Since the great "Winter Update" Halo Infinite has been firing on all cylinders. Forge continues to provide a plethora of diverse, creative and competitive experiences to enjoy. However, where Halo Infinite continues to shine and separate itself from prior Halo games is the robust incorporation of these experiences into matchmaking. As it stands, there are probably well over 80 unique maps in Halo Infinite. The sandbox continues to expand with the likes of the "Bandit EVO" and new Repair Field equipment. Firefight has made a triumphant return and is accompanied by the unprecedented creative power of 343i's Enemy AI Forge Toolkit. The "live service" aspect of Halo Infinite is thriving at the moment. There has been meaningful, calculated roll-outs of content to keep the season fresh since its launch. Halo 3 Refueled, Combined Arms, Firefight's Mid-Season Update, and the upcoming Holiday event all flesh out this season. Season 5 marks a maturation point for Infinite as a live service game, one that I hope continues to shine.

343i has a roadmap of interesting items to continue to explore, including a Match Composer, cross-core shoulder pieces, new net code built from the ground up, and other items. I personally would love to see the return of Griffball, now that the Hammer feels particularly great. Additionally, Bomb Assault medals have been spotted in the game's code, which is also encouraging to see. More Forge map implementation into BTB and Squad Battle would also be welcomed additions in the seasons ahead.

This is genuinely the first time I’ve been excited for Halo Infinite in a long time. Not only are we getting new cosmetics and modes, but we’re also getting even more new maps, a new playlist soon, and PVE! I am so happy with that last one in particular, as I believe Infinite has the strongest gameplay in the entire series, so I really can’t wait to put some lead in the heads of the Banished!

Of course, this season isn’t perfect. Having CE Mark V locked behind a paywall is pretty lame if you ask me, and shop prices have raised once again annoyingly. But otherwise, consider me impressed. I’m genuinely excited to play Halo again!

Honestly terrific season cosmetics are always looking great we get to see some returning reach helmets and the surprise flood themed battle pass. Infinite's battlepasses always stay on top now being at 50 tier with the same amount of cosmetics as the previous 100 tier battlepasses with less fluff with it being available 24/7 purchasing with 1000 credits and completing it with the full 1000 credits back unlike cough cough overwatch. The cosmetics are only amplified with the addition we all have been waiting for, the option to cross our helmets with the other core thank the fucking prophets. Operations are a welcomed addition a FREE 20 tiers battlepass that comes with a full set of armor and nic nacs as well as a 5 dollar premium for a neat cosmetic? Sure. The shop is the biggest dread like always how could they NOT put CE Mark V in the battlepasses, they instead went for easy sales slapping that $20 tag on my beloved sadly a good money-maker move by them. WE GOT TO address these two new maps cause oh my god adding a golden sandwich to Forbidden... that's such an old 2000s easter egg type beat I need more of that. But more importantly, these maps are fucking gorgeous they both are fun maps to me I like Forbidden's look having that temple delta halo look with long snipes positions, and Prism's environmental destructible with the pinpoint needler as the map's power weapon and that thing is so fucking broken but it's for the sake of the funny needler miner map. The repair kit being neutral Equipment is always a nice fun ways to interact with it like reviving and repairing vehicles. New tools are cool for forges oh? They get 2 new canvases now that's nice, now what are you saying? FORGE AI? Bless the 7 rings give more tools like these, to these Giga Chads of forge balls they know how to make good stuff, and giving them AI is A HUGE STEP. While playing custom games you can finally earn XP Yay! Also the Bandit again.. but it has a scope with it and it's slightly different from the original Yay? There's a reward for Hero rank now? It's the fucking Master Chief? Now that's a good ass reward especially the coating of the special edition Xbox of Halo Infinite the gray, gold, black space looking one, that one goes hard. And we finally got firefight as always we should've gotten it at launch but it's here now we can hop in some fucking PVE and beat the Banished together!

with season 5 I feel like this game finally became good
but im still not thrilled

lets just start with the battlepass
which is great!
all the cosmetics are great especially the flood themed ones
50 tiers was imo a great change and the first 20 being free helps out free players
good shit
the final tier is also a flood themed armor kit which is not only awesome looking but it also shows 343's new approach on armor kits
which im kinda mixed on...
instead of making armor kits user made presets
which imo was the obvious route to go
they more so made armor kits things that couldn't be created with the current armor customization system
but it still feels odd
like yeah the floodified mark v b couldn't be made with the current system since it has like flood spores growing out the back of the spartan and messed up feet etc etc
but things like the helmet and shoulders feel like they should still be customizable
or how about the CE armor
why isn't that a core?
like how is mark 4 getting a armor core while the CE armor is a armor kit
a armor kit that was in the store btw
which im also mixed on
on one hand
wow they put the ce armor in the store for $20 and its barely customizable compared to everything else in the game
but on the other hand
everyone was begging for things like this
like a classic AR in the store or just armor and models we care about (and now the classic ar is the $5 bonus reward in the next operation lol) and well
it worked
a whole lot of people bought the CE armor
including me (with rewards points)
its so damn good looking and stands out from all the other shop items for sure
but $20?
little much

