GAME REVIEW: Halo Infinite - Campaign (Series X)

 (Formations - Disasterpiece)

I don't envy the people at 343 their job when it comes to Halo. 

As THE killer app for the original X-Box, Halo has enjoyed the kind of scrutiny reserved only for the flagship franchises of game consoles. For Nintendo, it's Mario.  For Sega -- if you can remember Sega -- it was the Blue Blur, Sonic. For Sony, it was...(Scratches head...) actually, I can't really put my finger on a flagship franchise that's attached to Sony. Hold on a second...

(Hurriedly Googles...)

Yeah, that...yeah.

Anyway, Halo has always been that franchise where Microsoft's game consoles were concerned. Originally helmed by Bungie, Halo's first three installments are widely regarded as some of the greatest examples of the genre for their time. Bungie could do absolutely no wrong where these games were concerned; they're royalty now, firmly ensconced in the hall of GOATs.

Then Halo got handed off to relative newcomer 343 Studios.

Fortunately, what followed in Halo 4 was easily one of the best games in the franchise, a game that pushed the capabilities of the X-Box 360 to its limits. It contained several fresh gameplay mechanics, insane graphics and audio, and a storyline that was much more personal than the previous games had ever been. It was heralded as one of the most Clutch, well-handled launches of a game by a new studio that's ever been.

Naturally, the follow-up game of Halo 5 was an absolute disaster, almost universally panned for its unremarkable gameplay and terrible story, one that went off the rails in a fashion that made even die-hard Halo fans scratch their heads in confusion.

Now comes Halo Infinite, 343's third entry in the main series. Did they learn anything from their sophomore mistakes?

THE SHORT VERSION:

Yes but...not enough. Not nearly enough.

THE LONG VERSION:

Listen, I don't do multiplayer PVP. It's never been my bag. I'd much rather do co-op stuff against the computer.  I don't have an issue with people who dig PVP, it's just not for me. That's why I'm only talking about the campaign here...and when I talk about the campaign, all I can really say about it in summary is that...it's alright.

Halo Infinite's campaign is 'alright'. There's nothing about it that makes it feel overly special. That's sort of mystifying to me when you stop and consider all of the newer mechanics that have been worked into this game, yet somehow it still only remains...alright.

On the surface, Halo: Infinite is a remarkable achievement from 343. The gameplay is the kind of state of the art, razor-sharp FPS gameplay that Halo is a standard-bearer for. The graphics are par for the course, the sound design is, FULL STOP, the best that the franchise has ever seen, and the voice acting is some of the best that the industry has ever produced.  The grunts in particular are an absolute riot to sit and listen to. I have no idea how much time they spent on that little piece alone! Infinite also introduces a massive change to what has historically been a linear story in Halo games. It's now an open world experience full of optional side quests, collectables, fast travel unlocks, mini-bases to conquer...it's all here. Functionally, it all works really well. You can pursue the main story arc, of course, but you can also divert from that to rescue other UNSC assets like groups of pinned down or captured marines or whole outposts that have been overtaken. You can also divert to hunt down high value enemy targets or just hunt around the map for collectables like cosmetic unlocks for multiplayer.

Oh yeah, and Spartan Cores. We'll get back to these in a moment.

All of this makes perfect sense for a military operative like the Chief. It's when you ask the question of, "Why?' that the game's warts start popping up...and there are a lot of warts.

"But Steve," you cry, "you just answered your own question! You hunt down collectables! That's why you'd do it!"

So...those collectables. Let's talk about those.

I already mentioned the cosmetic unlocks for multiplayer, which is nice if you... play multiplayer.  I don't.  It's also nice if you give a shit about cosmetic unlocks, which...I don't. Halo is an FPS. FIRST. PERSON. Even if the unlocks were for for the campaign, you can't see yourself, so what's the bloody point??

Then there are the High Value Targets, enemies carrying specially modified weapons. Who doesn't want specially modified weapons?! ... Well, see, that's sort of complicated. Most Halo players settle pretty quickly into their favorite weapon sets. Usually, that's one medium/long range weapon and one short range weapon, or one lighter weapon and one heavy one. I'm no exception; I prefer to run around with a Battle Rifle and a Hydra...or a Battle Rifle and a Sentinel Beam. I also don't play multiplayer.

I don't care about unlocking a modified plasma pistol. Or Needler. Or regular marine rifle. Or just about anything else other than a Battle Rifle, Hydra, or Sentinel Beam. That's a whopping THREE HVTs out of dozens. And it's not like the battlefield suddenly becomes peppered with these new weapons. You have to go back to a Forward Operating Base to pick them up again, and then...well, we all know how combat works in Halo. You run out of ammo with a gun, you throw it aside, pick another gun up from a fallen enemy, and continue on. Yes, the game is generous with ammo crates but that can only go so far, and the game is MUCH too difficult to cling to an empty weapon in prayer that an ammo box will appear soon.

