Halo: Infinite is a game created by 343 Industries as a part of Xbox Game Studios; let's be real though everyone knows about the Halo series, how it basically gave the Xbox series of consoles life, the soundtrack that although repeats of the same song by Martin O'Donnell & Michael Salvatori it always kicks a lot of a s s. This game was supposed to be the game that "Finishes the fight" in 343's VERY mixed Halo trilogy. Does this game finish the fight? Yeah for the most part. Here's my take on it.
The campaign is the best part of this entire package, my other Halo Infinite review consisted of me slamming it for it's s h it ty microtransaction filled lootfest. The campaign on the other end consists of a smallish open world with some collectibles and outposts with fifteen or so main missions in between. Though I'll admit that the Ubisoft Open World Formula does feel tiring in a lot of ways, in a strange sense it feels like the kind of thing needed to shake up Halo a little bit and make it more memorable. A lot of the campaign you'll be treading on the actual Halo, called Zeta Halo here, as you move from place to place with both vehicles and the beautiful grappling hook as you massacre your way through outposts, collect upgrade points to bolster your abilities, take down high value targets for access to newer and upgraded weapons, save marine squads for more backup, etc. Honestly it's familiar but it's not bad in this case, though I will be honest in my coop playthrough of the game the only special ability I used for the most part was the Grappling Hook because it's fun as hell to travel around using it. The combat for the most part feels fine, a bit less punchy personally compared to previous ones but against AI it feels a lot better; also they added in smaller little mini bosses which again feel like a bit of a needed variation. I guess what I'm trying to say is this: It's Halo Far Cry (minus any radio towers). If you don't like the formula you won't like it here, I don't mind it if done right and for the most part it was fun going through with a buddy in this big open planet and doing the Haloing. This is the kind of feeling I've been wanting since playing the first Halo on the second mission where you roam around saving marines and shooting covenant. The actual main mission though are kind of boring and samey, the same repeated Forerunner future architecture that to be honest I can't really tell apart and though I understand it has a story purpose, it just didn't do it for me when it came to it's connection to the story.
The story is something I can't really get into because I didn't follow it too much but basically the main bad guys from Halo Wars 2 (port it please), The Banished, are a splinter faction of Covenant set on their own plans of which I'll be honest I forget. I guess it's fine because it's more covenant to shoot but basically Cortana is still alive in the ring, and you/your buddies Echo and AI companion Weapon go to explore the ring, kill the Banished and stop whatever weapon is being used. Though my memory is bad, what I can say is that I promise that it's way better than whatever they had going for Halo 4 because the story does have interesting character moments, elicits some feelings, and does things better than pretty much most of the games in the series for me personally. That being said does it match up to the original trilogy? No, not even close; but it's the freshest feeling that Halo has had in a long time and truthfully I gave up on there ever being a same feeling of the original trilogy as I don't think that's possible, as those games were but a time piece in history covered in beautiful mid 2000s gaming nostalgia. Also if you felt that Halo 5's story was a s s? The devs for the most part ignored it and cherry picked some stuff, which is cool although it does feel kind of jarring not to know the context of certain things due to the fact that there's a whole book universe you'd probably have to follow, but for this game it's fine.
The art design as I had addressed a bit looks good, though I prefer the topside areas. Soundtrack, though samey, still slaps. Voice acting is also good, Master Chief always having the iconic voice. I guess to say, it's more Halo. Though if I'm gonna finish this review off I'm going to say this: this game took a good while to get to the state it was in, I had been playing through the entire series with a friend and waiting for a year or two for them to actually put in Coop was kind of frustrating. Modern day game developing is hard, and I don't know the particulars about the behind the scenes, and though I'm glad it finally came out it was a bit of a wait with constant news about setbacks, restructuring, and etc. Hopefully with whatever's going on it'll be okay, though I'm sure the last thing Microsoft would want to do would be to bury one of their biggest cash cows.
To finalize, is it worth 60 Dollars for the full price campaign? I felt it was, but at the same time I had sunk about 14 hours I think with a friend. I guess personally I'd say wait, or if you just want a supreme Halo experience get the Halo: Master Chief Collection and Halo Wars on Steam as well. The game is good, and I definitely finished my fight with it, though for the others that view this game as a boring cookie cutter open world game I understand that feeling and it's valid considering the high bar set previously. However, my thoughts are this: Wait for it to go on sale, keep an openish mind, and don't expect this to be the Bungie games: they aren't and I don't think they're really trying to be. But I'd definitely recommend it for those wanting to have a fun time killing more Covenant, riding physics based warthogs with marines in the back, and on occasion throwing a sticky grenade on the back of your friends while they aren't looking as a prank. Shoutout to the Big G for that lol.
Also I'm still not touching the multiplayer, the s h i t is boring.
Multiplayer Review (November 19th, 2021):
I guess I'll start off on my average feelings of this game. It's decent, no complaints. It's Halo, more importantly 343 Halo, which means you'll get modern Halo which feels ok but without the soul the original trilogy have. I'm hoping that the campaign gives me what I'm looking for, and if it does then I will change to a positive review. Playing the multiplayer as it is now however is....
I'm sorry but if you're expecting me to pay money out the a s s to buy your battlepass you're out of your fucking mind. Basing your level up progression (which locks your customization behind doing challenges instead of...you know getting kills and actually being good at the game) around a battlepass system that's solely devised around cutting out stuff that was there since the beginning and then sold back to you is sad. Whoever created this system blows dogs and honestly you can't change my mind otherwise. And honestly this isn't even just a Halo problem, every game and their grandmother does it; I get the covering development costs thing but seriously dude: this is Halo. You should be doing better. That's all I have to say on multiplayer battlepass bulls h i t. But otherwise the base multiplayer is ok, functional and if you enjoy Halo it's there but it hasn't added much more than that. I'm mostly interested in the campaign.
