DLCPC

Halo: The Master Chief Collection: Halo: Reach

Bungie · Shooter, Action

Overview

Halo: Reach comes to PC as the first installment of Halo: The Master Chief Collection. Now optimized for PC, experience the heroic story of Noble Team, a group of Spartans, who through great sacrifice and courage, saved countless lives in the face of impossible odds. The planet Reach is humanity’s last line of defense between the encroaching Covenant and their ultimate goal, the destruction of Earth. If it falls, humanity will be pushed to the brink of destruction.

Game Features:

PC Settings/Optimizations: Halo: Reach** is now optimized for PC and looking better than ever at up to 4k UHD and at least 60 FPS. Other PC native settings include mouse and keyboard support, ultrawide support, adaptive sync support, FOV customization, and more.
Campaign: Experience the first chapter in the Halo Saga and fight your way as Noble Six through 11 unforgettable missions
Multiplayer: Start your Spartan Career today with Halo: Reach’s iconic multiplayer featuring an overhauled progression system, generation-defining player customization, over 20 unforgettable maps, as well as classic game modes such as Firefight and Invasion. While Forge and Theater will be delivered later in 2020, enjoy access to millions of community-created maps and game types that have been migrated over from Halo: Reach on Xbox 360 for use today on PC.
Firefight: Fight alone or with squad mates to survive against endless waves of enemies deploying with ever-increasing difficulty.

*Purchasing Halo: The Master Chief Collection is not required. To play, purchase either Halo: Reach or Halo: The Master Chief Collection

** Look to system requirements for guidance on hardware minimum specs to achieve performance metrics

From the game's Steam store page.

THE GAMEQ VERDICT4,475 reviews analyzed

What players are actually saying

1. Summary

The campaign draws more praise than any other part of Halo: Reach. Reviews describe a war story whose ending is known from the first cutscene: Noble Team loses one Spartan after another while the planet falls, and the final mission, where Noble Six is left to hold out alone, is the scene reviewers single out. They also praise the score, the Forge map editor, Firefight, years of community custom games, and the chance to build your own Spartan and see that armor in the cutscenes. Long-time fans call it Bungie's farewell to the series, and players who came to Halo for the first time through the collection praise it as well.

More than half of negative reviews (54%, 448 of 836) name a problem with the PC version or with the systems the collection wraps around Reach, and 416 of those were written before September 2020. Launch-week buyers found muffled, crackling audio, controls and frame pacing that felt wrong on high-refresh monitors, no Forge or Theater, matchmaking playlists that started players with a DMR, and a fixed unlock track in place of the original credit system. Later patches fixed the audio and added the missing modes, and the share of positive reviews rose from 69% in the months after launch week to 90% from 2022 on. Reviews written since the patches still ask for split-screen, which the PC version never had, and for the old credits. A few still describe laggy online co-op for whoever is not hosting, and the Microsoft sign-in that the whole collection depends on still locks some players out. Players also stay divided over Reach's own design changes (armor abilities, weapon bloom, the DMR) and over how hard Legendary is.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

The doomed campaign and its endingHigh

Reach is a prequel to Combat Evolved, so players go in knowing the planet falls, and reviewers say that knowledge makes the story land harder: "For once I wasn't some badass saving the world, I was helping with the evacuation of an invaded planet that was already doomed." Another wrote: "It's actually refreshing to be on the losing side for once". The final mission is the moment people describe in detail, and some say the story made them cry. "To me Reach has had the best story because it had an ending."

The missions get credit for their variety, from open ground battles and vehicle runs to a space battle and a burning city: "genuinely not a single bad mission in this game." Long-time fans frame Reach as Bungie's last word on the series ("Halo: Reach is the perfect sendoff to Halo and what Bungie studios once was."), and newcomers who started the collection here say it works with no prior Halo: "even if you know zero Halo, is a great way to not only experience its first story". Several players found the opening slow ("First 2-3 missions are a bit boring, then things get going."), and opinion on Noble Team as characters is divided.

