Halo Reach PC/Xbox One Review: It's Good - But There Are Issues 

The audio was one of the first things I noticed. Immediately after my first firefight in the campaign I searched the audio settings to no avail. Non-music sounds need to be beefed up badly.

i knew this game felt off above 60fps. Thanks for clarifying.

0:56 Correction: Halo 2 came out for PC in 2007, not 2004.

"... Halo Reach could very easily maintain a flawless 60 FPS on almost any hardware out there" Oh it can run on some machines all right, but it sure ain't easy or look pretty X)

I heard 343 have already mentioned the audio issue and that they're working on a fix. Hopefully that's coming soon.

Biggest issue i have is with the audio. It just sounds....horribly off and muffled? I dont remember it being this way even with Halo 1 on the Xbox

Just some small date corrections: Halo 2 for Windows Vista released in 2007, not 2004 and Halo: Reach launched in 2010, not 2009. But overall this is another great video from Alex, as one would expect.

There's a GDC talk on Reach's automated LOD system, if you're more interested in the detail on that

At first I was like: The sound is really odd/crappy. Then I was like: I haven't had this much fun playing an FPS in ages.

Every time I hear the theme music to Halo it makes me want to play the games.

Some other post-processing issues the video didn't cover: Rain looks way less thick in the MCC version, and throughout even this video you can catch moments where some sort of haze or volumetric lighting is missing, such at 8:36 : In the 3650 vesion, there's a slight green coloring/haze to the view, wheras the MCC version is much clearer and the green coloration is gone.

That "LowLevelFatalError" crash is something I've encountered in a number of games that use Unreal Engine. Removing my GPU overclock has always fixed it. UE games seem to be less tolerant of overclocked hardware for some reason

My guess is patches will address some performance issues, sound, common bugs, but not much else. I would be genuinely be surprised if they actually tweak the presentation for motion blur, bloom, etc. The unlimited frame rate option is labeled as beta, that should have been clarified. Either way, even now its much better than playing the 360 version. The original is just so muddy and feels much less responsive. This remaster fixes what matters most.

The online co-op input lag when you're not host is a problem with the entire MCC and I have no clue how or why it hasn't been fixed yet.

I just finished the game on PC at 4K yesterday and had no clue the game had AO or depth of field effects.

Why is animation frame interpolation not a thing for this!? Mods for Halo: CE have it, source ports of the Quake engine games have it. Is it too CPU intensive or what?

Did Alex have a minor stroke at 6:50? "Post processed anti aaaaaasing"

Sound is the biggest issue I've noticed on PC. Infection has heavy breathing sprinting sounds louder than gunshots. it's ridiculous

12:43 Overwatch has the "exact" same issue, running it above or below 1080p breaks some of the effects even thought it's not a remaster of an older game.

The sound mix is a mess -- the weapons don't even sound like they're in stereo anymore. The fact that the problem has been known for months and they're still staying it's going to take a lot of time/work to fix makes me think they really screwed something up in the conversion.

Hope this adresses loads of the stuff that everyone seems to ignore

Effort that goes into a video like this is impressive

sound is not muffled per say, most of the 'direct' sound is missing. looks like distance cues are not sent to sound. You're hearing more environment reverb more than the source, presumably because the engine is not calculating the source as being at a closer distance so it's like you're hearing what it would sound like from far away.

Fast Internet in Germany?!?! Tell me, where you can learn this power!

The weapon sounds are too soft.

I noticed the audio immediately, had to turn all the other volumes down to 50% just to hear the guns. :/ i knew it couldnt have been that bad in the original release

The sound issue seems like it's been overly compressed. The loudest dynamics have been squashed and the quiet ones raised, exactly what a compressor does. So the initial bang from a weapon is quieter but the ring out and reverberations are louder which can be useful but not in this case. This is different from digital compression codecs EG. low quality MP3's where you just lose quality instead.

For Christ sake can somebody please fix the sound!!!!...I felt like I bought Reach the soundtrack.

How is the HDR implementation? That’s certainly a bonus.

hahahaha Alex, Q&A= Questions and answers. QA = Quality Assurance

I wish it still had the bloom. That's one of the things that made the original so beautiful to me

Audio is fixed. Framerate interpolation and viewmodels are fixed.

Why did you wait so much to fire those first shots at the sound comparison? My anxiety levels went off the chart.

