Completed on Legendary Difficulty.
Six years out from the release of Halo 5: Guardians, 343 Industries returns after a troubled development to bring us the continuation of Master Chief's battle to save humanity and bring peace to a troubled galaxy.
To reinvigorate the franchise under their watch they have smartly chose to create an open world experience set on a locale referred to as Zeta Halo. Missions are stashed in various locations throughout one of the ring's many biomes, as well as outposts you can storm, bases you can capture in order to create fast travel and resource deployment points, and groups of marines stranded on the ring for you to rescue. Think of it like if your traditional Halo campaign was heavily inspired by a little bit of Crysis, the later Far Cry titles, and most of all the original Halo: Combat Evolved.
It makes for an incredibly interesting, if somewhat shallow experience that is perhaps the most fulfilling and fun experience I've had with a AAA studio title released this year. Combat encounters are incredibly well designed, the limited flexibility that was offered in previous Halo titles has been successfully maximized, and the open world shows hints of greatness to come. Master Chief's new Mjolnir Armor suit capabilities are fascinating, with the grapple hook basically allowing you to zip all over the place like a 7 foot green Spider-man. It completely owns. It's too bad none of the things you do on the overworld seem to make much of an impact on the game world as you progress; I suspect anything like this was canned as the game entered its frantic final days of development so that it shipped on time.
The only true misstep is the decision to cap off every story mission with a series of uninspired boss fights that end up amounting to little more than overly punchy damage sponges - on legendary difficulty this led to a LOT of cheap feeling one hit deaths. After two or three of these, it really starts to feel a bit tedious.
I should also note that the endgame mission feels like a huge step backwards in terms of encounter pacing and design; its like a greatest hits' album that has the band's most annoying song six or seven times at the end of the disc. Ugh.
Beyond having some of the series' best encounters and level design, Halo Infinite tastefully handles the loose threads that Halo 5 left wide open, as well as those lingering from Halo Wars 2 while pushing the series towards an interesting future. It also has pretty good music; some of it is really interesting, and some of it plays like a tribute to the music of the Halo Trilogy.
It's the goods. I'm glad its here. I welcome the next piece of the 343 era puzzle. The foundation is laid, and I believe they can absolutely knock it out of the park next time.
Six years out from the release of Halo 5: Guardians, 343 Industries returns after a troubled development to bring us the continuation of Master Chief's battle to save humanity and bring peace to a troubled galaxy.
To reinvigorate the franchise under their watch they have smartly chose to create an open world experience set on a locale referred to as Zeta Halo. Missions are stashed in various locations throughout one of the ring's many biomes, as well as outposts you can storm, bases you can capture in order to create fast travel and resource deployment points, and groups of marines stranded on the ring for you to rescue. Think of it like if your traditional Halo campaign was heavily inspired by a little bit of Crysis, the later Far Cry titles, and most of all the original Halo: Combat Evolved.
It makes for an incredibly interesting, if somewhat shallow experience that is perhaps the most fulfilling and fun experience I've had with a AAA studio title released this year. Combat encounters are incredibly well designed, the limited flexibility that was offered in previous Halo titles has been successfully maximized, and the open world shows hints of greatness to come. Master Chief's new Mjolnir Armor suit capabilities are fascinating, with the grapple hook basically allowing you to zip all over the place like a 7 foot green Spider-man. It completely owns. It's too bad none of the things you do on the overworld seem to make much of an impact on the game world as you progress; I suspect anything like this was canned as the game entered its frantic final days of development so that it shipped on time.
The only true misstep is the decision to cap off every story mission with a series of uninspired boss fights that end up amounting to little more than overly punchy damage sponges - on legendary difficulty this led to a LOT of cheap feeling one hit deaths. After two or three of these, it really starts to feel a bit tedious.
I should also note that the endgame mission feels like a huge step backwards in terms of encounter pacing and design; its like a greatest hits' album that has the band's most annoying song six or seven times at the end of the disc. Ugh.
Beyond having some of the series' best encounters and level design, Halo Infinite tastefully handles the loose threads that Halo 5 left wide open, as well as those lingering from Halo Wars 2 while pushing the series towards an interesting future. It also has pretty good music; some of it is really interesting, and some of it plays like a tribute to the music of the Halo Trilogy.
It's the goods. I'm glad its here. I welcome the next piece of the 343 era puzzle. The foundation is laid, and I believe they can absolutely knock it out of the park next time.