Support NeoGAF

[STARSBarry]

Finished it.

The open world was good, but needs more. Searching for Spartan Cores, Skulls, and MP armor is ok as is taking FOBs and other facilities but after that you are left with a very empty open world even for its relative small size. I liked the HVT missions but they were a wasted opportunity to flesh out some side stories. They all amounted to "this guy is bad. kill him". A bit shallow. Having said that, taking on those bases was a lot of fun.

The gunplay is marvelous although it can be frustrating having to drop a preferred weapon and scavenging for something, anything, during a fight because of lack of ammo. Less variations in ammo type would have helped. Kinetic and energy should have been enough. Adding shock, power, and I don't know what else is too much. Half the time I don't even realize that the ammo refill thing I'm running towards isn't compatible with what the weapon I have. But the combat is awesome regardless. Love the grappling hook. I think I use it and sensor thing more than anything else.

Hard to comment on the story because for a first time Halo player it is a confusing mess. But that's on me really. I could have watched YouTube videos to get caught up but I decided I was going to play them from the beginning instead. So hopefully it will make sense eventually. As it is, I'm not sure if the ending was supposed to be a cliffhanger or not. Hopefully more content is on the way because I really don't know what the point was.

The story missions were far too repetitive and linear. Could have been procedurally generated every time and I wouldn't know the difference. I was ready to kill Escharum just to shut us his stupid speeches.

Overall, the game is a 7/10. Good, not great, open world. Fantastic combat. Average story. Bottom line: I had fun. Good game.

Don't worry coming from someone that finished everything but Halo 5 the story was still a confusing jumbled mess, and from other comment's knowing fives won't change that. Hell even with Halo Wars 2 campaign knowledge its mostly just exposition dumps to try and force the story to work by imposing sudden "twists" into already established time line periods.

Like the parts where its repeated again and again that cortana got to choose and had a prior relationship with chief and then go play though Halo CE, it just strait up doesn't work, those two are strangers... having more Halo knowledge makes the story sadly worse because its not building on it, its trying to rewrite periods so the story 343 wants to tell fits.

I thought the campaign was enjoyable enough if somewhat average once I got over the grappling hook. The only hard to find collectable I had to go out of my way to look up was the unmarked final skull, no way I would of found that one without a guide, everything outside of skulls and audio logs I believe gets marked for you on Ubisofts patented "tower" system (renamed FOB's in infinite). Other than that pretty slim on content and easily weighs in at under 10 hours, which is alright for a shooter, but pretty slim for a open world one.

Also what the hell is with those Banshees that just phase in and out of existence when the game feels like you have been in an air vehicle too long? Like I get it, you didn't add anything to the weapon sandbox to counter players using air vehicles outside that one HVT with the homing rockets, but come on they just feel cheap.

 

[Bernkastel]

More context on the legendary mode ending involving Bornstellar-Makes-Eternal-Lasting, Chant-to-Green and The Criterion.

 

[dem]

The amount of times I have to kill the game to get connect to multiplayer games is unacceptable.

And I would say 90% of the time it doesn’t even tell you to push X to start another game.

 

[JLB]

Don't worry coming from someone that finished everything but Halo 5 the story was still a confusing jumbled mess, and from other comment's knowing fives won't change that. Hell even with Halo Wars 2 campaign knowledge its mostly just exposition dumps to try and force the story to work by imposing sudden "twists" into already established time line periods.

Like the parts where its repeated again and again that cortana got to choose and had a prior relationship with chief and then go play though Halo CE, it just strait up doesn't work, those two are strangers... having more Halo knowledge makes the story sadly worse because its not building on it, its trying to rewrite periods so the story 343 wants to tell fits.

I thought the campaign was enjoyable enough if somewhat average once I got over the grappling hook. The only hard to find collectable I had to go out of my way to look up was the unmarked final skull, no way I would of found that one without a guide, everything outside of skulls and audio logs I believe gets marked for you on Ubisofts patented "tower" system (renamed FOB's in infinite). Other than that pretty slim on content and easily weighs in at under 10 hours, which is alright for a shooter, but pretty slim for a open world one.

