hoo boy. this might be a doozy... it sucks. but to start, i wanna get the good stuff out of the way. visually speaking, this is the best halo has been under 343. they finally reverted to a more bungie era art style more reminiscent of the halo identity and i think this was the right move, the game looks great for the most part. from the armor to the architecture design for all factions, UNSC, banished, covenant, and forerunner, it all looks great. and as everyone has already mentioned, the gameplay is very good and feels like the next logical step in the modernization of the halo formula.
that's all i've got in the way of pure positivity. everything else will have caveats or is just straight up negative. so let's continue with the visual side of things.

while some of the new armor designs do look pretty great, their implementation is shockingly idiotic. armor cores are one of the least intuitive routes of customization i've seen in a video game, let alone the halo series. not only does it make it so much more inconvenient to have to scroll through an ever-expanding line of separate characters, each with their own exclusive pieces of armor that can only be used for that core (up until recently with the cross-core helmets and shoulders. but every item should have been cross core from the very beginning, they get no praise for this update) it's just an absolute mess. then even within certain cores, there's a subsection for kits, which are preassembled sets that can't be changed and can feature custom pieces that can't be acquired or worn anywhere else, or is just a completley different armorset altogether and overrides whichever core said kit happens to fall under. christ man. and to top it off, most of the cores just look like ass if we're being honest. why is there a WWI themed core? the yoroi core? it looks cool in a vacuum but it doesn't fit in a halo game. and the chimera core... is an assault on the eyes. one of the worst designed armors i think i've ever seen. what game am i playing? i'll give a pass to the cores based on characters from the books even though i don't love those either. they've completely thrown away the identity of halo right after seemingly bringing it back with this new art style. i just don't understand these decisions. why not just release all the core armor pieces for one, single base character? you know...the way halo has always been? it's baffling. they didn't even monetize the separate cores themselves. the base cores were free if i remember correctly so it makes even less sense to have them all separate. but speaking of monetization...

i knew infinite was dead on arrival the second they announced it was a free to play, live service game. i mean pack it up right then and there. did anyone actually want this? like genuinely. the greed is so transparent but they'll say something like 'it allows us to reach a broader audience and give the halo experience to as many players as possible while also allowing for long term support'. no, it gives you a veil to hide behind while you implement the most predatory monetization you possibly can with a blatant disregard for a major aspect of the game that made it fun in the first place. actually unlocking things...what a concept. and no, battlepasses do not count as unlocking things. and defenders of this game's favorite line is 'we have to support them somehow' or 'it's a free game and you expect them to just develop it without money?'. and i just can't fathom the stupidity behind this way of thinking. first of all, it isn't free. they charged $60 for the campaign ALONE. that's what they charged for every other halo game that came with the campaign AND mp. you know... full price for a full game. maybe you can argue that since the mp is free, it's $60 for both, but then that just makes the shops' existence even worse. but it's a separate install and by all intents and purposes, they treat it as its' own game. there is just no way to look at it where this decision was justified.
we vote with our wallets. nobody ever wanted a live service halo and by not spending money, it signifies we don't want a live service halo, not that we don't want halo at all. i don't understand how people who defend this game don't see that.

moving on to another mp adjacent topic - they've completely ignored everything non-UNSC in this game. this is a spartan simulator only. no playable elites, which the community has been begging for for over a decade at this point. and i'm surprised i haven't seen anyone say this but given this game is banished themed, why not throw in a playable brute? could be cool. i get it. 343 is arguably the laziest dev team out there. this will never happen, ever. they don't want to deal with the complications of programming anything outside of the spartan model for mp. just more goodwill being left on the table. keep it up 343 you're on a historic run.

oh i forgot to mention coatings. god there's so much stupid sh*t in this game. why was this a replacement instead of an additive to the old color system? i don't even hate the idea of coatings on paper but to up and completely remove being able to select our own colors? make coatings the premium offering if you must. have them add some textures or patterns or whatever. i mean we all know the real reason they removed the color palettes. if both were an option, no one would use coatings because 90% of them are utterly abhorrent, so just force them on everyone and make players pay for them! thanks 343. at least they added like 10 single, solid colors that i can't edit in any way or add secondary or tertiary colors to. also the emblems suck. you can't even make your own so what's the point. but don't worry guys this is the most customizable halo ever! endless possibilities!

