While it wouldn’t really pull me away from Infinite, I’m a completionist, and I’d really like to have Halo 5 on PC. I’d love to do a run with the boys before coop comes to Infinite, since most of my crew aren’t as into the lore as I am and they don’t even remember what happened in prior games.
Halo 3 ODST’s campaign was open. Also, Halo games had open level design.
I wouldn’t consider Halo 3: ODST to have an open level design. Despite the fact that the player is free the explore the New Mombasa streets, there doesn’t exist any real variation in the street missions and the only thing is to move from point A to point B in identical streets that are under the best circumstance mirrored with a slightly different set of enemies. In addition to this, New Mombasa in Halo 3: ODST doesn’t feel like a city in the slightest with repetitive design and a complete void of things to do.
Warden’s repetitiveness didn’t help, will admit.
I don’t know about it being the worst, but the open world didn’t do it any favors. Level design is pretty bad and very repetitive, enemy encounters fall flat most of the time, and biome variety is very poor. When your core gameplay is designed around arena shooter map design, it’s best to not change up map design too much. 343 needs to stop chasing fads and let Halo be Halo.
I think bringing in a new villain in Atriox who kills off most of the main cast of the previous game is pretty poor.
Especially when that villain and his faction are low tech barbarians. As well as being weaker than Spartans and Prometheans. With ships that the Infinity or a single Guardian should have been able to destroy. That doesn’t make any sense.
So you want Atriox to be Thanos where he’s just suddenly able to access all this Forerunner and Precursor knowledge? Yeah that’s dumb. He’s a random Brute who came out of nowhere.
If they make Atriox somehow the master of the Endless and they become his willing army and don’t stab him in the back; that’s dumb. He’s a random Brute warlord. He should not have any insight into the more complex workings of the Halo Universe, Precursor/Flood stuff. Like his army should have died on the Ark so they’ve already done this in some misguided overselling of how badass the faction is by having them beat the Flood.
I am not fighting the Banished, I am fighting plot armour.
Yes the wardens are annoying I will admit
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Gameplay-wise, I think it is far from the worst. I find the base combat loop to perhaps be the funnest in the series, though I think I’d still put 3 and ODST above it since those two lack some of the annoyingly spongey enemies Infinite has with its bosses and hunters, as well as marines being able to drive vehicles in those two games. If you are willing to engage with it, the campaign also gives you the freedom to go about things your own way, be it driving around in a vehicle, Spider-Man-ing around with the grapple, or plain ol hoofing it with a bunch of marines.
The gameplay starts to suffer a bit when it comes to the setting of the game, as you are mostly stuck on a small section of the ring and so it doesn’t match the variety of previous titles. I think a better way to have set up the second half of the campaign would be to have Echo 216 fly much farther across the ring after you destroy [the first Spire before being shot down to start off Pelican Down. I feel like that would’ve been a good opportunity to switch to a different environment entirely, and the same could be said for where the Weapon teleports you at the start of Repository.
I think the campaign’s worst aspect is the story. I think an opening level on the Infinity during the Banished’s ambush would’ve helped to ease people in to what was going on. Relatedly, I think the whole Atriox and Cortana thing was handled pretty sloppily. It was certainly a bold choice to reaffirm Atriox as one mean mother -Yoink!- in the opening cutscene, only to seemingly kill him off with no explanation immediately afterwards, and THEN reveal he is still alive during the ending cutscene. And while evil Cortana is a stupid awful no good plotpoint, it isn’t particularly satisfying to kill her off basically offscreen.
On the overall, I’d say Infinite’s campaign is on the upper end of the franchise in terms gameplay, and on the lower end when it comes to story. I’ve gone through the full thing like three times already, so I certainly like it on the overall.
The brutes are far from being barely sentient animals, and basically every bit of lore on him so far as pointed to Atriox being an exceptional individual. And while yes the brutes’ own tech isn’t as advanced as either humanity’s or the elites’, they were still part of the Covenant for years and had access to all of their technology.