Also what the hell is with those Banshees that just phase in and out of existence when the game feels like you have been in an air vehicle too long? Like I get it, you didn't add anything to the weapon sandbox to counter players using air vehicles outside that one HVT with the homing rockets, but come on they just feel cheap.

worlds as big as halo or star wars should just slow down or even pause any big new developments on the main story.
Things like Mandalorian or Halo Reach are the way to go imo.

 

[Come On Tars]

Almost done with the game. It's fun. Still sad that Halo isn't on the bleeding edge of games anymore. It's adequate, good shooting, great sound, unimpressive graphics. The most fun part of the gameplay is the grapple hook which feels like they succumbed to borrowing a fun element from a non halo game. It's not Halo, I wish I could get the thrills of old Halo without it. It's just not a must play experience like 1 through 3 was.

Also bummed they are planning on this being the base Halo experience for the foreseeable future. It's not a good engine. The performance on series x per what you are looking at just doesn't make sense when I play other games.

The overworld has it's moments. It can look pretty, but never impressive. It's just designed badly. The hexagon pillars everywhere might have some lore reasoning, but it looks like a physical copout. They look terrible at a distance. And up close, like a lot of object in Halo, are overly simple geometry, with a decent texture, and poor shadowing.

Another thing I started feeling deep into the game is that brutes being the main enemy is bugging me. Halo is MC vs Covenant. Not space apes. The Covenant just fit the setting better.

It will undoubtedly be a monster of a coop experience. 343 not having that ready at launch is embarrassing.

 

[SirTerry-T]

Saw the new year in by finishing the campaign on Normal in-between calming the dogs between fireworks banging all over the area...grrr

Really enjoyed it, I'm no hardcore FPS or Halo fan but this felt great to play, looking forward to where 343i and the Chief go from here ..so I guess that means 343 have steadied the ship(franchise)???

 

[Jose92]

I just finished halo infinite campaign on the Series X on perfomance mode. Here is the good, bad and the ugly about it imo:

1. Good:
   1. Amazing Core gameplay
   2. Weapons feel is really good
   3. Fernando esparza is a great addition to the cast
   4. Sandbox approach to the side quest resulted in variety of ways of approach to them
   5. Great soundtrack
   6. Good voice acting
   7. Amazing physics system
   8. Grunts are way too funny
2. Bad:
   1. Repetitive biomes
   2. Repetitive use of assests
   3. Repetitive side quests
   4. Cut scenes are scarce
   5. Most of the story's meat is told through holograms and voice tapes
   6. Boring villains
   7. Underwhelming boss fights
3. Ugly:
   1. Forced Corny love story between Master chief and Cortana it is just stupid imo, yeah i get it cortana was used as a device to humanize master chief in previous entries.
   2. Campaign feels unfinished , Rushed, and way to short
   3. All the build up for Escharum's boss battle but it was very underwhelming and weak
   4. The Harbinger felt forced in the story
   5. The graphics are underwhelming even Destiny 2 from 2017 looks a little better, which is not acceptable for a flagship franchise
   6. Scaling of boss fights on heroic difficulty is bad

Was really looking forward to the campaign, but after finishing it i was left a little bit underwhelmed. Hopefully the future DLCs will fix some of the issues found in the Campaign.

Campaign Story rating for me 6/10
Gameplay and fun factor Rating 10/10

 

[AltogetherAndrews]

edit: guess the thread was nuked

 

[Harlock]

So you just need the grapping hook.

The way to change utility is very confuse and besides that, you just need the grapping hook.

 

[FraGNeM]

Just finished the campaign. Lots to love.

The combat was more fun than ever, never got stale. Lots of interesting improvements. Loved the grappling hook and throwable exploding barrels (fusion cores). I found myself using the tracker and drop wall a fair amount also.

The open world setting suits Halo quite well. Halo works best as a sandbox with large open levels. I wanted to get all the optional objectives that I could because the combat was so much fun, but the incentive was also nice: upgrades for equipment and weapons.

