This introduction sequence is going to be a little more personal than usual, because the franchise we’re about to discuss played an important role in my life. I could just spew facts and give you a long history of what the franchise has been through, but I just think it’s best if I give you my take on what has gone down over the years. There have been several ups and downs, but what is here is a legacy that has gone down in history. Anyways, let’s talk about Halo and how long I’ve been a Halo fan for. You may find it surprising that I myself am a Halo fan when there have been numerous times in the past when I’ve stated how much I love the Playstation lineup and that Microsoft isn’t really doing all that much to compete with Sony and Nintendo. I’m not even a big Halo veteran as the time I got into the franchise was around the second half of 2017. My mind was being blown away by Breath of The Wild and Super Mario Odyssey, and my appreciation for video games was growing bigger by the days. I wanted to see all that I haven’t seen before. See the works of art that I have missed out the last ten years.
One of the key factors that got me to check out Halo was this internet web series I really enjoyed at the time. Found it out of the whim and watched all that was available within two weeks. A lot of Halo fans should know what this series is, because it’s one of the most influential series in internet culture. Red vs Blue, a machinima series that used in-game Halo assets to create funny yet dramatic shorts. The show has been going on since 2003 and continues to this very day as currently there are seventeen seasons and now a spinoff series. It’s crazy how a fun project made by a small team of adults evolved into a franchise now operated by a million dollar company. When I was younger I found this show to be funny and engaging. The writing was enough to pull me along until they started to throw time travel elements in, but I always wanted to see the source material that Red vs Blue was based off of. I knew what it was and the cultural impact it had, but never actually had any knowledge. One of my mother’s friends gifted us an Xbox One a year previously and it hasn’t been set up since until that very moment. I decided to create an account, update the console to the latest version, and buy myself a copy of The Master Chief Collection. A package containing all the Halo games from Halo: Combat Evolved to Halo 4. These games blew my mind at the time. I would spend dozens of hours playing through the campaigns, mastering the combat, and getting better each day. Halo soon got me to try out other popular first person shooters like Doom 4, Titanfall 2, Borderlands 2, and soon immersive-sims like BioShock and Prey. Some of these became my favorite games of all time, but I’ll always remember those fond memories of Halo and stepping out onto the ring for the first time. Discovering ancient technology, driving my warthog through explosions, bringing down a scarab, band playing as the Master Chief and Arbiter. It was great.
Halo was a legendary icon for the longest period of time, but the franchise witnessed a downfall later on. Before we dive into what that said downfall was, let's take a quick look back at all the hits. The first one we have is Halo: Combat Evolved which served as a selling point for Microsoft’s new console during the early 2000s. The Xbox is what they called it and to go along with it was a partnership project by Bungie who previously worked on the Marathon and Myth series. At first the original Halo was supposed to be a tactical shooter, but the project soon shifted towards a cinematic adventure that took place from the first-person perspective and showcased what the Xbox could do. First person shooters were mainly designated to PC at the time and any attempts to bring one the consoles was a failure, but Halo: Combat Evolved was the first to prove that shooters could work on consoles. Creating the controller layout we’re all familiar with today as well as design choices. Halo: Combat Evolved in my opinion was a flawed masterpiece. The story was amazing as what seemed like a simple plot to fight aliens set up the complex world building and universe. There was a nice mixture between open and closed fighting space, a variety of enemies with distinct attack patterns, and a combat loop that never got tiresome. All was stupendous, but due to hardware limitations the developers had to reuse levels for missions later on and some sections got repetitive with copy and pasted hallways. Halo: Combat Evolved was a massive success and helped get the Xbox out there. This soon led to the hype train and massive launch that was Halo 2 which continued the storyline, set a new standard for cinematic presentation in video games, and was the first console game to incorporate online multiplayer through the Xbox Live program. This then led to Halo 3 which served as a selling point for the new Xbox 360, had an even bigger launch and hype than Halo 2, and served as a finisher to the story which Bungie set up. This is where the Bungie story slowly came to an end. I never played ODST or Reach, but what I can tell you is that from what I’ve heard they both served as extensions to the universe. Halo Reach being Bungie’s goodbye letter as they departed from the Halo franchise to seek work elsewhere. They didn’t take Halo along with them, because Microsoft owned the rights to the franchise and could do whatever they wanted with it.