Halo on PC at lastHigh

18% of launch-week reviews talk about finally playing Halo on PC or about playing Reach on the Xbox 360 years earlier. Players who grew up with the console version, and some who never owned an Xbox, celebrate mouse and keyboard controls, a field-of-view slider and frame rates far above the original's: "Now with mouse and keyboard plus able to do 120hz+". Some called it a model conversion ("THIS IS HOW YOU PORT A GAME TO PC"), and the price is part of the pitch. Reach sold for about $10 on its own, and several reviewers spell out for confused buyers that it does not require the whole collection: "Halo on PC. $10 USD. I think I've said enough." Others call it the main reason to own the collection: "This game alone is worth buying the MCC."

Many launch-week reviews praise how the game feels while listing its bugs. Others report a smooth launch with none of the problems described elsewhere.

Forge, Firefight and custom gamesHigh

Long-time players praise how much there is to do beyond the campaign, starting with Forge, the map editor, and the custom games built with it: "Halo Reach is basically the Gmod of halo." Reviewers name community modes such as Infection, Grifball, Speed Halo, Duck Hunt and Jump Rope, and one launch-week reviewer was moved to find old work intact: "we were able to boot up Reach, with all of our custom maps once again on our PC's". Firefight, the wave-survival mode with adjustable rules, has its own fans ("Reach's Firefight is the most realized Firefight in the series IMO"), though a few prefer the harder version in ODST.

The soundtrackMedium

Reviews praise the score by Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori, often alongside the story: "Best soundtrack. No comp." One reviewer wrote that O'Donnell "strikes again with a score that makes you feel like a hero even as your entire team gets obliterated." A few disagree ("it has the worst Bungie soundtrack of the franchise"), and a few launch-era reviews add that the port's broken audio mix buried the music.

Your own Spartan in the storyMedium

Reach lets players build a Spartan from unlocked helmets, armor pieces, colors and effects, and that Spartan appears as Noble Six in the campaign's cutscenes. Some players count this among the game's best features: "Best character customization out of any Halo game." One reviewer who rarely plays shooters named "being able to make my own Spartan and seeing that character in cutscenes" as the reason Reach beats the Master Chief games for them. The way the PC version hands out those pieces is much less popular.

Where players are split

MultiplayerHigh

Reviews that praise Reach's multiplayer outnumber those that criticize it, but the criticism is detailed. Fans like its range of modes (Invasion, Big Team Battle, Infection and Grifball alongside Slayer) and some rate it the best in the series: "Halo: Reach's multiplayer is objectively the most expansive and enjoyable". Critics, several of whom prefer Halo 2 and 3, point to the maps ("Reach must have the worst maps of any Halo game ever."), armor lock and loadouts. A few later reviewers say matches are hard to find outside North America and in the smaller playlists, while others report quick matchmaking.

Armor abilities, bloom and the DMRMedium

Reach changed core Halo rules. Sprint became one of several armor abilities alongside a jetpack, armor lock, active camouflage and a drop shield; most weapons gained bloom, a spread that widens when you fire quickly; the DMR replaced the Battle Rifle; and dual wielding was removed. Players who like the changes say they make fights and levels more open ("Finally, I can sprint and use jetpacks"). Critics say they slow combat down and reward luck: "Reach's armor abilities, aggressive bullet spread, and emphasis on long range encounters slows combat down to a crawl." Bloom has critics of its own ("Slowing your shots to make them more accurate is by far the dullest mechanic added to a Halo game"), armor lock gets singled out as annoying, and some critics say Reach pushed Halo toward Call of Duty. Some reviewers hold both views at once: "it's flaws are equal to it's strengths".

Legendary difficultyMedium

Fans of Heroic and Legendary call them the real game, aggressive Elites and all ("legendary was a good challenge."), and one argued that nobody should judge a Halo game on the easier settings. Others found Legendary punishing in ways that felt unfair: bullet-sponge Elites, constant explosions ("EVERYTHING IN THIS GAME EXPLODES.") and one-hit melee kills. A solo player wrote: "I have never played a game, mind you even the souls series, where I have been met with so many one shot deaths back to back." Another summed it up as "Halo reach on legendary is like petting a rabid diseased homeless dog". A few PC players noticed that some enemies fire faster at high frame rates, which made certain sections harder than they were on the Xbox 360.

