We won't go into details about the adventure itself, as our review of the Xbox 360 version published in September 2010 is still available. Just remember that Halo: Reach has this particularity that it does not embody the Master Chief, but Noble Six, a member of the Noble team. It's the year 2552 and these Spartans are tasked with defending the planet Reach, plagued by an invasion of Covenant. The game manages to distill a sense of large-scale warfare, even as it revolves around ten well-separated campaign levels and not an open world. Our soldier finds himself immersed in confrontations that are beyond him and that will cause his downfall...as the opening cutscene indicates from the first seconds. The final sequence is the link with the introduction of the first Halo, the episode that interests us today being what is commonly called a prequel. And the fact of inaugurating the Master Chief Collection with this component is particularly relevant. Not only is the chronological order respected, but the fact that Halo: Reach was released in 2010 avoids having to approach the compilation with an adventure that is too dated. Halo: Combat Evolved indeed saw the light of day in 2001, and some of its aspects might have felt a little rough to reconnect with the saga in 2019.NO BUT HALO WHAT!
We think in particular of the level design imposing many round trips in the same levels in order to artificially lengthen the sauce. This problem being completely absent from Reach, it is easier to enter the adventure. Microsoft was therefore right on this point. Moreover, the editorial and commercial policy of the publisher is almost irreproachable on this one. On the one hand, it is possible to acquire the game independently at the very modest price of ten euros, or to buy the whole collection for only forty euros. In both cases you get what you pay for. On the other hand, you can not only get the games from the Microsoft Store but also from Steam. Finally, the compilation is also available in the Xbox Game Pass for PC, which allows subscribers to take full advantage of it without any additional cost. Obviously, this PC version of Halo: Reach brings its share of graphic improvements. The game has not been remastered strictly speaking, but it still benefits from an "enhanced graphics quality" option as opposed to "original graphics quality", which reflects the presence of a certain number improvements. The most obvious concerns the level of detail of the sets (the famous "level of detail" that Anglophiles know well), the distance from which the game displays less detailed versions of the various elements having been significantly pushed back.Apart from an audio mix that really does not honor the original version of the game, all technical aspects have been revised upwards. In 4K and at sixty frames per second, Halo: Reach still holds up perfectly despite its nine years of age.
The menus do not offer extremely detailed and precise graphic options but we are still entitled to an adjustment of the field of vision. In a more general way, we immediately feel on the screen the graphic difference compared to the console versions. Starting with the resolution that can be pushed without any problem in 4K in order to obtain extremely fine graphics, and compared to which the 1152x720 pixels of the 360 version pale in comparison. Add to that the presence of a more efficient antialiasing filter than before, and you can say goodbye to the staircase effects that were clearly visible on console. You can also forget the limitation to thirty frames per second, sixty fps being the norm here. Of course it is possible to go beyond, just as it is possible to play in 8K if you wish... and if you have a screen capable of displaying such a resolution. On the other hand, it is not necessary to have a competition PC to enjoy the game in good conditions. It runs like a charm on modest machines.
Good news for mod lovers: the anti-cheat system can be disabled. Finally, the keyboard / mouse couple is fully supported, and we gain a lot in aiming pleasure. Only the driving of the vehicles is a little disturbing, since the direction is controlled with the mouse and not with the keyboard. We would have liked to be able to choose between the two systems. Likewise, it would have been nice if the French dubbing had been redone for this new release of the game. The one from 2010 was already not very convincing at the time, and its flaws are even more obvious today. But the biggest problem of this Halo: Reach on PC concerns the audio mixing, which is not at all faithful to the original work. The sounds seem very muffled and it's hard to distinguish the different audio tracks, voice and music sound effects tending to mix in a rather unpleasant way. Hopefully a patch will fix this problem soon. If this were not the case, the game would still remain highly recommended. Last part of the saga developed by Bungie and first episode of the Master Collection to be released on PC, Halo: Reach has almost everything to please.
