Halo Infinite: My Current Thoughts

I've been hearing a lot of crap being said about the current state of Halo Infinite. And you know what? CAN IT. I played in the first flight, and was graciously given a second go at it (though this time pretty much everybody who signed up was given the same opportunity). I've got bones to pick about a couple of things regarding the current status of Halo Infinite, but overall I don't even remotely hate this product--in fact, it's quite the opposite.

First and foremost, I want to point out that I am considerably more than a casual Halo fan. I'm working my way through reading all of the Halo books (or listening, unaffiliated Audible plug here), and while I've definitely caught the Infinite bug with all this hype around the delayed game, I've always been a massive Halo fanboy. Truth be told, first-person shooters aren't really my thing, but Halo has always been the exception. I've tried dozens of other FPS games over the years, and while there wasn't really anything inherently wrong with them, they'll never bring me away from the addiction of the unique "30 seconds of fun" elements of Halo's sandbox and formula. So here we are. I was one of the few who received an invitation to the first Halo Infinite flight, but unfortunately I was also one of the few within that flight that got CTD's when I tried queuing for the PvE matches--I did, however, get the opportunity to play on their Academy Shooting Range to test out all those weapons, and I did have fun with that. With the invitation to the second flight, which everyone who signed up for it got, I got to really test this bad boy out, and my notes below will show my true thoughts on the matter.

My buddy's brother told him that Halo Infinite was just the new iteration of Call of Duty. I want whatever he's smoking, because that's not even remotely the case. As someone who has been there since Combat Evolved, I can say with confidence that while this game may not touch on all the same sandbox elements of classic Bungie Halo, it definitely solidifies itself in the Halo flavor of the FPS genre, and make special care not to swing too far into the CoD tropes Halos 4 & 5 did. So without further ado, my unfiltered, honest thoughts about the current state of Halo Infinite, and my own personal forecast on what launch and beyond will look like!

As a side note, I'd like to address that I took in-depth screenshots during my investigation of this flight, but unfortunately I am unable to find them in my files despite the fact that Steam confirmed that I did take screenshots--possibly due to the unique nature of Halo Infinite on Steam's files. Rather than spend time sifting through a bunch of photos after looking incessantly for them, I decided it would be better if I instead posted pictures of the newly-released images from The Art of Halo Infinite book that will be released when the game does (and all of them are spoiler-free, assures 343 Industries). So the artwork you see here is almost-all from that source, with the exception of one completely spoiler-free emblem you can get in the game that I found in a recent leak.

The Good

Halo Infinite's soundtrack, sound effects, and overall voices are awesome. The classic announcer is in the game, regardless of what AI you have chosen (more on them later). And let me say that this is his best work yet. I always revel in the little things he'll say when you get a unique kill. Without major spoilers on what they are (I'll let you figure out how to get them on your own), my favorites were "Pancake!", "Mind the Gap!", and "Yard Sale!".

I had an in-depth discussion with buddy I gamed with for most of this tech demo regarding the current balance of the sandbox. We both agree that the Sidekick is an amazing sidearm that I personally want in real life. However, its fast fire rate and quick reload time, along with the Commando's amazing capability on the other side of the spectrum, are both factors that virtually-eliminate the MA5B in terms of importance, which seems like a shame as it's a Halo staple. I personally recommend either increasing the shield-stripping of the MA5B to compensate, or conversely nerf the damage the Sidekick does to shields by, at most, half of its current damage. I shouldn't have the ability to kill a Spartan in one mag, especially since one of the greatest powers of the Sidekick is its amazing reload.