I'm so relieved that they stuck with the Banished and didn't introduce a new, annoying enemy type to destroy the Halo combat "fun zone". No Flood, no Prometheans. Just the good stuff.

It wasn't all great, though. The story felt like nonsense. I felt like I was hearing half a story, poorly told. I didn't get my character's motivation or anyone else's. That said, I never expect much from Halo stories.

Halo always seems to have a problem with interior levels. They often feel copy-paste and drag on too long. In this game, the end section suffered from this. Sadly, this made the ending underwhelming.

 

[Calverz]

Just finished the game on heroic. Absolutely loved it. Can’t wait to replay in co-op with friends. Also hope we get story dlc. Quite like to play different biomes too.
Probably best game Iv I payed this gen. Stellar. Congrats to 343 for finally “getting it” and laying the foundation to really get going with upcoming content.

 

[Ristifer]

Just finished the game last night. My opinion hasn’t really changed. The gameplay loop itself is pretty fun and satisfying, and the sound is wonderful.

But the rest is a bit of a mess. The story is all over the place. It feels like they had no idea who they wanted the true enemy to be. All of Escharum’s big boy talk and he turns out to be lame. And those training facilities in the end missions were some of the dumbest padding/fillers I’ve ever seen in a final mission.

The open world just exists for no reason. It’s fun to grapple and approach FOBs differently, but that’s about it. Like many others have said, it lacks variety. It’s about as plain as it gets. Which is fine, as long as you get some differentiation/uniqueness in the indoor environments. But no, they’re the same corridors throughout the entire game. Except near the end when you get a couple of golden doors. And how many grav lifts did I have to activate?! I would’ve rather used the grapple to move vertically up some of these damn structures. But I guess they needed loading time.

Anyway, there’s a decent game here. But it gets lost in a lot of confusing decisions, bland environments, and odd story structure.

 

[Lone Wolf]

I just finished halo infinite campaign on the Series X on perfomance mode. Here is the good, bad and the ugly about it imo:

1. Good:
   1. Amazing Core gameplay
   2. Weapons feel is really good
   3. Fernando esparza is a great addition to the cast
   4. Sandbox approach to the side quest resulted in variety of ways of approach to them
   5. Great soundtrack
   6. Good voice acting
   7. Amazing physics system
   8. Grunts are way too funny
2. Bad:
   1. Repetitive biomes
   2. Repetitive use of assests
   3. Repetitive side quests
   4. Cut scenes are scarce
   5. Most of the story's meat is told through holograms and voice tapes
   6. Boring villains
   7. Underwhelming boss fights
3. Ugly:
   1. Forced Corny love story between Master chief and Cortana it is just stupid imo, yeah i get it cortana was used as a device to humanize master chief in previous entries.
   2. Campaign feels unfinished , Rushed, and way to short
   3. All the build up for Escharum's boss battle but it was very underwhelming and weak
   4. The Harbinger felt forced in the story
   5. The graphics are underwhelming even Destiny 2 from 2017 looks a little better, which is not acceptable for a flagship franchise
   6. Scaling of boss fights on heroic difficulty is bad

Was really looking forward to the campaign, but after finishing it i was left a little bit underwhelmed. Hopefully the future DLCs will fix some of the issues found in the Campaign.

Campaign Story rating for me 6/10
Gameplay and fun factor Rating 10/10

343 really needs to drop last gen consoles going forward from here. It would really help this game. It’s very obvious that they were severely held back and stretched thin having to get it to work on Xbox one base. It’s time to drop last gen.

 

[Batiman]

Just started this yesterday. Been playing multiplayer since launch. Just made it to the open part. Loved the palpatine looking planet in the beginning. Creepy and gave me combat evolved vibes.

 

[Havoc2049]

Just finished the game last night. My opinion hasn’t really changed. The gameplay loop itself is pretty fun and satisfying, and the sound is wonderful.

