Overview: Halo Infinite – Destructoid

It’s good to have the Chief again

So I’ve talked about my intensive historical past with Halo already in our Halo Infinite multiplayer assessment. That is the primary main Halo recreation in six years, let’s get proper into it!

Halo Infinite (PC, Xbox One, Xbox Collection X/S [reviewed on an Xbox Series X])
Developer: 343 Industries
Writer: Microsoft
Launched: December 8, 2021
MSRP: $60 (Included with Recreation Move)

After Halo 5, Grasp Chief is rescued and resuscitated from the depths of house, and has a job to do. Halo is infamous for cliffhangers, however the payoff for this one, and the way Chief recovers from unrelenting odds and forges forward units the stage for Infinite‘s ahead momentum. This can be a Halo fan’s Halo recreation. Neglect that it has the perceived trappings of a contemporary open-world setup, because it doesn’t detract from the core message within the slightest: which is, in fact, to wreck stuff, and blow it up, if doable.

Removed from a reboot, Halo Infinite continues the story of previous video games, but it surely does really feel like a smooth reset. Cortana, Zeta Halo (the sport’s world/setting), the Banished: all of these items are thrown round, and defined as you play. Chief comes again on-line and meets a lonely pilot, and instantly learns that he must tackle extra aliens to keep away from some unhealthy consequence. It’s how issues go! It’s what he does.

Typically it’s somewhat cartoony in nature how a lot you’ll must blow issues up, which is a praise. That is an enviornment motion shooter at coronary heart, and also you’re destroying all the pieces to a incredible soundtrack as a one-man military. That is all-Chief-all-the-time, which goes to please lots of people who have been uninterested in facet tales of different Spartans. We’re again to fundamentals.

I ought to say up entrance that the open world doesn’t suck. After a couple of intro missions elsewhere, Chief and his pilot are thrown into Zeta Halo, which has a world map. From there, you possibly can wander round, accumulate stuff, kill stuff, go conquer ahead working bases (FOBs) which spotlight extra stuff and create quick journey factors, or run to crucial path missions (which have a cutscene transition and sometimes happen in a bunker or construction).

Okay, so there’s loads to unpack right here. My first inkling was to think about FOBs like radio towers, however they’re virtually nothing alike. So in your typical Ubisoft recreation (or just about any pin-filled open-world-busywork recreation now), you head to radio towers prefer it’s a part-time job, then piss off and by no means go to them once more, as their objective is to simply be scaled and forgotten. However FOBs really are bases, providing up probabilities to spawn automobiles, weapons of alternative, and take troops alongside for the trip: the ability of which is measured by your valor ranking, which is sort of a facet XP hustle.

Throughout all of the FOB capturing and utilization of all the above, I by no means as soon as felt like they have been rote duties to be accomplished. They felt like an natural a part of the sport, fully missing within the cynicism of recent open-world recreation design. Halo Infinite succeeds as a result of it doesn’t lose sight of its roots and by no means actually tries to be one thing completely different. With that intention, it’s really a breath of recent air.

Marketing campaign missions are additionally very conventional, and a number of the transitions between open-world play and mentioned missions are noticeably flashy. Sure, plenty of them are within the literal bunkers I discussed earlier, cordoned off from the map, however the ones that aren’t really feel that rather more imposing when you possibly can look within the background and see the enormous mountains of Zeta Halo. Once more, the open world works in Halo Infinite‘s favor just about always.

By way of fundamentals, we already talked about some gameplay mechanics within the multiplayer assessment, however suffice to say they’re translated splendidly to the marketing campaign. Right here, you could have entry to power-ups everytime you need on a strict cooldown, as they’re unlocked. Well, Grasp Chief can use an infinite grappling hook proper at the beginning (once more, on a cooldown, which might be upgraded), ultimately having access to a fast dodge (that may add costs), a projectile radar, and a deployable defend.

Whereas the management system to swap between them is cumbersome at first (and requires a number of d-pad presses), you finally get used to it, and the potential for type movies is all the higher for it. Swapping between a grappling hook, clambering up a ledge, punching a grunt within the face, then quick-dodging a barrage of vitality grenades is satisfying. The potential right here for Grasp Chief to be badass is at an all-time excessive, and the quantity of weapons within the recreation doesn’t really feel too overwhelming — notably as a result of a couple of of them are reworked clones of one another with extra energy and a distinct paint scheme.

That’s partly as a result of 343 isn’t above re-using some issues within the marketing campaign, a tactic that’s delicate at first, however turns into extra apparent as you progress. One unlucky byproduct of this can be a fully re-used boss battle, amongst a number of minibosses that don’t really feel distinctive within the slightest: a Borderlands-esque “it’s this unit, but it surely appears to be like a bit completely different” transfer. This additionally extends to a number of the aforementioned bunker zones in core missions, that are generally a bit too comparable with their layouts.

When these moments occurred, I let loose an audible groan. However through the course of the marketing campaign and all of my open-world mucking about, it wasn’t a relentless. There’s loads of selection there, simply be warned that not all the marketing campaign is gold. After all, the elephant within the room is price mentioning: no co-op at launch is a crying disgrace.

It feels outright incorrect to not play a Halo recreation with split-screen co-op on day one, and I’ve to lament the dearth of it, as this is able to be a extremely kickass co-op marketing campaign. The way in which FOBs work with the loadout system and automobile drops would offer an infinite quantity of enjoyable with associates: roaming round at your leisure and killing stuff on increased problem settings. The second 343 launches the co-op replace, I’m getting associates collectively.

Within the meantime, exploring the open world is enjoyable even solo. The unlocks are innocuous sufficient, within the sense which you can full the sport on regular with out having to fret about “XP” and even fundamental upgrades, as long as you possibly can deal with a battle rifle, figuratively talking. There’s cosmetics that feed into multiplayer unlocks, mentioned capability improve cores, and some issues to search out. There’s additionally sidequests, a number of of that are like miniature dungeons the place you blow extra stuff up. There’s barely any downtime in Halo Infinite, even in the event you’re doing random issues.

Whereas we lined multiplayer extensively already, it’s essential to at the very least point out it once more earlier than we shut up store on the launch model of Halo Infinite. So in idea, it’s superb. All the identical enviornment shooter basis interprets properly, and the moment-to-moment gameplay is nice. I simply hope they proceed to iterate on the reward system, as a result of it actually has the potential to be the very best multiplayer available on the market with a couple of tweaks. Little by little, we’re getting there. Slowly.

If I had one piece of recommendation for folks on the fence with Halo Infinite, it could be to not fear concerning the open world and embrace the way it’s dealt with right here. I used to be extremely frightened at first that 343 wouldn’t have the ability to withstand the siren’s track of different main publishers, however the restraint right here is appreciated. That is an especially 2021 Halo, and I believe it’s going to win over each lapsed gamers and diehards.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher. This covers the campaign and multiplayer portion of the game, accompanied by a score that encompasses both aspects.]}