| Platform | OVERALL |
|---|---|
| PC | 8.90 |
| Overall | 8.90 |
|
Halo is back! 343 had a bumpy road with two Halo entries that were clearly a step back. The franchise had begun to lose its luster, it was losing its way so 343 thought how do we get back to what made Halo Halo, by going open world and focusing on large battles offering freedom to the player. Halo Infinite is a great return to form with some of the best gameplay of the series. Infinite has a well designed and measured open world that isn’t filled with a bunch of junk. For the most part the goal is to go to enemy FOBs, clear them so you open multiple spots on the map where you can change loadouts and call in vehicles. From there you can clear much larger enemy bases, help captured soldiers, and hunt bounties of high ranking Banished. All the activities are basically go there and kill that but hey that’s the point of Halo, to get into big fights and this game creates scenarios for you to be the ultimate badass. Master Chief has never had more movement options because of one huge game changing item, the grapple hook. The hook turns Master Chief into a spiderman space marine, with the ability to climb any surface, dart and punch enemies, and even hook onto flying banshees and launch into the air to hijack the ship in mid air. You can also grab weapons and explosive canisters from afar, letting you quickly get a new offensive weapon. Movement is so important in action games, Halo was always a game where you would have to hide behind objects while your shield refills, it rewarded turtling. Now you can be free, you can get away from attacks with a quick grapple. There are also some items that can be used and upgraded like a holo shield, and even a boost move for even more movements. The holo shield is excellent in creating emergency cover that still lets you shoot behind it. The boost I didn’t use much because the grapple hook lets you move much more, so it’s kind of a wasted move. All these skills can be upgraded by finding upgrade points around the world encouraging some exploration. All this is anchored by excellent shooting that feels fast responsive, enemies react to every shot, in terms of feel it’s excellent. The bases and major story moments are mostly well designed, especially the bases. These have larger walls with gates that can be opened from within to then allow your vehicle in. With the bases there are all kinds of enemies, vehicles, and objectives to complete as you clear the bases enemy by enemy. Enemies come in all the classic Halo forms minus the flood. Going back to basics help, no gimmicky enemy classes, just the ones you know and love. Elites will turn in invisible and try to get in close. Brutes usually carry heavy weapons and will try to get you out of cover. Jackles will be the snipers, which are really annoying in a game this open because many times I would be shot from offscreen with no warning. The grunts are the comic relief who have so many hilarious lines. The total freedom in how to attack any enemy group any enemy base creates moments that made me go wow all the time. I felt like I was a superhero, creating insane moments that I wanted to record cause I can’t believe I did that. You can snipe from above, then jump all the way down while firing rockets, then grappling the enemy ghost and hijack it, run over some enemies, blast the fuel sources, hop out as the ghost explodes and grapple hook and do a super punch on the brute and take his turret gun and lay waste to grunts. And wait till air ships show up, then there is air combat, tanks will be firing at you to bring you down. Oh and as you free bases you gain soldiers who will always follow you around, so load up a warthog and have your own death squad. The main quest takes you to new places of the map and is well paced with some really cool moments and boss battles. The one real negative is how many story levels take place inside forerunner structures that all look exactly the same, a series of halls and large rooms that repeat. I guess that too is going back to your roots cause Halo has always loved repeated locations. These locations create some good intimate battles for MC but it’s not as fun as the open world. Because of this I wouldn’t rank infinite above the campaigns of the first three games but in terms of gameplay it’s better. Bosses are hit and miss, on one hand there are those in the open world that create some really compelling moments where coming up with a strategy is like a puzzle. The final boss battles though take place in smaller rooms with enemies that can do heavy damage up close without much space for you to get away, this results in a frustrating fight that feels more like you are just cheesing your way to victory rather than any real strategy. The campaign is obviously just one aspect of the game, Halo has always been a multiplayer juggernaut and it’s nice to see the multiplayer capture the feel of the old games so well. Maps are well designed and weapons feel balanced. It’s nice to have a classic shooter that doesn’t cater to all the new trends, it feels as close to old halo as any game has since the bungie days. There are issues with progression, that’s one era that CoD revolutionized, now I like that it’s a game with weapon procurement in the level, that’s Halo. But some better kind of ranking system (it has one but it’s behind its own matches), the season pass is really slow with bad goals and it’s just customizable stuff. Outside just playing with friends I didn’t feel compelled to keep playing the online. I would score this game higher if it had all the elements they are promising to come later. This is a halo game without coop, while I don’t play Halo in coop I know it’s big for many players and a game like this would lead to some amazing coop moments. It’s also missing forge mode and many online modes, this leads to the bear-bone feel of the online at the moment. All these are promised to come later this year but I have to score the game as it is now. This game still offers about 15-20 hours of great campaign content and a solid multiplayer. I played this on PC, an older card but still should run the game well with good settings. Well win inside a location my it ran beautifully at 60FPS. But the moment I went into the open world the game chugged, dropping to 30 or lower, lots of stuttering, it was horrible. I had to lower settings just to get it to run stable at around 35 fps. It’s not even that great a looking game, nothing really stands out, the smoothness is supposed to be the key to the graphics. The music has all the classic sounds of Halo and that excellent theme song that plays at key parts, overall a great score. Halo Infinite is a triumphant return to form for a series that was losing its luster. The gameplay has never been better, it’s a blast to play and I just hope more is coming. The main campaign lacks the big spectacle moments and highs of the first three but the open world freedom makes up for that. This is a game that will be coming out in pieces and it’s noticeable as key features are missing holding it back from being the best Halo, which it might be when it’s all released. |
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Posted by Dvader Sun, 02 Jan 2022 21:55:18
Sun, 02 Jan 2022 22:15:11
I’ve never hid my feelings about this series and how it has always been difficult to get into. That has all changed with this entry. I loved this campaign and played it more than the other five combined. Multiplayer is a blast though its having major issues right now. Hopefully that will be fixed soon because the core multiplayer is something I want to ho back to over and over again. This is my GoTY.
Sun, 02 Jan 2022 22:16:01
Its also a steal on Game Pass. I’m just amazed that I did not gave to actually purchase this game.
Fri, 07 Jan 2022 14:50:57
That is the most insane part. I would have gladly pay $60 for a game of this quality but I don’t have to!
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