HALO Infinite, I've been waiting over a decade for this...

Anybody that knows me personally will know I put an uncomfortable amount of hours in the Halo universe. Needless to say, the ability to play Halo is pretty much instinctive to me as a result. The transition from Bungie to 343 has been rocky at best and this game has had its fair share of setbacks. So let’s answer the burning question…

Is it good?

Introduction

It hasn’t been smooth sailing

The Bungie Era

I think we can widely agree that Halo one through three were outstanding achievements for their time. So this obviously sets the bar for the franchise. Combat Evolved (2001) set the blueprint for console shooters as we know them and established the franchise. Halo 2 (2004) was a driving force of online play with friends on a console (and the start of my lifelong online multiplayer addiction). Halo 3 (2007) was probably the best story of any Halo game, gave us forge so that we could create our own content, and also had a stunningly good multiplayer.

Then we had Halo 3 ODST (2009), which was pretty much only a halo game in name and setting, as you never play as a spartan, but was still a good game in its own right.

But then there was Halo Reach (2010). I don’t personally have many fond memories of this game being somewhat diehard at the time. Maybe Bungie was already thinking of the future and just settled on new industry standards instead of acknowledging what the fans loved about Halo. It had a good campaign and cast of characters which people view as a good last hoorah from Bungie. But it was the start of Halo’s multiplayer downfall, introducing loadouts and clearly trying to break into the CoD market.

The 343 Era

343 was a studio that was built with a single purpose, make Halo. It was a difficult transition but not a terrible start. Halo 4 (2012) was by all standards, actually not a bad campaign. The online also felt better than Reach but didn’t course-correct hard enough. This was a strange time because fans had a bad taste from the Bungie departure and 343 also clearly wanted to take the game in a new direction so this resulted in a very mixed bag as far as fan response. Halo 5 (2015) did more to appease the Halo multiplayer fans but the campaign was disappointing. It wasn’t a terrible story but not playing as Cheif for the majority of the game definitely hurt it. None of these games felt bad. They still felt like Halo, but the fanbase took some time getting behind 343 and they’ve definitely made some mistakes trying to add their own ideas.

The one thing above all that Halo 4 and 5 did do, however, is set up Halo Infinite.

The Expectations

With a new generation of hardware to impress us with, a lengthy delay to save us from Craig, and of course the work-from-home world we now live in. 343 had a mammoth task of making Halo Infinite merely acceptable. The decision to delay was a good one and we’ve waited patiently hoping this game would be the one that was worth waiting for (looking at you Cyberpunk). Though Halo Infinite was actually about a year late, the multiplayer was given to us about a month early on the 20th Anniversary of Halo: Combat Evolved (damn, I feel old). It has been given rave reviews across the board and I too, for the first time in 10 years, have found myself truly enjoying the experience. I have also written a piece about progression and monetization, so I won’t be talking about that here. Now that I have played through the campaign, as a diehard fan of the Halo 2 and 3 era I can truly say that the transition is complete. 343 now has my full trust to take this franchise to new heights. This game is an exceptional return to form, and I’m going to tell you why.

Gameplay

The best Halo sandbox yet.

Movement

The movement has never been an issue in any halo game, and it feels as solid as ever in this iteration. The addition of the slide is welcome and adds an extra weapon to your arsenal of movements when outmaneuvering your enemies. You feel grounded and appropriately heavy, but not in a way that takes away from Chief’s (or your online character’s) ability to dispatch opponents. As an old-school player, I’m a little sad to see that mantling has replaced the crouch jump, but it’s not a game-breaker and feels quite at home in a modern game. Importantly the movement all feels appropriate for a super soldier in an armored suit.

Weapons

The gunplay in this game is top-tier. The sounds, rumble, visual effects, and everything else are as good as it gets. The guns feel visceral, when you fire off a shot with a sniper rifle it’s powerful, it’s visually impactful too, so you can expect some visual spectacle as enemies ragdoll around the scene with each impact or explosion. In typical Halo style, nothing feels unusably weak, so you can experiment to your hearts content.

The roster of 22 weapons and 4 grenades is fantastically flexible. As somebody who enjoys accurately dispatching enemies with headshots this game offers me a variety of options, but when I fancy just spraying down the enemy with a barrage of projectiles the game has me covered here too. The wide selection of Kinetic, Plasma, Shock, Hardlight, and Power Weapons with genuinely varied applications is the best I’ve seen in the series.

It’s not just a selection of alternative ammo types for what are effectively the same weapons from each faction. There are similarities, but a lot more nuanced now. Such as weapons with blades on them dealing more melee damage, or shock weapons applying AOE damage to nearby targets, or whether a weapon is hitscan, has bullet dip, a projectile that seeks, etc… There’s a great selection here and this also applies to the grenades. They all have their own utility and I love how that applies on the battlefield, giving you multiple options when approaching every fight.

