It’s been 6 long years since we had a chance to step into the shoes of Master Chief. When last we saw him, he was being hunted down by Spartan Locke, while trying to track down and convince Cortana to stand down from her decision to use the Guardians as a means of forcibly achieving galactic peace. Fast forward a period of time and this is where we find ourselves introduced to a new human character who goes by the name “Echo 216” and a new AI known only as “Weapon”. Echo 216 is stranded on a mostly dead ship floating in space who happens upon Chief floating lifeless in hibernation sleep as we’ve all seen in the early trailers. Soon after, Chief more or less commandeers the ship and sets his sights on a damaged ringworld known as ‘Zeta Halo’. Here is where he’ll face the violent and ruthless splintered faction of the Covenant known as The Banished.

This is where I’ll stop with my coverage of the story – My aim is to discuss the game with as few spoilers as I can possibly deliver in hopes that you’ll experience the game for yourself. 

Halo Infinite is the latest installment of the long-running flagship franchise from Xbox. The game has been in development for a very long time and was supposed to be part of the Xbox Series X launch lineup last year but a decision to postpone the game after a deep dive was showcased in 2020 pushed the highly anticipated series to November 2021. At the time it looked dire for developer 343 Industries. Perhaps they weren’t the team that could deliver a truly AAA Halo experience. So how did that extra time work out?

In short, I would say very well.

Halo Infinite drops players onto another Halo world but, for the first time ever, we get to experience it in the form of a vast open-world format. Prior to landing on Zeta Halo, players are thrust into their training levels where they’ll learn of some of the basic concepts of the game and be introduced to the most interesting new mechanic – the Grappleshot.

The grapple shot is exactly what it sounds like. A Grappleshot that fires from Chief’s wrist. Admittedly, when I first learned of this mechanic I thought “Big deal – games like Just Cause have been doing this for ages” but as I would soon find out it’s one of the best and most interesting mechanics introduced to Chief in a long time. You can use it to bring the fight closer for a more intimate close-quarters-combat engagement, to traverse the map to get to higher ground to find specific hidden pickups. Additionally, you can use it to create space between you and the enemies, or my personal favourite, use it to grab weapons or explosives when you run out of ammo. I won’t lie to you, I love the Grappleshot.

Soon after landing on Zeta Halo, players are introduced to the variety of missions at their disposal. On the map players will find the following tasks:

Main missions (I focused on mostly my playthrough for a variety of reasons I won’t go into) but I found them to be incredibly rewarding and they continued to push me to stay up far too late on a work night just to see what happened next. Forward Operating Bases(FOBs) are UNSC bases occupied by the Banished and can act as waypoints for troops, fast travel locations, and provide access to weapons and vehicles which can be unlocked by earning Valor points. Valor points are awarded for completing missions throughout the land. Utilizing these bases as a staging ground prior to heading into a major battle was pivotal in my success. Often times I would call in a Scorpion when I knew that I would be walking headfirst into a massive multi-stage battle.

High-value targets have Chief hunting down the worst of the worst high-level members of the Banished. These battles are typically quick skirmishes and felt extremely rewarding to me at the end. Fortresses are bases filled with banished and often have multiple objectives within like destroying repair operations and fuel depots – I enjoyed these battles and would often bring other UNSC troops along for the ride with me to give them a little payback. And this sort of game wouldn’t be complete without Propaganda which is the same kind of thing you find in other games like Far Cry. Kill the bad guys in the area and destroy the radio transmissions. I would often stumble upon these by accident and would attack them, though I wasn’t actively seeking them out. 

Scattered throughout the lands are other collectibles and areas of interest you’ll also want to pay particular interest to as they can either provide more insight into the backstory of this strange land and allows for upgrades of Chief’s abilities.

