Halo Infinite (Xbox Series X)

One of Halo’s greatest strengths has always been its area design. In both campaign levels and multiplayer battle arenas, you’ll find there are often multiple routes to approach your opponents, leading to a dynamically shifting fight as people attempt to exploit new angles or find themselves ousted from their spot of choice. A focus on multiple sight lines to most positions on the map helps avoid lulls in action or players dominating with a position of power, but Halo Infinite aims to take things further, this first-person shooter introducing fully open exploration during its campaign that adds even greater variation on how a conflict can be approached. The focus on open world movement isn’t as extensive as one might expect, but it isn’t exactly an unexpected direction for a series that has always subtly been defined by its excellent area layouts.

 

Halo Infinite’s campaign kicks off with a scene that contains some exciting action choreography, but what exactly is going on is something that ends up unveiled over the course of the adventure. In this science-fiction future, Earth’s military remains engaged with hostile alien forces from other planets, but they have also ended up creating their own enemy as the AI personalities they developed to assist in the war effort have gone rogue. With Master Chief’s former AI partner Cortana leading this insurrection, his emotional connection leads to him trying to spearhead the effort to stop the violence even though the events of Halo 5: Guardians have left the AI forces known as The Created with powerful superweapons that make the fight a bit one-sided. A damaged superweapon known as the Zeta Halo could potentially make things even more dire in the wrong hands, but as the UNSC flagship Infinity arrives at it, a group of allied alien races known as the Banished attack. Comprised mostly of familiar species from the Covenant that Master Chief has fought before, he still comes up short in the fight, almost doomed to drift through space if not for the fortunate help of a passing pilot.

 

Halo Infinite ends up focusing mostly on a set of three characters from here, Master Chief being a serious hero of few words, the nervous pilot, referred to as Echo-216, and a new AI called Weapon. Many details of what happened on the Infinity are initially unknown to the player and Master Chief isn’t forthcoming with details on them to his new allies, so a good deal of the plot ends up being about uncovering what happened involving UNSC forces, Cortana, and the Banished’s leader Atriox. This does admittedly make things a bit confusing as at times it can feel like you’re missing important details that could help with deciphering new information, but the surprise standout of the story is actually Weapon whose arc is fully-contained with this game and easy to follow. Developed to help assist in taking out the AI rebellion, she was meant to be deleted after playing her part but finds herself still active afterwards. Uncertain about herself as her base personality seems mostly focused on being a dutiful tool in the war effort, Weapon soon starts to develop quirks, learns more about life, and grows attached to her companions, all while the unfortunate specter of her reason for existing makes it unclear how her story might unfold. Expressive and fairly well-realized partly because she’s the character who will do the most talking, Weapon’s growth is a compelling forward-progressing anchor in a story that otherwise involves piecing together incomplete details or spending time in the dark on certain story elements.

There are some other ideas that make the story worth paying some attention to, the Banished War Chief Escharum your true main antagonist for much of the plot and while he’s a brutal bloodthirsty leader, it’s almost charming how excited he is with the prospect of potentially taking down the universally famous Master Chief. Master Chief even shows a bit of important growth when the last two games seemed to put him in a strange position with Cortana where his quiet nature made it hard to glean what he thought of her increasingly problematic and destructive behavior, but Halo Infinite is able to keep him relatively reserved while showing he has developed some mistrust towards her but struggles with their old sense of companionship. It’s unclear whether the game wants you to believe Cortana manipulated him or genuinely believes some of the things she said to him now that she’s so far gone, but there is at least room for discussion on whether or not Chief now realizes how unhealthy his attachment to her was and it even leads to some important moments involving his treatment of Weapon. It still perhaps gets wrapped up a little too much in story elements it doesn’t present the best, but a surprising amount of character focus makes a fuzzy approach to establishing the main threat easier to accept.

 