The Banished split off from the Covenant before the Great Schism from Halo 2 happened, so there isn’t as much animosity there. Lorewise there is some mention of tension between the brutes and elites in the Banished, but it seems like Atriox’s policy is to be pretty welcoming to all species (including humans, just not the UNSC, before the events leading up to Infinite)
They had plenty of other Covenant splinter groups to worry about, and it seems like the Banished were laying low for quite a while before taking center stage in HW2 and Infinite (granted, to get meta this is mostly because they didn’t exist until HW2 needed a new enemy faction)
That’s because Chief himself is even more of a badass.
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The Covenant didn’t understand how their Technology worked because it was reverse engineered Forerunner Tech. The Brutes hadn’t even left their own star system before the Covenant uplifted them. So they shouldn’t have any tech on par with the Infinity or UNSC ships. Much less Guardians. The Banished should have been cut to pieces a long time ago. This 4 minutes to destroy the Infinity is ridiculous.
He’s not an exceptional individual. Massacring defenceless civilians on the Ark is not impressive. It’s ridiculous to cast him as Thanos. He’s a petty man who is trying to redraw the borders of the Galaxy under a new banner. Reform the Covenant without the ideology. An unprovoked war on humanity that puts innocent people in danger if not threat of genocide. Why? Because he can’t accept that the Brutes got wrecked by the Elites and then Cortana; when they have nobody but their arrogant ambition and Imperialism to blame. He is the one choosing this war. So I don’t accept this attempt to put him on a badass pedestal. He’s a sinister character, a fascist and the characters in the story should call him out on that. You don’t grant dignity to him.
The Banished is comprised of former Covenant military and former Covenant species. Any atrocity committed by the Covenant entirely applies our judgement of the Banished. Unlike the Elites who consciously made
peace. Atrocities they show every indication of wanting to continue. Every elite and human should despise this faction. Never mind butchering the crew of the Infinity after they saved the Galaxy.
Yes, nobody noticed the First Order building in the Unknown Regions with several KM long battleships and millions of troops.
Been watching the Destiny 2 cutscenes. I am more than happy with them making common cause with the Fallen and Savathuns Hive. They were genuinely wronged and misled. Not the Brutes. The only outcome I really want from this is Atriox and the Banished dead.
How does Atriox beat the Chief when he has killed thousands of Brutes then? Every Spartan is pretty close to the Chief. Why are they suddenly able to deal with an army of Spartans like it’s not a problem. That should have ended in them losing tens of thousands of soldiers if not losing outright.
One of the most effective ways to get a proper understanding of a problem is the ability to conduct studies like reverse engineering or making controlled studies where properties are comparared. The most difficult part should instead be to build something fundamentally from scratch without any pre existing knowledge or anything to compare to and this principle should also hold for none human species in the Halo universe.
In addition to that, it should also be noted that a none insignificant amount of knowledge is required to reconstruct something without taking using pre existing samples with minor alterations.
With holding content like new campaign missions seems great. But this game barebones on its own hands down is at the bottom of the barrel. replayability sucks. We still cannot select levels to backtrack achievements/collectibles.
They built a decent engine so far. but beyond that, its another studio milking a product before it runs dry.
Yes, until you have a species like humanity that can apply the scientific process, actually understand the technology and access its higher functions by being Reclaimers. Human technology from the Infinity, to Spartans and basic weapons vastly outclasses everything the Banished have.
Brutes are not that. This is a species that never left
its solar system because they just love killing so much and are barely sentient. Orks in 40k have the excuse that they have an innate capacity to build this technology; Brutes do not. They’re just “dumb animals” who enjoy killing and see the world through that lens.
343 wants to push the Brutes/Banished into a role that makes no sense in the context of the story. They should never be presented as this galaxy conquering force who can wipe out all other powers in the Galaxy and understand the inner workings of a Halo or forces like the Endless.
