feels like Halo—and this is not necessarily a good thing to some people as it's a very particular taste.

Movement and jumping has always felt a bit floaty in Halo games. The campaign difficulty might be a bit higher than folks might be used to, and stronger enemies such as the elites can feel a bit bullet spongey. It will take some time to get used to not being able to aim down iron sights for every weapon, and for sprint to not be readily available.

If you're looking for a great campaign, you will find it here. Halo: Reach features a poignant, phenomenally written and designed campaign with absolutely perfect pacing. It will leave you reeling from its emotional impact despite its minimalist storytelling. One of the highlights of Reach's campaign is that you're finally not the only Spartan around. As Noble Six, you have five other team members around you at all times. Certain members accompany you on certain missions, and sometimes the whole team gets together. It's tough to avoid growing attached to your squadmates as you play through the campaign. Whereas in other games they might remain faceless, helmeted supersoldiers, in Reach they are given a coloring of humanity and they feel like real people as a result. Carter is a stoic leader, always attempting to put his feelings to the side, which makes it all the more noticeable when they bleed through. Kat is a grouchy, technical genius—her disability does little to hamper her. Jun's quiet competence suits him as the sniper of the group. Jorge is gregarious and seems consciously at odds with his nature as a killing machine, and perhaps the most dangerous of the bunch. Emile is a clear A-type personality, and his actions later in the story are perhaps the most memorable bit of Halo: Reach. And Catherine Halsey, the intelligence spook, is perhaps the best of the bunch—her cold calculus renders her little more than a psychopath, but we see the humanity poke through a bit here and there. I particularly loved her scenes with Jorge. Throw these characters into a catastrophic, desperate battle to defend their homeland in a losing war, and you have the makings of a gripping, shattering story of sacrifice and perseverance. This is the best campaign of the series in my opinion, and one of the best single player shooter campaigns ever crafted.

To top it off, all of this game has a soundtrack of nearly unheard of quality despite the lower than usual mix from the muddy sound of the port. The Halo series has great music in general, but Reach's score in particular is so poignant and moody and it suits the campaign narrative perfectly. You'll be humming some of these songs in the shower after a night of playing. Others will bring a tear to your eye for years to come, whenever you hear them.

⭐⭐⭐⭐