Halo Infinite (2021)

I really enjoyed Halo Infinite’s campaign. The open world was a okay change for the series and made exploring Zeta Halo feel fresh at first, although it gradually became repetitive. A lot of the side activities started to feel similar, and the world could have used more variety in its locations and environments.

The main missions were much stronger. The combat encounters were fun, several of the levels had great designs, and the grappling hook was easily one of the best additions to the game. Moving around the map, pulling yourself towards enemies and grabbing weapons or explosive canisters made both exploration and combat much more entertaining.

The story was the main reason I played, and I thought it was handled really well. I loved the Weapon, who is essentially a more innocent and naïve version of Cortana while still having her own personality. Her relationship with Master Chief was one of the strongest parts of the campaign.

Cortana’s role was also handled well. Slowly putting together the pieces of what happened to her, the ring, the UNSC and the Banished kept me interested throughout the story. It felt like the game was trying to repair some of the damage caused by Halo 5, and for the most part, I think it succeeded.

The Banished were enjoyable enemies, although I wish the campaign had explored more of their characters and history. The story also leaves several major questions unanswered, making the campaign feel more like the beginning of something larger than a completely finished story.

I normally play Halo mainly for the campaigns and have never been heavily invested in the multiplayer. However, even I can understand why Halo Infinite’s multiplayer was considered a failure by many players. It had strong gameplay and the potential to become something excellent, but the lack of content, slow updates and disappointing progression system prevented it from reaching that potential.

I liked Halo Infinite, especially its campaign, characters and grappling-hook gameplay. At the same time, I understand why many people were disappointed with the overall game. It is a good Halo campaign with some clear issues, but its multiplayer never became what it could have been.

When this game was published, everyone was hyped about it. I mean not only the all-time Halo players also the casual ones, even who didn't play a Halo ever. However, I had finished the campaign and I didn't feel that.

Halo is favourite game saga, Halo 3 is my favourite videogame indeed. So, I was even more hyped about the release when I saw all the good reviews. But, I had to study, so I couldn't play since months ago. I guess to watch all the campaign gameplay wasn't the best decision, sometimes I think if I hadn't done it I would feel that "magic".

I just want to say sometimes the history feels empty, without soul, just some excuse to shoot aliens. Furthermore, I know the game suffer lots of difficulties in its development. I don't even want to evaluate the decision of making a sandbox game, cause it makes the game more accessible and "funnier" to causal gamers. It's just the game doesn't feel special, when I finished every Halo game I felt a magic feeling that I don't felt it here.

Halo Infinite is the last game in this little retrospective I'm doing. And I'm happy how it went out.

Halo Infinite was a game I was very worried about. The development of this game was really scary. With the gameplay trailer not really impressing people, to the whole Craig thing, to the constant delays, to the director being fired DURING development... I was fully expecting a trainwreck. Boy was I wrong.

Let's get one thing straight... The multiplayer... Kinda sucks. The servers are inconsistent, Big Team Battle was straight up broken for the longest time, and it wasn't very rewarding due to the fact that basically all the cosmetics are locked behind a paywall. The Load Times are also in dire need of a patch.

But what this game gets right... Is the campaign. I have never had so much fun with a Halo game in my life. And although Halo: Combat Evolved will always be my favorite on a gameplay side of things, Halo Infinite is real close to topping it. Easily the best thing about this game is the grapple hook. It allows you to be so creative and yes it's really overpowered... But I'm kinda happy it is because it makes the game so addictive. This is basically the first Open-World Halo game unless you count ODST. I think the Open-World is mostly great. I had a lot of fun exploring the map to capture all the FOBs, hunting targets, upgrading Chief's armor, and helping my fellow Marines. It's a very rewarding experience. The AI is smart again... Which allows you to actually think about how to approach the situation. And the few missions that are linear, are really good. Even the bosses are done well this time around. From a gameplay standpoint, this game kills it.

The story, however... Is actually great. But flawed. Taking place after Halo Wars 2, Master Chief and the rest of the UNSC meet Atriox and The Banished. After being thrown off, Chief meets Echo-216, a marine pilot. With the help of Echo, He retrieves the AI known as Weapon (Who is essentially just another Cortana) as they investigate a new Halo ring and stop The Banished.

The story is very fun and I love the performances throughout. And man I love the ending. The game does, however not resolve much of anything from Halo 5: Guardians. Cortana's conquest is prevented off-screen and only mentioned. I mean, I get it... I can see why they wanted to get away from that horrible plot. But still.

Halo Infinite is the best Halo game 343 has put out yet and I'm excited to see what is next in this franchise. Had a lot of fun with this retrospective.