speaking of 343 laziness, coming from a guy whose mindset is ALWAYS 'blame devs last', let's talk maps. the maps 343 makes in infinite are usually really, really good. there's a couple stinkers in there but for the most part, i think the dev-created maps are pretty high quality. the problem is that they barely make them. they release like one or two maps every other update maybe? granted, they've got their hands full pumping the store full of $40 bundles so they don't have too much time to work on things like maps, or sandbox updates. so instead, they add a bunch of community made maps every update, which i think is great! a pillar of halo has always been it's community creations. but the problem is, at this point 343 is basically saying 'do our job for us please'. i mean it's like 15 to 3 (no idea if this is true i'm just throwing out numbers, but it's not even close) community/dev maps over the past couple of updates and i think that's embarrassing. you can highlight community maps, absolutely, as you should! but these are like the tentpoles of the updates and shouldn't the devs make the tentpole maps and then in addition highlight community creations? idk maybe it's just me but i think it's weird that 343 is essentially just relying on the community to make their maps for them at this point.

okay i think that mostly does it for the mp side of things. there are some smaller things i could maybe get into but i think this dead horse has been beaten enough. on to the next one.

the campaign! they once again tried to turn it into another popular trend and surprise surprise, it didn't work. an open world, free roam mission structure just sounds like a mistake. running around the most bland, single biome world of zeta halo from mission to mission made me question how it ever made it this far. everywhere you look, everywhere you go, looks exactly the same. the enemy encounters be it bases, or patrols or whatever it may be, are all just so boring and are all busy work. they turned halo into a ubisoft open world busy work game. awesome. the change was a pointless one and brought nothing of value to the series. the landscape is mind-numbingly uninteresting just on its own and then you compare it to the world of former halo games and it's nothing more than the dollar general knockoff. if you're going to venture into to new territory at least make it look like you tried.

but now the story. i barely remember it. and i'm not looking it up for a review on a website. i do remember thinking it was... fine? nothing great, nothing terrible. just whatever. it had some great moments, and some not so great but overall just kind of forgettable. which kills me to say about a halo story. the one thing i've never been able to say about a halo game ever, good or bad. they're all memorable. even halo 4 and 5 i would replay the campaigns for some reason, be it achievements, skulls, or just because certain missions were enjoyable. or in the case of halo 4, i actually kind of like that campaign. but here, i beat it and haven't thought about it since. a death sentence for a game like this. a game they clearly designed with a lot of replayability in mind. and it didn't even have co-op at launch. something my best friend and i have done with every other halo game, we couldn't do. this game couldn't even get it's guaranteed second playthrough because of it. yes, they added it later but again, they are getting zero praise for adding a staple of the series that should've been there from the start.

they also did the 'god of war', entire game is seamless and feels like it's done in one take, which works really well in that game but halo just isn't that kind of game. it's a space epic, action game and it just isn't that somber. it can have those moments, absolutely. but the entire game? no, it kind of killed the pacing. just another example of 343 taking something from a popular game and plugging it into halo like it's an SEO practice or something only for it to ultimately hurt the game. idk it was just weird and its inclusion made no sense.

finally, the bosses. they were whatever. probably best of the series honestly. certainly better than the didact. but that isn't saying much, halo isn't exactly a series known for its boss battles. i can tell they tried here and that's more than i can say about every other aspect of this game. so that's something.

i mostly hate this game if that wasn't glaringly apparent, but i still play on occasion because A) the gameplay is genuinely that good, and the homie and i grew up on halo so the current halo will probably always be in rotation to some degree and B) i do root for halo. i don't want this franchise to die but when if this is the direction it's heading, i honestly would rather that happen than have a live service money hogging game that has no interest in being an actual game. let alone an actual halo game.