If I can strip a Spartan's shields and then have to reload before he kills me in kind, then it not only makes the encounter more heart-pounding, but also showcases that ever-so crucial reloading speed; otherwise the Sidekick's reload is just a cool little feature when smoking Grunts and Jackals in campaign. Everything else seems pretty great in its current state, even the Skewer; I suck at aiming with super tiny reticles like the Skewer and S7, and even I was able to no-scope human players with it--it's hard, but super satisfying when you make it. The Skewer is absolutely a playmaker in the hands of someone who can get really good with it, and while its ability to blow vehicles off their wheels (and possibly one-shot them, depending on the vehicle and MAYBE where you hit it, can't confirm that yet), it's ability to instakill Spartans is going to be a great addition to the game--sort of a faster, more-devastating Spartan Laser in the Banished camp. Grav Hammer definitely needs a swinging animation speed boost, not a single person I've met disputes this; my only concession is that I don't know how it stacks up to other melee weapons such as the Energy Sword, and maybe one other possible weapon I saw as a potential leak (I'll leave it at that). I found that I was just a hair too late when trying to swing a nicely-timed Hammer strike. 

There were three grenade types showcased in this flight: frags, plasma, and an arc grenade. However, your Spartan can only carry 2 types at once, so if you have to choose which grenades you wanna have with you when you come upon that third (and maybe 4th) type. A decent portion of the sandbox is also the equipment that you can pick up in the game. For me and my buddy, we both unanimously-agreed that the grapple hook was one of our favorite features in Halo. I'll talk about how that impacts map design in a minute, but let's just say that the short answer is that it doesn't negatively affect the experience. It's a pickup that you get like any other kind of pickup, so it isn't like everyone is shooting people like a rampaging serial-killer Spiderman. But when you do get one, the sky is the limit on how you can take it into account. [Quick addendum here: there are limits on what you can do with the grapple shot. For instance, the current barriers of the game will not allow you to swing to the top of the Bazaar, much to the chagrin of those, myself included, who tried] My personal favorite item, however, is the Repulsor.

This baby is perhaps the greatest utility item ever devised by Bungie or 343 Industries. It has more uses than I have fingers on one hand, and each and every one of them is more-than situational. Wanna get some extra air to reach that ledge? Boink! Playing on Recharge and an opponent grabs the Gravity Hammer, jumps the gap and tries to hit you in midair? (I actually did this to an opponent and I heartily laughed for a good 30 seconds) Into the drink he goes! Opponent low on health and you're forced to reload before he does? Taste that wall for me, won't you buddy? There were other utility items there, including the Overshield and Cloak; these work just like previous iterations, but they're pickups that you choose to activate when you want (the activation is followed by a relatively-slow animation, however). The Drop Wall is an extremely-situational item that takes way too much time to activate and ultimately might as well be made of transparent paper mache. Really, the only amazing utility items thus far are the Grapple Shot and Repulsor.

Map Design is great. The developers wisely took the middle ground when it comes to the very divisive Sprint issue that is persistent in the Halo community. Many hate it, many love it, and some like me are either split or indifferent on the whole issue. Some people might say, "iF yOu DoN't LiKe SpRiNt DoN't UsE iT". But map development has how mobile a player is in mind, so if Sprint is there, then they assume everyone is going to haul @$& to their location and develop the play area accordingly, so if you don't use Sprint then you're SOL in places that are way out in the open. Maybe you want to grab that Energy Sword before anyone else, for at the very least asset denial for the other team; can't do that without Sprint! In Halo Infinite, Sprint exists as a standard option. However, as I stated a minute ago, the developers were wise in limiting how fast Sprint actually is. It's only like a 5% increase in speed, meaning that it mainly pacifies the people who want to use Sprint, and doesn't ultimately bother those who hate Sprint. So far I've found that most people I ran into are okay with this middle ground. It also is awesome because many of the sandbox items can also be used to get through terrain. Grapple Hook is the most obvious answer, but the Repulsor is used to great effect too. People complain that the Gravity Hammer doesn't have its legendary bounce capability, but with the Repulsor that exists I feel that it would be a redundant effect. The maps themselves are completely designed with the sandbox in mind, and it feels great to be able to experience the playground that's been built for us to explore. Air conditioner units sticking out of buildings, small boxes and platforms, slowly rising and falling computer units--it's all there for you to climb on and use to get places. Halo Infinite really digs into the verticality of its maps without compromising its horizontal plane, which is great for those who use their equipment properly to maintain mobile superiority, an important aspect of the current meta.