4/5

Would Recommend

The best thing Halo: Infinite's campaign's got going for it is that Halo's combat is great, but I am unimpressed by the open world. It's a standard Ubisoft type of open world game but unlike Ubisoft's open worlds, Halo: Infinite's world is empty. It's just a large battlefield to run around end filled with enemies. There are no characters to meet or side stories to engage in. It's just combat. I definitely felt the emptiness and repetitiveness when playing this game. The story didn't grab me either.

They pretty much skip over everything the set up at the end of Halo 5: Guardians to tell a story similar to Halo: Combat Evolved. There's a new ring, some enemies are trying to use it to attack Earth, and Master Chief is the only one who can stop them. There are two major characters that interact with Chief in this story, and I didn't care for any of them. The Weapon is the new upbeat and perky version of Cortana, and I found her unamusing. The other character is the pilot who came off too whiny. Master Chief I did enjoy here as the most experienced soldier who is straight forward and always on mission. Chief juxtaposed against the Weapon, who is a newly created A.I., and the pilot, who is scared and wants to go home, comes off as wise and brave. His ability to keep pushing forward against ridiculous odds is inspiring. The issue is the story keeps hitting that same beat over and over again.

The world is filled with audio logs, and I didn't bother listening to all of them. There were way too many of them. There also Spartan Cores scattered around the world that can be used to upgrade Master Chief's equipment. Master Chief has 4 equipment/abilities in this game, and I mostly only used the grapple shot which is a great new addition to the game. Outside of using the sensor in cases to detect invisible enemies, I didn't bother much with the other equipment and got through the game fine.

The multiplayer is Halo which seems to be what everyone wants. I always found Halo to be fun, and it's still fun. I've been having a good time playing with my friends. There are things that I've never liked about the multiplayer that are still intact here though such as Big Team Battle and vehicles (which all suck to use in the campaign except for the Ghost). There is a non-Big Team Battle playlist thankfully, so I played there most of the time. I wish there were more filter options though, so I can jump into a Team Slayer match when that's all I'm in the mood for or to remove game modes I don't like.

Halo: infinite is really good, but it feels like there should've been more here. I don't see this as a step up from Halo 4 and 5 as I've heard it preached as.

Thank f*ck for that. Halo Infinite's single player is meticulously created and it shows. Gone are the nonsensical lines of dialogue and stories which leave you out in the cold regarding the expanded universe stuff (I'm looking at you, Halo 5). As soon as the campaign begins, you are plunged into a state of mysterious peril. The mystery is gradually unravelled as you are fed bits of information as the game progresses, and the good thing is that it all makes sense and even sometimes explains itself for those who have not been following the Halo story as diligently as 343 Industries.

As for the gameplay, it is the perfect version of a tried-and-tested recipe. Put simply, it's basically Far Cry but in the Halo universe and with fantastic level design that is reminiscent of Halo games of old. If you've been around for a while, thing of "Silent Cartographer" made into a game and you won't be disappointed. The physics and mechanics are similar to those in Halo 5 (save for the Spartan slam or whatever it's called), which is to say that the game is sharp and balanced. The tools are your disposal for exploration are useful, with vehicles and the grappleshot helping you navigate the world. The best thing about Halo Infinite's world is that it's not full of the "fat" that comes with some open-world games. There is enough optional stuff to do, and it's actually beneficial, giving you new weapons, vehicles, fast travel locations, upgrades, and the like. And if you really can't be bothered with all of the exploring and capturing of outposts, then you really don't have to do it if you don't want to. The optional stuff takes nothing away from a stellar campaign but adds a whole lot of immersion if you want to embrace it.

I have few complaints with the game at present, but maybe the most annoying is the fact that you can't change the difficulty of the game once you've started it, along with the fact that you can't replay campaign missions without starting all over again. I suspect that these will be addressed in the future, but at present, they are inexcusable and the only consolation is that you can power through the campaign pretty quickly if you don't do the optional stuff. I take that as a good thing as I'd rather a great game that is mostly action-packed and worthwhile than a longer game with more arduous stuff to do.

In summary, I think this might be the best Halo campaign yet. An immersive world, amazing level design, and a story that the vast and meticulous expanded universe both deserves and contributes to. Anyone could appreciate the gameplay, but I'm afraid that you would have to be a fairly knowledgeable Halo fan to truly understand everything, such is the depth of the expanded universe and storytelling. For me, that adds to the experience, but for everyone else, fear not - you won't be left out in the cold. Like I said, the game mostly explains itself and its context over time so it results in a hugely enjoyable game that has been worth the wait.

I am a very casual fan of Halo and played through the entire main series for this game's release because it's such an iconic, influential franchise in the gaming industry and beloved by the community.