Noble Team as charactersLow

Jorge is the squad member reviewers name most often and a favourite ("everyone loves jorge"), with Kat close behind. Critics say there are too many teammates and too little time with them: "Nearly the entire cast are just generic characters that do nothing and then die in some throwaway cutscene except for Kat and Six". Some defenders answer that the story is really about the planet: "They aren't meant to be the focal point of the story."

Where newcomers should startLow

The collection lists Reach first because it is the earliest story, and players disagree about whether newcomers should begin there. Some call it the ideal entry point ("this is the best one to start with."). Others argue its ending and references hit harder after the original trilogy: "I recommend playing it in the release order, starting with Combat Evolved." One newcomer who started with Reach found the story hard to follow even though it is the prequel.

The space battleLow

The starfighter section in Long Night of Solace divides players. Some call it a highlight ("the space dogfight level are great"), others found it dull or brutal on Legendary: "I was expecting some ace combat experience and got a generic jet fight."

What frustrates players

Rough controls and frame pacing at launchHigh

13% of launch-week reviews complain about how the port played. They list input lag on mouse and keyboard, animations that stayed at 60 frames per second when the game ran faster, screen tearing and stutter, only three graphics presets, keys such as push-to-talk that could not be rebound, and no subtitles outside cutscenes. On a high-refresh monitor, one player wrote, "it looks like its locked at 30fps even though it shows 60." A deaf player wrote: "As a deaf player who rely on captions, this is a huge deal breaker." Crouching only worked when standing still ("you can't even crouch unless no other keys are being pressed at the same time."), though some players pointed out that the Xbox 360 version behaved the same way. These complaints almost disappear from reviews written after August 2020, and edited reviews report the fixes: "Animation interpolation is in and the audio has been fixed." and "343 added graphics options, absolutely fixed the audio".

Broken audio until mid-2020High

Audio problems were cited more often than any other port problem. Gunfire sounded muffled and distant, dialogue crackled or played at half speed, and cutscene sound drifted out of sync: "It sounds like someone is playing a shooter game bit too loudly in the neighboring apartment." 15% of negative reviews (125 of 836) complain about the audio, and all but four of them were written before September 2020. Several of those reviewers promised to flip their vote once it was fixed. Reviews from June to August 2020 report the fix ("I'm happy to report that the sound issues Reach was having are fixed as of the latest MCC patch."), though a few players still had crackling audio later that year.

Matchmaking settings and quit bansMedium

Players who came for multiplayer objected to how the PC version set up matchmaking. Most playlists used 343's Title Update rules with DMR starting loadouts, which critics say turned matches into long-range duels and left vehicles useless: "DMR start in every game mode is killing the multiplayer." Mouse-and-keyboard players found controller aim assist far too strong ("OP controller aim assist is a big issue."). Map voting was gone, servers sometimes put players on another continent ("Always connecting to North Europe despite living on the East Coast of the US"), there was no way to report players idling to farm experience, and leaving a match or being disconnected brought temporary bans: "the game cannot differentiate between disconnecting to the game and quitting a game." Some of this changed later: one edited review notes the game "Now has platform-based & input-based matchmaking." and another mentions playlists with assault rifle starts. The disconnect bans apply across the whole collection.

Fixed unlocks instead of the credit systemMedium

On the Xbox 360, Reach paid out credits for everything you played and let you buy whichever armor you wanted. The PC version uses the collection's season-style track, where each level unlocks the next item in a set order, and at launch the campaign and custom games earned no experience at all. Players who knew the original took this hard: "nothing you unlock feels unique because everyone unlocks items in the same order". A few reviewers found the new track quicker than saving up credits. Later patches added challenges and campaign experience, which some reviewers say made the grind tolerable ("with the addition of challenges back in june it's made the grind for 10 year old cosmetics bearable."), but reviews from 2023 and 2024 still ask for the old credits back.

