Some parts really remind me of the good ol' halo days. Most, however, just feels soulless.
The Halo Infinite campaign blows. So many major plot beats revealed in a lackluster "tell, don't show" manner, with so much of that exposition being told by such a hammy villain. Coupled with an open-world environment that is so artificially populated with cut-and-paste bases and enemy groups, the entire Halo Infinite campaign experience is a major disappointment, especially given the significance of this series in modern gaming.
However, this entry introduced the grappling hook, and that alone automatically gives this game 1 star. The satisfying gunplay (except for the Bulldog shotgun) and amazing graphics (the lighting in most indoor cutscenes is just absolutely phenomenal) make up the other star.
However, this entry introduced the grappling hook, and that alone automatically gives this game 1 star. The satisfying gunplay (except for the Bulldog shotgun) and amazing graphics (the lighting in most indoor cutscenes is just absolutely phenomenal) make up the other star.
(Review is for campaign only.)
The game is okay and has some decent qualities, but even on just Heroic, the enemies just aren't fun to fight. Often spongey, can sometimes kill you in seconds, and doing that antiquated game practice of hiding until your legs grow back.
The final boss in particular was fury inducing after the game auto-saved with incoming projectiles that required luck to not get mauled. That fight is one of the worst designed fights I've ever seen in a mostly competently made game. Why not unleash three dozen goons, multiple snipers, and a gravity hammer brute at the same time with unshakeable lock on you?
The story has a weird dichotomy where individual scenes and dialogue tend to be pretty good, but the overall plot structure is awful and 343 Industries can't commit to continuity.
The game is okay and has some decent qualities, but even on just Heroic, the enemies just aren't fun to fight. Often spongey, can sometimes kill you in seconds, and doing that antiquated game practice of hiding until your legs grow back.
The final boss in particular was fury inducing after the game auto-saved with incoming projectiles that required luck to not get mauled. That fight is one of the worst designed fights I've ever seen in a mostly competently made game. Why not unleash three dozen goons, multiple snipers, and a gravity hammer brute at the same time with unshakeable lock on you?
The story has a weird dichotomy where individual scenes and dialogue tend to be pretty good, but the overall plot structure is awful and 343 Industries can't commit to continuity.
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.”
Feels like a Halo rip-off rather than a true Halo game. just lacks soul.
Only play the multiplayer and it wasn't my favorite
This review contains spoilers
The Halo series, from the jump, is a series that is known for creating the illusion of large open spaces for the player to explore, especially through the various levels of the game that combine large driving sequences with areas where the player has to get out and plunge into various Forerunner or Covenant facilities. So, by all rights, Halo Infinite just going full Open World game should be the right call, right? Right?
The core fundamental problem with Halo Infinite as an Open World game, compared with the other titles in the series is that the earlier titles created the illusion of being a larger open space – they did an excellent job of creating channels for the player to go into, with places where the route branches to allow for different playstyles, while having those routes come back together at similar key points along the track. On the other hand, the wide open areas in Halo Infinite’s Early game feel more directionless, in ways that also make them feel like they’d be rather frustrating to play co-op (another of the Halo series’ long-running strengths).
Bits and pieces of the game’s background are told through audiologs from various doomed groups of UNSC holdouts, along with reports from the Banished – including our only encounters, in audio, with Lasky & Halsey.
This is also all aggravated with some of the issues with the game’s story. Halo 5 wrapped on a really strong cliffhanger. Cortana had gotten a bunch of the various AIs that the UNSC had depended on for years to bond together and revolt against humanity, while also taking on the Covenant and the new faction of the Banished. By the conclusion of Halo 5, some AI, like the shipboard AI of the Infinity, were still loyal, but Humanity, and the Covenant themselves, were now on the ropes, and Cortana had taken control of a Halo Ring, and was busting out some familiar humming that would be disconcerting to long time fans of the series.
