The gameplay is there, just not really anything else
The gameplay is finally in a place that can live up to Bungie-era Halo, while still feeling a bit fresh. I was absolutely thrilled to see Halo return to its original art style, and have a soundtrack that actually sounds like Halo.
However, while Halo Infinite is the best 343 release, it's still plagued with issues. The campaign feels rushed and clumsy. It feels limited in its environments and its scope. I'm happy that Infinite retcons Halo 5's story, but it all feels messy nonetheless. The Banished are led by a cringe-worthy cartoon villain, though Master Chief thankfully returns to his signature stoic style which is contrasted well against the pilot character. However the pilot character isn't as developed as I would like, and the 'Weapon' feels - again - like a clumsy solution to a problem that should have been avoided in the first place. The entire campaign feeling like its stuck in the second level from Halo: CE (but not as good) is to Infinite's detriment. The ability to select any weapon you want from outposts makes weapon management redundent, and the open world adds absolutley nothing to Halo - besides tedious and barebones side-quests.
The mulitplayer support has largely been an absolute mess to say the least, and it's emblematic of Microsoft's bizarre mismanagement of its once biggest and best franchise. 343 finally has a good thing here with some great core gameplay, but they've wasted all that potential with a bloated, messy and - at times - uninspired campaign, and a mostly neglected multiplayer that makes a mockery of when Halo was at its height in 2007.
However, while Halo Infinite is the best 343 release, it's still plagued with issues. The campaign feels rushed and clumsy. It feels limited in its environments and its scope. I'm happy that Infinite retcons Halo 5's story, but it all feels messy nonetheless. The Banished are led by a cringe-worthy cartoon villain, though Master Chief thankfully returns to his signature stoic style which is contrasted well against the pilot character. However the pilot character isn't as developed as I would like, and the 'Weapon' feels - again - like a clumsy solution to a problem that should have been avoided in the first place. The entire campaign feeling like its stuck in the second level from Halo: CE (but not as good) is to Infinite's detriment. The ability to select any weapon you want from outposts makes weapon management redundent, and the open world adds absolutley nothing to Halo - besides tedious and barebones side-quests.
The mulitplayer support has largely been an absolute mess to say the least, and it's emblematic of Microsoft's bizarre mismanagement of its once biggest and best franchise. 343 finally has a good thing here with some great core gameplay, but they've wasted all that potential with a bloated, messy and - at times - uninspired campaign, and a mostly neglected multiplayer that makes a mockery of when Halo was at its height in 2007.
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.
Truly baffling how mismanaged this project must have been. My heart goes out to any and all people who had to work on anything regarding this game. A multi-billion dollar company is incapable of giving the resources and the scope required to NOT end a half-a-decade development cycle with this bland, copy-pasted rehash. The grappling hook is goated, thank god, but even the implementation of alternative equipment sucks. They had to bring back the Halo 2 Gondola Ride, everyone's favourite masterclass in waiting for an encounter to end. This Halo sure could be infinite if they were willing to reuse the same environments a few million times more.
As of writing, I am near 250 hours in Halo Infinite.
Halo Infinite launched as a really promising new start for the Halo franchise, unfortunately it has quickly become almost entirely abandoned by the devs with releases only for new battle passes to sell more customization to players.
I really enjoyed the campaign‘s approach to a semi open world. Exploring with a warthog full of marines was a blast and I loved coming across patrols and outposts to clear. The mountain terrain with tight paths was not very well suited for the scorpion, but the other vehicles felt great in most of the spaces. The story was very interesting for new and old fans, and I would have loved to see where 343 took the next chapter, because it was seemingly meant to be picked up in a future Infinite DLC, unfortunately it seems almost all of the infinite campaign team was laid off or moved away from campaign, so it will become another 343 story thread that just gets dropped.
Multiplayer in infinite is probably the closest to classic Halo I think fans have seen in a long time. 343 did a great job of combining the new movement features from H5 with the classic feel of older Halos to make it broadly liked. The weapon sandbox feels very well tuned and I enjoy using most tools given to players. Maps are great, but 343 has heavily relied on fan-made maps in Forge to supplement most of their playlists, I do not think a non-forged, dev-made map has been released in almost a year and a half.
