Halo has been in a peculiar position ever since original developer Bungie moved on from the IP following 2010’s Halo: Reach. Their successors, 343 Industries, were given the monumental task of continuing one of gaming’s biggest franchises, and also evolving it with shifting industry trends and fan requests. Their first foray into the series proper was with 2012’s Halo 4, an entry that on release proved to be incredibly divisive due to its numerous changes to the traditional gameplay formula, and an entry that as time has gone on has become considerably less favourable with fans of the series. Then came the disastrous launch of Halo: The Master Chief Collection in 2013, something that would have 343 spending years fixing to become anything near what fans had hoped it to be. Then came Halo 5 in 2015, another divisive entry from the developer, that has fallen into obscurity and out of the consciousness of most Halo players. 343 Industries desperately needed to right the sinking ship of Halo, after three underwhelming launches and a decade of the franchises name being dragged through mud they needed the sixth mainline instalment to be a hit. So, after a very lengthy development period, and the need to go back to the drawing board after an underwhelming gameplay reveal in 2020, Halo Infinite has finally arrived, and I think it may just be the saving grace 343 needed it to be.
In 2558 the artificial intelligence Cortana staged an AI uprising against the UNSC human military forces leaving them incredibly vulnerable. In 2559 the UNSC Spirit of Fire discovered Installation 00, The Ark, after twenty-eight years of drifting in space and engaged former Covenant forces calling themselves The Banished, failing to stop the creation of a new Halo ring, Installation 07.
Now in 2560, the UNSC Infinity is attacked by The Banished after responding to the Spirit of Fire’s S.O.S, leaving the ship destroyed and the Master Chief drifting in space. When pilot Echo-216 recovers Chief, the pair land on the nearby Halo ring to recover an extremely dangerous weapon and disable or destroy the ring so that The Banished cannot activate it.
In 2558 the artificial intelligence Cortana staged an AI uprising against the UNSC human military forces leaving them incredibly vulnerable. In 2559 the UNSC Spirit of Fire discovered Installation 00, The Ark, after twenty-eight years of drifting in space and engaged former Covenant forces calling themselves The Banished, failing to stop the creation of a new Halo ring, Installation 07.
Now in 2560, the UNSC Infinity is attacked by The Banished after responding to the Spirit of Fire’s S.O.S, leaving the ship destroyed and the Master Chief drifting in space. When pilot Echo-216 recovers Chief, the pair land on the nearby Halo ring to recover an extremely dangerous weapon and disable or destroy the ring so that The Banished cannot activate it.
Halo Infinite is quite unlike any other game in the series’ two-decade history and is a massive shift in direction from what players are used to from the franchise. Addressing the story first, Infinite is a mixed bag for me. Overall, I really enjoyed the story, however it does feel as though 343 Industries have tried to overcorrect their mistakes with Halo 4 and Halo 5. This is due to despite being a sequel to Halo 5, it doesn’t do anything with the monumental cliff-hanger that game had. The ending to Halo Wars 2 also allowed those spin-off games to connect to the mainline series, but even those links are tenuous at best in Infinite. It does feel as though Infinite is picking and choosing what it wants from those titles to carry over into its story, which generally feels very isolated from everything that has happened previously.
It also feels as though it’s trying to create some grand mystery over the course of the story and reveal twists every so often to surprise people, but none of those twists I found to be surprising…in fact a lot I saw coming miles off. But that being said, I found Halo Infinite’s personal story with Chief, Echo-216, and Chief’s new AI companion to be extremely satisfying in the same ways that Halo 4’s story was very emotionally rewarding to long-time fans of the franchise. Now that he is accompanied by new characters, the layers of Chief’s personality are peeled back in exciting new ways to reveal a soldier who’s far more vulnerable than he ever lets on, a man broken by years of genetic experimentation and the loss of the only people he has ever trusted.
It’s also great to see The Banished return from Halo Wars 2, giving purpose to Chief’s foes once again in the form of a faction whose hierarchy is identifiable in the same way The Covenant's was in the original trilogy, and their purpose clear unlike the foes he faces in Halo 4&5. The exclusion of Atriox as a villain is a big bummer though as he was an excellent villain, his replacement Escharum also feels very similar, so it leads me to wonder why Atriox wasn’t included. It’s puzzling decisions like these that frustrate me with Halo Infinite’s story, despite the fact that on the whole I enjoyed it.
