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Halo Infinite - Review Thread

AJUMP23

Member
Watched the Gmanlives review and the guy makes the game sound very meh.

I was willing to give the game a try, but if it's just the same gameplay as Halo: CE but open world and in 2021, then I guess I can skip it. Good for the fans of the series I guess, the same thing but with some improvements sounds fine for someone who enjoys those games.
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If you have the GamePass.....play the game.
 

TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
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If you have the GamePass.....play the game.
That should be the slogan for the game. :lollipop_content:

Nah but yeah, I have it on PC so I guess it doesn't hurt to give it a go. Who knows, maybe I get surprised and end up enjoying the shit out of it.

Best thing about GP: trying out games.
 
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BigLee74

Member
“Random guy that doesn’t like Halo makes it sound meh, so I’m not playing it.”

This is what I am reading. 😜

What I deduce from the reviews are generally great scores all round. If you have any reasonable interest in Halo, it’s a no brainer. If you are new to Halo and like FPSs, it’s a no brainer. Even if you don’t fall into those categories, but have game pass, it’s worth the download to try.

Personally speaking, I have already tied the wife and kids up and locked them in a cupboard so I can have perfect peace tomorrow at release time 😂
 
From what I can gather is its a fun videogame to play, so for me that's enough to be excited. I'm not a super Halo fan and apparently that's where it falls a bit short for some cause the main baddie is a bit of a bore and the open world doesn't add too much to the story side of things outside of gameplay elements.

But again for me that's fine. I think at this point Halo fans are just happy it didn't end up missing the mark completely. The conversation weeks after launch will be more interesting after everyone has a chance to complete the game and hype dies down and everything has time to digest.
Wepp
Sounds like a very solid outing but not quite the God of War 2018 uplift for the IP it probably needed to be.

I guess it will come down to, do you think Halo just needs to be "fine quality" and good ol' fun, or do something in a big enough way to be considered a leader and inspiring gameplay and narrative design of other games of its ilk, in order to be truly a "marquee" franchise.

Because for me marquee games tend to set standards in one way or another whether it be graphics, animations, game design, story/narrative, even music etc. where they have a clear lead over other games in their genre (if not industry-wide) in that specific area. And every major platform holder past and present has had at least one, if not several, games of that status, such as:

-Nintendo with Super Mario Bros., Mario 64, Zelda OoT​
-Sony with Gran Turismo, Parappa the Rapper, TLOU Part 2 (animations)​
-Sega with Virtua Fighter 3 (graphics & mechanical depth), Panzer Dragoon, Outrun​
-Microsoft with Halo 1, Flight Simulator​

...then of course 3P companies like Capcom with Street Fighter 2, Resident Evil, Resident Evil 4 or Namco with Tekken 3 (PS1 home version), iD Software with DOOM and DOOM 3, etc. Not all of those necessarily started new genres, copycat trends or wildly massive shifts to game design, but they led in certain areas for their time and were often also the biggest productions of their time in their respective genres as well, coinciding with being prestige IPs for their owners, hence marquee.

Halo Infinite's campaign sounds like it's quality fun but will it set any precedents for others to be inspired to model off of going forward? From some of these reviews it doesn't sound like it; that combined with these scores (which are quite good to be perfectly honest; not amazing but very solid) it just maybe seems like it's not enough of an innovation with the campaign to reinvigorate the IP long-term with more casual fans (or expand its reach to people outside of the Halo community the way something like 2018 GoW did for its IP)?

I'm guessing what I'm really saying is it seems like Halo: Infinite is the Halo equivalent to R&C: Rift Apart. A perfectly fine entry in the IP but nothing that does anything too beyond what previous installments already did, and maybe it'll just "feel" more special due to absence of stronger competition? Granted I haven't played the campaign, but I was thinking it'd score at least in the 88 - 91 MC range. And yes MC doesn't mean everything, it never has. But considering we've pointed to the MC when looking at the general praise for stuff like Flight Sim and FH5, it's only fair to give it that same weight when looking at the still-fine-just-not-as-strong praise for Halo Infinite campaign.