My fondest Halo memories are from the first entry, Halo: Combat Evolved, and the sense of wonder from exploring a beautiful alien planet. Halo Infinite let me experience this sense of wanderlust again through the open world of Zeta Halo. By rewarding the player for exploring every nook and cranny, my curiosity found satisfaction that it wouldn't normally be given from a scifi shoot 'em up.

The pandemic has created a lot of heartbreaking stories in video games, and I think Halo Infinite's story of living through trauma, through unending strife, through repeatedly surviving hardships, is something we can all relate to. The note the story ends on is hopeful, but the resounding loneliness, grief, and survivor's guilt is the loudest note of all.

I mean i love the open-world even tho they put it in the game like "here is your open world, just collect stuff and take down some enemies".

My love-respect for the Chief is so great i don't wanna mention about how terrible pc optimization is.

Anyway i enjoyed it.

Best 343 Halo i can say.

But you know. "Best 343" carries no weight.

Real fun to play this with my friend online through cross play, he's on Xbox and I'm on PC.

I haven't touched the campaign but the online is pretty darn good. It's a shame the Battle Pass and progression system is so darn slow, tedious.

They're tweaking it and I believe they'll manage to turn it into something more fun and worthwile. Less predatory. Either way, Halo is back and I love it. I don't feel the same intensity and addiction as I felt playing Apex for hundreds of hours, but I guess that's a good thing. It's casual, easy fun. Perfect for short bursts.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that it plays, feels and looks, incredibly good.

Think I’m done with this for now. I have played several hours of campaign, and I just don’t really like it. Couldn’t care less about the story and boring missions, and the samey open world map. It feels like a less fun and less visually interesting version of Destiny at times with how the missions resolve with just killing stuff then holding X on some terminal until an uninteresting cutscene plays. I just replayed a couple of the other games about a year ago in co-op and had a fine time, so I don’t get what’s not clicking for this one. I also find the amount of near-instant deaths from snipers, suicide bombing, and other big dudes and bosses pretty annoying. None of this would matter as much if I was having great fun with the main gameplay, and I just am not quite there.

Most of what’s fun to me about this game was fun in the 6 prior Halo games I already played, and nothing they’ve added appeals to me on a notable level to keep me engaged for another one. Sure, grappling is a decent addition, but movement in this game still is not as fun and fluid as Titanfall, for example, which came out over 7 years ago. I’m not asking Halo to become Titanfall, but rather finding my taste has just moved away from Halo, at least in campaign when you lose co-op and nostalgia. I think the game’s open world structure actively hurts my experience with so much empty area, unappealing Ubisoft-esque side activities, and core abilities being hamstrung by needing to find upgrade points now. Even swapping between equipment and abilities feels so clunky because so much is going on.

I could give this a proper review more focused on multiplayer, but this game’s multiplayer isn’t even… complete… so I don’t see any value in putting a formal star rating on this package when it will look a lot different in a year. I enjoy the gameplay but do not enjoy the overall multiplayer experience at this time. It is currently for me (maybe not for you) a straight-up step down from the current state of Halo 5 and The Master Chief Collection. I’m sure I will enjoy it more when more content and options are available, but for now I’d rather play the MCC, Apex Legends, CoD: Vanguard, whatever. [Edit: apparently some new playlists are getting added ahead of schedule on Tuesday which is great news. I’d still like more maps and co-op stuff but this is a very necessary change that should have been here all along.]

I can understand why some players are loving this, particularly if they’ve tuned out of the last couple Halo games, but for my taste, I am quite disappointed in this package and would consider it likely my least favorite in the series from what I have experienced in its current state.

I'm enjoying the open world so far but one nitpicky thing that really bugs me is the map icon / UI colouring. Generally speaking new locations are coloured either blue, red, purple etc and once discovered they turn grey to show you've completed them... well all except FOB locations, they turn blue. So now you have blue icons that need exploring but also blue FOBs that have already been explored?

It's a minor thing but when you're glancing at the map you think it's a location that stil needs discovering. Could it be green perhaps or look a different way to make it more obvious that it's a conqurered base?

The core shooting and pace are great, and the grapple shot is a ton of fun, but the weapons are bland. The pistol and rifle are so good that most of the other weapons feel like less efficient things you just use for variation. Previously I had to switch to other weapons when I eventually ran out of ammo but the new ammo refill terminals are so plentiful they make that unnecessary.

For multiplayer I appreciate carefully balanced weapons and limited power weapons. I am really enjoying that part of the game. But for a campaign I want much more overpowered, big explosion, this-thing-is-awesome weapon drops so I can live the Master Chief power fantasy. None of that yet…