Equipment

Though I have used all of the available equipment in multiplayer, I pretty much religiously used the grapple during the campaign. It’s just too much fun and feels perfectly at home in the Halo universe. They do all have their utility based on your playstyle and offer a great amount of tactical flexibility in multiplayer, from the deployable shields to the threat sensor, they all feel right and it would be hard to say anything feels too overpowered but they can definitely change the tide of the fight. Most of the equipment has multiple uses too, so for example with a grapple, you can grapple, of course. But you can also grab items, steal enemy vehicles, and stun enemies with it and it feels as good as it sounds.

Vehicles

Halo Infinite has 9 drivable vehicles and a couple of variations for a few of them too. All the classics are here and they offer a variety of tactical advantages. For the most part, they aren’t too hard to take down either, which means using them wisely is key, much like the power weapons. How you use vehicles in the campaign can also add a lot to your experience of the open world, I loved filling a razorback with 5 additional power weapon-wielding marines and raining hell on enemy encampments. You can dog fight in banshees, you can even take down the biggest badest foes with a single tank shell, you’re not invincible, but if you hone your skills you can become a formidable foe. These are your choices before setting out and they all feel equally satisfying.

Enemies

The variety of enemies throws up plenty of challenges. On higher difficulties, the brutes, hunters, and elites can definitely throw their weight around and they aren’t as stupid as you might think. They all require their own ways of dealing with them, making every encounter feel like a game of chess, where you must surgically dispatch enemies in the right order to give yourself the best chance of survival. How you use your equipment is also going to make a difference here. As I spent so much time with the grapple I would use it to stun enemies for easy sticks or to keep myself off the ground in the case of the charging brutes. There's a lot of good variety here and the difficulty curve as you make your way through the campaign is also really spot on. I found myself continually challenged, but it wasn’t dark souls, it made sense. Oh, and yes, you will still get sniped by jackals when you least expect it so keep an eye out!

Campaign

No story plot-point spoilers

Continuing on from Halo 5

The story is set on a partially destroyed piece of Zeta Halo and follows on from Cortana’s rampancy in the last few games. Chief has found himself yet again in a position where he needs to save humanity (I know, shocker!). The storytelling is safe here, there’s no question about that. It simply gives you something to watch and listen to as you enjoy the top-tier sandbox on offer. The cast of characters is intimate and it feels like a solid foundation to build upon.

The Pilot & The Weapon (Cheif’s New AI)

I have seen a lot of fuss around the pilot but I found the pilot brought a level of “non-military” emotion to the game that I actually thought worked well. He has some emotional scenes that I think also helps with the overall pacing of the game. The acting and visual representation are pretty spot-on, he’s emotional, conflicted, and has his own character arch. All in all, I found myself empathizing with him. It’s not normal to have a character that doesn’t think Chief is going to succeed, but being as he found Chief floating in space after his biggest failure yet, and there may be another reason he doesn’t know the legend as well as some of the other military folk towards the end of the game. So it’s not hard to understand why he is the way that he is.

Though I’ve seen mixed responses, I’ve found the weapon for now quite endearing. She’s naive and wants to help, she’s not as authoritative as Cortana but she definitely shares a fair few traits with her. I think this character is destined to evolve as the series goes forward.

Escharum & The Harbinger

Escharum is the leader of the Banished. They aren’t exactly tactical masterminds and his character shows, but they do have strength in numbers. Very much a warrior-type character, there isn’t a huge story arch here but he does seem to be ill? This isn’t ever really explained though, which is a bit confusing. His performance is fine but doesn’t offer anything major in terms of memorable villains of the series.

The Harbinger is mysterious and still is after finishing the game, this seems to be a setup for what’s to come…

The Open world, Playspaces & Encounters

This game gives me a similar feeling to the first time I played Combat Evolved, and in many ways, it starts off extremely similarly. This world definitely feels vast, just like the original did when we first played it. Which is quite impressive considering the standards we’re used to in modern games. Whether you are in the open world or a story mission it feels monolithic. But this doesn’t mean it’s going to waste your time like some of today’s mammoth open-world games, there’s enough to keep you busy and it lets you engage encounters on your own terms. It doesn’t feel like it’s filled up for the sake of it, which I really appreciate. It would have been nice to see more biomes, but they also wouldn’t have made sense for the world, so contextually it makes sense.