• Spartan Cores can be found and are used to level up his Grappleshot, Shield Core, Threat Sensor, Drop Wall or Thruster abilities. For example, after obtaining a specific number of Spartan Cores, you can upgrade the shield to have 15% more base protection or reduce the cool down effect of the grapple shot. I fully focused my points on my shield and grapple. I didn’t even touch the other abilities.
• Mjolnir Armories are hidden caches of Spartan armor and items which unlocks special armor to be used in Multiplayer – can’t really speak to these as this build of the game was strictly locked to the campaign and I’ll have to replay to find these items later in the week.
• UNSC, Banished and Spartan audio logs give players a deeper view into the backstory of Zeta Halo and I have to say I really enjoyed what I have found. When I get the chance to replay the game, I expect that I’ll be spending a greater amount of time seeking them all out.
• Forerunner archives I assume are the same as above from a Forerunner perspective but as it would turn out, apparently I never found any
• Last but not least – You can’t have a Halo game without the hidden skull buffs. I only managed to find 1 of them and you can rest assured I’ll be looking for the rest next playthrough. 

The map is huge but is easily travelled whether on foot, by air, or on land vehicles. One of the things I found that made my life easy for one of the later missions was I commandeered a banshee and took that to four locations across the map to complete a major story point. It made my life so much easier.

Each mission plays out the same way for the most part. Enter the installation, kill everything, rinse-repeat but the fights all had their own experience. Sure, you’re fighting the same kind of enemies but each battle presented a different set of challenges and some even resulted in a boss battle which I quite liked. One exception, however, was when one boss was attacking me in a highly enclosed space with a power hammer. To defeat him, I cheated a little and hid on this little shelf out of his way and pelted him with grenades and bullets after getting punished by him four or five times in a row. Not my finest hour but an effective tactic that I don’t regret. The enemies also came with a different feel of AI and personality this time around. They felt a little more intelligent this time but the grunts were simply hilarious with some of their expressions and the way some would run screaming calling you a mean person.

As much as I loved my time with Halo Infinite, I feel as though the world is perhaps a little lifeless despite the wildlife, missions, and random skirmishes with The Banished. Either I missed a lot during my playthrough or there’s not much to see and experience aside from the missions/side missions. I would have loved to see more hidden bases, outposts but I suspect that 343 has some plans in the works to keep us exploring and investigating.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the fact that there is no couch or online co-op. That hurts like hell and it’s disappointing but if they had to delay that and the new Forge editor to make sure they nailed it with the campaign and the MP then in my opinion it’s a small price to pay. For now I’ll simply enjoy the campaign and MP with friends.

At the end of the day, I think the lingering question: “Is 343 up to the task of building a truly AAA Halo game?” has finally been answered with Halo Infinite. The answer is “Yes”. Was it a bumpy ride? Yeah, I would say so but they really needed to deliver on this game. Was the delay last year a huge blow? Absolutely, but I feel like 343 has finally delivered that epic game we’ve all been hoping for. They may well have finally stepped out of the shadow that was left behind by Bungie.

Halo Infinite was a huge win for me. I loved my time playing the campaign and look forward to seeing what 343 has in store for us as they continue to build out this world. Halo Infinite all comes to head in what I felt was a touching and satisfying way and I look forward to hearing the thoughts from other gamers, peers and members of the Xbox/Halo Community.

Pros:
– The extra year for polish really paid off
– The Story feels more connected to the human side of the franchise – the finish was really heartfelt and enjoyable
– The grapple shot is all kinds of awesome
– The world is gorgeous and I’m excited to see what else is in store for the future of Halo Infinite over the next one-two years
– Boss battles are satisfying

Cons:
– Would like to see more secrets
– World feels a little lifeless at times depending on how you approach getting from point A to B
– The extra abilities feel useless in comparison to the Grapphleshot. I never once used any of them. Feels like they exist only because of the multiplayer component.
– The omission of couch or online co-op hurts

***Halo Infinite launches on December 8th on Xbox Series X and Series S, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows – A review build was provided for this review.***

Kaneda