But the rest is a bit of a mess. The story is all over the place. It feels like they had no idea who they wanted the true enemy to be. All of Escharum’s big boy talk and he turns out to be lame. And those training facilities in the end missions were some of the dumbest padding/fillers I’ve ever seen in a final mission.

The open world just exists for no reason. It’s fun to grapple and approach FOBs differently, but that’s about it. Like many others have said, it lacks variety. It’s about as plain as it gets. Which is fine, as long as you get some differentiation/uniqueness in the indoor environments. But no, they’re the same corridors throughout the entire game. Except near the end when you get a couple of golden doors. And how many grav lifts did I have to activate?! I would’ve rather used the grapple to move vertically up some of these damn structures. But I guess they needed loading time.

Anyway, there’s a decent game here. But it gets lost in a lot of confusing decisions, bland environments, and odd story structure.

I loved the two Firefight/Horde mode style battles at the Banished training facility. The boss fight in the third training room against the Sangheilli Blademaster, Jega 'Rdomnai, was also my favorite boss fight in the game. I loved the slight horror vibe to that fight, which I haven' t felt in a Halo game since CE, when the Flood was first introduced.

​

 

[Ristifer]

I loved the two Firefight/Horde mode style battles at the Banished training facility. The boss fight in the third training room against the Sangheilli Blademaster, Jega 'Rdomnai, was also my favorite boss fight in the game. I loved the slight horror vibe to that fight, which I haven' t felt in a Halo game since CE, when the Flood was first introduced.

​

I would’ve enjoyed them more if I hadn’t been fighting waves of the same enemies for several battles prior to that point. Just felt like padding to me.

I did appreciate the slight horror element with the boss (or mini-boss), but after that’s finished, it’s just another fight against an Elite with a cloak.

It just didn’t really do it for me at all.

 

[Lone Wolf]

I loved the two Firefight/Horde mode style battles at the Banished training facility. The boss fight in the third training room against the Sangheilli Blademaster, Jega 'Rdomnai, was also my favorite boss fight in the game. I loved the slight horror vibe to that fight, which I haven' t felt in a Halo game since CE, when the Flood was first introduced.

​

Does he actually die or just cloak and disappear? Can’t find the body after I defeat him.

 

[Havoc2049]

Does he actually die or just cloak and disappear? Can’t find the body after I defeat him.

I think he's dead. Halopedia has him and the whole Hand of Atriox Spartan Killer unit listed as dead. Cool character, so I wouldn't mind if he slipped away, severely injured, but avoided death.

 

[Shubh_C63]

Are we expecting more from 343 in the May update or simple "Coop Enabled" and some multiplayer maps.
If they have their pipeline right, 6 months oughta be enough to add some more campaign story/missions with the Coop.

Even if there is only 1-2 mission/activities extra will give me huge incentive to play entire campaign again with a friend from scratch.

 

[FraGNeM]

I loved the two Firefight/Horde mode style battles at the Banished training facility. The boss fight in the third training room against the Sangheilli Blademaster, Jega 'Rdomnai, was also my favorite boss fight in the game. I loved the slight horror vibe to that fight, which I haven' t felt in a Halo game since CE, when the Flood was first introduced.

I enjoyed this a lot also. This was much more fun than the section after Escharum. That did feel like padding to me.

 

[jezhumphrey75]

im not anywhere near finishing this but man i love the gameplay/gunplay and movement but by god its need some weather or something, gimme some rain, snow etc, the world needs more life.

 

[GymWolf]

Did they patched the pc gamepass edition yet? Or they just don't give a fuck of how bad that thing is?!

 

[BigLee74]

This game needed a set piece or two, some kind of weather system, and above all else some Flood action with shotguns. So nearly brilliant.

 

[Topher]

I loved the two Firefight/Horde mode style battles at the Banished training facility. The boss fight in the third training room against the Sangheilli Blademaster, Jega 'Rdomnai, was also my favorite boss fight in the game. I loved the slight horror vibe to that fight, which I haven' t felt in a Halo game since CE, when the Flood was first introduced.