Laggy online co-op and no split-screenMedium

Online campaign co-op runs through the host, so everyone else gets input delay, desync and disconnections: "whoever isn't hosting is subjected to absolutely unplayable input lag." Most of these reports date from before September 2020, but reviews as late as 2026 still describe it ("Input lag when playing co-op campaign"), and a few reviewers note that Firefight runs fine while campaign co-op lags. There is also no split-screen on PC, which the Xbox 360 version had. The most upvoted negative review reads in full: "No local multiplayer? Seriously? I was soooo excited to play through the campaign with my son. We're both absolutely gutted. :(" Both problems affect every game in the collection.

Microsoft sign-in, crashes and anti-cheatMedium

These problems come from the collection as a whole. Playing at all requires a Microsoft account, even for the campaign, and players report login loops, random gamertags, locked or defunct accounts and no offline mode: "Cannot play due to forced Microsoft Account/Xbox Live Account integration." Another put the risk plainly: "If xbox goes down so does the game". Launch-week reviews add fatal errors on startup and Easy Anti-Cheat kicking players from matches or flagging their lighting software. A 2026 review reports being unable to sign in at all ("Can't sign in to play the game anymore").

Forge and Theater missing at launchLow

Reach arrived on PC without Forge or Theater, which some long-time players saw as half the game: "It's not properly Halo Reach without the ability to mess Around in forge world for multiple hours." Later reviews mention both modes in place ("Theater and Forge are also present.") and a custom games browser added.

Teammates who drive and fight badlyLow

Allies are invincible but kill little, wander into your line of fire and crash vehicles, and Kat's driving is a running joke: "Kat wins the award for gaming's best AI driver." One negative review called the friendly AI "the worst in any Halo game I've played".

3. The player conversation

Port and feature complaints appear in 27% of launch-week reviews and in 30% of reviews from the second week through August 2020, the stretch with the lowest positive share. Launch-week reviews often celebrate Halo arriving on Steam in the same post that lists audio, control and matchmaking problems. From September 2020, after the audio fix and the patches that followed, those complaints drop to 8% of reviews through 2021 and 4% from 2022 on, and the positive share climbs to 87% through 2021.

Mentions of the campaign's story, its emotional weight or its ending rise from 7% of launch-week reviews to 23% of reviews from 2022 on. A likely reason is that recent reviews come more from players working through the collection, some of them new to Halo. Later criticism concerns Reach's design (bloom, armor abilities, bullet-sponge Elites, a cast some found thin) more than the port, and the technical complaints that persist, in small numbers, are online co-op lag, the missing split-screen and the Microsoft sign-in. Most complaints about the unlock system measure it against the Xbox 360 original, and some come from players with hundreds of hours in that version. 88 reviews include the line "Remember Reach.", usually as their last words or as the whole review.

4. What the developers could do

Run campaign co-op on dedicated servers or rework its netcode. Online co-op lag for whoever is not hosting outlasted the audio and control fixes, and reviews as late as 2026 still report it.
Add split-screen for the campaign and Firefight on PC. The most upvoted negative review is a parent who wanted to play the campaign with their son, and reviews ask for couch co-op from launch week to 2023.
Let players choose what they unlock, as the old credit system did. Long-time players still ask for credits back, saying the fixed order makes everyone's Spartan look the same.
Allow the campaign to be played without a Microsoft sign-in. Login loops, locked accounts and the lack of an offline mode keep some buyers from playing at all, and a 2026 review reports that sign-in no longer works.
Give players more say over matchmaking. Multiplayer reviewers ask by name for map voting, playlists without DMR starts and lighter penalties for accidental disconnects.
Finish the PC options. Subtitles for in-game dialogue and full key rebinding, including push-to-talk, were requested by deaf players and keyboard users, and a 2026 review still complains about key binds.
Add toggles for film grain and other post-processing. A handful of reviews from 2025 and 2026 complain that the image looks blurry, or that a visual effect they dislike cannot be switched off.