I recently finished the Halo: Reach campaign on MCC, XBOX ONE X console. And it was as fun as you’d expect (HALO!). When I got to the end credits, I felt a lot of anticipation. I had played Reach like crazy when it released back in 2010. Loved it. But the end credits were one of my favorite parts of the game. I remember it leaving me with a sense of awe and completion, satisfaction, and even joy and warmth, as the Pillar of Autumn slowly distances itself from the foreground while it moves towards Halo, recreating the opening from Halo: Combat Evolved. Everything since the first game coming full circle, and I’d played every game since Combat Evolved when they released. It was great to be able to listen to the mix of music playing during these end credits for Halo: Reach, and I did this not just once, but many times, every time I played through the campaign. It was a treat, an extra, at the end of the game for me.
And now, with Reach on MCC (XBOX), I complete the campaign, and those end credits and the music were ripped out of the game, going right to that final hold-out battle where 6 fights until death. And I’m left feeling sad, a bit depressed, like something important was taken from me. This affected me so much that I barely bothered fighting in that last part with 6. I didn’t care. Still don’t.
Since MCC is being treated like a “game as a service” now…I want this put back in. Not just for Reach, but all the games in MCC. They should have their end credits fully restored, with the full music. If those credits don’t fit quite with MCC, just add a disclaimer not at the beginning of them, but keep those end credits so people know who did the original work on the game. Maybe have an end credits option for MCC at the main menu (a lot of games do this) to differentiate the Bungie work with 343i’s work. But reinsert those end credits to the various Halo games, because that ending music is some of the best parts those games have to offer.
Otherwise…with all the other times 343i has fallen short on other fronts, this just seems like adding a little more fuel to that fire, from 343i itself. Like we can’t have this game collection be as truly awesome as it can be without 343i stripping out any worthy, worthwhile mention of Bungie or Martin O’Donnell and the work they did that built 343i’s foundation. I really want those end credits back! They could even make the end credits for all the games an option to watch in the MCC main menu, like I mentioned earlier for MCC end credits.
There’s no good reason for doing this. And stripping this out of the games on MCC just seems…it seems like spite, against Bungie, against the fans, and feels like something almost personal. I know it’s not personal, but that leads to something even worse, IMO, that this was done without consideration for how the fans would feel at stripping out elements of the game. It’s just cold. And it makes me angry.
And because it makes me angry, I believe this is my first time ever posting here on these forums. Because this makes me so -Yoink!- angry! Because after all the missteps by 343i since they inherited the Halo franchise, you’d thing that maybe, JUST MAYBE, we could get this one thing right! Having the MCC actually work for once on multiplayer, and have the FULL CAMPAIGNS for every game there to enjoy, including these END CREDITS with their music and aesthetic to sit there and enjoy when you MAKE IT to the END of THE GAME! But no, 343i can’t even give us that.
This is a small thing. That’s probably why it was taken out. But these small things are part of what made the Halo games so GgOoOoDd, why they’re loved by fans so much. Bungie knew that. 343i doesn’t.
Can we please…PLEASE…have these end credits reinstalled into the game? For each Halo game on MCC? Please? Seriously, as long as we, the fans, have stuck with this game franchise…it’s a small thing, and some might say we deserve it. Yes, I’m saying we deserve that, on top of everything else that’s already been done. Because no matter how good MCC has become, small things like this happening make it all feel like it just falls short. It shouldn’t be falling short, it should be excelling beyond expectations. And we’re not getting that.
343i…you can be better. You can do better. And this? This really is a small thing. Something easy for you to fix, wouldn’t take much time or resources. Please, return the end credits to the games in MCC.