First I want to point out, this is not a review for the campaign since I didn't play the campaign. I installed the game and only played online matchmaking/local multiplayer and wanted to review my experience separate from the campaign experience.
I grew up playing Halo 3 like many other 90's kids, and I had a huge appreciation for the Halo IP. I however was part of the group of people that split off to be a Gears of War fan, so while I dabbled in Halo here and there over the years, Halo 3 was where 95% of my time went into the series. I recently had a hankering for a new shooter to play when I had some time to kill and had heard that Halo Infinite was doing just about everything right. While the game launched in a bad state, the game had gotten a ton of support that was making the playerbase very happy. While the playerbase was a far cry from what Halo used to be in it's hayday, the numbers were slowly but steadily climbing. I had also gotten wind of what the team was doing with the battle pass, finally someone besides Fortnite that had a BP that actually seemed to be doing stuff that was beneficial for the consumer in some way. I already had Gamepass so there was no reason to not give it a try.
I expected some growing pains as I had not played Halo for more than a day in about 15 years, so my first day went about as expected. Migrating from controller to M&K when I got my first PC was a rough experience I never wanted to go through again, but having to fight the muscle memory I had for this game brought that pain all over again. It's so frustrating to know I had full absolute control of my character in the past but now I felt like such an old man. I would try to switch my grenade and then throw one in quick succession but would get the buttons backwards, or completely forget the keybinds. As frustrating as all this was, this was just a me problem. Plenty of games have a ton of keybinds and it was just gonna take time to overcome the muscle memory I had built over hundreds of hours, that's not the game's fault.
However what is the game's fault is the game's feel, and maybe I'm just crazy but I don't remember the game feeling so, floaty? I know that Halo was somewhat floaty, but it never felt quite this extreme? I think part of it comes from the addition to clean movement options that were added over the years (mantling ledges, sliding, etc.) that make the disparity seem so extreme. You have these quick, fine tuned movement options and then you have this SLOW floaty jump and movement system that just don't mix. It makes the slow parts seem so much slower and it doesn't feel good.
Another really bad change I've noticed is the weapon systems. Not only have they seemed to go full in on the weird naming conventions for weapons. It's not the Shotgun or even Combat shotgun, but it's the "CQS48 Bulldog." It's not that Assault Rifle, it's the "MA40 AR." It's not the Commando, it's the "VK78 Commando." It's not the pistol, it's the "MK50 Sidekick." This may seem nit picky, but it's a really rough learning curve. If I want to test a weapon in training mode I have no freaking clue which some weapons are to even pick them out to practice them. I absolutely don't know how the weapons look when slotted in a wall so name is the one universal way to remember them, but these arbitrary numbers and letters just complicate the process. If I wanted to play a simulation shooter or a hyper realistic FPS, I'd play Tarkov. I want to play a high pace, tense PvP shooter and for that I want quick and immediate visual & textual clarity.
I realized that while I put about 5 hours into the game, it just wasn't getting any more fun. The gameplay was way too floaty for me, the minor details were making it difficult for me to just come to grasps with the game, and my matchmaking experience was horribly inconsistent. It's probably a combination of the fact my account was new and didn't know where to place me, the playerbase isn't plentiful enough to give consistent balanced matches, and the time that I played exacerbated that issue even more. Sadly all but one match I played was insanely one sided. I decided to throw in the towel and came to the conclusion Halo just doesn't offer anything to me I want. While I acknowledge part of it is just me needing to adjust to the changes that have naturally occurred over time, there's also a lot of the game that just doesn't feel good at all.
I grew up playing Halo 3 like many other 90's kids, and I had a huge appreciation for the Halo IP. I however was part of the group of people that split off to be a Gears of War fan, so while I dabbled in Halo here and there over the years, Halo 3 was where 95% of my time went into the series. I recently had a hankering for a new shooter to play when I had some time to kill and had heard that Halo Infinite was doing just about everything right. While the game launched in a bad state, the game had gotten a ton of support that was making the playerbase very happy. While the playerbase was a far cry from what Halo used to be in it's hayday, the numbers were slowly but steadily climbing. I had also gotten wind of what the team was doing with the battle pass, finally someone besides Fortnite that had a BP that actually seemed to be doing stuff that was beneficial for the consumer in some way. I already had Gamepass so there was no reason to not give it a try.
I expected some growing pains as I had not played Halo for more than a day in about 15 years, so my first day went about as expected. Migrating from controller to M&K when I got my first PC was a rough experience I never wanted to go through again, but having to fight the muscle memory I had for this game brought that pain all over again. It's so frustrating to know I had full absolute control of my character in the past but now I felt like such an old man. I would try to switch my grenade and then throw one in quick succession but would get the buttons backwards, or completely forget the keybinds. As frustrating as all this was, this was just a me problem. Plenty of games have a ton of keybinds and it was just gonna take time to overcome the muscle memory I had built over hundreds of hours, that's not the game's fault.
However what is the game's fault is the game's feel, and maybe I'm just crazy but I don't remember the game feeling so, floaty? I know that Halo was somewhat floaty, but it never felt quite this extreme? I think part of it comes from the addition to clean movement options that were added over the years (mantling ledges, sliding, etc.) that make the disparity seem so extreme. You have these quick, fine tuned movement options and then you have this SLOW floaty jump and movement system that just don't mix. It makes the slow parts seem so much slower and it doesn't feel good.
Another really bad change I've noticed is the weapon systems. Not only have they seemed to go full in on the weird naming conventions for weapons. It's not the Shotgun or even Combat shotgun, but it's the "CQS48 Bulldog." It's not that Assault Rifle, it's the "MA40 AR." It's not the Commando, it's the "VK78 Commando." It's not the pistol, it's the "MK50 Sidekick." This may seem nit picky, but it's a really rough learning curve. If I want to test a weapon in training mode I have no freaking clue which some weapons are to even pick them out to practice them. I absolutely don't know how the weapons look when slotted in a wall so name is the one universal way to remember them, but these arbitrary numbers and letters just complicate the process. If I wanted to play a simulation shooter or a hyper realistic FPS, I'd play Tarkov. I want to play a high pace, tense PvP shooter and for that I want quick and immediate visual & textual clarity.
I realized that while I put about 5 hours into the game, it just wasn't getting any more fun. The gameplay was way too floaty for me, the minor details were making it difficult for me to just come to grasps with the game, and my matchmaking experience was horribly inconsistent. It's probably a combination of the fact my account was new and didn't know where to place me, the playerbase isn't plentiful enough to give consistent balanced matches, and the time that I played exacerbated that issue even more. Sadly all but one match I played was insanely one sided. I decided to throw in the towel and came to the conclusion Halo just doesn't offer anything to me I want. While I acknowledge part of it is just me needing to adjust to the changes that have naturally occurred over time, there's also a lot of the game that just doesn't feel good at all.