Halo Infinite had a very troubled development starting way back in 2015 upon completion of Halo 5. In order to get everything done Microsoft drafted in other development studios such as The Coalition and Certain Affinity, as well as having former lead writer during the Bungie days Joseph Staten return late in development to ensure everything was up to scratch. So, then it leads to the question of whether 343 Industries is really up to the task of even making Halo games in the first place, because clearly without all this help Halo Infinite would have likely failed. It seems that many of the issues they faced came from the new engine used for Infinite, the Slipspace Engine, but when you’re having legacy writers return do make major changes late in development it’s a sign that there was likely more wrong than technical issues.
It also feels as though it’s trying to create some grand mystery over the course of the story and reveal twists every so often to surprise people, but none of those twists I found to be surprising…in fact a lot I saw coming miles off. But that being said, I found Halo Infinite’s personal story with Chief, Echo-216, and Chief’s new AI companion to be extremely satisfying in the same ways that Halo 4’s story was very emotionally rewarding to long-time fans of the franchise. Now that he is accompanied by new characters, the layers of Chief’s personality are peeled back in exciting new ways to reveal a soldier who’s far more vulnerable than he ever lets on, a man broken by years of genetic experimentation and the loss of the only people he has ever trusted.
It’s also great to see The Banished return from Halo Wars 2, giving purpose to Chief’s foes once again in the form of a faction whose hierarchy is identifiable in the same way The Covenant's was in the original trilogy, and their purpose clear unlike the foes he faces in Halo 4&5. The exclusion of Atriox as a villain is a big bummer though as he was an excellent villain, his replacement Escharum also feels very similar, so it leads me to wonder why Atriox wasn’t included. It’s puzzling decisions like these that frustrate me with Halo Infinite’s story, despite the fact that on the whole I enjoyed it.
Halo Infinite had a very troubled development starting way back in 2015 upon completion of Halo 5. In order to get everything done Microsoft drafted in other development studios such as The Coalition and Certain Affinity, as well as having former lead writer during the Bungie days Joseph Staten return late in development to ensure everything was up to scratch. So, then it leads to the question of whether 343 Industries is really up to the task of even making Halo games in the first place, because clearly without all this help Halo Infinite would have likely failed. It seems that many of the issues they faced came from the new engine used for Infinite, the Slipspace Engine, but when you’re having legacy writers return do make major changes late in development it’s a sign that there was likely more wrong than technical issues.
The gameplay is what’s most immediately different to previous Halo games though, and it’s where Halo infinite definitely shines its brightest, but at a cost. Infinite marks the first time that a Halo game has given players the freedom of an open world environment, where side missions and other activities can be tackled at the players own pace alongside the main story missions. There are sixteen main missions in Halo Infinite, and almost all of them are linear in the same style as Halo games of old, and the open world acts as a hub to tie all of these locations that the missions take place in together. However, these story missions almost always take place inside Forerunner or Banished structures, and the level design during these moments is relatively stagnant. The levels lack the same versatility and intrigue of previous instalments, even those developed by 343 Industries. For the most part they feel like copy/pasted rooms that are all the same colour (an ugly metallic grey), and the missions are always shoot everything with the same few weapons and progress through these identical corridors. Whilst the story provided in these missions, especially in the latter half of the game, is great, it’s the setting under which they are delivered that leaves you underwhelmed. It’s also a great shame that as of writing these missions cannot be replayed as much of Halo’s appeal has been returning to missions to beat time or score based challenges. The game is also not yet available to be played co-op, another major misfire considering how big a component co-op campaign has always been to Halo games.
But the great outdoors of Installation 07, Zeta Halo, offers so many incredible things to find through exploration. The world feels alive as the ring is quite literally constructing itself as you’re playing, and geometry feels natural and unlike anything created by a level designer. Chief is also upgradable in Halo Infinite, granting him access to a number of tools such as the return of Halo 5’s thruster pack, a drop shield, an enemy locator, and the now iconic grappleshot that is an invaluable tool both in combat and exploration. If you’re exploring the world these upgrades will come naturally to you, and similar to Metroidvania style games, some areas may require you to return later on once you’ve upgraded your abilities to access new areas.