Personally, while I agree with everything you take issue with, I think you should have mentioned the areas that 343i have already taken note of as issues. Things like the sound mixing have been addressed - the current mix exists due to issues converting the sound from the 360 version. Dynamic audio mixing wasn't working in the late flights, but was fixed prior to release, indicating 343 are continuing to work in this area. Further audio enhancements will take time, and 343 have said they will update us when they have more to share. The VFR (variable frame-rate) mode has been labelled as experimental, and guidance has been that the intended experience is 60fps, but support for uncapped framerates has been included at community behest. I hope further improvements are planned to this mode. Ultimately I think Reach just got to the point where they had to hit a release deadline. It's a good base to work from, but I hope further improvements are in the pipeline and that it doesn't get abandoned in favour of working on bringing Halo CE Anniversary to PC MCC.

I couldn't agree with you more on your summation: "preserve as they were and improving at the same time". Hopefully the developers will listen and implement this methodology for the next instalments of the MCC!

9:55 The shadow of the gun is missing in the video footage on the left declared as “PC 4K Enhanced Graphical Quality.” On the right side the shadow is properly rendered.

Being a music producer and videogame composer, I cantell you somewhat what they did with audio. It sounds very compressed and low resolution, which means that they probably compressed the audiofiles to be smaller so less memory space it uses, and that "muffles" the audio, there are less high end. But what is worse for me is that it also sound overcompressed (what people percieve as "louder"). Therefore the dynamic range is diminished, and this is not a thing of file compression, but more a mixing process that somebody at 343 thought was necessary, but it already sounded perfect, there wasnt any need to remix the audio.

The multiplayer is bringing back good memories!

Dang I forgot how great the Halo multiplayer was... I am totally hooked yet again....

Thanks for this, Alex. These kinds of changes (and removals!) drive me absolutely crazy. Remasters shouldn't take away features. I wanted to hurry up and play Reach on PC before my Gamepass Ultimate expired in January, but I may just tough it out on the 360 if it means preserving the original visual effects and sound design.

I really want someone to talk about the fact that we cant see other peoples Spartans in lobby and have zero time to look at service records. i feel like armor and nameplates have been devalued and people care less about obtaining them also it seems like the social aspect has been ruined by all this. i wanna jump into a lobby and see someone with Emiles helmet and think wow that persons put in serious work. it just doesn't feel like that anymore. please cover this. like so Digital Foundry can see. oh and also. where is cross play? Microsoft windows... Microsoft Xbox.. Microsoft published game.. come on Microsoft and 343.

Reach was really held back on the 360, glad it's getting the care it deserves, but I feel like it can shine just a bit brighter, mostly in the smaller details.

Glad to see my high framerate experience replicated here. Weirdly though, on my system running at 120 fps, it seems to switch back and forth between smooth and jittery motion - running smoothly for a second, then jittery for a second, back and forth constantly.

I haven't been able to play matchmaking since release. My PC is far beyond the required specs (i9-7900X, 1080ti). I'm not trying to be impatient but its lame I can't play. FPS goes from 200+ to under 30 constantly during gameplay. If anyone has a fix, PLS respond or dm me on twitter @xCodeh

Chill people. They will fix the audio issue soon most probably. Be happy that they provided a remastered version of this fan favorite in 4K 60 fps! Thank you Xbox and Game Pass!

Thank you for this in-depth analysis. I was wondering why I felt “micro-stuttering” while above 60 FPS (I have an Acer X34P) and it was very jarring to the point that I haven’t touched it since it released on PC. When I get on, I will lock the FPS to 60 to see if I get a better experience.

You guys at DF continually make outstanding and fair in-depth content. The amount of work you put into your videos shines through clearly.

According to PCgamingwiki, there is a way to fix the audio Go to %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\MCC\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor\. Open GameUserSettings.ini. Change AudioQualityLevel from 0 to 1. If you still experience audio issues, try increasing the value.

22:24 This is the same issue that happens with previous Halo (CE and 2)games on PC that had a 60 FPS toggle. All of the animations were 30 FPS, non-keyframed, since it was targeting a perfect 30 FPS on the console. Obviously, with PCs being more powerful, when uncapping the framerate or setting to double the model's base animation frames, it becomes extremely obvious. So it seems that maybe it's an engine limitation more than anything else, or Bungie hand animated every single model.