By the start of Halo Infinite, it feels like instead it’s all over but the crying. We open with the Banished storming the Infinite, beating Master Chief and tossing him out of a docking bay, the ship being consumed in flames, while on the other hand, the Halo ring that Cortana had taken over has had a big chunk blown out of it, and Cortana herself is dead. We have no sense of how we got here, or what trials and tribulations it took to come to this point. Additionally, many of the supporting characters who have been introduced in past games, and played a major role in 5, like Halsey, like Spartan Jameson Locke and his team, like Captain Laskey, are missing with no information on their ultimate fate.
Advertisements
Report this ad
Halo 4 & 5 had an interesting plot, with Cortana’s rampancy and apparent demise in 4, leading to her re-appearance and change to seeming villainy in Halo 5, with the question lying on where she’d go next. Would 343 Industries use her as an analog of Durandal from the Marathon games, as a character who is revealed to ultimately be something of a manipulative antihero whose acts are planned as a long-game method of saving humanity? No – she instead does some truly villainous stuff mostly off-camera, before half-getting killed, half-committing suicide before the start of the game, with a cutscene at the end attempting provide our emotional closure.
It’s ultimately very disappointing in terms of the game’s story, and a little disappointing in terms of the game’s play. I honestly would have preferred a game that fit the archetypes of the earlier Halo titles – the introduction of 4-player co-op with AI-controlled teammates to allow for drop-in-drop-out co-op in Halo 5 was an excellent idea, and I’d hoped they were going to run with the concept here, but they didn’t, presumably because they couldn’t get the AI Spartan team-mates to work in the planned open-world environments.
It makes for a game where I want to like it more than I do. I do like the Halo series a lot, especially for its story, and what we got doesn’t quite cut it. It’s very much a bummer.
The core fundamental problem with Halo Infinite as an Open World game, compared with the other titles in the series is that the earlier titles created the illusion of being a larger open space – they did an excellent job of creating channels for the player to go into, with places where the route branches to allow for different playstyles, while having those routes come back together at similar key points along the track. On the other hand, the wide open areas in Halo Infinite’s Early game feel more directionless, in ways that also make them feel like they’d be rather frustrating to play co-op (another of the Halo series’ long-running strengths).
Bits and pieces of the game’s background are told through audiologs from various doomed groups of UNSC holdouts, along with reports from the Banished – including our only encounters, in audio, with Lasky & Halsey.
This is also all aggravated with some of the issues with the game’s story. Halo 5 wrapped on a really strong cliffhanger. Cortana had gotten a bunch of the various AIs that the UNSC had depended on for years to bond together and revolt against humanity, while also taking on the Covenant and the new faction of the Banished. By the conclusion of Halo 5, some AI, like the shipboard AI of the Infinity, were still loyal, but Humanity, and the Covenant themselves, were now on the ropes, and Cortana had taken control of a Halo Ring, and was busting out some familiar humming that would be disconcerting to long time fans of the series.
By the start of Halo Infinite, it feels like instead it’s all over but the crying. We open with the Banished storming the Infinite, beating Master Chief and tossing him out of a docking bay, the ship being consumed in flames, while on the other hand, the Halo ring that Cortana had taken over has had a big chunk blown out of it, and Cortana herself is dead. We have no sense of how we got here, or what trials and tribulations it took to come to this point. Additionally, many of the supporting characters who have been introduced in past games, and played a major role in 5, like Halsey, like Spartan Jameson Locke and his team, like Captain Laskey, are missing with no information on their ultimate fate.
Advertisements
Report this ad
Halo 4 & 5 had an interesting plot, with Cortana’s rampancy and apparent demise in 4, leading to her re-appearance and change to seeming villainy in Halo 5, with the question lying on where she’d go next. Would 343 Industries use her as an analog of Durandal from the Marathon games, as a character who is revealed to ultimately be something of a manipulative antihero whose acts are planned as a long-game method of saving humanity? No – she instead does some truly villainous stuff mostly off-camera, before half-getting killed, half-committing suicide before the start of the game, with a cutscene at the end attempting provide our emotional closure.