Curious if these reviews will get updated when new story content for the campaign comes along; that should probably be the case but depending on the time gap between initial release and that new content it's hard to ask reviewers to retrofit old articles with new info in a way that feels like a whole, naturally cohesive review.
Wow .that was a good little read ..I agree with everything you said there .. except maybe Parappa? That's where my and others slight disappointment probably comes from ..I was hoping Halo wouldn't just be good but be AWESOME. If you remember what it was like when Halo 2 and Halo 3 came out, that's what I'll always be looking for in a Halo. The total package; an "event".

Obviously I will reserve final judgement until I play through the game. My worries remain with Halo and 343 AND MS's management abilities going forward. I don't like that they're trying to turn this into Destiny with their "10 year plan" of turning Halo into a live service.
 
Some people see what they want to. Have you played the MP? If you like how that feels to play, which is imo incredibly fun, I would expect the SP will feel much the same. Just watching it would not be the same.
I have not, but by all accounts it's pretty good. A funny dynamic I've noticed is the PC players thinking consoles have an advantage and vice versa.
 
EasyAllies gave God of War a perfect score aswell and had this in their review.

"During our entire playthrough we only encountered a few minor graphic flaws such as weapons or hair clipping through clothing. There was also one time where the game wouldn’t load, resulting in a few minutes of lost progress, and in a few instances, the camera could be kind of finicky during combat. However, these inconsistencies were few and insignificant. The overall level of quality on display is awe-inspiring. "

None of the shit that gets perfect scores is perfect, the same way we hardly ever get games scoring below 50% these days the scoring system is pretty useless. It's why reviews like ACG are much more useful.

I thought most people knew already that a 10/10 doesn't mean a game is "perfect", what the hell :LOL: ? You can never have a "perfect" game there are 10/10 games I would never touch because they're boring to me.

10/10 just mean the game's among the top of its peers, IMO. Very rarely does that mean it's among the GOAT, but in some cases it could be.

No pony in the race but Reddit is saying theres no day 1 Co-op, no day 1 level/chapter select, no forge, gutted multiplayer options that have been staples of the series since Combat Evolved, no career stat/medal tracking, EA levels of microtransaction shenanigans for the much touted battlepass.

I'll be interested in seeing if these impact the meta scores over time or if they will be glossed over with 343's promises to fix things in post.

Seems like the majority of reviews are glossing over it given their scores but the more critical reviews have mentioned some of the things you mentioned like lack of biome variety etc.

General consensus though is that the actual game mechanics are very, very good and the story is quite good (aside from maybe the ending), so I'm guessing for most reviews those things are strong enough to outweigh missing features. It is quite surprising tho with lack of some features because it can be argued Infinite is a worst full-package experience than Halo 5 and 4, and it being a live service game shouldn't be an excuse with certain things being MIA from launch. It never should.

Not sure if anyone has mentioned it here, but did you know? (To take that phrase from the YouTube show..) that once you complete the Halo Infinite campaign, you can't go back to individual missions...like you could with the previous games...the game only allows you to go back to the main outdoor setting to mop up any odd enemy base camp which you may have missed....having said that going by what ACG said in his review that first part of the game was nothing to write home about anyway....so it isn't as if you are missing a key part ..

Just hearing about this; I hope it isn't as a means of preventing player exhaustion through the campaign before campaign co-op is ready, because that'd be creating an artificial demand for having players justify a co-op campaign playthrough months after initial release.
 
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If you have the GamePass.....play the game.

That shouldn't be a selling point for a marquee IP like Halo, and it's a bit annoying some reviewers are basically boiling the game down to "well it's already there in GamePass so try it for yourself". You don't sell people on a game through a delivery mechanism (service in this case); you sell people on the game itself and if that game has a delivery mechanism like a subscription service, then that service naturally gets a boost through association.

That's not how Microsoft is marketing the game, thankfully, but some of these reviewers seem like they want to do it that way. Thing is though even if the game is in the servce, time itself is also a currency of sorts so the game still needs to justify itself in terms of quality to make my playtime with it worth investing into.

I thought this looked hilarious.