Forge is probably the best part of infinite. I am not a forger, but the tools that 343 have made available to players are nothing short of incredible. It is a shame that there is still no action sack playlist almost four years in, but you can still play through the customs browser if you would like.
Firefight’s silent death was a big disappointment. 343 promised it would be out soon, released firefight king of the hill, and then silently pushed back and then canceled the release of true firefight. Halo 5’s warzone firefight was at least an interesting twist on the firefight formula, KOTHFF is just spawning forge AI and making them go to a point, wave after wave.
Customization has improved in a lot of ways and gotten worse in others. 343 has slowly broken out of their core set up that came at launch and now allow shoulders, helmets, and visors to be used on any core, which is a great change. Unfortunately, so much content is locked behind paywalls that feel exploitative, which is the modern live service game landscape. The costing system was a cool idea, but it should not be a total replacement for selecting your own colors. It took over two years to have the color white, which is ridiculous. It sounds like 343 put themselves in a significant amount of tech debt in designing the customization system, and breaking out of it has been a technical challenge, which is a shame.
I think Infinite can be summed up with the unofficial motto of 343 Industries, “3 steps forward, 43 steps back.”
Halo Infinite launched as a really promising new start for the Halo franchise, unfortunately it has quickly become almost entirely abandoned by the devs with releases only for new battle passes to sell more customization to players.
I really enjoyed the campaign‘s approach to a semi open world. Exploring with a warthog full of marines was a blast and I loved coming across patrols and outposts to clear. The mountain terrain with tight paths was not very well suited for the scorpion, but the other vehicles felt great in most of the spaces. The story was very interesting for new and old fans, and I would have loved to see where 343 took the next chapter, because it was seemingly meant to be picked up in a future Infinite DLC, unfortunately it seems almost all of the infinite campaign team was laid off or moved away from campaign, so it will become another 343 story thread that just gets dropped.
Multiplayer in infinite is probably the closest to classic Halo I think fans have seen in a long time. 343 did a great job of combining the new movement features from H5 with the classic feel of older Halos to make it broadly liked. The weapon sandbox feels very well tuned and I enjoy using most tools given to players. Maps are great, but 343 has heavily relied on fan-made maps in Forge to supplement most of their playlists, I do not think a non-forged, dev-made map has been released in almost a year and a half.
Forge is probably the best part of infinite. I am not a forger, but the tools that 343 have made available to players are nothing short of incredible. It is a shame that there is still no action sack playlist almost four years in, but you can still play through the customs browser if you would like.
Firefight’s silent death was a big disappointment. 343 promised it would be out soon, released firefight king of the hill, and then silently pushed back and then canceled the release of true firefight. Halo 5’s warzone firefight was at least an interesting twist on the firefight formula, KOTHFF is just spawning forge AI and making them go to a point, wave after wave.
Customization has improved in a lot of ways and gotten worse in others. 343 has slowly broken out of their core set up that came at launch and now allow shoulders, helmets, and visors to be used on any core, which is a great change. Unfortunately, so much content is locked behind paywalls that feel exploitative, which is the modern live service game landscape. The costing system was a cool idea, but it should not be a total replacement for selecting your own colors. It took over two years to have the color white, which is ridiculous. It sounds like 343 put themselves in a significant amount of tech debt in designing the customization system, and breaking out of it has been a technical challenge, which is a shame.
I think Infinite can be summed up with the unofficial motto of 343 Industries, “3 steps forward, 43 steps back.”
It's by far the closest we've gotten with 343 to the "Good Ol Days" of halo, though the customization systems are still lacking, there is definitely long term support for it, just don't buy anything OTHER than the battle pass (season 2 onward awards enough points to get each subsequent one) and you'll basically get a good halo for 15 Bucks!
Ta wapo
this wasnt doodoo fart but it wasnt the best either, idk what else to say. i hate microtransactions more than anything