Bungie went on to make Destiny, and Microsoft needed a studio designed to continue making Halo games for them. Manufacture the main selling point for their consoles. They eventually did form a studio designed to develop Halo games, and that team was known as 343 Industries. This is where the story becomes a little upsetting to some of you. I believe 343 Industries is made up of compassionate developers who truly care about their work, but for the longest time they struggled to develop Halo games? Why is that what you wonder? It’s because the people who made Halo what it was were no longer around, and the team at 343 were struggling to understand what made the original games work. They were worried that Halo didn’t match up to the trends of other popular first person shooters at the time and that if they didn’t follow these trends then Halo would be lost to irrelevancy. Halo 4 was a beautiful mess. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t amazing either. The story tried to offer a more down to earth plot, but the rules of the universe set up by Bungie were completely broken and the newly added characters felt tasteless to the ones before. The game had some of the most poorly designed levels in the franchise, combat now faltered due to modern design choices, and multiplayer was now utterly unbalanced due to the loadout system. Halo 4 was bad, but what if I tell you it got much worse. Halo 5: Guardians…. was dogsh*t. Everything you love about Halo is gone. The story made absolutely no sense and left more questions than answers. The gameplay and combat, while better than Halo 4, was still kind of a mess and new mechanics were terribly implemented. The multiplayer was incomplete at launch and now all customization options were unlocked through randomly generated loot boxes. The marketing falsely advertised what would be here and there was even a point Microsoft insulted players who logically knew loot boxes would be a bad idea. Is this the worst game in the world? No. Is this the worst Halo game? Of course! 343 Industries really f*cked up when it came to Halo 5 and they had to think really carefully when stepping forward. They would have to take their time with a sixth game. They would have to do what no one expected from them. Understand what made Halo great from the first place and pay tribute.
Halo Infinite spent a long time in development. The reveal trailer came out during E3 2018 and gave off a lot of ideas of what could possibly happen. 343 Industries was hinting that Halo would go for a more open approach close to a sandbox, and that they move towards an art style similar to the one Bungie had. Another year passes and 343 Industries reveals another trailer showing what the story would be about. Going back to the simple approach which Bungie had for their stories and ditching whatever confusing ideas that Halo 4 & 5 formed. Another year passes and we finally get to see some gameplay. Turns out Halo Infinite was going for the open world approach, but the gameplay was going back to the structure which the Bungie games had. Only incorporating ideas they knew would actually work and implementing them well. Halo Infinite was shaping up to be great, but a lot of troubling issues popped up during development. Noticed the amount of time it took to showcase information on the story and gameplay. How the original creative director got fired not even halfway through development. How when the gameplay was revealed they had to delay the game to fix elements players saw during the footage. How the game was delayed even more due to the size and scope of the project, and how the developers were struggling to figure out what to f*cking do. Halo Infinite could be amazing, but it could be terrible if the execution were to go poorly. Eyebrows were raised at Halo Infinite and its rocky development cycle until something amazing happened. Joseph Staten, who previously worked at Bungie and on the original three games, came back to be the main director on Halo Infinite. Someone with actual knowledge on the series was willing to spearhead the project towards success. After more than three years from the original reveal trailer Halo Infinite finally came out. Was it any good? No. It was better than good. Halo Infinite luckily lived up to expectations and reminded us all what made Halo brilliant from the first. It’s not perfect, but we finally have a game that is as good as the originals. The campaign is exciting, the combat is well designed, the multiplayer goes back to its competitive arena roots, and the king gets to stand tall once again. Halo is back, baby! I’m really excited to type this review, because this was a highly anticipated title for me. It lived up in so many ways. While I do have problems, which I’ll address, my enjoyment wasn’t dragged down as what was done right was done incredibly well. This is the most fun I had in a very long time and I want you all to understand why. Today we’ll be talking about Halo Infinite and why it deserves your attention.
