The Master Chief Collection for PC has been out since December last year, and so far players have only been able to enjoy Halo: Reach and Halo: Combat Evolved as part of that remastered pack, available on Steam now.
However, it has now been revealed via twitter that the Halo 2 Anniversary edition is near a playable state, with the beta stage of the Halo 2 Anniversary set to begin as soon as tomorrow. According to Tyler Davis (Community Support and Engagement Coordinator at 343), test flighting is set to begin in literally a matter of hours, and that the developers will let the community know when ‘buttons are getting pressed for invites to roll out’.
Halo 2 Anniversary On PC
There are plenty of players who are going to be very excited about this news. Let’s not forget that 343 have been very cagey about their release schedule and that Halo CE remastered was released in the Master Chief Collection as a surprise, so there will be a few who are expecting something similar with the Halo 2 Anniversary launch.
That being said, there will be a lot of excitement around Halo 2 just for the game itself. One of the more popular games in the Halo franchise, Halo 2 Anniversary is set to be just as good as the original, with updated features such as the inclusion of terminals within the campaign to connect the overarching story of Halo, new cutscenes, and brand new upgraded graphics.
It’s not just the graphics getting an overhaul either. The entire Halo 2 soundtrack was re-recorded for the anniversary edition, with the San Francisco Symphony at Skywalker Sound Studios, with Steve Vai and Misha Mansoor coming in to re-record the additional tracks as well.
Halo 2 Anniversary PC Multiplayer
The Master Chief Collection launched on console to some negative press due to the multiplayer facet of the game, but luckily a lot of the matchmaking issues have now been ironed out, and what players are left with is a pretty faithful and updated version of the classic multiplayer for each of the Halo games.
Six different fan-favorite maps that were present in Halo 2 will now be available to play on PC, and that’s not the only community loved content making its way to the remaster. Popular glitches like sword flying are making their way into the campaign to assist in speed runs, so PC players will be able to get into a fairly accurate and faithful version of the Halo 2 experience for the very first time.
Halo 2 Anniversary PC Mods
So far the community hasn’t had any real chance to mod the Halo 2 Anniversary content for PC – but based off of what we have already seen put in place for the Halo Games already available in the PC Master Chief Collection it could be very exciting to see how Halo 2 might be expanded by the community.
We have already seen a third-person mode introduced for Halo Reach, and the ultimate forge world being built as well, that allows players to fly Pelicans, drive Scarabs and other previously unavailable ships – and even weapons.
For now, we are going to have to wait and see what the Halo 2 Anniversary edition for PC brings, and check in to see how the test flights go once players have access.