This review is solely for the multiplayer aspect of Halo Infinite. None of what I am about to say applies to the campaign.

Let me start off this review off right with me saying that Halo Infinite is one of the worst multiplayer games I have ever played. Even for multiplayer games I do not enjoy I can at least say one or two things that I liked or at least appreciated in their design. Halo Infinite however, is so fundamentally awful that I am shocked this was released. 343 has proven that Halo is not in good hands with them and they cannot be trusted to release any good products.

Let me start off my actual criticisms by saying that Infinite is the worst balanced Halo ever created. So many aspects are just so wrong in so many ways I have to wonder just what 343 was thinking. For starters, the biggest issue with Infinite's balance is the fact that the assault rifle is overpowered. The assault rifle should never be overpowered. In every past Halo, the assault rifle was insanely easy to use and handle but was weaker than many other weapons you were given to start out (magnum, battle rifle, dmr, etc). The assault rifle could be used a spray and pray option, but it wouldn't be a very useful option like that. For example, the assault rifle was much easier to use then the dmr in Reach but the dmr was better at range and was headshot capable. Much of Halo's balance for its weapons was centered around the strongest weapons being harder to use compared to the easier weapons. So making the assault rifle in Infinite be better then 95% of weapons despite being one of the easiest weapons to use sounds like fairly horrible design, right? Infinite thinks otherwise. The assault rifle has an significantly lower spread then previous versions which containing better mid range capabilities and higher damage. This means that the assault rifle is better then most weapons in most situations, to the point I see people actually bypass weapon spawns and sometimes even power weapons so they can continue using the assault rifle. Why bother using the sidearm when the assault rifle has better damage output, faster firing speed, and is easier to use? Why bother picking up the shotgun when the assault rifle is not only great in close range, but is easier to use and has better mid range capabilities? Why bother picking up the battle rifle when I would have to work harder for my kills? The assault rifle is way easier. This is a massive issue with the balancing of the game and 343 has not addressed this at all. The assault rifle completely invalidates most of the weapons.

Thats not all for balance, however. The sniper received massive nerfs from previous games. The sniper was always a high skill, high reward weapon that could completely control the match if used by a competent player. It was a one-shot headshot but it has a decent rate of fire to where if you hit them in the body you could quickly fire off a second to secure the kill. It was hard to aim at enemies close range with it, but if you were skilled enough with your aim you could hit enemies close range with it. It rewarded high skill and was always one of the most satisfying weapons to use in an FPS. Infinite disagrees with past versions and nerfed the sniper. Its rate of fire was drastically decreased. This coupled with the added movement options and abilities makes it much harder to hit enemies before they can get to cover. 343 also thought it was a very bright idea to add bloom to the weapon when out of scope. This means you can actually miss a headshot close range with the sniper out of zoom, even if you actually put your crosshair on their head and fire. 343 decided it was a good idea to nerf one of the most high skill yet satisfying weapon in multiplayer FPS for quite reasons I do not even understand.

There are many more issues with the balancing but to not go into painfully long detail you get my point. However, I am not done yet. Not even close. Another massive issue with the game is the desync. It is the worst desync I have ever seen in a multiplayer game. There will be times where I am fighting an enemy, I melee them, they die, and then half a second later I die because the desync caught up and added the enemies' melee which wasn't even shown on my screen. There will be times I will shoot an enemy, they go into cover, I stop shooting, but then I get the kill. And it isn't lag as I am put into games with people who are around the same area as I am. It is an issue with the desync and it needs to be addressed asap.

I can try my best to put up with desync and bad balance, but something I refuse to tolerate with is the game modes. Why in the absolute FUCK am I forced to play game modes I don't want to play in Quick play? Why can I not choose the game modes I want to play? It is such a basic feature that has been in multiplayer FPS since multiplayer FPS was a thing, yet we cannot do it here. I don't want to play Oddball with random people since they cannot communicate well with me. When I'm playing solo I just want to play Slayer, but I am forced into game modes I do not want to play. On top of this, game modes are in a rotating meaning that eventually, 343 will remove that game mode from the game. You can no longer play Swat in Infinite until they decide to add it back in. This is completely unforgivable. It is a bullshit way to arbitrarily create demand for certain game modes. "If you wanna play Swat you better do it soon or we will take it away." Fuck off 343. Their reason for not allowing you to choose what game modes you want to play is because "the engine ui won't allow us to do that." This is a lie. This is only done to lower wait times. I refuse to believe that 343 is so incompetent that they literally made the Slipspace engine but don't know how to code in extra ui boxes. Actually, I take that back. I think it is a perfectly reasonable thing to assume considering 343's current track record.

