Truly baffling how mismanaged this project must have been. My heart goes out to any and all people who had to work on anything regarding this game. A multi-billion dollar company is incapable of giving the resources and the scope required to NOT end a half-a-decade development cycle with this bland, copy-pasted rehash. The grappling hook is goated, thank god, but even the implementation of alternative equipment sucks. They had to bring back the Halo 2 Gondola Ride, everyone's favourite masterclass in waiting for an encounter to end. This Halo sure could be infinite if they were willing to reuse the same environments a few million times more.
It's by far the closest we've gotten with 343 to the "Good Ol Days" of halo, though the customization systems are still lacking, there is definitely long term support for it, just don't buy anything OTHER than the battle pass (season 2 onward awards enough points to get each subsequent one) and you'll basically get a good halo for 15 Bucks!
As of writing, I am near 250 hours in Halo Infinite.
Halo Infinite launched as a really promising new start for the Halo franchise, unfortunately it has quickly become almost entirely abandoned by the devs with releases only for new battle passes to sell more customization to players.
I really enjoyed the campaign‘s approach to a semi open world. Exploring with a warthog full of marines was a blast and I loved coming across patrols and outposts to clear. The mountain terrain with tight paths was not very well suited for the scorpion, but the other vehicles felt great in most of the spaces. The story was very interesting for new and old fans, and I would have loved to see where 343 took the next chapter, because it was seemingly meant to be picked up in a future Infinite DLC, unfortunately it seems almost all of the infinite campaign team was laid off or moved away from campaign, so it will become another 343 story thread that just gets dropped.
Multiplayer in infinite is probably the closest to classic Halo I think fans have seen in a long time. 343 did a great job of combining the new movement features from H5 with the classic feel of older Halos to make it broadly liked. The weapon sandbox feels very well tuned and I enjoy using most tools given to players. Maps are great, but 343 has heavily relied on fan-made maps in Forge to supplement most of their playlists, I do not think a non-forged, dev-made map has been released in almost a year and a half.
Forge is probably the best part of infinite. I am not a forger, but the tools that 343 have made available to players are nothing short of incredible. It is a shame that there is still no action sack playlist almost four years in, but you can still play through the customs browser if you would like.
Firefight’s silent death was a big disappointment. 343 promised it would be out soon, released firefight king of the hill, and then silently pushed back and then canceled the release of true firefight. Halo 5’s warzone firefight was at least an interesting twist on the firefight formula, KOTHFF is just spawning forge AI and making them go to a point, wave after wave.
Customization has improved in a lot of ways and gotten worse in others. 343 has slowly broken out of their core set up that came at launch and now allow shoulders, helmets, and visors to be used on any core, which is a great change. Unfortunately, so much content is locked behind paywalls that feel exploitative, which is the modern live service game landscape. The costing system was a cool idea, but it should not be a total replacement for selecting your own colors. It took over two years to have the color white, which is ridiculous. It sounds like 343 put themselves in a significant amount of tech debt in designing the customization system, and breaking out of it has been a technical challenge, which is a shame.
I think Infinite can be summed up with the unofficial motto of 343 Industries, “3 steps forward, 43 steps back.”
Halo Infinite launched as a really promising new start for the Halo franchise, unfortunately it has quickly become almost entirely abandoned by the devs with releases only for new battle passes to sell more customization to players.
I really enjoyed the campaign‘s approach to a semi open world. Exploring with a warthog full of marines was a blast and I loved coming across patrols and outposts to clear. The mountain terrain with tight paths was not very well suited for the scorpion, but the other vehicles felt great in most of the spaces. The story was very interesting for new and old fans, and I would have loved to see where 343 took the next chapter, because it was seemingly meant to be picked up in a future Infinite DLC, unfortunately it seems almost all of the infinite campaign team was laid off or moved away from campaign, so it will become another 343 story thread that just gets dropped.
Multiplayer in infinite is probably the closest to classic Halo I think fans have seen in a long time. 343 did a great job of combining the new movement features from H5 with the classic feel of older Halos to make it broadly liked. The weapon sandbox feels very well tuned and I enjoy using most tools given to players. Maps are great, but 343 has heavily relied on fan-made maps in Forge to supplement most of their playlists, I do not think a non-forged, dev-made map has been released in almost a year and a half.