Story
We follow the Master Chief, a super soldier manufactured by the UNSC to protect mankind by going out on dangerous missions and stopping alien threats that even our basic military can’t handle by themselves. World peace has been obtained years ago, and mankind pushes forward with each technological invitation and the determination to explore worlds far beyond our own. During this time, one of the many smartest minds on earth comes up with the idea to create the strongest warriors the world has ever seen. This group would be composed of children highly skilled since birth, and they would secretly be taken away from their families and replaced with genetic clones. The children would go through harsh training exercises and experimentation that would alter their bodies. A good chunk of these children didn’t survive the treatment, but the ones who did became the first generation of Spartans. The idea of the world’s strongest warriors that Dr. Halsey had in mind. Some of these Spartans were sent out on dangerous missions and fought with the army, and others were stored in cryosleep so that during stressful situations they could be woken up to fight again. One of the Spartans stored in cryogenic containment was 117. John, otherwise known to many as the Master Chief. He’s considered one of the best Spartans to be created by Halsey. Unbearable strength, unthinkable reaction speed, and the ability to show perseverance on the battlefield. Future generations of Spartans were created, but none of them could ever match up to John and his skills. The Master Chief has been a killing machine ever since he was abducted as a child. Willing to finish the fight till the very end.
Mankind explored the depths of space and soon they stumbled upon these massive rings floating in space. These rings contained life and buried beneath the landscape was ancient technology that once belonged to an alien race far beyond mankind’s current advancement. These aliens were known as the Forerunners and they controlled all life in the universe. They were the first race to invent teleportation and studied all life across the universe. One of the species they discovered during their research was The Flood, a parasitic species which feeds off other living organisms and multiplied like crazy. The Forerunners tried to contain the Flood, but control was lost and the Flood found their way to other planets. The only way to kill the Flood was to eliminate their only food source. The food source being all life in the universe. The Forerunners then created the Halo Rings, structures when activated will eliminate all life in the nearby vicinity. DNA samples were collected from the species of each planet, and when the time was right these species were manufactured and repopulated their planets. The Forerunners came up with a genius plan to save all which existed, but it wasn’t enough to eradicate the Flood entirely as their leader, The Gravemind, was always one step ahead. The Forerunners would slowly die out, but to take over they invented Monitors which would maintain the Halo Rings. One of numerous species was chosen to take over if the Forerunners died and surprisingly it was mankind. No one on earth knew as no one had discovered the Halo Rings, but one race of aliens did and they were extremely mad. The Covenant, a religious society composed of numerous races. The Prophets, the ones who led the Covenant, were mad that mankind was selected and decided to go to all out war with them. This was one of the few reasons that the UNSC created the Spartans and war would rage on for the next few years. I’m not sure if this is entirely accurate as I mainly pay attention to ingame stuff, but I think I got it right.
John was awakened years later to fight against the Covenant and to help him along his journey was an AI created by Halsey. She’s a direct copy of Halsey and her purpose is to provide key knowledge on Forerunner technology and help win the fight against the Covenant. Her name was Cortana and she’s been on the Master Chief’s side for the longest time. Together they explored the Halo Rings, fought against Covenant forces, teamed up with unlikely allies, and eventually won the war and brought peace for a while. It was during the third game that they got separated from the UNSC and were left to drift into the depths of space. The UNSC assumed that the two of them were dead, but what happened was that John found a cryosleep sleep pod and decided to put himself in it until he made contact with mankind again. Flash forward a few years and John is awakened by Cortana to find they are drifting towards what appears to be a sentient planet. Okay, so blah blah blah, Didact, blah blah blah, Cortana has to be destroyed because she’s past her expiration. Blah blah blah, Cortana sacrifices herself to save John, blah blah blah, and turns out she is actually alive. Cortana becomes evil and decides to lead an AI revolution against all life in the galaxy. John tries to reason with her, but she refuses as John is left alone. The UNSC reconnect with The Master Chief and trace down where Cortana could have headed next.