Halo Infinite also has a massive lack of content. There are only 10 maps, which is less than what Halo 3 released with back in 2007 on the fucking 360. There is also a lack of game modes, which was stated above. So that means you can do everything there is to do in Infinite's multiplayer in about two hours. I believe that if a game has good enough gameplay that it can suffice with having less content, but Infinite has shit gameplay and no fucking content. There is also no forge, custom game lobbies, coop campaign, splitscreen, or firefight. 343 has stated we will get new maps, game modes, and features coming soon but they have not given an exact time or date. They have gone as far as to say that some features which Halo used to launch with will be available in Season 4, which is likely to be AN ENTIRE YEAR FROM NOW. "B-b-b-but the game will get this content eventually!" The game that I have stinking up my steam library right now does not have the content that it will have years from now. I am in the present and the game we have in the present has no fucking content.

The next section to end up this hate filled review will just be a lot of bullet points because I can't be damned to actually write more for this travesty.

• The needler is wildly inconsistent. Sometimes it is Reach levels of good, other times it doesn't even lock on
• 343's way of combating cheaters is to just remove red reticle from the PC version of the game. This also affects campaign. I should not have to explain why this is retarded and doesn't actually fix anything
• There is no planned split screen multiplayer and the campaign will only have two player splitscreen, even though the campaign is planned to have four players online. This is just lazy developing
• MCC had this issue as well but Infinite brings it to another level. Aim assist is so strong that mouse users just simply cannot compete. It is especially worse in Infinite
• All of the maps are three-lane slogfests that lack any creative design or fun gameplay elements. Say what you will about CE's multiplayer but at least every map was unique and varied. There isn't even fucking teleporters in Infinite
• For a free to play game, it sure does have the absolute worst designed cosmetic system of all time
• One Flag CTF on Launch is one of the worst designed things I think I have ever seen. I have never seen someone actually score on the map before
• Oddball is not suited for any of the boring maps as there are very obvious god tier camping spots and areas you can easily throw the Oddball out of bounds to reset it's position
• Many weapons like the Pulse Carbine and the Commando are genuinely useless even if you don't bring up the assault rifle
• Theater just straight up doesn't work properly
• Some bug fixes are awaiting fucking RELEASE DATES FOR WHEN THEY WILL WORK ON THEM
• 343 lied when they said the PC version of Infinite would be well optimized. It was not
• A common complaint with the game is that using scroll wheel to change weapons sucks. 343 is "currently looking into the matter" when all they have to do is make it to where using the scroll wheel once, no matter how long you spin it, will only cycle to the next weapon and if you want to cycle to the next one you simple just start spinning the scroll wheel again
• The Xbox One version is basically unplayable
• The outline system is terrible and there are times I genuinely cannot tell who is or isn't a teammate or enemy. It was definitely worth fucking over Red vs Blue in order to sell armor colors because that isn't greedy as shit apparently
• The menu's are somehow too confusing and are a mess to navigate and find what you are looking for
• The game required me to change my virtual memory in order to not have to wait 5 minutes to load a match with bots
• The game loves to lock up and crash, making me alt f4 frequently
• Overshield is busted and they are continue to buff it even more
• The mangler with its one shot and then melee was kinda OP so instead of nerfing the mangler, 343 intends to nerf ALL MELEE ATTACKS in Season 2 because that is incredibly smart design
• 343 wanted to find a middle ground between sprint and no sprint so they nerfed sprint hard but still kept it to where it "pleases" both sides of the argument. However, I think nerfing a mechanic to where it isn't noticeable instead of just removing it or improving is just straight up bad game design
• The HUD in the game makes you scroll to each grenade type to see if you have it and how many instead of just showing you it always like Halo 3

I could probably go on but it is 4 am and I just hate this game too much to proof read and fix spelling errors. Suck my nads 343

GG Aleste 3 stands tall as an exceedingly great shoot em up that excels at everything it set out to do. The game was created as an extra in the Aleste collection to pay homage to the series and in doing so M2 created not only the best game in the series but also one of the best games in the genre.