NGL that actually looks pretty cool. I hope the actual campaign emphasizes verticality in the gunplay, even if it isn't as insane as this clip.

Wepp

Wow .that was a good little read ..I agree with everything you said there .. except maybe Parappa? That's where my and others slight disappointment probably comes from ..I was hoping Halo wouldn't just be good but be AWESOME. If you remember what it was like when Halo 2 and Halo 3 came out, that's what I'll always be looking for in a Halo. The total package; an "event".

Obviously I will reserve final judgement until I play through the game. My worries remain with Halo and 343 AND MS's management abilities going forward. I don't like that they're trying to turn this into Destiny with their "10 year plan" of turning Halo into a live service.

Yeah I prob oversold Parappa there....it seemed pretty breakthrough for its time though (UmJammer is easily the better game tho).

Going by the MC score and reviews, and the consensus in most reviews, I would think the score'd be higher. Halo 4 (for a lot of people) had a great campaign but bad multiplayer, and Halo 5 for a lot felt like the opposite. Halo Infinite supposedly has the best campaign story of any of the 343 Halo games and very good multiplayer (at least on par with 5's if not better in terms of sheer feel and mechanics), but it's score is just somewhere in-between 4 and 5's.

So maybe the reviews are taking some of the drawbacks like biome diversity, the MP progression issues etc. but also taking into consideration these things will come in future updates so while it could be impacting their scores, they're on the softer side knowing they are coming. Could explain why MC-wise Infinite falls more between 4 and 5 though.

One thing I'm interested to hear is if any of the reviewers felt like playing the game was an "experience"; almost all of them have said the campaign is at least very solid, or quite good or even great. But I haven't come across any likening the campaign to a sort of transformative experience. At least, not in the way expectations might've been when the game was first revealed back in 2018 (IIRC).

Because those usually tend to be the games that are remembered well after release and, like I was saying earlier, set a standard for others to follow in some area. That's what I tend to think of when it comes to marquee games, but it doesn't sound like Halo Infinite's campaign has that level of exquisite craft to it, when it seems it should. I know the gameplay is less scripted and more emergent, though, so a lot of that type of thing which can lead to it feeling like a bigger experience is going to come down to the creative playstyle of the player and how well they understand to leverage the game mechanics, which actually does a great job leaning into the sandbox nature of the franchise. I just think this day and age, you need to also have some scripted moments (like a big set piece or two) which clearly put that type of thing front-and-center to all players so it leaves an impact without too much effort from the player. Which, maybe says more about the average gamer today than about a game's design TBH, but it is what it is.

All that said though I'm very happy for the applause the game is getting and looks like it's off to a pretty strong start; but, a lot of us can also feel it'd be off to an even stronger start if certain staples were present Day 1, or if certain things got shaken up a bit more. The campaign probably could've hit that "transformative experience" level the way the original did back in 2001 (or I'd say at least like the original trilogy did where it probably felt like an experience heads-and-shoulders above virtually every other FPS on the market), which is what it feels like it should've been. That doesn't seem to be the case, though, but it's looking like a very solid campaign regardless that should be a lot of fun.
 

Greggy

Member
Is this game launching at midnight UK time or is it a simulataneous worldwide release (if the latter at what time please)?
 
Personally speaking, I have already tied the wife and kids up and locked them in a cupboard so I can have perfect peace tomorrow at release time 😂

Me too. I've cleared my work day, plan to start a random fight with the misses late tonight (so she gives me the cold shoulder all day tomorrow), kids are heading to school as normal and I may or may not start day drinking while enjoying the game.
 

clarky

Gold Member
Me too. I've cleared my work day, plan to start a random fight with the misses late tonight (so she gives me the cold shoulder all day tomorrow), kids are heading to school as normal and I may or may not start day drinking while enjoying the game.
Solid plan.
 

MidGenRefresh

*Refreshes biennially
I got it preordered on Steam but I can’t wait so I will go to my local MediaMarkt and pick up a steelbook edition for Series X so I can play right away.
 