ok new maps and modes time
new maps are pretty good
im a fan
extraction?
its ok
it has potential but right now its just not as good as the other modes
firefight king of the hill?
big fan
its great to finally have some PvE content in the game and its good fun

we just need more of it

I want things like mcc's arcade fight
just a whole playlist full of wacky firefight modes and ideas

ok time to talk about operations
kinda don't like them

operations are the evolution of events but last longer and use match xp for progression instead of challenges and for $5 you get a bonus reward, bonus xp, a extra challenge slot and remove the fomo entirely
$5 that can be spent at anytime as well just like the battlepasses

on paper this sounds great

but in reality they're kinda
ehhhhh

like ok operations lasting longer than events is awesome
but now they use match xp which just makes progressing through slower

dont get me wrong id take match xp over the challenges progression we had before any day of the week

but from my experience its just slower
not that much slower
but slower

the $5 thing is also weird
cause if you spent $5 on the battle pass you also got bonus xp and a extra challenge slot
but when the operations switch in
well your bonus xp and I think also the extra challenge slot are just gone
so now if you want it back you gotta spend $5 on the operation which doesn't give any credits back unlike battle passes

but this doesn't matter
moving into CU29 battle passes are a thing of the past!
it will be only operations moving forward!
which sucks!

Think about it like this
The season 5 battle pass for $10 gave you
30 premium tiers
A instant unlock bonus reward
Bonus XP
A extra challenge slot
0 fomo
And $10 worth of credits
So in a way you earn the money back

A operation for $5 (so half the cost) gets you
A instant unlock bonus reward
Bonus xp
A extra challenge slot
0 fomo
No credits back

Yeah it’s half the cost but I prefer the battle pass system
It’s a good deal
But I guess too good of a deal
And I assume that’s partly why operations are the new system going forward

But I’ve said this much about operations without even going into the operations we got this season so let’s quickly do that

But first I do wanna quickly mention the cross core improvements cause I think it’s important

They made a lot of improvements to cross core this season
In specific cross core helmets and they made cross core items into 1 UI element instead of it all being split up

A great example of this was the god awful emblem filler

Where the same emblem would take up 4 different tiers cause each tier is one of the 4 things the emblem could apply too

It was stupid

But with the new UI updates stupid stuff like that is now condensed down

It’s why the battle pass is 50 tiers instead of 100

And I assumed events or operations would do the same since the old events were impacted by emblem filler the most

So imagine my surprise when both of these 2 new operations have 4 tiers dedicated to 4 different emblems
And it seems like all operations going forward will be the same

Why…..

I get it
They’re free passes
I don’t expect it to be as crazy good as paid battle pass tiers
But again battle passes are a thing of the past
So this is what we’re going forward with
And I’m just a little disappointed

Anyways operations we got

Combined arms: it’s fine
The rewards were alright ig
It did bring the halo 3 refueled playlist however and that’s fun as hell

6/10

Winter contingency 3: it’s alright
The rewards imo are great
But gameplay wise
It sucks
They did make 1 winter themed map
Snow fire
So winter themed live fire
And it’s basically impossible to find in matchmaking
And they didn’t give it its own playlist
I don’t get it
no cool modes or anything either

4 or 5/10 I guess idk

Other things to quickly mention
Sbmm still sucks
Sever/networking issues remain (but are being worked on!)
Shop is still iffy

Oh and the new equipment
The repair field
It’s overpowered on vehicles but overall fun as hell
Pretty cool
I’m a fan

New bandit evo isn’t anything special but I think it’s pretty cool

Chiefs campaign armor as the hero rank reward is awesome

Battle pass xp in custom games is overall good but the execution is disappointing

Like the daily cap is pretty high but the amount of xp you earn per game is just so little

Plus customs browser is still pretty broken

And it’s like I get it they don’t want people grinding custom for easy xp

But still disappointing

Oh and uh AI in forge is so god damn cool I’m so happy

Overall though this season finally made the game feel somewhat right

And probably the best season yet

I’m gonna use this season to log my thoughts on halo infinite’s multiplayer since launch.

The multiplayer in season 1 was rough. There were like four maps, cosmetics were locked behind armor sets and couldn’t be combined, and there was a severe lack of modes, and with no forge mode yet. Even through that, I managed to get to level 100 in season 1 and since then I’ve kinda gotten away from infinite. I’ve put a ton of hours into the game’s multiplayer, mostly because I think the core gameplay is really solid, despite how shitty the beginning was.

Fast forward to season 5 (I really didn’t touch seasons 3 and 4) this game his improved immensely. Customization is a lot more fleshed out, albeit not really as good as MCC (I want the Sangheili), but forge is AMAZING, multiplayer modes are super fun, and there are a lot of remade maps using forge, as well as some really good new ones. Infection is also back which I really love.

Overall I think the state of the game is improving a lot and I really think this game is underrated in the multiplayer department (at least for how the game feels at its core).

First I want to point out, this is not a review for the campaign since I didn't play the campaign. I installed the game and only played online matchmaking/local multiplayer and wanted to review my experience separate from the campaign experience.