The Covenant pushed humanity back because:
- Technology advantage
- Numbers
Neither of these are true in Halo Infinite and yet the plot acts like these aren’t the case. If Doisac is destroyed most Brutes in the Galaxy and whatever ships were there are gone. Human tech also caught up and surpassed the Covenant. They should not be that big of a deal.
The Brutes were clearly set up as a warrior people meant to be used as disposable canon fodder by the Prophets. They were never meant to be a power in their own right and certainly not the greatest power in the universe. 343 is trying to repackage the Brutes as the Klingons from Star Trek. Making them the primary antagonists and the greatest threat humanity has ever faced.
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100% brutes are an absolute joke. they have no capacity for strategic thinking, as pointed out in H3 where they have a 3 to 1 advantage and shipmaster says it’s an even fight.
they were looked down on by every member of the covenant, even grunts were held in a higher regaurd ( see contact harvest as grunt deacons were technically in charge of brutes).
elites hated them and there is no way an elite would serve under one this was made very clear in halo 2
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Halo Infinite legendary House of Judgement an Harbinger boss fight can be extremely difficult I got a spawn where I kept getting sniped within 10 or 30 seconds over an over again. Dropped by purple elites with shock rifles plus the sniping skimmer hardly noticed them before. If they were upgraded with Thunder skull to max rank the elites may have held Heat Waves or some other weapons and the Skimmer would of probably held a rocket launcher while the Chieftain was already max rank he may give been joined by 2 sword wielding Spec Ops elites with swords drawn sporting camo. Which oddly may have been much easier to manage in such a large space vs the multiple snipers base legendary provides.
Ironically I think this skirmish would have actually been easier with Thunder on. The Harbinger wasn’t to much trouble… Memorable Boss battles in the Halo Titles FPS or RTS. Keys You must counter an evade during the main Boss battles. True Action games. The Proto gravemind from HW2 Heroic had to be topped with a plan. Surving From the Deep in HW2 legendary. The Three Warden Eternals from H5 legendary. Surving Spartan Miller on Atleast Heroic. Besting the Didacts Hand Episode with the Tough luck skull on Spartan Ops legendary. The first level of Halo 2 on Legendary. Here the player has to overcome not just the opposition but recognize there own errors an question thier own judgement. Expect to fail as the Hours pass by.
Terrible open world and terrible retcon plot. No assassinations was a real bummer as well.
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it’s very boring and just throws everything from the last games away, and i mean everything, from actual game stuff like weapons and vehicles to the story and characters. the open world sucks, halo 1 had better level design and thats the bottom of the barrel, well personally 3 is my least favorite but still, infinite is the worst.
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I think HALO Infinite is great.
Certainly there are few environments, and the elements lack variety.
However, the story made to correct the mistakes repeated from HALO4
It feels like a second Halo 4, ending with an emotional farewell and a new battle.
If HALO ENDRESS is released, a joint battle with Atriox (or is it settled?) Reunion with the arbiter,
There are many expected elements such as the fight against the flood,
I have nothing but expectations.
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The campaign built up to absolutely nothing. Just a cliffhanger. There was some good moments, but the campaign isn’t worth replaying at all for me.
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There is no work in 343 HALO that was not a cliffhanger
Lol
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It doesn’t explain anything, like where every other character is (the ODST squad, Locke, Arbiter, Halsey, the remaining S3s including Jun, Roland), the best we get are anecdotes ABOUT them delivered by new characters over audio logs. We see 3 characters that have plot relevance (Atriox is a hologram we never meet) and nothing has actually changed between Chief falling to Zeta and him killing the brute standing in as the finale. They are still trapped, the Banished are still winning, and all of the Spartans are dead and humanity doomed now that the Infinity has been destroyed. Even the Spirit of Fire can’t take out the Guardians, without Infinity there is no way to deal with the problem aside from another Mass Effect 3 styled Deus ex machina (maybe the flood will arrive on the ark and we will fire all the halos again. But the Endless are immune, so who the EFF knows?)
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