I think the general lack of true branching paths is ultimately fine, as the far more experientially important aspect of the game is the complete lack of an obvious right choice in almost every scenario. Looking at this as a choose-your-own-adventure is almost a little misleading, it's more of an exercise in making tough choices and hoping for the best in the face of increasingly dire situations. A lot of the same things happen regardless of your choice, but it's the WAY those things happen (and how they affect the cast emotionally) that you can influence, and that's what makes this game really shine so much. I had a great time, but wouldn't play it again for that same reason. Took a star off for clunky gameplay.

I really do not understand any of the prevailing criticisms this received at release. The vast majority of the story critiques are bad faith media illiteracy, and the more niche gameplay criticisms I remember hearing about just don't hold up to my experience (it's worth noting that I played this on the normal difficulty and that I played extremely aggressively, which I think both fits the tone of the story and the strengths of the gameplay systems the best. On high difficulty modes I think this could be quite frustrating).
I found this to be excellently paced with several arresting set pieces and a very nice mid-game gameplay switch up to go along with the change in perspective. The story feels entirely earned and consistently makes the most interesting choice, which is the best praise I feel a story can get.

I do have one complaint, but it's a heavy late game spoiler so be warned:
I REALLY wish the Rattlers didn't exist. They have no meaningful bearing on the story and are entirely disposable enemies to give the last act someone to fight. I think if Naughty Dog wanted to get Abby into the position Ellie finds her in at their final showdown they really could've found numerous better ways to do so, and if the final act needed disposable enemies to fight they should've just doubled down on the infected since they kinda already serve that function throughout the game. This game has such a thematically intertwined world and introducing an unambiguously evil faction of faceless goons to be slaughtered in the final two hours of the narrative feels like the only glaring misstep in a game otherwise strong.

This is an incredible experience. I phrase it that way because while I think there are a select few legitimate complaints to make about the game, these are only really relevant on a second playthrough. If you want a phenomenal and often jaw dropping 45-50 hour experience, this WILL deliver.

The combat just feels so good to play, like a character-action dark souls. The story was surprisingly compelling and I was genuinely immersed and even occasionally moved by the events and performances. Clive might have gruff protagonist voice but he's not written that way, he's shockingly compelling and so are most of the supporting cast. There's a ton of charm on display here, and some of the most jaw dropping boss fights I've ever played. I think this game begs to be completed fully on your first playthrough (ie most of the side content is borderline essential to the story and you'll want to do it).

For those criticisms I mentioned, the only one I think is valid is that there is a lack of build variety. You can craft better swords and armor but you just pick the one with the highest numbers, and your build is just which combo of six (nine, technically) abilities do you like best. BUT given how fun this game is to play and how you are getting new abilities to try out and integrate right up until the end, I feel like this can only be a knock against the game on a replay (after you've already got those 40-50 great hours out of it).

TLDR: a fantastic game to play once, but that once will be a very solid length of time.

This is a classic case of "The first one would be better if this one didn't play so much better". Every addition made to the formula here is good, I especially loved the blaster. The world is fun to explore, the combat engaging, the story intriguing. But honestly I'd rather have had a more linear game with a more expansive and bombastic story. This isn't dark souls with wallrunning, it's a star wars game. It's at its best when you're having engaging sword duels, digging into the plot, traversing the galaxy. I had fun exploring the world, I really did, but I just would've rather seen it go another way.
Bottom line, I had fun. I got all the collectibles I cared to and customized everything in a way I liked, defeated most of the bosses (including the spawn of Oggdo, oof), and then finished the story for a nice sense of completion. For that, it was a good experience.

I wish I could've done the bounty hunting missions but my game bugged out and never unlocked those (vendor won't speak to me, bounty tab in journal just says "undiscovered". So beware, the game is still rather buggy.

I skipped this dlc (and only this one) on my first playthrough of this game when I heard it was bad. Now, all these years later, I figured I'd try it since I had it in the GOTY collection and wow, it's bad. Super unfun, bad enemy variety mixed with clunky weapons even by F3 standards, the only redeeming factor is how quick it's over. Maybe if you received an unlimited supply of the alien repair gel at the end then there would be some incentive to play this, in fact I expected that. But no, you really don't get anything of any value.

Absolutely amazing. A perfect showcase as to why games SHOULDN'T have dialogue skills: talking my way through all the conflicts in this game required actual thought at every turn and the final "boss" requires you to make callbacks to multiple other optional conversations in a truly brilliant moment of design. Absolutely deserved its nomination for best writing, and the opening's "Karen" dialogue option is one of the best brick jokes I've seen because while it seems incredibly stupid on the surface there is a punchline coming and the game doesn't even deliver it to you, you have to figure it out and laugh at it yourself. That's how much confidence is on display here.
Half a star off because while there is very little combat, the little that does exist is incredibly janky. But also you can get a legitimate ending in the first ten minutes if you realize you should just shoot a certain character in the face, and that alone makes the bad combat system worth it.
Also reminded me how much I love history, and that was great too.

Very hard to review. I'm a massive fan of this series, like a dweeb-level fan, so to see anything close to a return to form after the disaster of Halo 5 is very exciting to me. This game plays AMAZINGLY, the actual gunplay and the balancing of the sandbox is some of the best it's ever been, and I want to applaud 343 for cutting the weapon list down so hard because (mostly) everything feels relevant again.
That being said, the mission design is totally barren. The open world is fine, it's fun honestly, but at what cost? The second mission of the original Halo seems to have served as the main inspiration for this entire game, yet it was the least memorable mission from a level design perspective of the original. Where are the big moments? The set pieces only Halo can do? Where is the warthog run? The scarab battle? The space dogfight? This game is 100% small scale gunfights from beginning to end, and that is such a disappointment.
On the story side, I dunno. This is better than most of what 343 has done (Cortana's death arc in Halo 4 is their best work, though the rest of that game missed hard), but the tone just doesn't match the perfect balance of wonder and grimness that Bungie nailed time and again. Overall I liked this game. I even grew to somewhat like the new characters and Chief, the ONLY returning character truly, was done well but still felt a little wrong. Infinite just falls so short of the legendary status of this franchise that I can't help but be disappointed.
I'm really hoping they add new campaigns to this game (given the lifespan they want it to have) and turn this from a disappointing entry into simply the first act of a great Halo experience. The bones are there.