The thing that sets GG Aleste 3 out above the rest of the endless crowd of shoot em ups is its power up system. There are three types of power ups, those that give you a new sub weapon, those that increase your sub weapon level, and those that level up your ship with additional shields and faster firing. Powerups plays a key role in GG Aleste 3's superb combat. Each sub weapon has its own unique advantages and disadvantages that will have you carefully picking each one for the appropriate situation. The D powerup gives you a rotating shield that blocks flashing enemy bullets, the C powerup gives you homing bullets, the R powerup gives you a side laser that will destroy certain projectiles as well as doing massive damage, etc. On top of this, all powerups will have a case around them which will need to be shot to have them become collectable. This is important because the sub weapon powerup slowly goes through each of the sub weapon types as it falls down the screen when the case is broken. On top of that each time you break a sub weapon case it will rotate to the one after that. So a case which contains the C powerup first will change from the C powerup to the D powerup, and then to the F powerup and so on. However, the next time you break another sub weapon case it will go to the next sub weapon after that, regardless if it was the last sub weapon on screen before it disappeared. So the next time you break a sub weapon case after a C capsule, it will make it a D capsule and continue down the line. Keeping track of the sub weapon cases and what they will spawn next is a crucial part of GG Aleste 3's combat.

Another aspect of the powerup system is that powerups will always give you a second of invulnerability when collected. That means you can use powerups to get i-frames to help you dodge attacks. You can stack these powerups together, collecting one after another to get a string of invulnerability that allows you to get some serious damage on any enemy you are targeting. The powerup system is nothing new in the Aleste series but it has been refined and perfected in GG Aleste 3 that it makes returning to older titles much harder.

GG Aleste 3 is not special just because of its powerup system however, the other aspects of the gameplay shine through. The game's level, enemy, and boss design are about as top notch as a shoot em up can get. Most bosses have very reactable attacks and projectiles meaning it becomes less of a chore to learn boss patterns all the while feeling fairer. On top of that, the game is a shoot em up but not a bullet hell, meaning that the game doesn't flood the screen with bullets that you much dodge with such precision that it can become tedious at times. GG Aleste 3's design is that of an old school shooter with minimal bullshit (at least for most of the time).

Despite its amazing gameplay however, GG Aleste 3 does suffer from some issues. The game is impressive in that they managed to fit such a technically advanced game onto a Game Gear in 2020. However, the visuals are that usual shoot em up aesthetic which get old the further you go through the genre. I appreciate any shoot em up that isn't trying so desperately hard to look like a Gundam ripoff and instead going for its own artstyle. GG Aleste 3 remains true to the original series artstyle, but that is not a good thing as the art direction is exceedingly bland. The soundtrack, while good and gets the job done, is not one which I can remember a single song to. The Aleste series had some good music but it was never something that excels and the same holds true for GG Aleste 3.

While it isn't an issue with the GG Aleste 3 itself, an issue with the game overall is it is a console only game that is only in Japanese. That means you are either going to need to import the game, which I did do but it was not cheap to do so, or make a Japanese Nintendo Switch or PSN account to purchase the game. This greatly hurts the exposure that the game will get as it can be a hard sell to ask someone to buy an $80 Switch collection. The menu's are also in all Japanese which means navigating them is a complete chore. I had to spend a solid 10 minutes when I got the game finding out where to turn off game slowdown in the menu's. This makes the game a very hard sell to people, despite me wanting to recommend them the game.

In conclusion, GG Aleste 3 is a truly fantastic gem that excels in a genre full of excellent games. Its powerup system mixed with its fantastic level, enemy, and boss design make it possibly my favorite out of any shoot em up game. While it's bland aesthetics, forgettable music, and Japanese only release hurt the game, it still shines through as a landmark game and the best in the long running Aleste series.