This leads us to present day events. The UNSC found out that Cortana went to Zeta Halo to reactivate the technology within it. They get ready to land close to the ring, but are attacked by a group of exiled Covenant members known as The Banished. Their leader, Atriox, wishes to get revenge on the society which ditched them, and to do that he decides to lead a war against the UNSC. He attacks the UNSC vessel stationed near Zeta Halo and enters a gruesome fight against the Master Chief. The two clash together, but ultimately Atriox wins and kills everyone aboard the ship. Throwing the Master Chief into space and slowly freezing him with his suit. Six months pass and we cut to a surviving UNSC pilot stashed away in one of pelicans which survived the attack. The pelican is in complete shape, but there is no power meaning the pilot cannot contact any possible help. Plus he’s drifting nearby Zeta Halo where the Banished have stationed themselves and are still looking for any human survivors. The pilot is afraid that he will never get to see his family again and that he’ll die a slow and lonely death, but he then picks up a signal outside the pelican. Someone has come to rescue him. Then it turns out the pilot has found someone to rescue. An individual who could help him survive and get back home. The Chief. He brings the Master Chief into the pelican and by attaching power cords to his suit he is not only able to awaken the Chief, but repower the pelican and give it the energy it needs to fly away. However, this then activates a signal and the Banished pop up nearby to attack. The pilot begins to panic, but then he remembers that The Master Chief is there. Chief brings down the Banished nearby until their current general Escharum, who took over after the death of Atriox, notices the Chief is alive and sends his forces to hunt him down. This leads the pilot and Chief to escape towards Zeta Halo and discover that UNSC soldiers have survived the fight and seeked refuge. Not only that, but an AI manufactured to hunt down Cortana had also survived and could possibly help them bring down the Banished. This AI is named The Weapon, an exact replica of Cortana which was supposed to be eradicated once her duty was fulfilled. That duty is to help destroy Cortana. However, Cortana was destroyed through other means and The Weapon was left alone for months waiting for someone to arrive. The Weapon is then found by the Master Chief and she reveals that Cortana died from an unknown cause. The Banished are attempting to reactivate the technology on the ring and they have awakened an entity to help them with their plans. The Harbinger, once part of a race known as The Endless and enemies to the Forerunners. The Master Chief will team up with the Weapon and pilot to fight against the Endless, defeat Escharum and the Harbinger, and stop them from possibly activating Zeta Halo. The Chief will push through and maybe even remind himself why he keeps fighting. What gives him purpose?
Gameplay
Halo is one of the most influential video games ever made in that it created a majority of the design trends we see in modern first person shooters. It is the one of the three godfathers of the genre alongside Doom and Half-Life, and thanks to that it understands each idea mostly well. It forged these ideas from flames, so it needed to have an understanding of how to execute it well to be good in the first place. You run around each area pursuing objectives, but ultimately you’’ be doing a lot of fighting in between. Combat mainly revolves around gunfights and there are lots of weapons to utilize on the battlefield. However, you can only carry two weapons at a time and your weapons have limited amounts of ammo. This might be restricted to some, but what this does is create reasons for the player to run around and swap between weapons along the ground. Kill an enemy and obtain the weapon they were just using.
Every weapon in Halo is unique in that they each have their own firing rates, range, and properties. Some weapons possess similar qualities, but one may be better than the other during certain occasions. For example, two weapons that I think perform similar to each one another are the assault rifle and commando rifle. Both are automatic rifles which fire rapidly when you hold down on the trigger. Where it differs is that the assault rifle is much faster, has a wider spread, and is good for laying down suppressing fire onto a group. Whereas the commando rifle fires much slower, but has lead spread and is good for dealing heavy damage to a single enemy. You have the pistol, shotgun, rocket launcher, sniper rifle, battle rifle, and many other weapons. These are just the human made weapons which I’m talking about as there are also alien weapons. Guns manufactured by the Covenant and now utilized by the Banished. Where human and alien weapons differ is that human weapons tend to be slower but deal more physical damage, and alien weapons fire faster and are good for eliminating shields. Some alien weapons don’t have to be reloaded like human weapons, but can overheat and must be vented to continue firing. You have the plasma repeater, the needle, the shock rifle, the skewer, the ravager, and melee weapons like the energy sword and gravity hammer which one shot a majority of enemies up close. Every weapon is just great and the impact they have when landing a shot on an enemy feels powerful.
