I've never played a Halo game before (apart from a few hours in multiplayer like a decade ago) so this was quite an interesting experience. My perspective of the campaign is based solely on my limited experience with other FPS campaigns, as I really had no knowledge of anything about much of the series at all prior.
That being said, I enjoyed this game for the most part and appreciated more than anything the polish in the gameplay and visuals. Unfortunately I found the game to be extremely frustrating; I typically play games on the second hardest difficulty when there are more than 3 standard options (anything beyond Easy/Medium/Hard), which tends to work out just fine for me but I clearly did not know what I was getting into. Longtime Halo fans might laugh at me and I wouldn't blame them necessarily, but I found the Heroic difficulty to create some of the most frustration I've felt with a game in awhile, and it was only partially salvaged due to the generally quite forgiving checkpoint system/lack of any kind of death penalty. I hate switching off of difficulties after I've already commit to one AND I know that I can do it, but ultimately it made me enjoy the game a lot less than I think I would have on the easier difficulty.
I cannot quite pinpoint how much of the frustration was me being stupid and how much was the game's 'fault', but I think there was certainly a bit of both. I can say that compared to playing Doom/Eternal on a similar difficulty level, I was significantly more frustrated with Halo. It really became bad though in a few of the game's boss fights that felt stupid. The two Spartan killer brothers (don't remember if they were brothers but the game didn't bother to give me any insight on them so I don't care) midway through the game is honestly one of the most awful bosses I've ever fought; it was extremely awkward to wait for them to position themselves properly to just chip in some damage, and the fight itself was super lame as well with nothing particularly unique or memorable about it apart from the frustration I had. The final boss of the game I also found to be really stupid, with some of the most incredibly bs tracking projectiles I have ever seen.
Difficulty aside Halo Infinite is a without a doubt a good* game. The gunplay feels really great; not quite on par with Destiny but very close, which is an achievement in and of itself. While many of the missions aren't incredibly diverse, the pacing overall was very solid with few boss fights scattered around and more linear missions mixed in with those in the open world.
Speaking of open world, this game is quite poorly optimized for PC and I ended up having to accept that I would hover around and often below 60FPS even on Medium settings in the open world; maybe I just haven't played many open world games on my laptop, but it hasn't ever been a problem on anything else that I have played before. The open world also becomes a bit of an eyesore after awhile; it looks great but there is absolutely zero variety in the environments. Literally everything looks the same and I therefore had very little desire to explore for more than about half an hour during my playthrough. I don't really feel like Halo Infinite is an open-world game, as the story brings you on a very linear path that you do not have to deviate from one bit, nor is there a lot of reason to. I didn't really mind this too much although I absolutely think they did not utilize the idea of an open world enough.
Not having played any Halo game before most of the story flew over my head but the general idea that I could grasp was decent enough. The voice acting was also nothing exceptional but good enough to not be cringey or anything. The interactions between the 'new' AI and Master Chief were pretty interesting and the development of his trust of her was done pretty well. I personally think her (new AI's) character was the best the game had to offer.
Halo Infinite is at it's best when directly looking at its most polished and prominent features, in the visuals and gameplay. The grappling hook is probably the best grappling hook that I have ever used in the game, and added a ton of important and incredibly versatile mobility options throughout the whole game that was a critical part to not only just the gunplay feeling good but the entire core gameplay experience. Outside of this bubble, the game is much more mediocre, but his isn't a bad thing; not every game can excel at everything. It will, for example, change absolutely nothing in the landscape of open-world game design, but this is fine; I was really not looking forward to this part of the game nor is it the main pull at all, so it is mostly forgivable. The game did enough to convince me to likely play any future Halo releases, although certainly never again on the harder difficulties.
7.5/10
That being said, I enjoyed this game for the most part and appreciated more than anything the polish in the gameplay and visuals. Unfortunately I found the game to be extremely frustrating; I typically play games on the second hardest difficulty when there are more than 3 standard options (anything beyond Easy/Medium/Hard), which tends to work out just fine for me but I clearly did not know what I was getting into. Longtime Halo fans might laugh at me and I wouldn't blame them necessarily, but I found the Heroic difficulty to create some of the most frustration I've felt with a game in awhile, and it was only partially salvaged due to the generally quite forgiving checkpoint system/lack of any kind of death penalty. I hate switching off of difficulties after I've already commit to one AND I know that I can do it, but ultimately it made me enjoy the game a lot less than I think I would have on the easier difficulty.
I cannot quite pinpoint how much of the frustration was me being stupid and how much was the game's 'fault', but I think there was certainly a bit of both. I can say that compared to playing Doom/Eternal on a similar difficulty level, I was significantly more frustrated with Halo. It really became bad though in a few of the game's boss fights that felt stupid. The two Spartan killer brothers (don't remember if they were brothers but the game didn't bother to give me any insight on them so I don't care) midway through the game is honestly one of the most awful bosses I've ever fought; it was extremely awkward to wait for them to position themselves properly to just chip in some damage, and the fight itself was super lame as well with nothing particularly unique or memorable about it apart from the frustration I had. The final boss of the game I also found to be really stupid, with some of the most incredibly bs tracking projectiles I have ever seen.
Difficulty aside Halo Infinite is a without a doubt a good* game. The gunplay feels really great; not quite on par with Destiny but very close, which is an achievement in and of itself. While many of the missions aren't incredibly diverse, the pacing overall was very solid with few boss fights scattered around and more linear missions mixed in with those in the open world.
Speaking of open world, this game is quite poorly optimized for PC and I ended up having to accept that I would hover around and often below 60FPS even on Medium settings in the open world; maybe I just haven't played many open world games on my laptop, but it hasn't ever been a problem on anything else that I have played before. The open world also becomes a bit of an eyesore after awhile; it looks great but there is absolutely zero variety in the environments. Literally everything looks the same and I therefore had very little desire to explore for more than about half an hour during my playthrough. I don't really feel like Halo Infinite is an open-world game, as the story brings you on a very linear path that you do not have to deviate from one bit, nor is there a lot of reason to. I didn't really mind this too much although I absolutely think they did not utilize the idea of an open world enough.
Not having played any Halo game before most of the story flew over my head but the general idea that I could grasp was decent enough. The voice acting was also nothing exceptional but good enough to not be cringey or anything. The interactions between the 'new' AI and Master Chief were pretty interesting and the development of his trust of her was done pretty well. I personally think her (new AI's) character was the best the game had to offer.
Halo Infinite is at it's best when directly looking at its most polished and prominent features, in the visuals and gameplay. The grappling hook is probably the best grappling hook that I have ever used in the game, and added a ton of important and incredibly versatile mobility options throughout the whole game that was a critical part to not only just the gunplay feeling good but the entire core gameplay experience. Outside of this bubble, the game is much more mediocre, but his isn't a bad thing; not every game can excel at everything. It will, for example, change absolutely nothing in the landscape of open-world game design, but this is fine; I was really not looking forward to this part of the game nor is it the main pull at all, so it is mostly forgivable. The game did enough to convince me to likely play any future Halo releases, although certainly never again on the harder difficulties.
7.5/10