In the end, it’s hard not to love Halo Infinite, which is easily the most complete game in a franchise that’s long set the bar for gaming. There’s just nothing like playing through an adventure as the Master Chief.
Like many, I’m sad that Halo Infinite doesn’t offer cooperative multiplayer at launch, if only because it’s been a bulwark of the series’ identity. It’s a disappointing omission, but I have to judge the game before me, not the features I wish might be there. And by that measure, Halo Infinite is a rousing success. Whether you want a big, mysterious sci-fi adventure or a chance to engage with some intense PvP, Halo Infinite nails the shots where it counts and heralds a new era for one of gaming’s most recognizable mainstays.
Taking both single and multiplayer as a whole, Halo Infinite marks a return to form for a franchise that is in desperate need of one. Its open-world may feel a tad formulaic, but it also houses plenty of emergent gameplay opportunities while continuing to offer huge set-pieces…Multiplayer battle pass progression aside, playing with friends in Halo Infinite feels closer to the glory days of Halo 3 than ever. If you'd been concerned based on prior showings, you can put those concerns to rest – Halo is back, and it might just be better than ever.
Often we're reminded of one of the oldest, simplest examples of Halo's sandbox: what happens when one grenade is applied to an unexploded stack of its peers. A cascade of possibilities, all these tiny moments of pleasure bouncing off of one another in a way that could never be fully scripted in advance. [Issue#367, p.98]
Master Chief has returned, but our adventures on Zeta Halo left us with mixed feelings. The gameplay is truly phenomenal and the grapple hook, in particular, steals the show. But the game is, after an extra year of development, still not finished. The single-player is not memorable, the surroundings are repetitive and the game is on a technical level very unpolished. While we have a tremendous amount of fun with the multiplayer, 343 Industries just doesn’t meet the mark with this Halo installment.
My favorite Halo game since Reach. The combat and graphics are so freaking good. Feels great to play and the multiplayer has gotten way more content since launch. If you haven’t played it for a while I recommend you jump back in and give it another go. One of the best Halo games ever. The fact the multiplayer is free is icing on the cake.
I haven't put a review out on here for some time, but there are some things so maddening about Halo Infinite, i felt compelled to write this review.. and before anyone accuses me of being a Sony Fanboy, i game primarily on Xbox.
As a massive Halo fan ever since the original game on the original Xbox, i was looking forward to this game early on, despite not knowing much about it, and with the promise from 343 that they wouldn't make the mistake of omitting Split screen again after that mistake and backlash in Halo 5, i was looking forward to the release of Infinite, but things happening with this game have all but ruined it for me, hence the very low score.
First, there was the lacklustre graphics in the gameplay reveal, making 343 and Xbox delay the game another year to polish it and keep working on it, which i was all for, and granted, it does look a lot better than then.
The two key things that ruined this game for me however, was revealed before release, and that was that the game was going no release with no only split screen missing, despite their statement that they had learned from their mistakes in this area, but it also would not have Co-Op at all on release out of the box?! This in itself is unforgivable for Halo, especially after a year long delay, and should never have rushed out and released without such fundamental features. This alone had pretty much ruined the excitment i had for this game, and then i was surprised when it got even worse, when i found out just before the game released, when i discovered that the physical version of the game isn't at all what it should be, and that is to say it seems to have pretty much nothing on the disk itself, no PvP or even campaign is installable from the disk?! It has to be installed online and can't be installed from the disk, meaning you do not have a standalone game from the disk itself, and you cannot install the game unless you are online and connected to Xbox live, even if you have the disk!.. To those that download their games, this won't mean anything, but to those who value physical ownership og a game, and the ability to install it without having to rely on online or a service, and want to be able to install it years down the line without internet and service reliance, this is a very big deal indeed, and this is one of the key, if not main reasons people buy their games on physical media.. This will be the first Halo in the entire series that you cannot own physically, and this is a worrying trend if Xbox is willing to treat and release it's flagship series in such a way..
This decision by Xbox/343, has pretty much made buying the game on disk pretty pointless and redundant, with the disk merely being an online activation key, this is not what people buy physical for, and a lot of people are going to be disappointed and angry, and i am one of of them, because i have wasted my money buying a disk that doesn't even have the game on it?! Sewriously, i may as well have played it on Gamepass and saved my money, and if i knew then what i know now, i would have not bought it, and frankly i feel completely cheated and want a refund for my disk with essentially nothing on it, most of it had to be installed from online when the game released anyway, and wouldn't work without it, don't fall into the trap i did and buy it on disk, because owning it on disk is pointless, for the reasons i explained.
What makes this even more saddening, is that the game actually feels and plays well, but the other things have just ruined the whole thing for me, and yes, while the game does play well, the enviroment in the game is very one tone, or i should say two tone, because there is only two things you will see in this game, the same old grass, rocks, hills and sporadic sprinkling of trees and structures, or the similar looking indoor bits, there is no enviromental diversity throughout the whole game, which gets old quite fast, which wouldn't be so bad if the campaign was particularly interesting,. but it just isn't, it's possibly as weak or even weaker than Halo 5's, and that's saying something...
I always expected this game to play well, it's Halo, in fact the combat feels better than any other game in the series (the driving feels a little off for some reason though), but Halo is about far more than that, it's about it's universe, story, lore and game features such as Co-Op and split-screen, and and its lite on the former and completely absent of the split screen and Co-Op. Yes, they say they are putting Split screen and Co-Op in in half a year or mores, time, but we only have their word on that, and even then, people will have played the game by then, many people wanted to share their first play through with others in Co-Op, and 343 have denied their players this experience. In fact, i am so disappointed and angry with how 343 have shipped this game, i think it's about time Xbox gave Halo to a new develop
SummaryWhen all hope is lost and humanity’s fate hangs in the balance, the Master Chief is ready to confront the most ruthless foe he’s ever faced. Begin anew and step inside the armor of humanity’s greatest hero to experience an epic adventure and finally explore the scale of the Halo ring itself.