Halo: The Master Chief Collection has come a long way since its rocky launch in 2014, which was plagued by bugs, crashes, and long queue times for multiplayer. Games such as Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach have been added to the collection, as well as cross-play with PC and bug fixes to make sure the game runs smoothly across the Xbox family of consoles and PC. One of the biggest changes was the addition of seasons when Halo: Reach was added to the collection in December 2019. It all has helped ensure that Halo: The Master Chief Collection still has an active player base to this day.
Seasons have become very popular throughout the video games industry as a way to keep players engaged through timed drops of new content to unlock, but Halo: The Master Chief Collection has one of the most player-friendly implementations of this system seen thus far. Players do not have to purchase the passes to unlock all of the content in them, they never leave the game so that players can take as long as necessary to unlock everything in them, and players can pick and choose which pass to level up as they play the game. The passes have been a great addition to the game, and the announcement gives a small hint at some of the cosmetics players can find in the 100 tiers of the season pass when the season, named after Fireteam Raven, releases on April 7.
Cosmetic rewards in Halo seasons tend to include various armor pieces and visor colors that apply to different games within the collection as well as new visor colors, weapon and vehicle skins, and player banners to customize player profiles. The tiers are unlocked by leveling up through playing either campaign missions or online matches as well as completing seasonal and weekly challenges. Recent seasons have also included seasonal challenges with unique rewards that can only be unlocked during that season, as well as even a new map being added to Halo 3.
Interestingly, this season adds a new type of customization in the form of back accessories, similar to the popular cosmetics in Fortnite. This new approach to cosmetics and player customization options could also hint at the sort of systems that will be present in Halo Infinite, of which details are sparse. If this player-friendly approach to seasonal updates does hint at what players can expect when Halo Infinite launches sometime in the future, the future of Halo does look promising.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection is available now on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.