There is a wide variety of enemies in Halo Infinite and depending on how they are paired you will fight differently. Grunts are really easy to kill, but when paired in a huge group with a stronger foe they can be annoying. Elites can move as easily as you and can hide from fire. Brutes have layers of armor that must be picked apart and wield heavy weaponry to mow you down. Skimmers fly around crazily with long range weaponry, jackals hide from afar with sniping equipment, hunters slam you into the ground but their weak spots are exposed from behind, and the sentinels melt you with lasers but are generally weak to their own weapons. Terrain could also affect how you fight as you may have an open field to work in, tight corridors where you must fight carefully, or cliffs that lead to bottomless pits you fall into. Before you could just blast away at foes and get the job done easily, but now you must consider how you go into a fight and whether the threat you face is fair. This is why Halo gets modern shooter design right. It makes you think strategically despite there being restrictive conditions.
We still need to talk about why modern shooter design is kind of terrible. Halo influenced a change in pace for first person shooters, but it also influenced some design choices which made first person shooters less fun to play. Rather than have a health bar you instead have a recharging shield and when this shield is down you can easily be killed. This then requires the player to hide from enemy fire for a bit until this shield goes back up. This conditions the player to fight carefully, but it conditions them to fight like a coward and never keep the rhythm of a fight up. The two weapon limit does get the player to scour the battlefield for other weapons, but it means they can’t really get creative and when they are low on ammunition they are utterly screwed. Weapon reloading also tends to disrupt the flow of a fight as well, because you are easily exposed when reloading. Your movement speed is limited, but you run around the battlefield to other vantage points. When sprinting you can’t reload or fire your weapon which disrupts the flow of combat as well especially during clusterf*ck fights. Doom Eternal just showed me everything wrong with modern shooter design, so when I went back to Combat Evolved a few months ago I found it genuinely hard. It wasn’t impossible, but I’ve accommodated myself to a faster, more aggressive playstyle. A playstyle that rewards quick reaction and skill. You can’t make a modern shooter fast and aggressive without having removed the elements it already has. The only modern first person shooter that has gotten close to that mixture was Titanfall 2. Oh yeah, by the way you should all go and play Titanfall 2 because the campaign is still masterclass.
Halo Infinite had a lot of these problems facing forward and it would be pretty difficult to make an aggressive first person shooter while keeping these modern design choices. Well guess what. They did somehow make it work and it was thanks to some new additions that Halo is faster and more engaging than ever. You can reload while sprinting now, and the general walk speed has now been sped up. Hit detection is much more forgiving in Halo Infinite and you won’t even have to use iron sights that much. The biggest addition that really speeds up the combat of Halo is the grappling hook. It allows you to zip around the environment at high speeds and there are two surfaces you can grapple towards. The first of course are solid surfaces like the ground or wall. The second are enemies and you can unlock an upgrade which stuns enemies when you grapple onto them. This opens up a lot of options during combat. You could use the environment to your advantage and out move dangerous projectiles. Lay fire down upon an enemy and rather than having to reload you can just zip close towards them and melee their face into oblivion. Grapple towards a cover point when your shield is down, or grapple yourself towards an enemy and steal their seat. Thanks to the verticality of the levels you are encouraged to zips towards multiple directions. There’s another factor about the grappling hook which changes up combat. Weapons can be grappled towards you and equipped. This is a genius design choice. When you are low on ammunition you usually have to run around the battlefield to swap it for another. Leaving you heavily exposed. Now you can zip a weapon towards you and use that instead. Allowing you to continue pressuring the enemy. There’s another new addition which makes the grappling hook fun which are the explosive barrels. These are lying around everything and when thrown they can deal one of many damage types depending on their color. However, they still explode and deal heavy damage to an enemy. They are not only useful for breaking the armor of a powerful foe or eliminating a group, but are a great last second choice if you run out of ammunition or need to break up a fight before reloading. A lot of people have been recently saying grappling hooks make video games better and in reality it depends. Doom Eternal made the grappling hook work in that you can build up tons of speed, but it was designated to one weapon and it could only be used on enemies. Halo Infinite probably implemented the grappling hook the best and it’s one of my favorite mechanics to use.
