I didn't think HALO Infinite would end up being one of my favorite games of 2021. The series had kinda died for me since HALO 4, but with this one, the future is bright for Master Chief once again.
If I could use one word to summarize Infinite, it would be FUN.
I've played this game for a bit over 15 hours and I felt nothing but joy from beginning to end. The gameplay is just peak HALO! From multiplayer to the campaign. The environments are beautiful and feel great to explore, the level of verticality in the open world and interior stages is amazing, sidequests are fast paced and important to the main story, every gun is useful and impactful, multiplayer feels fresh... Everything just works and its execution is highly addicting. I almost 100% the map, even after finishing the story.
The reason why I think Infinite's gameplay loop works so well is due to its greatest addition. And no, it's not the new sandbox-style map. It's something simpler: the grappling hook.
Grappling hooks usually transforms the game and it wasn't different for HALO. It makes traversal fun and quick, opens new doors to improvise during combat, makes platforming a charm and it changes the game. It's so good that I didn't even care for the other equipments. In fact, changing equipments in this game is a hassle. I just stuck with the hook.
But the cracks in this near perfect HALO game starts to show up when the story becomes the focus.
Master Chief's new narrative is good. It's definitely a huge improvement over the 4th and 5th entries. The writing is good, the new Cortana is cool as hell, the Banished are threatening, Chief is better than ever and even Echo 216 gets to shine.
The problem is that it feels very incomplete. It's not well told at all. Most things happen before the game even start. Actually, almost every essential moment happens off-screen and even the cutscenes, while graphically impressive, feel a bit off. I also don't think it ties well with where 5 left off, which is absurd, since that game had universal-threats like the Guardians being thrown at you. And now they are gone. Just like that.
And as the story cracks are perceived, some of the bad leaks to the gameplay as well. Like how checkpoints happen at random. And how sometimes the challenge can be a bit too much. Or how driving any vehicle (except the Ghost) in this game is horrible. And then you notice that the final levels of the game, while still thrilling, can get very repetitive and sort of tedious.
But even after noticing these cracks, I also know that they're very small compared to how good this game is. This is the best HALO since 3. It pulled me back to a franchise that I absolutely love and that made me incredibly happy. This is definitely 343's finest work. Hell, they even made the boss fights remarkable and I don't think I can say that for past HALO games.
With a short and sweet open world, fantastic gameplay and an ok story, HALO's back, making this Microsoft's best exclusive game in years.
If I could use one word to summarize Infinite, it would be FUN.
I've played this game for a bit over 15 hours and I felt nothing but joy from beginning to end. The gameplay is just peak HALO! From multiplayer to the campaign. The environments are beautiful and feel great to explore, the level of verticality in the open world and interior stages is amazing, sidequests are fast paced and important to the main story, every gun is useful and impactful, multiplayer feels fresh... Everything just works and its execution is highly addicting. I almost 100% the map, even after finishing the story.
The reason why I think Infinite's gameplay loop works so well is due to its greatest addition. And no, it's not the new sandbox-style map. It's something simpler: the grappling hook.
Grappling hooks usually transforms the game and it wasn't different for HALO. It makes traversal fun and quick, opens new doors to improvise during combat, makes platforming a charm and it changes the game. It's so good that I didn't even care for the other equipments. In fact, changing equipments in this game is a hassle. I just stuck with the hook.
But the cracks in this near perfect HALO game starts to show up when the story becomes the focus.
Master Chief's new narrative is good. It's definitely a huge improvement over the 4th and 5th entries. The writing is good, the new Cortana is cool as hell, the Banished are threatening, Chief is better than ever and even Echo 216 gets to shine.
The problem is that it feels very incomplete. It's not well told at all. Most things happen before the game even start. Actually, almost every essential moment happens off-screen and even the cutscenes, while graphically impressive, feel a bit off. I also don't think it ties well with where 5 left off, which is absurd, since that game had universal-threats like the Guardians being thrown at you. And now they are gone. Just like that.
And as the story cracks are perceived, some of the bad leaks to the gameplay as well. Like how checkpoints happen at random. And how sometimes the challenge can be a bit too much. Or how driving any vehicle (except the Ghost) in this game is horrible. And then you notice that the final levels of the game, while still thrilling, can get very repetitive and sort of tedious.
But even after noticing these cracks, I also know that they're very small compared to how good this game is. This is the best HALO since 3. It pulled me back to a franchise that I absolutely love and that made me incredibly happy. This is definitely 343's finest work. Hell, they even made the boss fights remarkable and I don't think I can say that for past HALO games.
With a short and sweet open world, fantastic gameplay and an ok story, HALO's back, making this Microsoft's best exclusive game in years.