From Steam Reviews: https://steamcommunity.com/id/gamemast15r/recommended/
The campaign is the best part of this entire package, my other Halo Infinite review consisted of me slamming it for it's s h it ty microtransaction filled lootfest. The campaign on the other end consists of a smallish open world with some collectibles and outposts with fifteen or so main missions in between. Though I'll admit that the Ubisoft Open World Formula does feel tiring in a lot of ways, in a strange sense it feels like the kind of thing needed to shake up Halo a little bit and make it more memorable. A lot of the campaign you'll be treading on the actual Halo, called Zeta Halo here, as you move from place to place with both vehicles and the beautiful grappling hook as you massacre your way through outposts, collect upgrade points to bolster your abilities, take down high value targets for access to newer and upgraded weapons, save marine squads for more backup, etc. Honestly it's familiar but it's not bad in this case, though I will be honest in my coop playthrough of the game the only special ability I used for the most part was the Grappling Hook because it's fun as hell to travel around using it. The combat for the most part feels fine, a bit less punchy personally compared to previous ones but against AI it feels a lot better; also they added in smaller little mini bosses which again feel like a bit of a needed variation. I guess what I'm trying to say is this: It's Halo Far Cry (minus any radio towers). If you don't like the formula you won't like it here, I don't mind it if done right and for the most part it was fun going through with a buddy in this big open planet and doing the Haloing. This is the kind of feeling I've been wanting since playing the first Halo on the second mission where you roam around saving marines and shooting covenant. The actual main mission though are kind of boring and samey, the same repeated Forerunner future architecture that to be honest I can't really tell apart and though I understand it has a story purpose, it just didn't do it for me when it came to it's connection to the story.
The story is something I can't really get into because I didn't follow it too much but basically the main bad guys from Halo Wars 2 (port it please), The Banished, are a splinter faction of Covenant set on their own plans of which I'll be honest I forget. I guess it's fine because it's more covenant to shoot but basically Cortana is still alive in the ring, and you/your buddies Echo and AI companion Weapon go to explore the ring, kill the Banished and stop whatever weapon is being used. Though my memory is bad, what I can say is that I promise that it's way better than whatever they had going for Halo 4 because the story does have interesting character moments, elicits some feelings, and does things better than pretty much most of the games in the series for me personally. That being said does it match up to the original trilogy? No, not even close; but it's the freshest feeling that Halo has had in a long time and truthfully I gave up on there ever being a same feeling of the original trilogy as I don't think that's possible, as those games were but a time piece in history covered in beautiful mid 2000s gaming nostalgia. Also if you felt that Halo 5's story was a s s? The devs for the most part ignored it and cherry picked some stuff, which is cool although it does feel kind of jarring not to know the context of certain things due to the fact that there's a whole book universe you'd probably have to follow, but for this game it's fine.
The art design as I had addressed a bit looks good, though I prefer the topside areas. Soundtrack, though samey, still slaps. Voice acting is also good, Master Chief always having the iconic voice. I guess to say, it's more Halo. Though if I'm gonna finish this review off I'm going to say this: this game took a good while to get to the state it was in, I had been playing through the entire series with a friend and waiting for a year or two for them to actually put in Coop was kind of frustrating. Modern day game developing is hard, and I don't know the particulars about the behind the scenes, and though I'm glad it finally came out it was a bit of a wait with constant news about setbacks, restructuring, and etc. Hopefully with whatever's going on it'll be okay, though I'm sure the last thing Microsoft would want to do would be to bury one of their biggest cash cows.
To finalize, is it worth 60 Dollars for the full price campaign? I felt it was, but at the same time I had sunk about 14 hours I think with a friend. I guess personally I'd say wait, or if you just want a supreme Halo experience get the Halo: Master Chief Collection and Halo Wars on Steam as well. The game is good, and I definitely finished my fight with it, though for the others that view this game as a boring cookie cutter open world game I understand that feeling and it's valid considering the high bar set previously. However, my thoughts are this: Wait for it to go on sale, keep an openish mind, and don't expect this to be the Bungie games: they aren't and I don't think they're really trying to be. But I'd definitely recommend it for those wanting to have a fun time killing more Covenant, riding physics based warthogs with marines in the back, and on occasion throwing a sticky grenade on the back of your friends while they aren't looking as a prank. Shoutout to the Big G for that lol.
Also I'm still not touching the multiplayer, the s h i t is boring.
Multiplayer Review (November 19th, 2021):
I guess I'll start off on my average feelings of this game. It's decent, no complaints. It's Halo, more importantly 343 Halo, which means you'll get modern Halo which feels ok but without the soul the original trilogy have. I'm hoping that the campaign gives me what I'm looking for, and if it does then I will change to a positive review. Playing the multiplayer as it is now however is....
I'm sorry but if you're expecting me to pay money out the a s s to buy your battlepass you're out of your fucking mind. Basing your level up progression (which locks your customization behind doing challenges instead of...you know getting kills and actually being good at the game) around a battlepass system that's solely devised around cutting out stuff that was there since the beginning and then sold back to you is sad. Whoever created this system blows dogs and honestly you can't change my mind otherwise. And honestly this isn't even just a Halo problem, every game and their grandmother does it; I get the covering development costs thing but seriously dude: this is Halo. You should be doing better. That's all I have to say on multiplayer battlepass bulls h i t. But otherwise the base multiplayer is ok, functional and if you enjoy Halo it's there but it hasn't added much more than that. I'm mostly interested in the campaign.
From Steam Reviews: https://steamcommunity.com/id/gamemast15r/recommended/