Let’s now address the elephant in the room. Halo transitioned towards the open world format and now missions are located across huge mileages of the map. This isn’t a colossal open world though as each area is divided into small segments, and each are the size of one of the open ended areas of let’s say Metro Exodus or The Outer Worlds. You could pursue the main mission, but there are also tons of side objectives and activities to find along the way. There are FOBs scattered around the map and they are all under the control of the Banished. By eliminating them you can access an FOB, reveal other objectives within the area, and unlock a checkpoint which can be used to bring in specific human weapons you may want to use or call in vehicles. Better weapons and vehicles are unlocked using Valor which is a currency you can accumulate across your journey. The main way you collect Valor is by helping marines stranded in a busy fight, clearing out Banished outposts, or killing high priority targets which come in the form of boss enemies. These are variant forms of regular enemies and they have tons of health, but they often guard variant forms of alien weapons which can be summoned through the FOBs. It’s really nice stuff. The only thing I would change is that high priority targets should have been individuals you went on the hunt for. Trace down clues and figure out where they were last. It would have also been cooler that if a high priority target defeats you they then relocate, and maybe they could have incorporated a hierarchy system similar to the one if Shadow of Mordor. However, these are dreams and trying to program that into Halo Infinite would be difficult. Plus I’m pretty sure Warner Bros own the rights to a game mechanic so that’s just plain stupid. Other than that these objectives are pretty fun. There are also audio logs scattered across the world and upgrade points known as Spartan Cores. These can be used to upgrade your equipment. Changing the rate you use them and how fast they recharge. One I recommend getting as quickly as possible is the rate your grappling hook recharges. This opens up a lot of the fun. Besides that there really isn’t much else to say. Halo Infinite is a fun game and the design choices implemented work. Hopefully you can defeat the Banished and figure out what exactly happened to Cortana.
Thoughts
Halo Infinite is an incredibly fun time and in some cases it exceeded my expectations. I know some players were disappointed and are angry with how 343 Industries are treating this game right now, but trust me when I say this might be my favorite first person shooter of the generation. I don’t know if I love this more than Doom Eternal, which was my previous favorite FPS, but it has come close. It’s just fun and fun is what I look for in video games. Plus it does a better job accommodating players in. The combat is good and we’ve already discussed enough as to why it’s good. Every weapon feels great to use and thanks to the open world you now have more space to work with and options to utilize during combat. Due to the generous amount of weapons provided at all times I never felt like I was low on ammunition or felt completely screwed when I ran out. The grappling hook opens up a slew of movement options and since enemies are more aggressive now it means you’ll have to be more on your tippy toes now. Reacting faster than you would have before in any of the previous Halo games. Any modern design choices like reloading, springing, and the two weapon restrictions are now eliminated thanks to the new mechanics.
I’ve been gushing about how good the combat is, but how is Halo Infinite at the open world transition? The open world…. is okay. It’s not terrible and I still had a fun time traversing it. The environments are absolutely gorgeous and we now get to witness the wildlife on the Halo Rings. Walking across the world is peaceful at times and this offers down time in between the amount of fighting you’ll be doing. Each side objective is actually fun and at least Halo Infinite doesn’t suffer from open world bloat compared to other entries in the genre. Everything was extremely well thought out, but I never really felt encouraged to explore. You may be wondering, “Then why did you pursue the side objectives then?” It was usually because they were on the way to the next mission point and they are really not that hard to miss. Yet, something must be done right for me to encounter the side objectives more easily compared to other open worlds. Maybe the developers just wanted you to witness the most during the ten hour run time. Whatever the case they did a good job. It’s also not that hard to traverse the world due to its size, the fact your grappling hook lets you zip across, and how convenient vehicles become later on. Spartan Cores are the only thing that are easy to miss, but I never really found myself seeking them as most of the gear you earn outside the grappling hook is useless. You may want them to get the first few upgrades for your grappling hook, but it doesn’t cost all that much and can be obtained within the first two hours. The dash is kind of useful, but the scanner which reveals invisible enemies is useless as you can see their outlines and the shield you pull up is also useless when you can just grapple hook to a cover point and use that instead. Boss fights are also kind of bad. They are still fun to fight, but some of them aren’t really well balanced. One moment you are having an engaging fight against a high priority target. The next you may pull out a powerful weapon and then watch their corpse fly across the air.
