The following is a review of Halo Infinite around the campaign's launch.
Campaign: They knocked it out of the park. 343 finally gave us a Halo game that understands what made the OG trilogy great, with open environments, familiar enemy types (NO MORE PROMETHEANS!), and a Chief that is more of a symbol of hope rather than a rogue spartan. This is what Halo should be. The open-world didn't have a whole lot of empty space, with there always being a band of Banished enemies around the corner in between points of interest. The grappling hook made traversal and combat way more unique too. The story and characters are great, with Chief, Weapon, and Echo-216 having some great interactions and moments to shine. The villains are menacing and actually raise the stakes. Escharum might be my favorite villain in the franchise. The audio logs help fill in the gap between Halo 5 and this game, with its own set of interesting revelations to reveal. My only complaints are with the new monitor we meet being a really stupid character and the Cortana stuff not being handled in the best way. Other than that, I had a blast grinding out the campaign, and I cannot wait to see where the story goes next.
Multiplayer: This might mechanically be the best FPS multiplayer in the industry. Some of the best movement, gunplay, balancing, and gameplay variety I've seen in a while. The maps are all great and so is the ranked playlist. Modes like Fiesta also keep the game going. The problem? It's not a lot of content, despite it all being quality. There aren't a lot of Big Team Battle maps right now, and with this game being touted as a live service, I really hope future updates can help sustain this game's playerbase, because it is really not a lot right now.
Overall, I think 343 delivered, but only time will tell whether they can keep the game alive.
Campaign: They knocked it out of the park. 343 finally gave us a Halo game that understands what made the OG trilogy great, with open environments, familiar enemy types (NO MORE PROMETHEANS!), and a Chief that is more of a symbol of hope rather than a rogue spartan. This is what Halo should be. The open-world didn't have a whole lot of empty space, with there always being a band of Banished enemies around the corner in between points of interest. The grappling hook made traversal and combat way more unique too. The story and characters are great, with Chief, Weapon, and Echo-216 having some great interactions and moments to shine. The villains are menacing and actually raise the stakes. Escharum might be my favorite villain in the franchise. The audio logs help fill in the gap between Halo 5 and this game, with its own set of interesting revelations to reveal. My only complaints are with the new monitor we meet being a really stupid character and the Cortana stuff not being handled in the best way. Other than that, I had a blast grinding out the campaign, and I cannot wait to see where the story goes next.
Multiplayer: This might mechanically be the best FPS multiplayer in the industry. Some of the best movement, gunplay, balancing, and gameplay variety I've seen in a while. The maps are all great and so is the ranked playlist. Modes like Fiesta also keep the game going. The problem? It's not a lot of content, despite it all being quality. There aren't a lot of Big Team Battle maps right now, and with this game being touted as a live service, I really hope future updates can help sustain this game's playerbase, because it is really not a lot right now.
Overall, I think 343 delivered, but only time will tell whether they can keep the game alive.