As you reclaim territory from The Banished you’ll earn points which unlock weapons and vehicles for you to better traverse the world and stand a greater chance against your foes in combat. This style of gameplay feels very reminiscent of the second mission of Halo: Combat Evolved, 'Halo', wherein Chief must travel around a large open area rescuing UNSC marines, finding new weapons as he goes to conquer the various Covenant foes blocking his path. But it also feels quite a lot like Ubisoft’s Far Cry series at times. Claim outposts, find some collectibles, and as a result grant yourself more freedom to approach objectives how you want to. Now whilst I love the Far Cry games, I wish that the game felt slightly more Halo. Perhaps if the story missions were better then I may not feel this way. But I can guarantee that you’ll have a great time exploring Zeta Halo and uncovering its many secrets.
But the great outdoors of Installation 07, Zeta Halo, offers so many incredible things to find through exploration. The world feels alive as the ring is quite literally constructing itself as you’re playing, and geometry feels natural and unlike anything created by a level designer. Chief is also upgradable in Halo Infinite, granting him access to a number of tools such as the return of Halo 5’s thruster pack, a drop shield, an enemy locator, and the now iconic grappleshot that is an invaluable tool both in combat and exploration. If you’re exploring the world these upgrades will come naturally to you, and similar to Metroidvania style games, some areas may require you to return later on once you’ve upgraded your abilities to access new areas.
As you reclaim territory from The Banished you’ll earn points which unlock weapons and vehicles for you to better traverse the world and stand a greater chance against your foes in combat. This style of gameplay feels very reminiscent of the second mission of Halo: Combat Evolved, 'Halo', wherein Chief must travel around a large open area rescuing UNSC marines, finding new weapons as he goes to conquer the various Covenant foes blocking his path. But it also feels quite a lot like Ubisoft’s Far Cry series at times. Claim outposts, find some collectibles, and as a result grant yourself more freedom to approach objectives how you want to. Now whilst I love the Far Cry games, I wish that the game felt slightly more Halo. Perhaps if the story missions were better then I may not feel this way. But I can guarantee that you’ll have a great time exploring Zeta Halo and uncovering its many secrets.
Halo Infinite received flak during its initial gameplay reveal for its less than stellar graphical fidelity, but a lot of work went into polishing the game up for release and I’m glad to say that Halo Infinite looks and runs great, though depending on which system you play on will mean that certain omissions needed to be made to allow it to run on that hardware. Like all current Xbox games, Halo Infinite can run on any hardware from the 2013 release Xbox One all the way up to the current gen systems, as well as PC’s with comparable specifications. I spent the majority of my time playing Halo Infinite on my newly purchased Xbox Series X, which I picked up specifically for this game. I’m happy to say that I’ve been nothing but overjoyed with the performance I have gotten out of Infinite on this machine, allowing me to play at a locked 60FPS at 2160p (native 4K), or a very stable 120FPS at 1440p with Dolby Vision & Atmos enhancements on both. I did opt to have the game run at 120FPS for the majority of the time, as I can’t say I noticed any issues in regards to a lower resolution whilst the game was in motion, and with the Dolby enhancements it’s likely I didn’t miss very much anyway.
I do however still have my Xbox One S, which is the other end of the spectrum in terms of hardware from the Series X, and I was still reasonably impressed by Infinite’s offerings. The resolution is a comfortable 1080p, and the frame rate often sat at around 30FPS and whilst it did have a tendency to dip when things got very hectic, it wasn’t bad enough to ruin the experience. Xbox One X will net you a bump in resolution quality, nabbing that native 4K, though the frame rate is locked at 30FPS, or you can lower the resolution to 1080p and achieve highs of 60FPS (though not a stable one). The Series S meanwhile will of course miss out on the 4K resolution and the 120FPS boost that the Series X gets, but it is a smooth 60FPS for the entire experience and the 1080p output resolution is still lovely to look at in motion, and there are Dolby enhancements once again for supported displays.
Moving on from all the numbers, the art style of Infinite is very reminiscent of Bungie-era Halo games, in particular Halo: Reach. Whilst the colour palette definitely has a lot more pop to it (something you’ll really get the benefit of with HDR settings and Dolby Vision if your hardware allows for it), the character models and style of the environment evokes Reach’s grittiness quite heavily as opposed to Halo 4&5’s more glossy appearance. This is of course most evident when out in the wilderness of Zeta Halo, and as I previously mentioned the story missions when they move indoors can become quite stale to look at. Even if 343 had employed an art style similar to that of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary to the structures, it would have been far nicer to look at and a lot brighter as well.
