I have a confession to make: I have never played Halo until recently. Being as I review video games for a living (okay, for fun), this is a bit like being a fantasy magazine publisher who has never read Tolkien. Purchasing a copy of The Master Chief Collection, I decided to correct that oversight.

    Still, Halo is one of the most successful video games of all time and I was eager to see what it had going for it. I tried to keep my expectations reasonable, th...