593: Halo Infinite

[JaySevenZero]

Here's where you can contribute your thoughts and opinions for Halo Infinite for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

A friendly reminder that where the feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but keeping it brief is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mostly reading out essays. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.

[Granny7989]

As of writing this, I haven’t played the multiplayer component of Halo Infinite.

Halo Infinite feels like a game where Microsoft and 343 are making a conscious effort to bringing the franchise back to an identity that fans are familiar with, while moving things forward in a way that still keep things fresh.

The gunplay feels solid, with weapons feeling quite distinct from one another. The open nature of Zeta Halo feels like you have room to experiment around with how you want to tackle different combat. The enemy AI feels smart in a way that makes sense and the friendly AI marines can hold their own in combat effectively, at least on heroic difficulty.

Aside from the open world design Halo Infinite decided to incorporate for the first time, the big new mechanic the game has included is the grapple hook. I was somewhat weary when the grapple hook was first shown off in previews until I got to play around with it myself. The grapple hook makes traversing around the open world so much fun, allowing you to zip distances quickly and traverse the steepest of cliff faces with relative ease. The grapple hook can be very handy in combat by smashing yourself into enemies.

The presentation of Halo Infinite is top notch. Jen Taylor’s performance made me want to keep pressing forward through the story to see how the relationship of her character, The Weapon, with the stoic Master Chief played out over the course of the game.

There are a few notable drawbacks that the game does have. The story hooks that were setup in Halo 5: Guardians have largely been binned off (for better or worse), most likely due to negative feedback from fans. It felt that there was little to no connecting story tissue between the events of this game and Halo 5: Guardians, so I was unclear on what led up to the events of Halo Infinite. The origins of The Banished are left largely unexplained to players, unless they had played Halo Wars 2, and the events that led up to the opening cutscene will likely leave many players scratching their heads with confusion. The collectible audio logs scattered across the map do very little to fill in the blanks. Perhaps this is evidence of the game’s story being reworked during development.

While the outside open areas of Zeta Halo various green lands and barren cliff faces, inside areas that were played during the story levels were a different matter. The inner Forerunner structures all had the same cold, metallic-grey look and feel to them. 343 do a good job of mixing up the level design, so it doesn’t feel you’re just playing a simple remix of the same corridors and rooms over and over. It would be nice to have some more visual variety those levels but I suspect this is another result of the turbulent development process the game went through.

Overall, I had a very fun time playing through Halo Infinite. The game takes a good step of trying to win back the fans of the 21 year old franchise by looking back at what made the Halo franchise so fun to play in first place. If Microsoft and 343 continue to make this upward trend for the Halo franchise, at least with the single player campaign, I look forward to see what they have next instore for us in the future.

[Tolkientaters]

Halo Infinite is a weird game, in some ways it feels like a return to form, in others it feels half baked.

For personal history I played all the Bungie Halo games well after they were released and loved them. I skipped 4 and 5 since I wasn't really enjoying what I played of them. So when Halo Infinite was announced was cautiously optimistic since it looked like it was mostly going back the fundamentals.

The gameplay itself feels fantastic, it's faster more frenetic, but still distinctly Halo. However you're going through very samey environments and missions alternating between a cool but repetitive open world and boring hallways for the other portion. There's not much in the way of setpieces, but the more open-ended nature of the gameplay almost makes up for that. Then it ends on another cliffhanger.

For the multiplayer, it was honestly the first multiplayer shooter to really hook me in ever, I got a late start to gaming in general, so I very rarely played online games, but Halo's formula just worked for me. Not being about to for specific game modes early wasn't great, but even with that, I just loved playing Halo Infinite when it came out.

It's a disappointing game because it feels like it has a lot of unrealized potential, but I played it more than any other game the year it came out and loved it.

[Iain[Ian]Ianson]

Some of the best shooting I’ve ever felt in a game.

But the vehicle physics being too twitchy, the world only having a single biome, no scarabs, and a slightly too formulaic open-world structure prevents this from reaching the heights of Halo 1 and 3 for me.

So close to greatness. I hope they get another shot at a big single player game again.

I played a few hours of the multiplayer (something I basically never do) and it was great.

So much so, that if and when I do get time to experiment with some online gaming again, this is literally the only modern game that comes to mind. I guess I’m lucky I don’t comprehend, let alone care about issues surrounding the game’s MP ‘meta’ setup. (I think I’m using that word correctly)

[Julia2000]

Halo Infinite's the best Halo game and I am tired of hearing otherwise..