Forge is probably the best part of infinite. I am not a forger, but the tools that 343 have made available to players are nothing short of incredible. It is a shame that there is still no action sack playlist almost four years in, but you can still play through the customs browser if you would like.
Firefight’s silent death was a big disappointment. 343 promised it would be out soon, released firefight king of the hill, and then silently pushed back and then canceled the release of true firefight. Halo 5’s warzone firefight was at least an interesting twist on the firefight formula, KOTHFF is just spawning forge AI and making them go to a point, wave after wave.
Customization has improved in a lot of ways and gotten worse in others. 343 has slowly broken out of their core set up that came at launch and now allow shoulders, helmets, and visors to be used on any core, which is a great change. Unfortunately, so much content is locked behind paywalls that feel exploitative, which is the modern live service game landscape. The costing system was a cool idea, but it should not be a total replacement for selecting your own colors. It took over two years to have the color white, which is ridiculous. It sounds like 343 put themselves in a significant amount of tech debt in designing the customization system, and breaking out of it has been a technical challenge, which is a shame.
I think Infinite can be summed up with the unofficial motto of 343 Industries, “3 steps forward, 43 steps back.”
this wasnt doodoo fart but it wasnt the best either, idk what else to say. i hate microtransactions more than anything
wheres the rest of it?
Fait en difficulté légendaire, le jeu est très sympa, certes ça fait une coupure plutôt brusque avec l'opus précédant et l'open world n'est pas très utile, mais j'ai passé un bon moment à me balader et me déplacer avec le grappin.
I don't think I can even put it into words how much I fucking despise this game.
A fun FPS that brings the Halo franchise back to its roots and also explores a bit of an open world but throughout my playthrough I ran into multiple bugs that forced me to restart levels
Um dos melhores Halos que ja joguei, talvez o que tenha a mehor gameplay e variedade de armas entre todos, uma historia legal, mas que poderia ser melhor, a 343 precisa parar de pular as historias entre jogos assim do nada, o multiplayer hoje em dia parece prometedor, mas quando o jogo saiu, era horrivel e tinha pouquissimas coisas a se fazer.
Boring multiplayer.
Really good gameplay ruined by current gaming trends and 343 lack of competence
Non capisco la passione per la serie
I've never had a vasectomy but I assume it feels kind of like hearing that the Halo Infinite campaign split screen got canceled. Name of the game only measures the amount of disappointment I have for this shit.
The enemies call you the n word sometimes
So bugged compared to all the other Halo games which is a let down
The following is a review of Halo Infinite around the campaign's launch.
Campaign: They knocked it out of the park. 343 finally gave us a Halo game that understands what made the OG trilogy great, with open environments, familiar enemy types (NO MORE PROMETHEANS!), and a Chief that is more of a symbol of hope rather than a rogue spartan. This is what Halo should be. The open-world didn't have a whole lot of empty space, with there always being a band of Banished enemies around the corner in between points of interest. The grappling hook made traversal and combat way more unique too. The story and characters are great, with Chief, Weapon, and Echo-216 having some great interactions and moments to shine. The villains are menacing and actually raise the stakes. Escharum might be my favorite villain in the franchise. The audio logs help fill in the gap between Halo 5 and this game, with its own set of interesting revelations to reveal. My only complaints are with the new monitor we meet being a really stupid character and the Cortana stuff not being handled in the best way. Other than that, I had a blast grinding out the campaign, and I cannot wait to see where the story goes next.
Multiplayer: This might mechanically be the best FPS multiplayer in the industry. Some of the best movement, gunplay, balancing, and gameplay variety I've seen in a while. The maps are all great and so is the ranked playlist. Modes like Fiesta also keep the game going. The problem? It's not a lot of content, despite it all being quality. There aren't a lot of Big Team Battle maps right now, and with this game being touted as a live service, I really hope future updates can help sustain this game's playerbase, because it is really not a lot right now.
Overall, I think 343 delivered, but only time will tell whether they can keep the game alive.
