Halo Infinite feels like a game where Microsoft and 343 are making a conscious effort to bringing the franchise back to an identity that fans are familiar with, while moving things forward in a way that keep things fresh.
The gunplay feels solid, with weapons feeling quite distinct from one another. The open nature of Zeta Halo feels like you have room to experiment around with how you want to tackle different combat. The enemy AI feels smart in a way that makes sense and the friendly AI marines can hold their own in combat effectively, at least on heroic difficulty.
Aside from the open world design Halo Infinite decided to incorporate for the first time, the big new mechanic the game has included is the grapple hook. I was somewhat weary when the grapple hook was first shown off in previews until I got to play around with it myself. The grapple hook makes traversing around the open world so much fun, allowing you to zip distances quickly and traverse the steepest of cliff faces with relative ease. The grapple hook can be very handy in combat by smashing yourself into enemies.
The presentation of Halo Infinite is top notch. Jen Taylor’s performance made me want to keep pressing forward through the story to see how the relationship of her character, The Weapon, with the stoic Master Chief played out over the course of the game.
There are a few notable drawbacks that the game does have. The story hooks that were setup in Halo 5: Guardians were binned off (for better or worse), most likely due to negative feedback from fans. It felt that there was little to no connecting story tissue between the events of this game and Halo 5: Guardians, so I was unclear on what led up to the events of Halo Infinite. The origins of The Banished are left unexplained to players, unless they had played Halo Wars 2, and the events that led up to the opening cutscene will likely leave many players scratching their heads with confusion. Much of the story is focused on the events that happened prior to Infinite, instead of the here and now with Chief and The Weapon.
While the open outdoor areas of Zeta Halo had various green lands and barren cliff faces to zip about with the grapple shot, the indoor areas that were played during the story mission were a different matter. The Forerunner corridors all had the same cold, metallic-grey look and feel to them. It would be nice to have some more visual variety those levels, but I suspect this is another result of the turbulent development process the game went through.
Co-op online was a mixed bag. While I had fun messing about in the open world with my friend, as well as coming up with different tactics to defeat the tougher bosses, the linear levels didn't feel like they were designed with co-op in mind. Firing your weapon and the hit being registered by an enemy had a noticeable delay. The most frequent bug was the game not registering the equipment that I wanted to switch to, which always seemed to happen in the middle of a firefight. The only resolution was to ask my friend to kill me to death, which he happily obliged. Thanks, Aaron.
Overall, I had a fun time playing through Halo Infinite. The game takes a good step of trying to win back the fans of the 21-year-old franchise by looking back at what made the Halo franchise so fun to play in first place. If Microsoft and 343 continue to make this upward trend for the Halo franchise, at least with the single player campaign, I look forward to seeing what they have next instore for us in the future.
Three word review: Not Evolved Enough
The gunplay feels solid, with weapons feeling quite distinct from one another. The open nature of Zeta Halo feels like you have room to experiment around with how you want to tackle different combat. The enemy AI feels smart in a way that makes sense and the friendly AI marines can hold their own in combat effectively, at least on heroic difficulty.
Aside from the open world design Halo Infinite decided to incorporate for the first time, the big new mechanic the game has included is the grapple hook. I was somewhat weary when the grapple hook was first shown off in previews until I got to play around with it myself. The grapple hook makes traversing around the open world so much fun, allowing you to zip distances quickly and traverse the steepest of cliff faces with relative ease. The grapple hook can be very handy in combat by smashing yourself into enemies.
The presentation of Halo Infinite is top notch. Jen Taylor’s performance made me want to keep pressing forward through the story to see how the relationship of her character, The Weapon, with the stoic Master Chief played out over the course of the game.
There are a few notable drawbacks that the game does have. The story hooks that were setup in Halo 5: Guardians were binned off (for better or worse), most likely due to negative feedback from fans. It felt that there was little to no connecting story tissue between the events of this game and Halo 5: Guardians, so I was unclear on what led up to the events of Halo Infinite. The origins of The Banished are left unexplained to players, unless they had played Halo Wars 2, and the events that led up to the opening cutscene will likely leave many players scratching their heads with confusion. Much of the story is focused on the events that happened prior to Infinite, instead of the here and now with Chief and The Weapon.
While the open outdoor areas of Zeta Halo had various green lands and barren cliff faces to zip about with the grapple shot, the indoor areas that were played during the story mission were a different matter. The Forerunner corridors all had the same cold, metallic-grey look and feel to them. It would be nice to have some more visual variety those levels, but I suspect this is another result of the turbulent development process the game went through.
Co-op online was a mixed bag. While I had fun messing about in the open world with my friend, as well as coming up with different tactics to defeat the tougher bosses, the linear levels didn't feel like they were designed with co-op in mind. Firing your weapon and the hit being registered by an enemy had a noticeable delay. The most frequent bug was the game not registering the equipment that I wanted to switch to, which always seemed to happen in the middle of a firefight. The only resolution was to ask my friend to kill me to death, which he happily obliged. Thanks, Aaron.
Overall, I had a fun time playing through Halo Infinite. The game takes a good step of trying to win back the fans of the 21-year-old franchise by looking back at what made the Halo franchise so fun to play in first place. If Microsoft and 343 continue to make this upward trend for the Halo franchise, at least with the single player campaign, I look forward to seeing what they have next instore for us in the future.
Three word review: Not Evolved Enough