Intent

Halo Infinite, a game that I've finally played and… are slightly underwhelmed by. Not that I was going into it with any particular hype, ever since MCC, I temper my expectations not just for Halo but video-games in-general. Not buying into hype cycles just makes you more likely to be pleasantly surprised.

However, I enjoyed both Halo 4 and Halo 5: Guardians, granted, not the latter single-player, but definitely its multi-player, especially during the beta and early days when it felt very fresh, and catered to my enjoyment of games like Advanced Warfare and Titanfall.

Agency driven Arena Shooters are a lot of fun to play with similarly matched players, and that’s what Halo 5 was for me despite its issues.

What I find interesting about Infinite so far is that none of my issues with the game stem from its overall quality, because It's a solid game. Inputs feel good on both gamepad, and mouse and keyboard (for the first time), swapping weapons, clambering, zooming in, and shooting all feel nice and responsive. Visually, the game is both technically and artistically impressive. New weapons such as the Shock Rifle are fun to use, especially when you make the most of its unique traits.

There were times playing the game where I'd grapple hook off a wall, fly a solid distance, and liquefy somebody into purple bursts of energy from my Heatwave firearm, and people watching would say "that looks cool."

It does look cool.

But… is it all that new?

The discussion seems to be about has Halo Infinite returned to its classic formula? And I'd say it somewhat has, but has it improved upon that classic formula?

Ehhhhhh… maybe?

That I think is my problem with Halo Infinite. It's map designs are modelled off of the symmetrical forests of Valhalla, and the uneven industrial hallways of Blackout, or the city streets of Turf but.. They're not doing anything those maps didn't do, and they're not doing them any better than those old games.

What's doubly strange, is how many obvious nods are made to the original games in these levels, with the Big Team Battle map in current rotation having the exact same Forerunner doorways as Halo 1, while I'm walking through their with weapons that appear to be straight out of Unreal Tournament.

Clambering exists, but geometry is often uneven and therefore isn't engage when you're trying to escape. Sprint exists, but it only gives you a 2-5% movement boost, and can be existed almost immediately. Equipment returns, but its team equipment is next to useless and it's selfish equipment behave more as power-ups. You've got a grappling hook, on levels no more than two stories high. You've got Rocket Launchers that sound louder firing than exploding. You've got new weapons, that behave identical to old ones. You've got personalized armor pieces, but pre-set armor colors.

I've heard rumors that Halo Infinite's development has gone through multiple reboots. That 343's team is split into developers that want their own unique vision for the franchise and others that want to pay tribute to Bungie. I've seen reports of prominent staff members entering and leaving the project.

I've heard all of these things and yet, if I never did, I'd feel them through all of these headscratchers.

Halo 5 was an built an adding a fourth gameplay pillar to combine with Weapons, Grenades, and Melee, and it did this through giving the player a swath of powerful abilities they could activate on command. Maps were made larger to account for sprint, geometry was simplified to combine with clamber, hallways were widened for dashes, verticality was brought in for hovering and ground pound, exits were made for sliding.

Whether or not you enjoyed these changes, they were all made with a specific vison and intent.

Halo Infinite doesn't have this unification. It doesn't feel like it was built to continue Halo Reach's Abilities, or adding a forth pillar, or portraying a personal story of losing someone to dementia, it feels like a split. Like it's relatively sure it knows what it wants, it's thought about things, but didn't come in with an immediate tangible goal.

I heard Dead Space's creator say that he made that game with the intent to make the scariest game of all time. As someone who doesn't love Dead Space, I don't think it is, but there's one thing I can't deny, him and his team poured their heart and soul into it; they had total commitment.

"You need that goal. You don't go in and say, oh, I want to make the third scariest game."

That's what I don't feel in Halo Infinite. It doesn't feel like a team who wanted to make the best Halo, or the newest Halo, or their Halo, but just… a Halo. Maybe what some fans want right now, just a Halo that reminds them of what the series was… but I don't that'll last.