Art style is amazing. The graphics are decent, even for my computer that doesn't meet the Recommended Requirements, but definitely qualifies past the minimum. I can run virtually everything on Medium and it still looks amazing without any hits on performance. They definitely made this game with last-gen consoles in mind, while also showcasing next-gen technology. As games such as Cyberpunk 2077 have shown us, this is a difficult feat. Say what you will about 343i, but that is an achievement you can't justifiably waggle a finger at. They also just last night dropped a ton of concept art, and let me say that this has gotten me more-than excited about the campaign itself. Even if the concept art is just that (CONCEPT art), they have nowhere to go but up with the starting base that they have. Everything about the art and style of Infinite screams HALO. They want this to be a spiritual reboot of Combat Evolved. As far as the art direction is concerned: CHECK.

The Bad

No Assassinations. They said that they would be looking into adding assassinations in the future, but no guarantees last I checked. I'm honestly not that broken up about it. Halo Infinite has a speed and flow to it that's unique to this title. Assassinations would honestly break up this nice tempo that it has going for it, which is honestly a difficult achievement in a game this big. I also wanna contradict my "pacing" argument that I just said and point out that I'm also wishing for certain animations to speed up--why would I want to throw assassinations into the mix when I'm already complaining about slow actions in the current sandbox? I once read many years ago in a GameInformer that Halo Reach's invention of the Assassination was sort of the ultimate teabag you could give to an opponent, and a great form of self-expression. With that in mind, while assassinations are not coming, and it does kind of suck, I'm okay with it because there are a multitude of other ways for us to express ourselves on the battlefield. As you'll see here in a moment with the Battlepass system, self-expression is not a concerning matter!

"BANISHED"

The Battlepass. This is a point of contention. On the one hand, this is as good as a battlepass system could ever be. There is no time limit on trying to get everything in a pass before the season ends. There are alternative ways of getting the items you want. It is not a greedy system (at least as far as other battlepass models are concerned). But on the other hand, it is still a battlepass system that they chose to do in order to make the multiplayer free-to-play and further monetize a game beyond allowing us to just pay for the game they developed. Armor coatings was a blunder that I think they revealed a bit too early (though this was in large part thanks to the marketing deals they had with other companies such as Monster Energy and Pop Tarts), but that has ultimately been a concern that I no longer have, as it seems as though this new system is more rewarding in that regard. This one is difficult, but while there are a ton of things that I like about it (especially seeing some leaks regarding some of the fantastic cosmetics there are for emblems, armor coatings, weapon/vehicle skins, and weapon charms), the one thing for me that is almost a complete dealbreaker is that you can only progress through the battlepass system by finishing challenges. If I'm someone who plays exclusively SWAT (and I do play SWAT a majority of the time), then I'm going to miss out on finishing other challenges, like if I have to get Scorpion kills or capture 3 flags or something. Which also means that I'm missing out on opportunities to get the special unlock if I do all 20 challenges in 1 week. That's not a progression system, that's homework! I don't like homework, never have. I'm the kind of guy who aced all my tests and never turned a damn thing in. When I play a video game to get away from kids/family and work, I don't want my game to become chores.

In fact, I believe that the challenge system should be something OPTIONAL. They have it backwards. Even if they give me only a small amount of credit for finishing a game, even if it's a quarter of what I would get from a challenge, I wouldn't have as much of a problem with it. This, by far, is the biggest issue I have with the game. I'm also hoping that if they do include a battlepass every three months that it isn't something extremely expensive. I don't think they need a battlepass every three months like they do in MCC. That's a lot of money I'm gonna have to fork over if there are things I really like in it, and I don't wanna do that. They're also guaranteed to put in a lot of things that will tickle your fancy in every battlepass, let me tell you. While I won't reveal some leaked images in that regard, I can guarantee you that there is going to be something for everybody in these battlepasses. So I can only warn you and tell you that you need to ask yourself, "Is this one thing really worth buying the whole battlepass for?" Hopefully they'll do seasons you wanna spend your money getting most of the items, but just be prepared...