The biggest discussion of them all for Halo Infinite is the story. 343 Industries became infamous from how bad the storylines were for their previous games and speculations were high now that they went for a more traditional story close to the original games. My opinion is that the story is great, it’s still not as good as the Bungie games, but 343 Industries have come close to nailing the magic the original stories had. I did enjoy that Halo 4 had a more down to earth plot, but it could have used better execution among all the junk floating along with it. Here they really make you care about The Master Chief. His companions keep wondering how he is doing during all these stressful situations and how his last mission evolved around killing his Ai companion. He’s this stone cold warrior who expresses no emotions at all and is constantly reminded of how he was taken at a young age and manufactured into a weapon. He has no friends, no family, and no happy memories in the slightest. His closest friend was an artificial intelligence which lived in his head for years and then died. He expresses nothing at all, but deep down he is not fine. He is sad, broken, and completely fractured by everything he has been through. Despite all this though he continues fighting. Why does he fight when the government practically ripped out his soul? Well it’s one scene in particular where I think they nail it well. It’s a little cringey, but I got the idea they were trying to convey. A lot of people complain the pilot character is kind of pointless and all he does is scream at you, but if you take the time to understand his viewpoint it makes sense. The pilot is aware that in every story, especially the shooter campaign, everything around the protagonist gets obliterated whether they are on their side or side. The pilot wants to get the f*ck out of there immediately because he knows the longer they stay in enemy territory the faster they will possibly die. John insists on fighting, but the pilot reminds John one thing. He isn’t like him. He wasn’t a super soldier manufactured for war. He’s just a human being trying to survive with the little strength he has left. That’s what makes the pilot work. He reminds John, the Master Chief, that the reason he fights is to protect mankind. It doesn’t matter how down he feels. He continues to do the right thing no matter how bad the scenario gets. That’s what I love about this story. It got a down to earth theme done right! The story is also filled with a lot of epic moments and it does a great job hyping you up for what possibly happens next. It doesn’t overstay its welcome as the game should last six to ten hours which is good.
There are complaints which I have with the story and they are the reasons why 343 Industries almost matched the originals. One of the newly added characters, The Weapon, acts as your replacement for Cortana . She has no knowledge of the world and is discovering what makes life so majestic. Where Cortana and The Weapon differs is that Cortana was a highly intelligent character who knew when to deliver smart lines at the right moment. Meanwhile the Weapon has to constantly blurt out the most obvious information and she gets more annoying as time goes on. This is made even worse how she constantly states what you have to do during gameplay and chaotic fights. 343 Industries also still don’t know how to write villains. Atriox, Escharum, and The Harbinger do enough to make you want to revolt against them, but they don't do quite enough to make you intrigued by them. Compare that to the Prophets of Truth, The Gravemind, or how The Arbiter made you understand someone from the enemy side. Only for him to then join the good guys and make you cheer even more. The villains are bad, they aren’t terrible, they are just written really poorly.
Other than that Halo Infinite is an amazing game. The campaign was incredibly fun and there’s even more fun to be had with the multiplayer. Which is being sold alone for free and you don’t even need an Xbox Live subscription to access it. I found this very welcoming and now more players can witness the sheer amount of joy Halo has to offer. However, it’s a shame that the multiplayer is lacking content at the moment.Game modes that should have been added earlier still aren’t there, and sadly there’s still a micro economy where cosmetics are earned. 343 should have been updating the game these last few months, but they haven’t and all support has been going to side products unrelated to Halo Infinite. Season two for the multiplayer is coming up soon and with it comes new content. I really hope the multiplayer gets better in the future, because what is there already is actually great. I don’t think 343 Industries are terrible, but I'm afraid where to take things. A majority of multiplayer shooters have fallen to modern fads for the sake or relevancy, and I think 343 Industries are struggling to avoid the temptation of following relevancy. People want a battle royale well f*ck them! Not that I mind a battle royale mode, but the base multiplayer has to be good for the battle royale mode to be a success. The Act Man said it best when he addressed this months ago during the debate. Sixty dollars seems like a lot for Halo Infinite, but thankfully it’s available on Xbox Game Pass for consoles and PC. Meaning everyone should have an easier time affording Halo Infinite. In the end this game deserves a score of 8.5/10 for being pretty good. I just said I really love this game, but gave it an average score so why is that? Well 8.5 isn’t a bad score. It means I really love a game, but finds some obvious flaws with. Horizon Forbidden West was a flawed experience, but my overall enjoyment was great. I strongly recommend Halo Infinite as this is some of the best stuff the shooter scene has seen for a longtime. Thank you for reading my review. It means a lot.
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