What a time to be alive.
You can now play every classic Halo game on the Xbox One consoles and the Xbox Series X/S with a mouse and keyboard via Halo: The Master Chief Collection, including Halo CE, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo: Reach and Halo 4. The April 2021 update to the classic Halo collection also lets you adjust your field-of-view, crosshairs and allows players to bind controls to multiple inputs.
This brings the Xbox version of Halo: MCC entirely in line with its more recently released PC counterpart in terms of customization.
A new ‘Escalation Slayer’ game type for Halo 2: Anniversary, Halo Reach and Halo 4, a new Halo 3 map called ‘Waterfall’ that was originally set to be included in a cancelled Halo Online, and the ability to set your in-game chat and audio devices separately on PC, have also been added to the game. There are also new armour pieces and nameplates included in the update.
While playing a game — especially a halo title — with a mouse and keyboard will always feel foreign to me since I grew up playing first-person shooters on console, I know a lot of people who have exclusively played the Halo series on PC. It will be interesting to see how the mouse and keyboard vs console dynamic plays out when Halo Infinite releases later in 2021.
All of these updates are part of MCC Season 6: Raven, which is now available across both Xbox and PC. For more on what’s included in Raven, check out 343 Industries’ full breakdown. The developer also offers detailed patch notes related to the game’s latest update.
Given the extremely rocky launch Halo: MCC had several years ago, it’s great to see 343 Industries continue to support the collection of classic Halo titles.