​

That was a pretty badass boss fight. Definitely a bit of tension on the scary side which was nice. Much more enjoyable than Escharum which was really just a repeat of Bassus once all the shield generating things were destroyed, which wasn't challenging at all.

Did they patched the pc gamepass edition yet? Or they just don't give a fuck of how bad that thing is?!

 

[Mister Wolf]

Hopefully Halo: The Endless gets an early 2023 release.

 

[kikkis]

Anyone else mostly use mauler, since it has decent ammo capacity and power?

 

[6502]

Anyone else mostly use mauler, since it has decent ammo capacity and power?

Yes. It's a great all rounder.


Is ray tracing coming to series x?

It also could do with better draw distance on enemies.

 

[Mister Wolf]

I know people like to shit on it but I like the Commando. Its my favorite marine weapon.

 

[GymWolf]

That was a pretty badass boss fight. Definitely a bit of tension on the scary side which was nice. Much more enjoyable than Escharum which was really just a repeat of Bassus once all the shield generating things were destroyed, which wasn't challenging at all.

Well at least the gif is hilarious.

 

[jezhumphrey75]

This game needed a set piece or two, some kind of weather system, and above all else some Flood action with shotguns. So nearly brilliant.

hopefully theyll do a gears 5 hivebusters type of dlc, where its a bit more focused on a short story, set pieces, weather, more variation on the ground/buildings etc

 

[CRAIG667]

Infinite has been my absolute favourite Halo campaign since CE. I loved every moment of it. Zeta feels more like an actual ring planet more than in any other halo game and the battles are fun and varied. Weapons feel perfect too!

 

[Bernkastel]

 

[kikkis]

Some impressions towards the last quarter (I believe) of the game. Just contemplating if I will bother finishing this game. This is coming from player that really enjoyed Halo 5 after first two levels.

I think my biggest issue is with the game is poor difficulty balancing among issues surrounding it. I am playing on normal and game isn't hard by any means, but on many instances I still die a lot. What is annoying from my perspective that solution isn't to play better (Not that I have some leet pro fps gamer skills), but to simply play slow and avoid any manner of risks at all costs. Also checkpoints should be more lenient to reward more risk taking in combat. Now playing like that isn't very fun to me. Also apart from mangler most guns have very little ammo, and constantly swapping weapons from the ground is not fun to me or is using primaily mangler either. Automatic weapons are in general frustrating to use due to trigger lift off mechanic. Forerunner levels feel also very artificial video game levels, without any sensical explanation why there is just corridor after corridor.

Story wise, game has been quite aggravating as well, there is just some bad guy, and you are after it. The emotional moments like pilot or weapon bitching, were supposed to be probably humanizing but to me they felt just annoying. Cortana echoes also felt like pointless wanna be tear jerkers.

Now to good parts. Grappling hook works well and even throwing canisters is well implemented unlike some other games. Open world also gave some of my best moments in Halo, like the one part where you travel through the canyon and banished checkpoint. Also trying to navigate to some higher ground with grappling hook was fun. I am someone who kind of likes outposts etc. so they are fine in away apart from problems with balancing and also lack of rewards.

 

[jezhumphrey75]

any news on sales yet, would love to know how many units its sold so far.

 

[ÆMNE22A!C]

Because MP is free I for some reason thought I'd to buy the game for it's campaign... TIL it's also included and I had it already downloaded. So yeah I'm officially a filthy casual I suppose. Or perhaps my waining interest played a factor in not being up to snuff... in any case, playing now and having fun. Very pretty on Series S and great sound design as well! <3

 

[manfestival]

Is there any other bonus gear that you can get outside of the Mjolnir armor things? Like if you collect them al that there is some sorta bonus?

 

[EverydayBeast]

Halo is all about campaign for me personally. Occasionally I play multiplayer, not a fan of the progression, loadout systems. So next.

Playing through Halo 4 now and 343 deserves credit here giving Master Chief some human elements, the pace and I don't think the 343 games tarnish Halo's legacy, and I don't think Bungie are divas for going the Destiny route.