Halo rings are huge forerunner structures that have no reason to house diverse biomes or architectural variety, I get it. But I think adding some additional biomes in later additions would be nice. That’s not to say they look bad, they don’t. This game has a lot of magnificent things for you to feast your eyes upon, but it’s pretty much all in that iconic Halo theme.

The good news is that these spaces play superbly, giving the player plenty of environmental and gameplay tools to tackle the situations you encounter. It’s both extremely fun and extremely effective at making you use everything at your disposal to get through each major encounter. This is one of the game’s major achievements, especially bringing these play spaces into an open world.

Encounters all feel as though they had a great deal of thought and playtesting, they make you use everything that you can in the environment to gain a tactical advantage. On higher difficulties especially, this really pushes you to your limits and can be incredibly satisfying to overcome.

Multiplayer

The Main Course

maps

The maps here are textbook multiplayer designs. The same rules as ever still apply for many halo games, power weapons are placed in exposed areas, the verticality is good and there are lots of weapon spawn locations. The maps are slightly asymmetrical so that each side is distinguishable but not bolstering any major advantages barring a few that are made for specific game modes. You can also be sure to get a variety of sight lines, so make sure you know where you’re standing!

One nit pick that does bother me is how the weapons rotate, so for example a weapon spawn could have 1 of 2 weapons at it, this changes from game to game and my old Halo brain still doesn’t really gel with it. Unlike the past where rocket spawn was rocket spawn, now it could be Rockets or it could be Cindershot. This may not sound like a big deal, and on the scale of things it really isn’t but getting a Commando when I think I’m about to pick up a Battle Rifle makes me sad inside.

All in all, there’s a great starting variety here visually and structurally, its biomes seem to be more diverse than the campaign too. Especially with the more Earthly maps such as the African Bazaar or neon lit Streets.

game modes

The variety at launch has been fine, but missing key staples such as Slayer, SWAT, infected, and more. There have been only 3 playlists you can queue for. The first is Quick Play (4 v 4) which has four game modes (Slayer, CTF, Strongholds, and Oddball). Next is Big Team Battle (12 v 12) which also has a few game modes, then ranked which is just slayer. I assume this was done to test a variety of modes but I can’t think of a reason why they wouldn’t put out a Slayer playlist at launch. It’s clear that they plan on regularly changing the playlists to keep things fresh and I’m still holding out for SWAT, personally.

Performance

This game looks stunning and runs at a solid 60fps, I had only a couple of hiccups in my 15 or so hours playing through the campaign (and many, many more playing the multiplayer). Lighting is top tier and considering it’s an open world the texture quality is also very good. This is an outstanding technical achievement from 343.

Conclusion

The best Halo in a decade

Personally, I like the intimate cast of characters and I think they actually do a good job of keeping the game moving. The campaign is not the best of the series, but it’s up there (would personally give the crown to Halo 3). The campaign doesn’t outstay its welcome like most open-world games these days, which is good. It wouldn’t surprise me to see DLC and I’d even be open to Destiny-style world additions that continue the campaign. The one thing I can say for sure is, this campaign teaches you how to use everything you’re going to need in the multiplayer. It’s not without its flaws, but the gameplay, for the first time in a decade the gameplay is pretty damn close to perfection. I haven’t played a game where I’ve enjoyed this much of the armory in my entire life, it's an absolute joy to play. As somebody that values gameplay over all else, this is one of my games of the year without a shadow of a doubt.

The variety that this sandbox offers is unlike any other shooter right now and I’m sure it’s only the start of an upward trajectory for the long-loved franchise. The gameplay here ticks so many boxes for my old-school Halo brain that my dormant skillset has awoken to dish out some devastation on a new generation of Halo players. The vast flexibility that you have in combat is absolutely Halo Infinites greatest achievement. After all, this is all about servicing a multiplayer long-term and I think they’ve done a stellar job in that regard. With some tweaks to the progression, I think this could be a staple part of my gaming diet for some time to come. Also, as of this week, 343 are adding Slayer playlists, finally!

For the first time in a decade, I can’t wait to see what’s next.

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I have some issues with Halo Infinite Multiplayer

So to preface what you’re about to read, my next article will be talking about the gameplay of Halo Infinite, this is going to be focused on the issues surrounding stats, progression, customization, and microtransactions. So let’s dig in!

Stats and Medals

Every game you play you will acquire medals and other stats of various types that will be displayed to you at the end of each game.

“What’s wrong with that?” I hear you ask.

Nothing at all, I am a stat whore up there with the best of them. The issue I have is I have to look on somebody else’s website to get my Halo Infinite stats? What the hell is that all about? You can see your stats on https://halotracker.com/ but apparently nothing official, not on the Halo Waypoint app, and not even the menus of the game itself. Why? Just, why?