I got it preordered on Steam but I can’t wait so I will go to my local MediaMarkt and pick up a steelbook edition for Series X so I can play right away.
Don’t waste your time. The game isn’t on the disc, it’s just a key that will download the game from the MS store once you insert it and it won’t unlock until the game is officially released in your time zone.

So there is no way to play this game early even with the physical disc.
 
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Rob_27

Member
From Eurogamer below. wtf this is bollocks. At least playstation hit it at 12am or is this different to the normal...

The Halo Infinite release times are as follows for your region:

  • UK: 6pm (GMT)
  • Europe: 7pm (CEST)
  • East Coast US: 1pm (EST)
  • West Coast US: 10am (PST)
 

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
From Eurogamer below. wtf this is bollocks. At least playstation hit it at 12am or is this different to the normal...

The Halo Infinite release times are as follows for your region:

  • UK: 6pm (GMT)
  • Europe: 7pm (CEST)
  • East Coast US: 1pm (EST)
  • West Coast US: 10am (PST)
Seems like it's different for every release, most of the time you get 12 am NZ as a starting point.
 

MidGenRefresh

*Refreshes biennially
You won't be able to, it has a D/L that doesn't unlock until its out in your timezone I believe.

Don’t waste your time. The game isn’t on the disc, it’s just a key that will download the game from the MS store once you insert it and it won’t unlock until the game is officially released in your time zone.

So there is no way to play this game early even with the physical disc.

I can confirm that. What an absolute fucking bullshit. Luckily the store I bought it from is 5 minutes away. I'm going back. FUCK.
 

MidGenRefresh

*Refreshes biennially
So basically everything is locked up, no download so that BHAM you can get on it as soon as 6pm reaches...

Yeah, it’s a disastrous way to distribute your game. I installed all the files that were on the disc to my Series X so hopefully the remaining download won’t take long.

Disc returned and refunded. What a waste of time.

Edit: cool carboard cut out:

le2ihmc.jpg
 
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RAIDEN1

Member
So in theory depending on your download speed and the fact that all the fans will be on it once the clock strikes 6 means you likely won't be able to play it until after launch day... :messenger_grinning_smiling::messenger_confused:
 

MistBreeze

Member
Played my first 3 matches multiplayer of halo infinite

and wow what hit me right from the get go is the gameplay

it is so smooth and precise it is maybe the best fps gameplay ever or right up there

and the matches so lag free it is like a dream

and I did not have the best online connection by any standards

very fun and definitely will continue play
 

Dr. Suchong

Member
Sorry if already mentioned but does anyone know if the campaign brings you up to speed with the story/events of previous titles? Last Halo I played was 3, and all I remember is that big plant thing talking with Chief lol
Bagged a Series X with infinite and can't wait to get started 🙂👍
 

Helghan

Member
Sorry if already mentioned but does anyone know if the campaign brings you up to speed with the story/events of previous titles? Last Halo I played was 3, and all I remember is that big plant thing talking with Chief lol
Bagged a Series X with infinite and can't wait to get started 🙂👍
Apparently it doesn't bring you up to speed that well, and further in the campaign it really builds on the events of Halo 5, and deep into the Halo lore. I would watch this video if I was you.

 
I really like the multiplayer, but I just now realized that there is no coop for the campaign, which was the only draw for me and my friends. Well, it will still be fun later when they release the campaign mp. Just have to wait longer.
 

CitizenZ

Banned
I believe everything YTbers say because BF 2042 community were spot on about it being amazing and the best BF ever. And if you believe that, I have some beans to sell you.
 
Reach was my favorite multiplayer for a Halo I loved selecting my special power and doing damage out of armor lock. I prefer set abilities versus find abilities, get the feeling I might like this more for campaign than for multi.
 

b0bbyJ03

Member
so is the multiplayer officially out of beta yet? Did they push out any updates? When will we get a proper fullscreen mode? sorry for all the questions, can't keep up these days.
 

Starcheif

Member
Turned on my Xbox aaaaand "Halo Infinite update, 5gb"
I thought: nice, campaign is available
Finishes download, go to campaign
*Needs campaign download, 24gb*
You bitch
Would have been nice if that all would have auto update today.
 
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