That brings us to the one collectable that actually matters. Ish.  Spartan Cores.

Embracing its RPG-Lite side, Halo Infinite sees the Master Chief able to upgrade various parts of his armor, adding accessories to it like a grappling hook, evasion thruster, stronger shield, deployable shield barrier, and a sonar array to help find enemies. Upgrading each of these elements requires Spartan Cores, so you'll want to hunt those bad boys down as much as possible.

...Except you'll run out of reasons to hunt them down really fast, and this ties back into that whole bit about laziness I was mentioning earlier. Of those five upgrades, only two of them are worth any effort to upgrade at all. Let's look at those upgrades a little:

UPGRADE 1: The Grappling Hook

Anyone who's been playing the newer Doom games will understand just how cool this item is and what it can do for both traversal and combat. Upgrading this should be one of your first priorities as it not only makes getting around LOADS easier but also makes you a close-range offensive juggernaut. It's also face-meltingly fun.

UPGRADE 2: Shield   

This is...exactly what it sounds like. Your shield gets stronger so you end up being able to take more damage. This is a no-brainer upgrade and should also be prioritized. More shield is, generally speaking, good. It's even more relevant here because Halo: Infinite is HARD. It's really, REALLY hard.  Enemies hit like a dump truck and soak bullets like they're made of foam. Even the grunts go down hard. And there are a LOT of grunts. Actually, there are a lot of everything. All of this leads me back to, "More shield is, generally speaking, good."

UPGRADE 3: Proximity Sensor/Enemy Tracker

This is...also exactly what it sounds like. It's a beacon that you can deploy that gives you information about enemies around you even when you can't see them. Upgraded fully, it shows you enemy health bars.  This is basically pointless. You already have a proximity sensor on-screen at all times and, with the exception of cloaked enemies, you always know where they are. This would be more interesting if cloaked enemies were more prominent but they're not, so...yeah. This is pointless.

UPGRADE 4: Shield Wall

This is a deployable, one-way shield wall. You can fire through it but bad guys can't hit you. The wall is stationary though, which betrays its supposed usefulness. Halo is, at its heart, a game designed to be played on the move. You are very rarely in a situation where you can take advantage of a legitimate choke point. Halo: Infinite makes the point very early that you have to keep moving or you. Will. Die. A stationary shield makes very little sense.

UPGRADE 5: Evade Thruster

This is kind of like a boost of speed in a single direction for a brief period of time. This is a great idea in theory but it also highlights a massive weakness in this upgrade system...

With the exception of the base shield upgrades, you can only use one of these gadgets at a time. You have to press Right on your D-Pad to open a selection menu and then tap the corresponding D-Pad button to activate a different gadget. Yes, your multiplayer mavens will learn how to use this quickly and, I suspect, to devastating effect. For the rest of us mere mortals, thinking about what buttons to push while a Hunter and a Banshee bear down on us is a non-starter.

That said, I cannot fathom why you would ever use anything other than your grappling hook in the Campaign. Nothing else has its versatility offensively, defensively, or passively. Which leads us back to that problem where only two of the five upgrades are actually worth investing in. Which means Spartan Cores rapidly cease to become an upgrade worth pursuing.

For anyone playing along at home, let's recap what exploring the open world gets you:

- Special versions of weapons, most of which you will never care about.
- Cosmetic upgrades for a version of the game you're not playing.
- Spartan Cores for upgrades that you don't really want after the first two.

Sssssoooo..... Yeah.

"But Steve," you cry weakly, "What about the FOBs?" Forward Operating Bases, or FOBs, can be liberated all around the map to provide handy fast-travel points around the Halo. Unlocking FOBs also reveals the locations of collectables on the map in their vicinity. The main story path of Halo: Infinite ALWAYS puts a FOB in your path on your way to the next objective. 

I will say this: One of the cool things about the FOBs is your ability, at any time, to fast travel to a safe location where you can outfit yourself -- within limits -- to the spec that you prefer before heading back out to battle. You get the chance to do this A LOT so you don't really ever have to wade into combat using sub-optimal tools.

Yes, the FOBs also let you spawn vehicles but none of those vehicles are particularly useful.  The warthogs are a gas to drive, if a wee bit more wobbly and unstable than they used to be. A 'hog full of marines makes for a potent offensive weapon too. Unfortunately, this is yet another case of Halo's open world getting in its own way. The terrain in Halo: Infinite is done really well and is extremely varied.  Nothing about it feels routine. For anyone that's ever gone off-roading though, you'll know that you don't do it fast or else you suffer the consequences.  That's very realistic in Halo as well, meaning that it's almost never faster to take a Hog to a destination than it is to simply travel in a straight line to it, using your grappling hook to scale walls and cliffs along the way. Vehicles just aren't worth it in this game.