The shootings never been better. Shock and Banished weapons add even more tactical depth while throwing fusion coils or parrying jackal shields with your grapple hook are phenomenal.

Halo's complex combat puzzles, punishing difficulty, and tactical AI are perfect for an open world.

For the first time, the story succesfully adds pathos and good character arcs while retaining the big budget action feel.

The visuals are crisp and punctuated beautifully with primary colors in an age of muted and fuzzy cinematic games.

The multi-player is endlessly dynamic and evolving. Not to mention the cat ears.

Oh there's not enough content to grind it like a second job? Who cares! It has the best grapple hook in gaming!

I rest my case.

[seansthomas]

Halo Infinite was my first proper Halo experience. I bought an Xbox to give the series a try and initially was in love with the campaign. The combat felt weighty, the traversal fluid, the vehicles fun and the world dynamic. Much of the first half of the campaign felt exciting and unpredictable.

But as the game went on, those icons on the map grew repetitive and the indoor levels paled in comparison. Reduced to a frustratingly claustrophobic corridor shooter, Halo Infinite is average at best with frustrating boss fights.

I moved onto multiplayer and for a month had a blast. I loved the Big Battle maps most but also found myself enjoying Oddball and Capture the flag. The user base seemed solid and no matter how good people were, I always felt like I played a part as a lesser player. Something that few shooters, bar Splatoon and Titanfall 2, get right.

But things went wrong, fast. The new Seasons brought little new. Cosmetic rewards were poor and convoluted. The under levelled casual newcomers like me swiftly became so few and far between, that we became target practise, often costing our team matches by merely daring to join in. And the campaign map that had huge gaping DLC sized holes in never saw them get filled.

Communication broke down online too and it became clear that despite having solid foundations and a great base game, Halo Infinite was being left to rot.

I followed the Twitter updates on Forge for months hoping it would reset the game. And it's telling that I didn't even know it had launched until I googled it tonight.

That just about sums up Infinite for me. A huge waste of potential for a game that briefly shone brightly.

[Alex79]

Halo Infinite came at the perfect time to put a full stop on my own personal Halo odyssey towards the end of 2021. Having never really played any of the games since the first one, I embarked on a full series playthrough and was amazed how much I enjoyed every single one of them. Infinite felt like a culmination of everything the series had done up to that point. The guns had never felt so good, and the world we had to play in, coupled with the new traversal mechanics meant endless fun, zipping around the map, popping off head shots. The campaign itself, I thought, was good. It's a shame it trails off towards the end and becomes a bit of a generic corridor shooter within quite bland internal areas, and some of the bosses were a bit frustrating, and the variation of enemies was quite low, but the positives outweigh the negatives for me. Spawning in Warthogs and tanks, taking over rallying points and the kinetic feel to the combat was all super awesome fun. I'd like to see them build on this formula, because although Halo Infinite was great, the next game could be incredible.

[seansthomas]

Halo Infinite was my first proper Halo experience. I bought an Xbox to give the series a try and initially was in love with the campaign. The combat felt weighty, the traversal fluid, the vehicles fun and the world dynamic. Much of the first half of the campaign felt exciting and unpredictable.

But as the game went on, those icons on the map grew repetitive and the indoor levels paled in comparison. Reduced to a frustratingly claustrophobic corridor shooter, Halo Infinite is average at best with frustrating boss fights.

I moved onto multiplayer and for a month had a blast. I loved the Big Battle maps most but also found myself enjoying Oddball and Capture the flag. The user base seemed solid and no matter how good people were, I always felt like I played a part as a lesser player. Something that few shooters, bar Splatoon and Titanfall 2, get right.

But things went wrong, fast. The new Seasons brought little new. Cosmetic rewards were poor and convoluted. The under levelled casual newcomers like me swiftly became so few and far between, that we became target practise, often costing our team matches by merely daring to join in. And the campaign map that had huge gaping DLC sized holes in never saw them get filled.

Communication broke down online too and it became clear that despite having solid foundations and a great base game, Halo Infinite was being left to rot.

I followed the Twitter updates on Forge for months hoping it would reset the game. And it's telling that I didn't even know it had launched until I googled it tonight.

That just about sums up Infinite for me. A huge waste of potential for a game that briefly shone brightly.

Tbf I went back to this a few nights ago and other than getting rinsed repeatedly on BTBattle I had a great evening. Even won a few games of Oddball.

The new Season also looks great

https://twitter.com/Halo/status/1629186 ... kzCiw&s=19