Zeta Halo itself is an artificial world, the small island cluster you explore mostly consisting of mountainous yet verdant turf. Some of the artificiality is on show in certain structures you encounter and there are moments you plunge into areas below the surface that are purely artificial alien architecture, but the open spaces you’re allowed to explore up above don’t seem too committed to broad visual variety. You can certainly identify certain areas by a specific idea like an area of scorched land or a large mining operation, but the openness of the world doesn’t often feel like it’s trying to get you to scour every inch of it. It is actually quite easy to press on through the plot without having to spend much time looking around if you desire more linear structured areas rather than the fully free exploration, and this is to the game’s benefit. On the plot’s course the game can create more controlled battle arenas and skirmishes against the various alien species, but the open segments are more organic in how they can be approached since you can come from most any angle. A fight out in the world will likely have a bunch of simpler aliens like the somewhat inept Grunts, some shield-wielding Jackals, and powerful Elite and Brute leaders to make a batch of foes with different advantages and strategic priorities, but then on the outskirts of the area snipers might be waiting in the hills or enemy aircraft can swoop in as unexpected complications. However, since you get to pick when and how you engage these battle parties, you can be the sniper yourself, bring a heavy duty vehicle from elsewhere in the world, or attempt to use natural cover in new ways if your previous attempt lead to you perishing. Boss battles are rare and are often just more durable versions of familiar alien warriors, but even just giving a Brute a jetpack and more durability does up their danger factor enough that taking them on serves as a good fight if not conceptually ambitious.

 

One of the best tools granted to you for exploring in Halo Infinite is the Grappleshot, this simple tool making traversal across the rugged world quick and easy. You can cover large distances quickly and even scale large cliff faces if you time and angle its uses right, and the game is happy to let you use this grappling cable constantly. You can pull yourself into a fight or make a quick escape with it, grab weapons and throwable explosive barrels from afar, or even hijack enemy vehicles through its use, and it is quite possible the open world concept might not have worked as fluidly as it does without this consistent movement option. You do get other tools like a forcefield you can deploy on the ground or a threat sensor that shows you where nearby enemies are better than your simple radar, but it’s hard to justify swapping away from the versatile grappling hook in story mode, especially since there is an unfortunate glitch on occasion where you can’t swap your active tool out until you next die.

Halo Infinite’s optional activities are fairly intelligent in design, most of them just providing different skirmish types that engage with the first-person shooting fundamentals it offers. Banished Outposts are the most robust, these being few in number because they’re basically large strongholds where you’ll be fighting a small army of aliens and trying to take down whatever systems or resources it has. These benefit from the ability to approach them from the angle you desire but still offer an area with strongly designed structures to influence the flow of the fight. Forward Operating Bases (or FOBs for short) on the other hand are more numerous and thus made small skirmishes, more like a camp of specific baddies you will work a bit to take out but it’s more a singular fight compared to an Outposts flow through different sections and enemy groups. High Value Targets are a bit similar to FOBs but put up more of a fight, a specific strong enemy and their allies taking you on and providing a special weapon variant should you defeat them. While not every variant feels distinct in what they offer, a weapon like the Ravager, a strong tool that lobs heated plasma, has a special variant to acquire where its shots can bounce along the ground if they don’t hit an enemy. The rewards for the different types of optional work also vary in how useful they feel, and some like saving pinned down groups of UNSC soldiers or destroying enemy propaganda towers definitely feel more like little things to do on the way, but they do add up as they start to give you new options at the FOBs for spawning in weapons and vehicles. Once you can afford something like the flying Wasp vehicle too, it becomes easy to blitz the activities you passed by to make all the worthwhile extra content feel achievable to pursue.

 

There are some things like audio logs that are squirreled away in unusual spots and don’t illuminate much when listened to, and while finding Spartan Cores can upgrade your tools in a legitimately useful way, the Mjolnir armor lockers are purely for multiplayer cosmetics. When the content is focused on the action elements rather than scouring the environment though, Halo Infinite can be exhilarating, especially thanks to a wide but varied weapon pool. You have a few Earth weapons that are familiar tools like a shotgun and a few semi-automatics and machine guns, but the sniper rifle is incredibly strong and heavy duty options like the Hydra are interesting as it provides the ability to fire multiple homing missiles without the slowness of the powerful M41 SPNKR rocket launcher. The standard weaponry give you reliable options and are often featured as default tools in the multiplayer modes due to their consistency and flexibility, but alien guns give you nifty tools like the earlier mentioned Ravager that even has the ability to charge up its energy so its shot leaves behind a dangerous heated pool of plasma. The Disruptor electric pistol will stun an enemy after enough shots, have electricity arc off to harm nearby targets, and can even disable vehicles and turrets briefly. Energy Swords and Gravity Hammers are powerful melee weapons if you can get in close and land a hit, and the Skewer even serves as sniping option for vehicles specifically. There’s a good range of attack options before you factor in vehicles like the Ghost hoverbike, the Warthog jeep that multiple players can pile into either in cooperative story mode or large multiplayer battles, or huge tanks like the Scorpion and the otherworldly Wraith. Unfortunately in the campaign the terrain is fairly uneven so you can find it hard to use vehicles for long term traversal, but they definitely give an entertaining alternate option in many skirmishes and can help define some of the multiplayer modes.

