After a delay or two and many questions over its (somewhat) open-world format, the single-player campaign of Halo Infinite is finally here. Players have been enjoying, but also complaining about, Infinite‘s multiplayer campaign ever since the OG Xbox turned 20 a few weeks ago. Strangely, the campaign seems to have flown a little under the radar.
A Traditional Halo at Heart
Halo Infinite begins with a brief but powerful message – humanity is in a heap of trouble and Master Chief is a badass. We are introduced to a mysterious pilot who, almost accidentally, saves the almighty Chief from certain doom. The pilot then gets a front-row seat as to why Master Chief is humanity’s last hope.
Halo Infinite then sends the player down a linear mission to drive the early story and get a player used to its mechanics. Gunplay and basic mobility feels like old Halo. It’s satisfying and smooth. The physics engine gives objects, including the Chief a bit of heft but nothing feels sluggish.
The first hour is truly eerie at times and steeped in questions. Primarily – what has laid such a path of destruction through space? Zeta Halo and the debris of the UNSC are a chilling backdrop for the story to begin in earnest and it sets the scene well.
Master Chief’s grapple hook is introduced early and adds a new dimension to the physics-breaking mobility. Players can launch the Chief around or over objects to build momentum. It also opens up the level geometry for some fiendish off-road paths.
A Halo Story Set on a Halo
Once players nail the basics and fight an easy boss, they land on Zeta Halo. As one of the last habitable places in the neighbourhood, Chief and pilot head in to look for signs of life. The ring is in terrible shape but still clings to life.
The events of Halo 5: Guardians are explained a little to catch lapsed fans and new players up. We are introduced to the Weapon, another human-shaped question mark.
Halo Infinite‘s experiment in open-worlds also begins here. Kind of.
The Zeta Halo sections offers a great degree of freedom to extend one’s playthrough between missions. But it also usually offers a fairly straight path to the next linear story section.
Many of the objectives are a dungeon with the open-world acting much like an overworld. Others see a player tackle an objective freely within the open area of Zeta – these missions are interesting in that players can approach from any angle and bring all of their hard-earned UNSC backup for the ride.
The overworld is broken up in to islands which the player cannot move between until later in the game when a greater degree of freedom is unlocked. There are side-missions and the benefits of going off the beaten track are made clear.
However, the early open-world sections seem reluctant to let a player loose to break the pace up too much. The open section is introduced gently as if to nudge the player far enough down the narrative path to keep them interested when they do wander off.
Semi-Linear Action
For Halo purists the possibility of getting on with the story with minimal breaks in pacing is there. For those who want to play more, there is eventually a mine of often cookie-cutter content to pad things out.
Master Chief has a host of mini-missions to clear and boxes to tick. The diversions are usually worth the effort in terms of firepower or Forward Operating Base (FOB) upgrades.
With a little exploration and some extra off-mission effort, a player can call in better vehicles, add a greater number of stronger AI Spartans to their crew and acquire better loadouts before their journey to the next story section.
But even with their worthwhile prizes, the off-mission activities resort to open-world type. Clearing a base to capture, freeing some Spartans, assassinating a named heavy. You have played most of Halo Infinite‘s open-world content before.
Whether you enjoy Halo Infinite‘s old-school Halo gameplay enough to mind the lack of imagination when it comes to side-content is entirely up to you, ultimately.
The Mission
Halo Infinite‘s early storytelling is perfect and the fashion in which it blends with the semi-open sections is commendable. The player is filled with uncertainty as new characters and new mysteries pile in. The only known variable during the open hours is that Master Chief knows he has to rebuild the UNSC.
When traipsing across the half-smashed but still living open world, this feels like an organic way to engage players in that rebuilding objective. You are rebuilding with every by-the-numbers side-mission as well as with the meat of the story, tying the grind to the plot.
As the nature of the threat becomes more apparent, that original brief recedes from the priorities and the open sections get pushed aside from the narrative. What open-worlding you do in the middle of the game feels like a lack of urgency. It feels like wasting time.
By the time the story folds the open-world back in, the game has lost some steam. Even the linear set-pieces and bosses of the middle feel weaker in terms of imagination and spectacle. The final quarter is as epic and grand as you could want from a Halo game but it feels like Halo Infinite held back to work up that ultimate crescendo.
The Feeling that Power is Growing, That Resistance is Overcome
Halo Infinite is a difficult game at times. Large battles with many ways to succeed and as many ways to fail are a staple throughout the campaign. On normal difficulty, an impatient or wasteful player can expect to die several times per mission. The AI is devious, using most of the tricks a player will use against them.
I’ve been killed by Banished chucking cores at me a dozen times. Been killed a dozen times being hoopstabbed with an energy sword while stuck to the floor. A dozen more by being run over by a Banshee.
There’s an organic feeling to the challenge most of the time. The odd boss or set-piece has only one answer but most of the time the AI elevates the gameplay, adding an emergence unexpected of a Halo title.
Additionally, the RPG-lite elements of adding modules to the Master Chief’s suit, and then buffing them or adding perks gives a consistent feeling of progress. Modules are added through the mandatory missions alone while the upgrades come collecting Spartan cores, mostly through some side work.
Battles scale with a player’s power but some set-pieces seem designed to show off the growing power of the Chief himself. Seemingly insurmountable foes can be easily beaten by applying a newfound gadget with a little finesse.
A Sight to Behold
Halo Infinite is a gorgeous game. The seemingly vast Zeta Halo is artistically and technically impressive on its own. It teems with life with the man-made foundations poking through to remind you of the artificial biome you explore.
There is an impressive level of detail. Textures are still pretty while rubbing your nose on a wall while the grand sightlines of the ring are breathtaking. The far side of the Halo is visible in the sky above and it adds so much wonder to the views.
A bewildering array of objects can be tossed around the screen at any one time. Battles with seemingly hundreds of goons to mow down crop up here and there. Coupled with plasma and laser shots streaking by, a few grenades of different varieties going off and being zerg rushed, it can be visually overwhelming. In a good way.
Similarly, the sound of Halo Infinite is a truly 9th-gen experience. The endless bangs, booms and pews envelope the player. The hilarious defeatist utterances of the Banished goons, the confident bloodlust of mini-bosses and seemingly cathartic chats that some bosses have while fighting the Chief add much to the atmosphere.
Back to Basics. Mostly.
Halo Infinite‘s very best bits are classic Halo. The spectacle, the action, the feeling of saving the universe. Each one of these core elements is refined and polished into a true 9th-gen system seller.
The relatively weak side-content of the open-world doesn’t distract from the story too much but offers those in search of a quick adrenaline hit and some gear what they crave. The devs seem to try lure players back to the campaign throughout the campaign to preserve some urgency and it works about half of the time.
Aside from a sagging middle, Halo Infinite‘s pace matches the task at hand, offering a fast-moving story that turns on a dime.
Review code provided by Microsoft
