The more I think about it, the more an idea of an open ended Halo game just makes a lot more sense. The campaigns had open aspects or sandbox inspired design in them to some extent, but until now it never feels as if they wanted to truly take off with that idea. And yet even as someone who isn't a huge fan of open world games (unless they're done just right that is), I'm happy to say that the campaign of Halo Infinite was quite a pleasant surprise, though not without a few caveats.
Quick detour to talk about the story real quick though, I actually really like it. While the main "big mysterious alien bad guy" is just kind of an afterthought, the Banished I thought were great threats, the writing acting and characterization were top notch, especially for chief and the pilot, and the fact that this game was able to give Cortana a true proper send off after the mess of a story that was Halo 5 is truly commendable.
The big draw of Halo Infinite is allowing you to explore the surface (or at least part of it, the thing is broken after all) of Zeta Halo in a vast open world, and honestly it's a ton of fun. Even despite not having a ton of varied environments and repeated side mission structures (enemy base assaults for instance), the freedom is immense, there are a lot of fun secrets to uncover including the spartan cores that upgrade your power equipment, and thankfully your traversal abilities are a blast to use. The Grapple shot I think does more for the game than most would realize, it not only makes traversal around the open world a ton of fun but it also expands combat in a ton of ways.
I already stated in my Infinite multiplayer review that this game has by far the best combat the series has seen to date. It's incredibly fast paced, satisfying, fluid and offers a ton of variety with the weapons and vehicles you discover, and the grapple shot further accentuates this factor. You can hijack any vehicles with ease, go straight to an enemy and stun them, go instantly to high ground to deal with annoying sniper jackals, bring faraway weapons like guns or explosive canisters directly to your position, you can grapple the ground to gain a ton of speed and get to cover (especially combined with the slide, you get a huge amount of distance), if you upgrade it enough you can deliver a huge melee blow that deals huge area damage, it makes even repeated combat arenas feel fresh in their own way. There are other power items you can equip chief, such as the threat sensor, drop wall and thruster, and while these abilities were useful and I ended up using them against high priority target missions and bosses, the grapple shot basically never left my equipment slot.
Speaking of bosses though, dear lord these bosses are spectacular, easily the best bosses in the entire series, and while you could argue that's not saying much considering the bosses of previous Halo campaigns weren't...good, there feels like a genuine effort to make them engaging and fun to go up against. They can definitely end up being borderline frustrating at times don't get me wrong, but especially towards the end, these bosses end up getting better and better as the game goes on.
Visually this game looks super pretty, I know this game has been in a form of development hell for a while, especially with the delay, but I'd say the end result, while not perfect, is still very breathtaking to look at. The music though, WOW, apparently this is Gareth Coker's first contribution to working with the Halo series if I'm not mistaken and he absolutely knocked it out of the park on his first go, this soundtrack is nothing short of incredible.
All in all I genuinely had a lot of fun with Halo Infinite despite not knowing what to expect going in. I still prefer Reach mainly because of the story and the nostalgia kicking in, but this is my second favorite Halo game right here.
Quick detour to talk about the story real quick though, I actually really like it. While the main "big mysterious alien bad guy" is just kind of an afterthought, the Banished I thought were great threats, the writing acting and characterization were top notch, especially for chief and the pilot, and the fact that this game was able to give Cortana a true proper send off after the mess of a story that was Halo 5 is truly commendable.
The big draw of Halo Infinite is allowing you to explore the surface (or at least part of it, the thing is broken after all) of Zeta Halo in a vast open world, and honestly it's a ton of fun. Even despite not having a ton of varied environments and repeated side mission structures (enemy base assaults for instance), the freedom is immense, there are a lot of fun secrets to uncover including the spartan cores that upgrade your power equipment, and thankfully your traversal abilities are a blast to use. The Grapple shot I think does more for the game than most would realize, it not only makes traversal around the open world a ton of fun but it also expands combat in a ton of ways.
I already stated in my Infinite multiplayer review that this game has by far the best combat the series has seen to date. It's incredibly fast paced, satisfying, fluid and offers a ton of variety with the weapons and vehicles you discover, and the grapple shot further accentuates this factor. You can hijack any vehicles with ease, go straight to an enemy and stun them, go instantly to high ground to deal with annoying sniper jackals, bring faraway weapons like guns or explosive canisters directly to your position, you can grapple the ground to gain a ton of speed and get to cover (especially combined with the slide, you get a huge amount of distance), if you upgrade it enough you can deliver a huge melee blow that deals huge area damage, it makes even repeated combat arenas feel fresh in their own way. There are other power items you can equip chief, such as the threat sensor, drop wall and thruster, and while these abilities were useful and I ended up using them against high priority target missions and bosses, the grapple shot basically never left my equipment slot.
Speaking of bosses though, dear lord these bosses are spectacular, easily the best bosses in the entire series, and while you could argue that's not saying much considering the bosses of previous Halo campaigns weren't...good, there feels like a genuine effort to make them engaging and fun to go up against. They can definitely end up being borderline frustrating at times don't get me wrong, but especially towards the end, these bosses end up getting better and better as the game goes on.
Visually this game looks super pretty, I know this game has been in a form of development hell for a while, especially with the delay, but I'd say the end result, while not perfect, is still very breathtaking to look at. The music though, WOW, apparently this is Gareth Coker's first contribution to working with the Halo series if I'm not mistaken and he absolutely knocked it out of the park on his first go, this soundtrack is nothing short of incredible.
All in all I genuinely had a lot of fun with Halo Infinite despite not knowing what to expect going in. I still prefer Reach mainly because of the story and the nostalgia kicking in, but this is my second favorite Halo game right here.