Sounds like the audio mixing is completely out of whack. Ambient sounds are almost all the same volume regardless of distance, and the weapons sounds are toned down to the point of sounding muffled. All the dynamic range is lost, almost like they ran everything through a compressor.

That was a ridiculously involved analysis, Alex. Great work! These ports definitely don't seem perfect, but man I really want to play this with a keyboard and mouse.

Slight correction, Halo 2 came to PC in 2007, not 2004.

I hope the devs see this. I can't like this video enough. You always do such a honest job.

Alex was such a great addition to the DF team. I remember a few years back this felt like the PlayStation Pro channel, but now we have Alex to champion the PC platform. Thank you, DF and Alex.

I am a part of the Insider xbox program and the Insider for Halo. On one of the support forums they've said that they are working on the LOD system for xbox 1X. Apparently they had a check list of things they wanted to make sure they hit right before releasing. I guess the LOD system was one that as far as the xbox goes would be addressed later on.

I experienced that elevator scene, and yes - the sounds need fixing very badly. You can't even hear the gunshots with the BGM playing in the background.

Verdict: Wait for the sound and animation fixes.

This was perhaps one of the best reviews I've ever seen for a halo game. Still gonna get the remastered version of the game but sad to see some of those bugs in the game. Reach was my favorite halo game growing up so looking forward to playing it again. Definitely subscribing and loved some of that old halo music you threw in there. Overall, well done with the review!

Damn, these Post-Processing problems and the lack of Motion Blur are huge bummers ...

Something to note and possibly may want to be looked into: On Xbox one x, this reach update has considerably broken performance in other Halo titles in the collection. I'm not sure if it's the added load of the UE4 engine in the background or what, but I have found Halo 4 to be less performant, halo 2 classic to be less performant, and with it's remastered graphics on to be downright unplayable, with vsync issues incredible stuttering and sub par framerate. Halo 3 has been fine in the 1 or 2 levels I played and I haven't tried ODST, nor Halo CE and its remastered graphics. It is incredibly unfortunate, as before this patch I found the games were running brilliantly pre patch. Now, Halo 2 with remastered graphics is downright unplayable at times. If you're curious to see, boot up outskirts in halo 2 with remastered on. Leave the crash site and head into the plaza. The minute your view fills with it, the framerate drops, the screen tears and the controls become less responsive. Anyway, hope you guys take a look and I love your content. I've put in a support ticket but the more it's talked about, the better. Also to note, no idea if multi-player is effected as I haven't checked at this time.

22:45 THANK YOU! i knew there was something wrong with 144fps in this game but my friends just called me mad. Little do they know. Everything just felt too "off"

I'm glad that games like Doom 2016 focus more on 60 fps being the minimum.

11:35 look at the shadow casted by noble 6 on the falcon. Big improvement.

So excited you guys made a video covering this issues so soon! I have been discussing them on various forums and so many people are completely ignorant of any issue and think it's perfect, now I have a place to point them because you go into more technical detail than I can dream up! Amazing work at DF, love you guys!

Halo 2 PC wasn’t released until 2007 :O

Alex also forgot to mention hdr is omitted on pc I think.

I like how you tell me up front in the title, and then expand on it in the video.

Definitely need to patch the sound. But goddamn, Halo @ >60 fps is incredible.

0:50 Wasnt Halo 2 released for PC in 2007?

The sound is just terrible. Like why that wasn't a priority before launch is a beyond me its so bad.

Glad you touched on the audio. Playing reach on the 360 always had great punchy audio. On the PC everything sounds mixed and muffled with very flat weapons.

Good summary, I'm surprised there was no mention of the incredibly lacking graphical options, and the even worse default keymapping, and incredibly limited remapping. As well as the crouch mechanic that simply does not fit on keyboard and mouse.

This was in Beta for months. Why can’t they release a finished version of anything?

Considering how hard it’s been for Xenia to emulate reach, they did a good job. Makes me wonder if they even know how their own game works

I love that familiar sound of casings hitting dirt from that M6. Audio design was always good from Bungo

I thought the game looked way flatter than I remembered and sounded less impactful/punchy. Learning that the post processing is scaling with resolution and seeing the difference in bloom/dof/hbao is eye opening. I hope they can make those changes and readd motion blur. At the moment the game looks more like an early 360 game in higher resolution than one that came out in 2010

Yeah game felt really weird with an unlocked framerate so I just locked it to 60. Disappointed, since I only recently got a 120hz monitor and I was loving how smooth other games felt.