I grew up playing Halo 3 like many other 90's kids, and I had a huge appreciation for the Halo IP. I however was part of the group of people that split off to be a Gears of War fan, so while I dabbled in Halo here and there over the years, Halo 3 was where 95% of my time went into the series. I recently had a hankering for a new shooter to play when I had some time to kill and had heard that Halo Infinite was doing just about everything right. While the game launched in a bad state, the game had gotten a ton of support that was making the playerbase very happy. While the playerbase was a far cry from what Halo used to be in it's hayday, the numbers were slowly but steadily climbing. I had also gotten wind of what the team was doing with the battle pass, finally someone besides Fortnite that had a BP that actually seemed to be doing stuff that was beneficial for the consumer in some way. I already had Gamepass so there was no reason to not give it a try.

I expected some growing pains as I had not played Halo for more than a day in about 15 years, so my first day went about as expected. Migrating from controller to M&K when I got my first PC was a rough experience I never wanted to go through again, but having to fight the muscle memory I had for this game brought that pain all over again. It's so frustrating to know I had full absolute control of my character in the past but now I felt like such an old man. I would try to switch my grenade and then throw one in quick succession but would get the buttons backwards, or completely forget the keybinds. As frustrating as all this was, this was just a me problem. Plenty of games have a ton of keybinds and it was just gonna take time to overcome the muscle memory I had built over hundreds of hours, that's not the game's fault.

However what is the game's fault is the game's feel, and maybe I'm just crazy but I don't remember the game feeling so, floaty? I know that Halo was somewhat floaty, but it never felt quite this extreme? I think part of it comes from the addition to clean movement options that were added over the years (mantling ledges, sliding, etc.) that make the disparity seem so extreme. You have these quick, fine tuned movement options and then you have this SLOW floaty jump and movement system that just don't mix. It makes the slow parts seem so much slower and it doesn't feel good.

Another really bad change I've noticed is the weapon systems. Not only have they seemed to go full in on the weird naming conventions for weapons. It's not the Shotgun or even Combat shotgun, but it's the "CQS48 Bulldog." It's not that Assault Rifle, it's the "MA40 AR." It's not the Commando, it's the "VK78 Commando." It's not the pistol, it's the "MK50 Sidekick." This may seem nit picky, but it's a really rough learning curve. If I want to test a weapon in training mode I have no freaking clue which some weapons are to even pick them out to practice them. I absolutely don't know how the weapons look when slotted in a wall so name is the one universal way to remember them, but these arbitrary numbers and letters just complicate the process. If I wanted to play a simulation shooter or a hyper realistic FPS, I'd play Tarkov. I want to play a high pace, tense PvP shooter and for that I want quick and immediate visual & textual clarity.

I realized that while I put about 5 hours into the game, it just wasn't getting any more fun. The gameplay was way too floaty for me, the minor details were making it difficult for me to just come to grasps with the game, and my matchmaking experience was horribly inconsistent. It's probably a combination of the fact my account was new and didn't know where to place me, the playerbase isn't plentiful enough to give consistent balanced matches, and the time that I played exacerbated that issue even more. Sadly all but one match I played was insanely one sided. I decided to throw in the towel and came to the conclusion Halo just doesn't offer anything to me I want. While I acknowledge part of it is just me needing to adjust to the changes that have naturally occurred over time, there's also a lot of the game that just doesn't feel good at all.

this one isn't as good as 3 and 4.
some of the cosmetics are cool, but a lot of it is nostalgia bait (which the fanbase is 100% falling for), the new mode is a fun concept, but isn't too fun in execution.
especially with all the Halo 3 playlists, this really feels like 343 giving into Halo Fans' desires of wanting to constantly be reminded of the past.
and it's working, and bringing a lot of positive attention to the game.

hopefully this leaning into nostalgia doesn't leak too much into gameplay; fucking up balancing for "casual players".
this season could either be an off step towards a wider image of what halo can be, or the beginning of Halo Infinite becoming cheap nostalgia bait, while sacrificing it's balancing, or unique style.

this one gets a 3.

Exclusively a multiplayer review, halo infinite’s free to play offerings by season 5 are honestly astounding. The shop is overpriced, but otherwise, it’s incredible. A live service game with a fair amount of rotating free cosmetics within their battle pass systems, passes that last forever and pay for themselves, all that. Add on the gunplay feeling amazing, and 343’s original maps mostly being made well and you’d have a hit. But forge creates a self sustaining game, the community remakes maps, as does 343, these get added to main playlists. I can relive some of the most fun maps from earlier halo games in the excellent Halo Infinite sandbox, and it’s all free. Forge is an awesome tool, multiplayer rocks. Pick it up, try it again, I’m serious, you won’t regret it.

all of the changes and inclusions alongside the already well-tuned gun play and maps made this season very fun ! the new maps look great and feel really good to play.. the addition of cross core helmets makes the customization a lot more involved and creative, the battlepass has a cool theme and i really liked the orange ultimate rewards 😈 my favorite color 🟠 i didnt really like the new extraction gamemode but with so many playlists its hard to complain😭 this season is a lot of fun and i'm very excited for the upcoming events