 

[ResilientBanana]

Halo is all about campaign for me personally. Occasionally I play multiplayer, not a fan of the progression, loadout systems. So next.

Playing through Halo 4 now and 343 deserves credit here giving Master Chief some human elements, the pace and I don't think the 343 games tarnish Halo's legacy, and I don't think Bungie are divas for going the Destiny route.

I see a lot of people complaining about having to do the grind, but I remember Reach being very similar in unlocking armor.

 

[STARSBarry]

any news on sales yet, would love to know how many units its sold so far.

I would assume not many, its one of the big gamepass titles for a reason. You can't really look at gamepass game sales because people arnt buying them, there playing it through gamepass.

 

[ResilientBanana]

I would assume not many, its one of the big gamepass titles for a reason. You can't really look at gamepass game sales because people arnt buying them, there playing it through gamepass.

Meanwhile Microsoft insists that gamepass increases the sales of games. So you might be wrong.

 

[Emedan]

So I just got an Xbox Series X (had to snatch one when I saw it in stock) and I've been playing Halo Infinite, I noticed something strange though on the Xbox that I never saw on PC, some object's textures is not loading in correctly from a distance, the objects are just black. Anyone else seen this on Xbox?

 

[Gordon Freeman]

So I just got an Xbox Series X (had to snatch one when I saw it in stock) and I've been playing Halo Infinite, I noticed something strange though on the Xbox that I never saw on PC, some object's textures is not loading in correctly from a distance, they objects are just black. Anyone else seen this on Xbox?

No and I’ve played almost 100 hours of the campaign. Can you take a screenshot and show us?

 

[Mars2003]

Finished the campaign at 2am this morning. It took me 40hrs according to the stats on 95% Heroic (3 boss battles were just too much for me on Heroic). I hope the adventures on Zeta halo continue quickly.
The fight with Jega was the mother of all let downs, Grapple Smashing took him out in no time at all.

 

[Emedan]

No and I’ve played almost 100 hours of the campaign. Can you take a screenshot and show us?

Like that, it's all over the place. I didn't notice it initially, perhaps something to do with Quick Resume - gonna try out closing the game completely.

 

[Sneed Wagon]

This might be the best Halo for Legendary playthroughs.

I'm not resorting to the cheese strats I normally rely on, and the cool down abilities give you enough of an edge to get the drop on enemies in most encounters.

While the story on the surface didn't grab me, there are some things happening that really feel reflective of 343i's odd position when making this game.

I dont think it's a coincidence that this game begins with an establishing shot eerily similiar to Halo CE's, and then you see the UNSC Infinity (343i's baby basically through their development run) get unceremoniously blown the fuck out for the rest of the cinematic.

It's almost like 343 is indirectly saying "Back to formula". It feels rather genuine, and is backed up by the game's willingness to scale down in characters and plot.

All that bravado and excess from the last two games is gone, in favor of something more akin to the first game. I really think that deserves some kudos even if the actual plot ultimately didn't blow my socks off.

 

[Gordon Freeman]

Like that, it's all over the place. I didn't notice it initially, perhaps something to do with Quick Resume - gonna try out closing the game completely.

Yeah no. Here is a screen of mine from the same area and even further away too with the textures still there.

 

[VFXVeteran]

Hey guys! How's everything going this new year?

Question: Are you guys happy with the way Infinite turned out? I'm on the fence about picking it up but wanted to see if there are still problems with it.

Thanks

 

[mansoor1980]

Hey guys! How's everything going this new year?

Question: Are you guys happy with the way Infinite turned out? I'm on the fence about picking it up but wanted to see if there are still problems with it.

Thanks

xsx version is fine , PC version needs patches

 

[VFXVeteran]

xsx version is fine , PC version needs patches

How about story? Controls? I'll definitely wait some more before picking it up then.

 

[mansoor1980]

How about story? Controls? I'll definitely wait some more before picking it up then.

story is meh , controls/gameplay are top notch , if you are already a fan then xsx version is a no brainer
performance on PC version is awful , i had to lock it at 30 fps on my rig