It’s ultimately very disappointing in terms of the game’s story, and a little disappointing in terms of the game’s play. I honestly would have preferred a game that fit the archetypes of the earlier Halo titles – the introduction of 4-player co-op with AI-controlled teammates to allow for drop-in-drop-out co-op in Halo 5 was an excellent idea, and I’d hoped they were going to run with the concept here, but they didn’t, presumably because they couldn’t get the AI Spartan team-mates to work in the planned open-world environments.
It makes for a game where I want to like it more than I do. I do like the Halo series a lot, especially for its story, and what we got doesn’t quite cut it. It’s very much a bummer.
halo came back in 2021 to suck ass but still managed to be better than valorant cmon riot games
this wasnt doodoo fart but it wasnt the best either, idk what else to say. i hate microtransactions more than anything
The most solid halo out of 343
levels were nothing special all very samey
but i did enjoy this game and i very much liked Weapon
just doesnt hold a candle to other halo games
levels were nothing special all very samey
but i did enjoy this game and i very much liked Weapon
just doesnt hold a candle to other halo games
ngl this feels like a sci-fi far cry more than halo. open world doesnt suit it tbh. campaign was okay, liked the story, multiplayer is fantastic
fun multiplayer with friends, definitely enjoy halo more on pc, though i never had it on my own consoles growing up
This is like if they took that one open level from halo ce and made it a whole game. It's a good thing cause that level was cool but it's also a bad thing cause the whole game looks the exact same. There's a grappling hook in it.
Man we are feasting with all this new content they be adding.
An improvement upon Halo 5's campaign, but still lacking compared to the high peaks of the franchise. Regardless, it was an enjoyable and solid story.
Campaign only.
Just… forgettable.
The game is okay. But I really wanted more from one of my favourite franchises.
Let me start with the good…
The core gameplay is great. There is some classic Halo to be found in moments. The guns all feel impactful and great to use, and there is a good variety to use. The grappling hook is a great addition.
And what I didn’t like about the game…
Stepping out from the initial structure of the Halo and into the open world was a great moment that filled me with excitement and anticipation for the rest of the game, but after several hours I soon found the game to be tedious. It all looks the same. There is nothing of interest in this world.
I had no desire to complete any of the extra content, to be honest. I just focussed on the campaign. But even the campaign was a little dull. Visit multiple structures, progress through what feels like the same rooms repeating themselves. Locked doors that need power seeds. Yawn. Honestly the mission where you have to visit 4 towers miles from each other just to get into another tower nearly made me drop the game.
The antagonists were interesting but the boss fights really lacked ambition.
Not a bad game by any stretch, but it’s left me really disappointed and underwhelmed.
Just… forgettable.
The game is okay. But I really wanted more from one of my favourite franchises.
Let me start with the good…
The core gameplay is great. There is some classic Halo to be found in moments. The guns all feel impactful and great to use, and there is a good variety to use. The grappling hook is a great addition.
And what I didn’t like about the game…
Stepping out from the initial structure of the Halo and into the open world was a great moment that filled me with excitement and anticipation for the rest of the game, but after several hours I soon found the game to be tedious. It all looks the same. There is nothing of interest in this world.
I had no desire to complete any of the extra content, to be honest. I just focussed on the campaign. But even the campaign was a little dull. Visit multiple structures, progress through what feels like the same rooms repeating themselves. Locked doors that need power seeds. Yawn. Honestly the mission where you have to visit 4 towers miles from each other just to get into another tower nearly made me drop the game.
The antagonists were interesting but the boss fights really lacked ambition.
Not a bad game by any stretch, but it’s left me really disappointed and underwhelmed.
Kinda fun at launch but fell off HARD
Open world yay
I played the entire campaign on legendary co-op and this might've been because we played it on the Xbox One S but there were countless times where the graphics would randomly become super polygony for both of us, probably a glitch, nothing on the PS2 has looked as bad as what we were seeing. I have a dozen recordings and screen captures of how game breaking shitty the graphics would look at times, it was almost unplayable. If you choose to release the game on the older console, it has to be optimized for it.