Campaign: They knocked it out of the park. 343 finally gave us a Halo game that understands what made the OG trilogy great, with open environments, familiar enemy types (NO MORE PROMETHEANS!), and a Chief that is more of a symbol of hope rather than a rogue spartan. This is what Halo should be. The open-world didn't have a whole lot of empty space, with there always being a band of Banished enemies around the corner in between points of interest. The grappling hook made traversal and combat way more unique too. The story and characters are great, with Chief, Weapon, and Echo-216 having some great interactions and moments to shine. The villains are menacing and actually raise the stakes. Escharum might be my favorite villain in the franchise. The audio logs help fill in the gap between Halo 5 and this game, with its own set of interesting revelations to reveal. My only complaints are with the new monitor we meet being a really stupid character and the Cortana stuff not being handled in the best way. Other than that, I had a blast grinding out the campaign, and I cannot wait to see where the story goes next.
Multiplayer: This might mechanically be the best FPS multiplayer in the industry. Some of the best movement, gunplay, balancing, and gameplay variety I've seen in a while. The maps are all great and so is the ranked playlist. Modes like Fiesta also keep the game going. The problem? It's not a lot of content, despite it all being quality. There aren't a lot of Big Team Battle maps right now, and with this game being touted as a live service, I really hope future updates can help sustain this game's playerbase, because it is really not a lot right now.
Overall, I think 343 delivered, but only time will tell whether they can keep the game alive.
The gameplay is there, just not really anything else
The gameplay is finally in a place that can live up to Bungie-era Halo, while still feeling a bit fresh. I was absolutely thrilled to see Halo return to its original art style, and have a soundtrack that actually sounds like Halo.
However, while Halo Infinite is the best 343 release, it's still plagued with issues. The campaign feels rushed and clumsy. It feels limited in its environments and its scope. I'm happy that Infinite retcons Halo 5's story, but it all feels messy nonetheless. The Banished are led by a cringe-worthy cartoon villain, though Master Chief thankfully returns to his signature stoic style which is contrasted well against the pilot character. However the pilot character isn't as developed as I would like, and the 'Weapon' feels - again - like a clumsy solution to a problem that should have been avoided in the first place. The entire campaign feeling like its stuck in the second level from Halo: CE (but not as good) is to Infinite's detriment. The ability to select any weapon you want from outposts makes weapon management redundent, and the open world adds absolutley nothing to Halo - besides tedious and barebones side-quests.
The mulitplayer support has largely been an absolute mess to say the least, and it's emblematic of Microsoft's bizarre mismanagement of its once biggest and best franchise. 343 finally has a good thing here with some great core gameplay, but they've wasted all that potential with a bloated, messy and - at times - uninspired campaign, and a mostly neglected multiplayer that makes a mockery of when Halo was at its height in 2007.
However, while Halo Infinite is the best 343 release, it's still plagued with issues. The campaign feels rushed and clumsy. It feels limited in its environments and its scope. I'm happy that Infinite retcons Halo 5's story, but it all feels messy nonetheless. The Banished are led by a cringe-worthy cartoon villain, though Master Chief thankfully returns to his signature stoic style which is contrasted well against the pilot character. However the pilot character isn't as developed as I would like, and the 'Weapon' feels - again - like a clumsy solution to a problem that should have been avoided in the first place. The entire campaign feeling like its stuck in the second level from Halo: CE (but not as good) is to Infinite's detriment. The ability to select any weapon you want from outposts makes weapon management redundent, and the open world adds absolutley nothing to Halo - besides tedious and barebones side-quests.
The mulitplayer support has largely been an absolute mess to say the least, and it's emblematic of Microsoft's bizarre mismanagement of its once biggest and best franchise. 343 finally has a good thing here with some great core gameplay, but they've wasted all that potential with a bloated, messy and - at times - uninspired campaign, and a mostly neglected multiplayer that makes a mockery of when Halo was at its height in 2007.
Ta wapo
As someone who didn't play HW 2 I was a little confused with the presence of the Banished BUT, I think this game was solid. Open world was a nice addition, but I feel like they could have varied things a little more. That said, I would just boot up the game and go on little hikes on Zeta Halo, it was fun to just hang out honestly. The story leaves a bit to be desired but I think it's set up for a decent sequence of games (hopefully.)