In conclusion, the open world in Halo: Infinite works perfectly, you just have no reason to take advantage of it. This is ... really frustrating to me when you look at all of the other stuff they put their time into.  They clearly spent a ton of time on audio design, which is good. I mean, they spent a LOT of time here. Just sit and listen to the game. The music, the ambiance, the enemy and friendly dialogue...they spent a TON of time here. They spent...I'd say a requisite amount of time on graphics. (Honestly, I'm not wowed by the graphics here AT ALL, especially with the A.I. models. There's nothing about this game that says Next Gen to me. Halo 4 looked as good, and some parts of Halo 4 looked way, WAY better.  Same with Halo 5.) As I said, the combat gameplay is rock solid. 

The open world though? The equipment and its upgrades? That just feels...lazy, somehow, like 343 used their A-Team on other stuff and didn't bother to bring them in to clench it on this new stuff. This same sense of...laziness pervades the next thing I want to talk about, and that's the story.

The first four main Halo games had a BONKERS story. They had several bonkers stories, actually. The story of the Covenant war? Awesome. The story surrounding the origins of the Spartans and Dr. Halsey? Very awesome. The story surrounding the personal relationship of John and Cortana? UBER awesome. Halo 4 left all kinds of doors open for where to take all of this, even with it's absolutely massive kick to the emotional jewels at the end. (Jen Taylor deserves some kind of award for that.)

Completely putting aside everything about Halo 5's story involving Fire Team Osiris -- Sorry, Buck. You're my boy! -- we learn that Cortana somehow survived destruction by entering a magical do-anything space wizard place called The Domain. (Seriously, I had no idea what this place was until I googled it a minute ago to write this.) When she came out of the Domain, she was no longer rampant, just kind of cray-cray. Halo 5 ends with Cortana basically going full HAM on anyone not wishing to kneel to the A.I.s as their new lords and masters -- ladies and mistresses? -- and...

Well, then we're floating in space when Halo: Infinite starts, there's a new enemy that looks suspiciously like the Covenant but ISN'T the Covenant and...there's a new Cortana? Except it isn't Cortana.  If you're confused by this, you're not alone. I ended up having to go to the internet AGAIN to figure out what in the blue fuck was going on. That's the last thing you want to do in order to understand a game's story.  Yes, I realize that this is where I diverge somewhat from a lot of Halo players that just want to get in and start No-Scoping things but I care about story, damn it!

The game does end up filling in a lot of the gaps for you but it takes an agonizing amount of time to do it. If you want the story any faster, you'll need to do a combination of hunting down un-marked in-game collectable logs and read AN ENTIRE BOOK. A few things here:

1. This is a TERRIBLE way to tell a story. Halo is so rich with lore that you shouldn't make people dig for it! Give me the story, give it to me at a reasonable page, and don't make me work hard for answers to the really big questions unless that's explicitly part of the story! Which leads to...

2. The pacing of the story is also terrible. This was less of an issue with previous Halo games because the story was dolled out to you as you played through the game. Want more story? Just keep playing! Halo: Infinite is an open world though and you really only get story by playing the main campaign missions, not any of the side quests. Yes, you unlock story elements on those side quests because of audio logs that you find and little snippets that your A.I. companion discloses. Those tidbits are all related to background events that can be summarized by saying, "The battle on the ring between the humans and the Banished was bad." The pacing also suffers from the fact that the overall story is just really stretched out far too long. Each time you get to a new section of the game, you're only given one more small crumb. The story is good, it just takes way, WAY too long to tell...which means they probably didn't have enough main story for the game and just stretched it out. THIS is not helped by how the story sees The Chief behaving as he journeys along with his new companion, an A.I. copy of Cortana simply referred to as 'Weapon'. Weapon is basically a child-like version of Cortana without any of Dr. Halsey's ... venom in her.  She's Cortana if Cortana had never been exposed to Chief or Dr. Halsey. And SHE'S BASICALLY AN INNOCENT CHILD. This makes for some absolutely heartbreaking moments that we've come to expect from Halo games where the Chief and Cortana are concerned but it also makes for some of the most agonizing behavior that we've ever had to wade through in a game. When Weapon doesn't like something, she gripes. She snipes. She whines. She becomes petulant. And that goes on far, FAR too long. When she's in a good mood, she's one of the biggest delights in the game. When she's in a bad mood, that is allowed to last for what feels like an eternity. It's painful to wait through and it makes no sense in-character that the A.I. would behave like that or that the Chief would simply sit there and not tell her to STFU.

Alright. Let's recap:

- Combat feels awesome from end to end. It's FUN.
- Sound and music are awesomesauce.
- Graphics are average when compared to Halo 5 and Halo 4.
- Story is good but pacing is utter crap and I have to work too hard for it.
- Open World and the new upgrades weren't thought out well at all.

Bottom line, Halo: Infinite's Campaign has a ton of potential that it just fails to live up to. 343 has done a lot of work on aspects of the game that players are just...not driven at all to explore. I'm not sure how this made it out of development, I just know I'm underwhelmed as a result.