 

Halo Infinite utilizes an energy shielding system where instead of a traditional health bar, you have your shield depleted by incoming damage and once it is fully depleted you can then sustain lethal damage. Certain things will break through and instantly kill you like being run over or taking a rocket head on, but if you are able to avoid being hurt for a time, your shields will regenerate so battles can have shifting levels of pressure as participants push in and pull back to manage their defenses. In the game’s multiplayer battles you are less capable since the grappling hook is unfortunately not guaranteed and often limited in use, but there are plenty of modes that shift up how a battle is approached. Some are simple in concept like Slayer being a contest between two teams or every player to earn the most kills. Big Team Battle steps things up a notch as the focus shifts to large arenas with two teams of 12 players and vehicles frequently appearing. This mode lends itself well to things like Capture the Flag where teams try to steal and claim the flag from the other team’s base, Total Control where it instead focuses on maintaining control of shifting spots in the arena, and the odd Stockpile mode where its essentially Capture the Flag but with neutral power seeds appearing in high numbers that both teams can potentially score points with by taking them back to their bases. Fiesta is a fun eccentric mode where each new life randomizes which weapons and tools you have and the Forge allows players to make their own custom maps and mode concepts. While there are some unusual attempts to apply a story to the multiplayer component and some microtransaction elements like a battle pass where you can earn cosmetics for playing more after a buy-in, the multiplayer is still enjoyable to jump into. It’s fairly easy to find a setting that suits your tastes for the type of battle you want, the plentiful maps coming with a wide range of focuses so some support more intimate small battles while others lend themselves to enormous conflicts.

THE VERDICT: Halo Infinite’s story structure can be a little obtuse at times, but the compelling focus on Weapon gives the campaign a meaningful and straightforward narrative to follow. The plot takes you through more curated fights but the open world exploration allows for battles with more dynamic shapes and unique options, and the Zeta Halo itself is thankfully mostly populated with entertaining battles rather than bland filler. The Grappleshot makes crossing its world a breeze and energetic to boot, and a diverse range of weapon types and multiplayer modes ensure Halo Infinite can remain fresh whether you come to it for the story missions, optional skirmishes, or free-to-play multiplayer.

 

And so, I give Halo Infinite for Xbox Series X…

A GREAT rating. Since taking the reins with Halo 4, developer 343 Industries has struggled a bit with crafting a compelling new threat and resets the work it did in a previous title as it tries something new with each installment. Halo Infinite is guilty of this as well, but wisely the game at least makes why you moved on from the previous game’s threat a mystery that is gradually pieced together while still allowing the brand new threat to be a present danger from the start. It does unfortunately end up confusing at times because of this and it was likely not the best approach to revealing such details, but it also weaves together well with Weapon’s developing personality and Master Chief’s efforts to work together with a new AI companion. Some greater boss variety would have livened up the campaign a bit more as well, but the Zeta Halo is well constructed to work either as a place you briefly cross to get to new story bits or an open space with a reasonable amount of interesting content to engage with. Ideas like the Mjolnir lockers and shallow audio logs could have been cleaned up to be less basic as well, but it’s easy to tell where the meat of these extra activities are and you get more excellent action if you do pursue the Outposts, High Value Targets, and FOBs. The area design is definitely complemented by the Grappleshot’s versatility and the fact it makes even the simplest moments of traversal a bit more involved and lively as you pull yourself to your goal instead of merely walking to it. More setting variety on the Halo ring would spice things up as well despite the actual geometry of the places you explore already being conducive to exciting gunfights, and the multiplayer maps at least make up for this as they are more distinct visually and conceptually even before you factor in the customization tools the Forge offers. Systems-wise everything seems pretty cleanly in place for an often thrilling first-person shooter experience, although it could have been interesting to see how wild multiplayer could have been if the Grappleshot was integrated into it as a fundamental piece rather than a limited use option that isn’t always available.

 

Halo Infinite is a step up from the previous two mainline titles even as it steps into some new ground for a franchise that didn’t often take major risks on how it presented its first-person shooting. Perhaps the open world activities being reasonable in number and not a major break from standard firefights means this step forward doesn’t feel monumental, but it is incredibly effective and offers more ways to tap into the series’s strengths without often indulging in weak scavenger hunts. Whether you’re fighting aliens or other players, Halo Infinite has found a way to make it exciting, and while that is in part because the game has had time after release to refine itself through patches, it provides an entertaining yet fresh adventure for Master Chief and perhaps a promise of an even brighter future for the consistently good but often somewhat shaky Halo franchise.