We first took a look at Halo Combat Evolved on PC over a year ago, concluding that while it was a good enough port of the existing Xbox version, the foundations of the port themselves were flawed. The Anniversary Edition upgrades were all present and correct, but 'classic' Halo was built from Gearbox's 2003 Windows port, which doesn't hold a candle to Bungie's Xbox original. Season seven of Halo: The Master Chief Collection is set to address this and so far, I'm impressed with what I've seen based on preview 'flight' versions of the game sent out to 343's dedicated Halo fans.
There are still notable omissions – split-screen local multiplayer doesn't seem to have been added (and it's still absent without leave across the PC Master Chief Collection) – but generally speaking, we are so much closer to the authentic Bungie era Halo experience – with the bonus of being able to enjoy that original experience at much higher frame-rates than the original. But really, beyond leveraging the performance advantages of modern hardware, it's the attempt to recapture the authentic OG Halo look and feel that is most important and everything we've seen so far of the season seven update suggests we're looking at a profound improvement.
To cut to the chase, the video embedded above illustrates all of the changes and updates we're capable of showcasing from the preview version, while at the same time highlighting just how inaccurate the existing port of the game was. The weirdly implemented fog effects are gone, while the massive raft of inaccuracies in Halo's effects work looks to have been comprehensively addressed, with only minimal issues remaining. Shaders, materials and atmospherics now look 'right', while improper textures and inaccurate rendering of bump-mapped elements also appear to have been corrected. Health packs now have animated lights on them just as they did in the original Xbox game, while the Captain Keys character no longer uses the so-called 'beta' version of his model, with the proper rendition from the Bungie version now included.
