Halo Infinite

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ratsoalbion
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Re: Halo Infinite

Post by ratsoalbion »

Exactly that, right from the off, yes.
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KissMammal
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Re: Halo Infinite

Post by KissMammal »

You can tell this was a troubled development
Honestly, for such an allegedly troubled development (I was hearing disastrous rumours up until fairly recently) it's pretty amazing how polished the end product is.

I had some initial doubts about the gameplay, but I'm a decent way into the campaign now and am really enjoying it. The bosses are a bit meh - bosses in FPS games always seem to end up just being bullet sponges and this is no exception.
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KissMammal
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Re: Halo Infinite

Post by KissMammal »

What difficulty are people playing on? I read a Kotaku article saying that 'Normal' in Infinite was equivalent to 'Heroic' in a regular Halo game, so I'm playing on Normal, but I've found it to be a bit of a pushover so far. Kind of regret not starting on Heroic as I originally intended.
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Scrustle
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Re: Halo Infinite

Post by Scrustle »

I've been playing on Normal and it's been a decent challenge but not excessively hard either. I still die every so often. I'm not the best at shooters but I wouldn't say I'm bad at them either. As I've been replaying Halo 1 at the same time as this, I've found they are a similar level of challenge both at Normal, but Infinite is probably a smoother experience. There are less moments where I feel like I just get blindsided out of nowhere and instantly killed in a cheap way, but going up against bosses usually takes several tries. Plenty of non-boss encounters have taken a few attempts as well, but they usually feel more fair than the pain points of 1.
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KissMammal
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Re: Halo Infinite

Post by KissMammal »

I find the regular enemies to be a bit of pushover - I generally only die when I get too cocky and push my luck, and even then it's pretty rare. Though to be fair, I've reached the point in the campaign where I've got to activate the four beacon thingies and the set piece encounters are getting a little more challenging.

The thing that puts me off switching to Heroic is that the bosses and the tougher enemies like the HVTs, ultra elites and hunters would probably be an absolute nightmare, so in that way I'd argue that it's perhaps a little less balanced than the original Halo. Hunters in particular seem much harder to fight in Infinite, the old tactic of getting around them and one-shotting with a pistol doesn't really seem to work any more.

It feels very 'off' that getting stuck with a grenade is no longer an instant kill.... But I guess with the sheer volume of enemies it would get annoying pretty quickly.
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Scrustle
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Re: Halo Infinite

Post by Scrustle »

The pistol tactic with Hunters was always kind of an exploit in the original. The pistol wasn't meant to be as powerful as it was, that got slipped by at the last moment by some sneaky programmer. Apart from that method Hunters have always been hard, as they have been in other games. I think the dodge booster thing is supposed to be the tool you use for them in Infinite to get around them. Using any other of the special abilities other than the grappling hook is admittedly a bit awkward though.

I don't mind getting stuck not being an instant kill. That's the kind of thing that does feel cheap to me. There's nothing you can really do about getting stuck, it's just the game randomly deciding it's going to kill you at that moment.
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KissMammal
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Re: Halo Infinite

Post by KissMammal »

The pistol tactic with Hunters was always kind of an exploit in the original. The pistol wasn't meant to be as powerful as it was, that got slipped by at the last moment by some sneaky programmer.
For real? I've never heard that - always just assumed that the pistol is as powerful as it is because its supposed to be an equal to every other weapon in the game and not 'just' a pistol (as opposed to shooting games in general where the pistol is traditionally the 'worst' weapon). Regardless, what I meant was actually getting behind the Hunters in the first place seems a lot tougher - they deal so much damage that getting close enough to try and jump/boost around them generally results in death.

Agree about the abilities. It's a little too much. Likewise the grenades (which IIRC there are 4 types of now). 2 is plenty.
I don't mind getting stuck not being an instant kill. That's the kind of thing that does feel cheap to me. There's nothing you can really do about getting stuck, it's just the game randomly deciding it's going to kill you at that moment.
Not sure I'd fully agree - it can be frustrating, but I tend to find that I generally only get stuck with a grenade when I let my guard down and am not moving fast enough - you usually get plenty of advance warning.
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Scrustle
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Re: Halo Infinite

Post by Scrustle »

KissMammal wrote: December 17th, 2021, 12:47 am
I don't mind getting stuck not being an instant kill. That's the kind of thing that does feel cheap to me. There's nothing you can really do about getting stuck, it's just the game randomly deciding it's going to kill you at that moment.
Not sure I'd fully agree - it can be frustrating, but I tend to find that I generally only get stuck with a grenade when I let my guard down and am not moving fast enough - you usually get plenty of advance warning.
I can see that argument, but I think just getting the majority of your health getting taken down is punishment enough for that. If you get stuck because you're over-extending there's a good chance you've already lost a lot of health before that happens anyway, so there's still the possibility of that stick being the thing that ends you.

But then there are moments where it just comes out of nowhere and there's nothing you can do about it. Like I noticed in playing it recently in the last level of Halo 1 there's an Elite who hides around a corner and seems to be programmed to instantly throw a grenade as you as soon as you appear. You can't see it coming if you don't know it's there, and he seems to have a knack for sticking you perfectly every time. That didn't feel fair to me.

---

I have a bit of an update on the general topic of difficulty too. As I've got further in to Infinite I think the game is harder than the first after all. Having started it earlier, I was further through Halo 1 than Infinite, so I was comparing later parts of the former to earlier parts of the latter. I'm currently at that same point of collecting those four beacons in Infinite, and I am finding myself dying rather a lot. More frequently than perhaps any point in 1. It's still usually because I've done something dumb and pushed too far, so I'm not feeling bad about it though.

But I don't think it's as hard as Heroic in 1 either. I actually started my run of that game in Heroic, as for all the times I've played the game I've never done higher than Normal, and I always heard how Heroic is supposed to be how it's "meant" to be played. But I didn't get very far before hitting a brick wall. Got myself stuck at a choke point where I was pinned down and had no health, and I simply couldn't progress. It wasn't fun, so I just dropped it down again. So far Infinite has had nothing like that. Probably because of the more open nature.
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KissMammal
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Re: Halo Infinite

Post by KissMammal »

Finished the game just before Christmas and am now going through it again on Heroic. Honestly, I kinda wish I had just gone with Heroic for the first run through - and at the rate I'm going through it I don't think a solo Legendary run is out of the question.

As to my earlier point about vehicles being redundant - I'd go back on that somewhat and suggest that tohugh they can feel restrictive in terms of traversal, they're actually way overpowered in combat - a fully loaded Razorback with Marines equipped with power weapons will steamroll pretty much any objective in 10 seconds flat.

The fully upgraded grappleshot is also ludicrously overpowered - to an almost game-breaking degree. Fun to use, but it just makes mincemeat of pretty much any enemy and all but makes the regular melee and grenades feel redundant.

Overall, there's a lot of room for improvement but I absolutely love this game . I have some quibbles, but in terms of what really matters - the moment to moment gameplay - it's a triumph. Fulfills the promise of the original Halo like none of the other sequels managed. I can't wait to see what they do with the sequel.
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