Looking back on this game close to 8 months after it launched and having time to reflect on what I played at the time and what's in the game today has vastly changed my opinions. I truly don't know what's going on over at 343 Industries other than simply believing that they have to be one of the most thoroughly mismanaged AAA studios in the industry at the moment. During the month the game launched, I fully completed everything the campaign had to offer (other than collecting all skulls, which are more deviously hidden than usual and with no mission replay, I wasn't going to bother). At the time, I had mostly positive feelings on the game and even today, if I was to recommend this game, it would solely be for its campaign. The core gunplay is outstanding and works even better in the campaign than it does in multiplayer, every weapon has a role and purpose and combined with equipment abilities being on fairly fast recharge timers, leads to a sandbox that's more open and wild than any previous Halo game before this. The grapple hook genuinely changes your moment to moment decision making and is one of the best I've seen in a shooter in the last decade, even more than Titanfall 2's.
The problem for me is that this is what I've said before on the multiplayer too, that the core gunplay is fun; it's everything else surrounding the campaign that varies wildly in quality. The story I thought initially was okay but is blatantly unfinished and rushed towards the end, and the more I look back on it the more I'm bothered with how the game handles the relationship between Master Chief and the Weapon/Cortana. It completely disregards the message and point of Halo 4, because this entire game Chief completely and utterly fails to move on after the loss of his closest relationship to somebody, and is rewarded for it which increasingly bothers me the longer time goes on and I look back on this. The Banished I'm fine with as an excuse to bring back Covenant enemies, but plot-wise the game just doesn't do anything interesting with them, and none of the antagonists are memorable solely for the fact that they only threaten you over holograms for the majority of the game and then you fight them once and win.
From an open world game design perspective, I do appreciate that Halo Infinite manages to avoid the biggest pitfalls of most other open worlds by simply just being smaller in scale. I genuinely did feel compelled to complete the "checklist" with this game because I felt like I could actually do it in a reasonable timespan and still have fun doing so because it rewarded me with more options to play around with the sandbox on my own terms (and cosmetic goodies for multiplayer). But compared to every previous Halo game before it, Infinite is the most lacking in actual visual variety by sheer light-years because the game only has three environments: green forests, Forerunner interior, and Banished interior. It feels like they took the inspiration of Halo Combat Evolved's second level way too far because it makes the actual scale of the ring world itself feel small and lifeless; previous games made them feel alien and unknown because of the plentiful different biomes and locations you would visit.
Unfinished is the word of the day with this game. The campaign is okay, but rushed and lacks the memorability of past games. The multiplayer is a mess that has had so much spoken about itself that I don't really have much more to add onto the discussion regarding it. For a "live service game," 343 Industries has managed to do so little with it that it would make Blizzard's predicament with Overwatch blush; the fact that Halo 5 managed to be a better "live service game" back in 2015/2016 astounds me because it shows that this is a studio who continually keeps failing to learn lessons. It's always one step forward, countless more back. The first several months I was upset and angry that I was lied to along with everyone else, and as time went on, it grew to just pure apathy. Whatever 343 Industries does with Infinite now, I don't care. It's all going to be too little too late. The damage has been done and the faith I once had in this series is long gone; third time was the charm, joke's on me.
The problem for me is that this is what I've said before on the multiplayer too, that the core gunplay is fun; it's everything else surrounding the campaign that varies wildly in quality. The story I thought initially was okay but is blatantly unfinished and rushed towards the end, and the more I look back on it the more I'm bothered with how the game handles the relationship between Master Chief and the Weapon/Cortana. It completely disregards the message and point of Halo 4, because this entire game Chief completely and utterly fails to move on after the loss of his closest relationship to somebody, and is rewarded for it which increasingly bothers me the longer time goes on and I look back on this. The Banished I'm fine with as an excuse to bring back Covenant enemies, but plot-wise the game just doesn't do anything interesting with them, and none of the antagonists are memorable solely for the fact that they only threaten you over holograms for the majority of the game and then you fight them once and win.
From an open world game design perspective, I do appreciate that Halo Infinite manages to avoid the biggest pitfalls of most other open worlds by simply just being smaller in scale. I genuinely did feel compelled to complete the "checklist" with this game because I felt like I could actually do it in a reasonable timespan and still have fun doing so because it rewarded me with more options to play around with the sandbox on my own terms (and cosmetic goodies for multiplayer). But compared to every previous Halo game before it, Infinite is the most lacking in actual visual variety by sheer light-years because the game only has three environments: green forests, Forerunner interior, and Banished interior. It feels like they took the inspiration of Halo Combat Evolved's second level way too far because it makes the actual scale of the ring world itself feel small and lifeless; previous games made them feel alien and unknown because of the plentiful different biomes and locations you would visit.
Unfinished is the word of the day with this game. The campaign is okay, but rushed and lacks the memorability of past games. The multiplayer is a mess that has had so much spoken about itself that I don't really have much more to add onto the discussion regarding it. For a "live service game," 343 Industries has managed to do so little with it that it would make Blizzard's predicament with Overwatch blush; the fact that Halo 5 managed to be a better "live service game" back in 2015/2016 astounds me because it shows that this is a studio who continually keeps failing to learn lessons. It's always one step forward, countless more back. The first several months I was upset and angry that I was lied to along with everyone else, and as time went on, it grew to just pure apathy. Whatever 343 Industries does with Infinite now, I don't care. It's all going to be too little too late. The damage has been done and the faith I once had in this series is long gone; third time was the charm, joke's on me.