Ok, so that’s the small one out of the way, now let’s address the pelican in the room…

Progression, Customization, & Microtransactions

In Halo Infinite Multiplayer, you get items throughout the battle passes, which have both free and paid tiers. In the free tier for the main pass, you will have access to around 22 cosmetic items, not including stances (2), ai modules (2), or the countless challenge swap and XP tokens. So that’s 22 cosmetics in 100 levels of 1000xp per level. Matches give you 50xp, and challenges, which are limited each week, give between 200-300xp per challenge on average and can take a few games to accomplish. This means you’re gaining levels once every 5-10 games depending on your ability to finish challenges quickly. To put that into time, it’s probably around 1-3 hours per level, on average, depending on the speed of your games and the rate you are completing challenges. So for the sake of argument, we’ll say this averages out to 2 hours per level. Therefore we can consider the battle pass at least around 200 hours worth of gameplay for 22 cosmetic rewards. However, if you pay up the £8 for the premium tier you can get around 95 cosmetic items in that same timeframe. Which, honestly, is pretty much on par with what other games offer.

Now I hear you cry at the back, “This is the same as CoD or pretty much every other battle pass right?”

Well, yes it is. But there’s one key difference, there’s nothing you’re unlocking in the background. In CoD you unlock levels on your weapons for better attachments and on Rocket League it fires out free cosmetics at pretty much an item per game. These systems keep you busy, you can explore them because there’s always a new shiny thing to look at.

In Halo, we are waiting to even use the confusing customization system, when you do unlock something it takes you 5 minutes to find it because the system is alien to you. This is probably something that can be overcome in the future when we’ve had a healthy dose of content, but for now, it’s frustrating at best.

Also, why are weekly challenges finite? And if they are going to be finite, can you at least respect my time enough to give me them all at once as Rocket League does? Instead, you get up to 4 challenges at a time so that you’re constantly micro-dosing XP and consuming the maximum amount of time for bare minimum rewards.

This isn’t the only place I think they could learn a thing or two from Rocket League…

Customization is lacking. It’s difficult to navigate because it’s currently broad in categories but thin in content. Though I don’t necessarily disagree with giving players options, I do take issue with a system that has clearly been chopped up into as many tiny pieces as possible so that it can be sold back to the players. This is of course nothing new for the modern shooter but in other games (such as Rocket League, CoD, Overwatch, etc…), where you get a consistent stream of cosmetics and gameplay items by simply playing, as well as the battle pass, amassing hundreds of items in just a couple of weeks. Halo’s approach looks to be a slow burn before really having any substantial customization options, I think this has heavily contributed to the backlash over progression.

Below you can see the wide variety of customization options, most of which are locked of course. Highlighting the need to give some easily obtainable options for players so they can get to grips with the system.

This brings me to the last part of this issue…

The microtransactions are a disappointing sight. Not because this isn’t the standard now, because it definitely is. And I don’t think it’s implemented in a particularly predatory way either, by any modern standard it isn’t that offensive at all. There’s no pay-to-win bullshit and I could definitely get behind a season pass if they do want to monetize it in a way that offers a good variety of content to players.

But as far as microtransactions go, my personal opinion is that Microsoft doesn’t need a microtransaction system in a console and Game Pass selling title. This should be the XBOX Holy Grail, a loss leader that drags people in by the millions. Giving the press the opportunity to nitpick is shooting yourself in the foot.

One counterargument that I could see for this is that the Pro League cosmetics (assuming the proceeds go to the teams and leagues) are a good thing. I do agree, but that’s just one tab in the shop so I’m going to take an educated guess that this shop is not there to solely fund the Pro League and its teams. I have not been able to find much information on what these deals entail, so we’ll leave that open to speculation.

Conclusion

Fortunately for 343, these issues are sitting on top of arguably one of the best multiplayer shooters of all time and definitely the best Halo in a decade. 343 have even publicly addressed the concerns about progression, which is good. But only time will tell if these issues are resolved. The good news is this is all optional, cosmetics will have no bearing on your performance, which is good.

I don’t think anybody would moan about a season pass either so that can be in there too, pack it to the rafters with content, put all the pro league teams cosmetics in there, and give an equal cut to all teams. Make it a no-brainer and totally pro-customer deal, this is Halo. It’s not some scrappy indie studio that needs the development funds, this is an industry-leading team with the backing of a trillion-dollar company and the face of their gaming division.

It’s a shame that this stuff is an issue, but the good news is you can pretty much ignore most of it and indulge in what is one of the best multiplayer sandboxes we’ve seen in quite some time!

More on that coming soon…

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