What’s up people? The multiplayer playlists for The Master Chief Collection were recently revealed, so let’s find out what they are!

  • Team Halo 2: Anniversary – 4v4 Slayer and Objective on Anniversary maps.
  • Halo 2: Anniversary Rumble – 8 player Free-For-All on Anniversary maps.
  • Team Halo 2: Anniversary Social – 5v5 unranked Slayer and Objective on Anniversary maps.
  • Team Slayer – 4v4 Slayer across Halo CE, Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo 2: Anniversary.
  • Big Team Battle – 8v8 vehicular carnage across Halo CE, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 4, and Halo 2: Anniversary.
  • Halo: Combat Evolved – 4v4 Slayer and Objective, Halo CE style.
  • Halo 2 Classic – 4v4 Slayer and Objective with Classic Halo 2 gameplay only.
  • Halo 3 – 4v4 Slayer and Objective from Halo 3.
  • Halo 4 – 5v5 Slayer and Objective in Halo 4.
  • Team Hardcore – 4v4 tournament-approved game types from Halo 2 and Halo 3. BR starts.
  • Halo eSports – 4v4 official Halo eSports playlist.
  • SWAT (Rotational) – 4v4 SWAT game types across Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 4, and Halo 2: Anniversary.

So, that leaves us with 12 playlists at launch, which I’d say is a healthy number of playlists for now. However, I have a few issues with a few of these playlists.

First of all, Rumble should NOT be 8 players. Halo FFA should always be 6 players, as it works much, much better. I feel that 8 players makes the games too cramped and it is far too easy to get spawn killed or killed from behind. A 6 player FFA makes things much more enjoyable. I am honestly baffled that 343 decided to make it 8 players because if you visit the Rumble Pit feedback on their forums, almost all the feedback is asking for Rumble Pit to be reduced to 6 players, as it is currently 8. Well, it looks like I won’t be playing much FFA in The Master Chief Collection.

I am also a bit worried that there is only going to be one unranked playlist. Team Halo 2: Anniversary Social was the only one to specifically state that it is unranked, which makes me assume that the rest are ranked. I think that a few more playlists should be unranked because if I want to play unranked, I don’t want to be restricted to one playlist.

Also, there isn’t a dedicated Objective playlist, which means that Objective players are kind of getting screwed here. They have to choose a playlist and hope that an Objective game mode is voted for, which makes me wonder how the voting process for maps and game modes will be. Here’s to hoping for a Halo 3-style veto system, as the Reach/Halo 4 style voting system sucks in comparison.

This isn’t so much an issue, but I am curious about Team Hardcore and Halo eSports. They seem to be very similar in that they are competitive, tournament-style playlists. Is there really a need for two of them? Why not just combine them into one playlist?

I am also looking forward to seeing what 343 brings back as part of the rotational playlist. At launch, it looks like it will be SWAT, so you can expect fan favorites like Team Snipers, Grifball, Team Doubles, and an Objective playlist to make an appearance.

Overall, I am pleased with The Master Chief Collection’s multiplayer playlists. The most important part that 343 got right is that we can choose a playlist that only has game mods from one Halo game. So, I can only play Classic Halo 2 if I want to without having the possibility of playing something else. 343 did a good job with playlist selection. November 11th can’t get here soon enough!