All the AI seem pretty basic. I like the one with a bit of a Southern accent (I call her Ms. Minutes). The Butler seems fun too. But for the most part they seem really... kinda just drab. I do like the recent revelation that you can use your AI for things like hacking open doors in some gametypes. That's a great idea! But as for the AI themselves, they seem a bit devoid of personality, or have too much personality to where it becomes annoying. And this could be on purpose, as we don't quite know how the UNSC has responded to the Created issue from Halo 5 from a lore standpoint; perhaps they have to make AI not as personalized or too grating because they wouldn't be advanced enough to betray the UNSC to Cortana. I also understand that you don't want the AI to look too busy in an already-busy environment like a battlefield. They did, however, tone down how obnoxious the AI could be from the first flight, which everyone appreciates. I don't know, I guess I'm just nitpicking here; they're mostly fine, I just feel like something is a bit off. I have to see more AI to really be sure. And I am looking forward to having more AI to choose from, which may just be the solution to the problem. None have really tickled my fancy, I guess.

The Ugly

No Co-Op Campaign at Launch. This is a dealbreaker for many. I, personally, am going to play the campaign anyway. By the time the people I want to campaign with all get their schedules straight to actually play, the campaign would be Co-Op anyway! But just because it doesn't affect me, doesn't mean that I don't care how it will affect others. And I bring this up because I love the Halo community as much as I love Halo. I'm not saying this to be a jerk to 343. If you didn't know but were banking on it, there is no Co-Op at launch. That's a big deal, and I wanna make sure you're aware of it before the game launches.

No Forge at Launch. This is another one that I'm not trying to be mean about. No, you know what? I am gonna be a bit mean. This is something that's gonna keep your community coming back for more. This Forge mode is the buttercream frosting to your delicious cake that you want to have and eat too, 343i. You're doling out a product (which, I DO understand got screwed up thanks to COVID) that is ultimately incomplete. "Here's your wedding cake; I know it isn't finished, but I promise that the frosting will be added before you cut the cake, if not after the 'I do's!" That's not good. That's not okay. If you have to delay it another 6 months, then DO IT. Not that you need it, but you have my permission!

Overall, the game is going to be great. Are the first 6 months going to kinda suck? Of course. But at least they're not in the same shape that CDProjekt Red is in! There was ZERO transparency in Cyberpunk 2077 between the audience and the developers. With 343i, they're letting us play the damn game and begging us to show everybody everything. They are ASKING us to break their game so it can be the best product they can release. Does this mean that they get a free pass?

. . .

Yeah, kinda!

I mean, there's no other way to swallow the giant horse pill of reality that is Forge being delayed 6 months, and Campaign Co-Op for half that. But damn is it a good feeling that we're seeing a crap-ton of content from a transparent company that understand the blue balls we as a community are feeling, and this opportunity to try their game has been nothing but fun and the occasional game-breaking bug (that's easily-fixable before launch)! I had an issue where sometimes when I died my character would become half-transparent, almost like it was simulating me becoming invisible. In a bot match I also got punched by a bot and was insta-killed while being sent into orbit like I got hit by some Tamriellian Giant. I hate to say it, but it's taken 3 mainline games for 343 to really find their bearings. Halo 4 had a great story but a butt*%#@ing disaster of a combat system (and frankly, art direction). Halo 5 had a poop-smear of a story, but a decent gameplay, if not slightly divisive--but ultimately everyone can agree that it fared better than 4. Halo Infinite is turning out to be great in gameplay, and from what we can tell in the official and leaked story elements (no spoilers here), the story is gonna turn out to be a masterpiece. I have my hopes for Halo Infinite and I know that it may have an adverse affect on my mental health, but I'm taking heaping scoops of Hopium at this point, because this tech demo has done nothing but get me hyped for Halo Infinite.