Open world doesn't fit here. It was a real chore traversing from mission to mission, side interests on the map just never felt interesting either and didn't provide much reward. I played this game last year, I can't remember anything from the story, like actually nothing. I do remember not enjoying it, I'm not a fan of this whole Cortana saga they decided to focus on with the 4,5,6 trilogy. Bosses are plentiful but dull, they also added health bars for some reason. Again every addition just keeps pushing this series to become more and more like a generic Ubisoft game.
The gameplay is really what carries. I enjoyed the grappling hook and often times would compete with my friend who I was playing with as to who can get in the craziest location with parkour. Playing on Legendary Co-op was easier compared to the other entries in the series, bosses were the only real challenge due to the small closed space you had to fight them in. Micro transactions aside, the multiplayer is quite fun.
Open world doesn't fit here. It was a real chore traversing from mission to mission, side interests on the map just never felt interesting either and didn't provide much reward. I played this game last year, I can't remember anything from the story, like actually nothing. I do remember not enjoying it, I'm not a fan of this whole Cortana saga they decided to focus on with the 4,5,6 trilogy. Bosses are plentiful but dull, they also added health bars for some reason. Again every addition just keeps pushing this series to become more and more like a generic Ubisoft game.
The gameplay is really what carries. I enjoyed the grappling hook and often times would compete with my friend who I was playing with as to who can get in the craziest location with parkour. Playing on Legendary Co-op was easier compared to the other entries in the series, bosses were the only real challenge due to the small closed space you had to fight them in. Micro transactions aside, the multiplayer is quite fun.
The gameplay is there, just not really anything else
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.
Reminds me of Just Cause 3 with the base recapturing. That alone made this game amazing. Story is alright, combat is really fun with the grappling hook. It's basically another Just Cause 3 and that's the only reason I like it so much.
Its such a breath of fresh air to not feel pressured and obligated to play a game. Battle passes are permanent, and you can even buy them after they've ended! Item shop cosmetics are available to buy whenever you please! Constant free rewards and gifts! Challenges aren't the most specific and frustrating chore you've ever had to take part in to complete! We just got cross-core helmets and much more. The quality of life for this game when it comes to the "FOMO" aspect is just wonderful. I don't feel like playing the game is a chore, instead its what games are supposed to be, FUN. Far too many games are just about small time frames to get something, and once it's gone, its gone forever. I love how Infinite, while yes it did and still does have its shortcomings, really lets you feel free and relaxed. I hope more games start adopting these features, even though I know they wont. Because well, money. Duh. I just hope that Infinite keeps going towards this direction and I'm looking forward to whats to come as well!
Halo Infinite had a lot of problems on launch and it took a long time for the game to get where it should have been on release. However, I genuinely had and still have a lot of fun on the multiplayer. About 2 months ago I started the campaign and I was genuinely impressed, the game looks great, the story is good, and the sandbox was amazing. I am really happy with how 343 was able to reset the story after the disappointment of Halo 5.
Fantastic gameplay, terrible rollout, bland campaign.
Story is so so, but the game is super fun and I liked collecting all the stuff.
this was dogshite icl
La razón del porque mi hermano compró una Xbox Series X, lamentablemente no vivió al hype en mi opinión. La historia es muy meh y nada memorable, el multijugador es una decepción total, solo hizo que me dieran mas ganas de regresar al 5. Ya dejen morir esta saga
I will die on the hill that the grapling hook made this game good single-handedly it is just insane how much depth it adds to the gameplay.
le solo est bien mais l'histoire n'a pas d'enjeux réel.
Le multi a du potentiel mais les modes de jeu de l'époque des grand frère commencent à s'épuiser fort.
Le multi a du potentiel mais les modes de jeu de l'époque des grand frère commencent à s'épuiser fort.