My feeling exactly A lot of freezing and stuttering issues No subs during gameplay The sound is muddled as hell, the guns sounds like bb guns and can barely hear the coice acting under all that noise

Thank you for confirming the uncapped fps issue. People keep saying I'm crazy and that uncapped fps is fine when it's clearly not.

On reflection, the lift on normal reach you can stand and walk normally on it but on mcc, the lift makes your character lift its legs as if you are jumping and moving makes you slide. Like how kat is in 17:19

"Colleague John..." you cut him deep John.. you cut him deep.. :(

The audio made it literally unplayable for me

The above 60fps issues definitely are noticeable, but I wasn't able figure out exactly what the issue was until watching this video. I'm kind of disappointed since I always play above 60fps. Great video, thanks.

For anyone interested in articulating their thoughts more on the sound issue: the word your looking for is "Transient". The transient signature of an audio sample is the first 0-2ms of an audio sample that can be tuned to provide audible 'pop' to an audio clip. This all sounds good, but if we took all high-transient sounds (gunshots in this case) and boosted those first 0-2ms, what would happen over time is that you'd experience a slight form of ear fatigue that can be much more concerning than 'boring audio'. With what I know of sound, this was probably the reason (ignoring any possible technical issues that I'd have no way to anticipate or explain). It does result in an over all muddy mix, but without an entire overhaul of the way sound works in the engine, I'm thinking this may have been the only option for the sound team. Feel free to Google around on this subject matter so that your RU-vid comments and Reddit threads sound 10x more interesting.

finally, been waiting for this video

Changing the "AudioQualityLevel" from 0 to 1 in the GameUserSettings.ini file seems to have made the audio quality a bit more clear for me

MSAA can be forced through display driver just like 16x Anisotropic Filter and it works perfectly with the in game AA. Here I play in 1440p with 4xMSAA. Edit: I forgot to say that looks better then 4k without any MSAA, but this is my personal opinion.

I actually really enjoyed playing this co-op with a friend. LAN doesn't seem to suffer from the input latency issue that is apparent on this video. Personally, I'm just disappointed that there is still a lack of subtitles for the gameplay section of the game. Like how is that accessible to people who can't hear well? Otherwise the game ran pretty flawlessly at 4k 60fps on my gtx 1080 and a kabylake i5.

I always thought the ghosting was my TVs fault. I used to ask friends if they had this issue. A couple of friends said they never had that issue. Now I know they were full of shit. Looks great and no more ghosting on the X1X is so good!

I stopped playing becuse of the bad sound, I hope they fix it so I can play through this game. I have a good soundsystem so bad sounds becomes to obvious..

I've been running the game at 5k, 4x 1440p, and I thought AO and DoF was completely absent from the game, this explains a lot.

I'm glad DF reported on the sound because who knows if 343i would have been motivated to fix it

Everyone said I was crazy that the given FPS didn't feel right... Well, who's crazy now?

My biggest problem is coop latency. Can't enjoy the campaign with my friend

Danke schön, Alex! Thanks for the video!

Can I just say that the reviewer is perhaps that best I've ever heard. Clear, concise and provides very useful insight.

We played this the other night and it warped us back to playing on 360 10 years ago. Played it for hours like no time had passed at all. I was so disappointed when Halo 4 and 5 didn't follow up on the gameplay of this game. Could play Invasion forever!

Yeah, co-op is really laggy for non-host players. The movement input lag is insane. Big issue the breaks the campaign experience with friends.

Halo 2 came out on OG Xbox in 2004. It didn't come out for PC till the Games For Windows Live version came out in 2007.

While I'm loving playing the Master Chief Collection on PC, I agree with the points Alex raised on the video. I hope 343 Industries fixes them in the future. On a side note, I would also like to add that the subtitles are not working correctly: they only appear during cutscenes, and due to the game's muffled sound, sometimes it can be difficult to understand what some characters are saying during gameplay (I'm looking at you Auntie Dot). This also means that deaf people will have a terrible time understanding what is going on. I would also like to correct Alex on something he says at the beginning of the video: Halo 2 for PC was released on 2007, not 2004 (which is the year it was released on Xbox). Digital Foundry has been good to me. Time to return the favor.