I do however still have my Xbox One S, which is the other end of the spectrum in terms of hardware from the Series X, and I was still reasonably impressed by Infinite’s offerings. The resolution is a comfortable 1080p, and the frame rate often sat at around 30FPS and whilst it did have a tendency to dip when things got very hectic, it wasn’t bad enough to ruin the experience. Xbox One X will net you a bump in resolution quality, nabbing that native 4K, though the frame rate is locked at 30FPS, or you can lower the resolution to 1080p and achieve highs of 60FPS (though not a stable one). The Series S meanwhile will of course miss out on the 4K resolution and the 120FPS boost that the Series X gets, but it is a smooth 60FPS for the entire experience and the 1080p output resolution is still lovely to look at in motion, and there are Dolby enhancements once again for supported displays.
Moving on from all the numbers, the art style of Infinite is very reminiscent of Bungie-era Halo games, in particular Halo: Reach. Whilst the colour palette definitely has a lot more pop to it (something you’ll really get the benefit of with HDR settings and Dolby Vision if your hardware allows for it), the character models and style of the environment evokes Reach’s grittiness quite heavily as opposed to Halo 4&5’s more glossy appearance. This is of course most evident when out in the wilderness of Zeta Halo, and as I previously mentioned the story missions when they move indoors can become quite stale to look at. Even if 343 had employed an art style similar to that of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary to the structures, it would have been far nicer to look at and a lot brighter as well.
No Halo game is complete without its multiplayer offerings of course and Halo infinite is definitely not short of those. Interestingly the multiplayer for Halo Infinite is Free to Play, so even if you don’t buy the campaign you can play multiplayer free, forever. As a result it adopts the Battle Pass structure seen in most modern shooters where instead of ranking up levels you progress through the Pass, the more you progress the more cosmetic items you unlock, these cosmetics can only be applied however if you purchase the Battle Pass. This means that Halo Infinite’s Spartan’s are heavily customisable but almost all cosmetics are earned through purchasing the Battle Pass, and only a small handful can be unlocked for free. As of release the weapon balancing seems pretty on point, however there isn’t much in the way of map variety with playlists like Team Slayer cycling the same four maps over and over again.
There is also Ranked Matchmaking which is very similar to how Halo 3’s multiplayer worked back in 2007. Your rank is determined by your skill level and you’re matched to players of a similar skill rank to yourself. The better you play the higher your rank will be, but if your performance drops or you are unsportsmanlike your rank will also drop. There aren’t many ranks available as of yet though, and seeing as Halo is basically the only multiplayer game I’m good at, it didn’t take me long to reach the upper ranks available.
Despite its difficult and long development period, Halo Infinite is without a doubt the kiss of life the franchise desperately needed. It’s certainly not perfect, but it does manage to stand toe to toe with many of the series best games, and thanks to the great open world mechanics it’s something you can return to again and again to find lots of hidden secrets as is always a big part of the charm with Halo.
The Free to Play multiplayer is also a big hit, and I can’t wait to see how it evolves over the coming months and years, and I hope to see more maps added including a few fan favourites maybe?
All in all, if you’re a Halo fan, Infinite is likely to keep your attention for a long time to come.
There is also Ranked Matchmaking which is very similar to how Halo 3’s multiplayer worked back in 2007. Your rank is determined by your skill level and you’re matched to players of a similar skill rank to yourself. The better you play the higher your rank will be, but if your performance drops or you are unsportsmanlike your rank will also drop. There aren’t many ranks available as of yet though, and seeing as Halo is basically the only multiplayer game I’m good at, it didn’t take me long to reach the upper ranks available.
Despite its difficult and long development period, Halo Infinite is without a doubt the kiss of life the franchise desperately needed. It’s certainly not perfect, but it does manage to stand toe to toe with many of the series best games, and thanks to the great open world mechanics it’s something you can return to again and again to find lots of hidden secrets as is always a big part of the charm with Halo.
The Free to Play multiplayer is also a big hit, and I can’t wait to see how it evolves over the coming months and years, and I hope to see more maps added including a few fan favourites maybe?
All in all, if you’re a Halo fan, Infinite is likely to keep your attention for a long time to come.