A good return to form for the Halo series, only downside is the lack of single player content since release.
whatever
My king
Gameplay is smooth and satisfying. Open world is lackluster. Enemies are great. Story seems like its lost, kind of in a Star Wars sequels situation, lots of changing of enemies and direction. Halo needs a reboot, and not a soft one. Give me Halo CE except new and many different open world environments on Installation 04, sort of like the Middle Earth: Shadow of War open worlds.
Honestly, it's incredible that we now have TWO major sci-fi blockbuster franchises that have consistently pivoted away from the long-run intentions of their last 2 entries because the creative team obviously is being shuffled around every 3 months like deck chairs on the Titanic.
Hey, but at least the gameplay in this one is probably the best out of any other Halo game, soooooooooooo.............
Hey, but at least the gameplay in this one is probably the best out of any other Halo game, soooooooooooo.............
Preferred multiplayer a lot of the time
Campaign had a lack of excitement in it but the enemies are still great like in the Bungie Halos, though these were easily the worst hunters in the series. Beyond the first two levels, I don't really have much to say, also the fetch coil parts were pointless.
The lack of variety severely hurts this game.
The lack of variety severely hurts this game.
A good addition to the Halo series with a very rocky launch. Probably the best gameplay mechanics in the series but a forgettable campaign and a long list of repeated mistakes. Still, I had a lot of fun in my 100+ hours of playing Halo Infinite
multiplayer only
When I was younger, I remember being amazed at the scale of the levels in Halo: CE. The second mission in particular, aptly named "Halo", was the real standout. Being able to choose your path and drive the Warthog around was amazing. I couldn't wait for the technology to catch up so we could have a seamless Halo experience from start to finish.
Halo Infinite attempts to do just that, with mixed results. Unlike other open-world games, you are not inundated with points of interest on your minimap. While playing in co-op, we found ourselves naturally stumbling upon side missions and activities to complete. Each side activity would reward you with something tangible, thus respecting your time and effort.
The overall gameplay is very tight and responsive, it feels great to play. They've also added a number of new gadgets and abilities to use, with the grappling hook being the standout. While it may seem out of place in a Halo game, it works very well and is super fun to use.
As for the story, I think they did a good job, because just like in all the other Halo games, I had no idea what was going on. Although, as @Splodey mentioned in his review, the game has a very melancholic tone and feel. I don't know if it was intentional, but it was definitely noticeable throughout the campaign.
I remember reading that the art direction they chose was a deliberate nod to the visuals of Halo: CE. I think it worked really well and I hope they stick with it for future releases.
The game can look nice at times, but it's easy to tell that it's a cross-gen release. The lack of raytracing on the PC and XSX was a bit of a disappointment, as the game could have benefited greatly from it.
I had very low expectations for this Halo title. One of the reasons I picked up the Xbox Series X was to play it, only to have the game delayed multiple times and launched in a poor state. The lack of co-op at launch was the biggest sin of all. However, they seem to have improved the game a lot since launch. I think all fans of Halo should give it a try.
Halo Infinite attempts to do just that, with mixed results. Unlike other open-world games, you are not inundated with points of interest on your minimap. While playing in co-op, we found ourselves naturally stumbling upon side missions and activities to complete. Each side activity would reward you with something tangible, thus respecting your time and effort.
The overall gameplay is very tight and responsive, it feels great to play. They've also added a number of new gadgets and abilities to use, with the grappling hook being the standout. While it may seem out of place in a Halo game, it works very well and is super fun to use.
As for the story, I think they did a good job, because just like in all the other Halo games, I had no idea what was going on. Although, as @Splodey mentioned in his review, the game has a very melancholic tone and feel. I don't know if it was intentional, but it was definitely noticeable throughout the campaign.
I remember reading that the art direction they chose was a deliberate nod to the visuals of Halo: CE. I think it worked really well and I hope they stick with it for future releases.
The game can look nice at times, but it's easy to tell that it's a cross-gen release. The lack of raytracing on the PC and XSX was a bit of a disappointment, as the game could have benefited greatly from it.
I had very low expectations for this Halo title. One of the reasons I picked up the Xbox Series X was to play it, only to have the game delayed multiple times and launched in a poor state. The lack of co-op at launch was the biggest sin of all. However, they seem to have improved the game a lot since launch. I think all fans of Halo should give it a try.