4/5 ★ – ThumbsMckenzie's review of Halo Infinite.

After a big low point with Halo 5, Halo Infinite comes back and feels like a franchise that's back on track. This game by no means is perfect but for a game that felt a bit lost and a very rough development cycle, Halo Infinite feels like a game that is steering the franchise back into the right direction. First, the game feels and sounds incredible. The thudding sounds of the final bullet hitting an alien and finally putting it down, the enemy models look amazing, the explosions look great, altogether, the full package is impressive, especially after the rough videos released in 2020 for this game. The gunplay is also back to the high tier levels that have always been a staple of this franchise. Guns feel good and feel different from each other. Killing feels so satisfying in this game. The story is also the standard Halo output of something I don't fully care about or understand and Halo Infinite for me was no different. The story is what it is, it's not great in my opinion but I've never really felt like the Halo story is something that well done. The controls for the most part are also very crisp and precise. The addition of the grapple hook is unbelievable. The biggest issue with it though is because of how good the grapple hook is, the other tools you get on that button barely got used. The quick select stuff felt a little clunky as well so I usually stuck to what was equipped headed into a fire fight because it just wasn't something that felt quick and seamless to swap during battles. The vehicle controls are also not great in this one. Some vehicles like ghosts feel good still but others are a chore to try and control and maneuver. I feel like I need to reiterate too just because of how satisfying it is to use, but the grapple hook in this game is incredible. It's so satisfying and so multi-tactical (is this a word? I dunno, it is now). Using it to grab weapons, ledges, throwable items, stun enemies, overtake vehicles. It's so key to the game play. The open world is a bit of a mixed bag for me. At first, it's great, but after a while, I got real bored of it. To me, there just isn't enough variety to the actual open world to make it really stand out or feel good long term. It definitely has promise though for future iterations to improve on and truly make great. Overall, Halo Infinite is a great return to what Halo should be about. It looks great, it sounds great, it plays great with some great foundations for future iterations to improve upon even further.