"Not at Launch" is this game's mantra, and it's a real shame. The base game is entirely solid, and most of the issues surrounding Infinite's F2P multiplayer - Egregious MTX that are more "Macro" than "Micro" in pricing, weird weapon nerfs from the pre-release flights, and needlessly restrictive armor customization really leave an ugly mark on an otherwise excellent package. Once again a barebones MP launch after Halo 5's non-existent suite of game modes and community features even after a 1-Year delay is... Baffling.

Coming off of the promising sounding promo materials regarding monetization and customization as well, the trend continues - If a 343i Halo game sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.

Halo Infinite wears its Combat Evolved inspiration on its sleeve, but feels more like a "greatest hits" of the entire franchise, with surprising deep cuts from all over.

Halo Infinite's open world section takes a little bit to get going and is slow to convince the audience of it's value, but I'm not sure that value is really better off than a traditional linear level progression with unique set pieces. Liberating FOBs and taking out High Value Targets is alright busy work, but the campaign's natural story progression seldom encourages you to go out of your way to do them, and the majority of them are only really worth playing because, well, it's more Halo.

Infinite's best combat encounters are hands down the linear Forerunner dungeons - Some excellently satisfying combat design here is unfortunately squandered however, as the game's structure strips each of these more higher quality combat encounters of an identity they might have had in a more traditional Halo title, with tightly planned out vehicle sections, scripted set-pieces, and brilliant musical queues; Some of the combat in Infinite is the best it's been in the franchise, but upon reminiscing over it, I simply couldn't tell you what level it was a part of, or even distinguish between the levels at all.

The game's open combat is fine, but lacks the luxury of refinement given how open ended those scenarios are. Disappointingly, many enemy classes and bosses detract from the core combat loop by becoming damage sponges, that don't react very interestingly to taking damage, while others seem to only be able to take as much damage as their vanilla versions - It's inconsistent, and not very satisfying. It's true that Halo Infinite has the best boss fights of the entire franchise, but that's a notably low bar to clear.

Music is very high quality, if not the most bombastic or striking. The narrative is mostly pretty thin, offering a B plot that lore savvy fans will enjoy, and an A plot, that while well performed and decently written, doesn't satisfy as much as it could.

Halo Infinite is 343's best Halo to date when considered from all angles, but doesn't quite reach the highs of the original trilogy, or perhaps even the very highest of highs from the other titles, but it is, if nothing else, very solid.

Also it's not Halo 5 so that's a win lol

An RPG with an excellent sense of vision. Combat holds up alright so long as you can stomach XCOM style hit probabilities. The open-ended structure of the game is very enticing, but maybe a bit too extreme for its own good; While accidentally skipping over large portions of the game or completing tasks "out of order" feels rewarding in its own way, the lack of any useful quest journal or in-game tutorials and tool-tips for how to do anything makes owning the manual or using an online guide a necessity in the modern day.