4.5/5 ★ – MechaniChris's review of Halo Infinite.

One of the most fun times I’ve ever had playing a video game. Made me feel like a kid again, just counting the hours so I could go home and play some more. In terms of sheer gameplay, this is the peak of the franchise. That said, I am and always have been a fan of the story of Halo, and I found myself a little disappointed with this one. Suffers a bit too much from over-correcting after everyone’s complaints from Halo 5. It mostly abandons the promise of that game’s ending in favor of a new plot that is more in the spirit of the original game. While I can see the appeal of this, it’s also a let down. To not give us even a single game that deals with The Created and provides real closure to John and Cortana’s relationship is a huge bummer. At the very least, I hope they develop a spin-off ala ODST or Reach that is set in this time period. Though I doubt it, because they just made the bridge story a book instead. In fact, Shadows of Reach would have been an EXCELLENT sequel game to Halo: Reach as it is about Blue Team returning to the glassed over Reach in order to find the data Halsey needs to create Weapon in order to defeat Cortana. It also introduces characters like Escharum and fleshes out the Banished as a real threat to the Galaxy, rather than a small force located entirely on the Arc like Halo Wars 2 makes them out to be. It’s a perfect bridge from Halo 5’s story to Halo: Infinite! I’m getting ahead of myself, back to the game. Anyway, this game throws us right into the mix with The Banished having defeated the Created and the UNSC, and to make things even worse, Atriox has seemingly killed the Master Chief! It sure will be cool to fight him again in an ultimate rematch! At least, it would be if Atriox wasn’t supposedly killed off screen. Odd story choice, but okay, I guess we’ll fight Escharum, a guy we have no real knowledge of or relationship to. As I write this out, I realize how bizarre some of the plotting of this game is. It seems diametrically opposed to telling an operatic story, instead giving you little morsels here and there if you look for them. Again, I get it because of the open world of it all, but Halo has ALWAYS been operatic. Some of the best moments of the series are dramatic cutscenes from Halo 2. The crux of a halo game SHOULD be completing an insurmountable goal with the knowledge of the terrible price of failure, not discovering information we should have had all along and then fighting a completely perfunctory villain. This sounds like a lot of complaining, but it’s just because this game is so close to being PERFECT that fumbling the story structure is extra annoying. Again, it’s not even that the story is bad (I actually like it!), it’s just that the story is poorly… directed? Yeah that feels right. I’m going to talk about why the game is incredible in spite of all that now. An open world Halo game is basically all I ever dreamed of as a kid. It is SO much fun exploring and battling your way through this world, unlocking weapons and vehicles that you can call upon at any moment. Yes, I wish there were more biomes and weather, but that’s purely aesthetic embellishments. It’s also the kind of stuff I can see being added to the game with expansions (imagine the world expanding to different sections of the ring that are all traversable via Wasp/Banshee from the core map). Next is the grappling hook. My God the grappling hook. I know they offer you multiple types of equipment in this game, but I can’t imagine anyone using the shield or thrust when the grappling hook solves all problems. It makes you feel like a true Spartan that you read about, FINALLY. It’s maybe one of the most satisfying gaming mechanics I’ve ever encountered. It’s like if the climbing mechanic in Breath of the Wild was FUN. The side missions are all great, the boss fights are an incredible addition (weird that bosses are so sparse in this series, to the point where Tartarus feels bizarre at the end of Halo 2). It’s a shame you can only do things once, but there’s enough to do to make up for it (and I heard they’re adding replayable missions soon any way). Really, it’s one of the must find campaigns I’ve ever played, if only that story was fixed! Now comes the rest of the game: Multiplayer! I don’t normally talk multiplayer because I am a Campaign guy through and through. That said, I’ve played around in it and it’s just as fun as always, but now there’s grappling hooks. So you know, it’s great. But the real thing I want to talk about is the Bots mode. FINALLY the ability to play custom games without having a full party of human players! Me and my best friend played through all the maps just fighting an enemy team of bots and it was an utter blast. And if your friends aren’t around, you can do it solo! Another thing I always wanted since I was a kid. I’ve always loved playing around in the multiplayer, but playing online is SO stressful, and sometimes you want to just mess around. That is NOT allowed in competitive matches. So there we go. That’s my thoughts on the new Halo. I can see myself playing this for months to come and revisiting for years after. I’m also glad most of my actual story concerns were addressed EVENTUALLY, so I’m excited to see where it leads in the future. One final thought: Weapon is such a great character. Her cute naivety is bright spot of joy in a sea of so much death and destruction.