How is Halo Infinite's campaign the series' worst?

Games Halo Infinite
144

I jumped back on yesterday after a few months, coop especially with the tank gun is hilarious, it’s fun, and it just felt so good. The campaign and open world looks amazing and plays really well.

I’m really wondering what the future looks like for the campaign and openworld though, they haven’t added anything to it, no changes whatsoever. They could make this utterly incredible, keeping things changing, adding additional bosses, weather changes, changes to different parts of the map. There’s so much. I really really hope they don’t just completely drop it, as this really could be one of the best halo games if they just get the changes right.

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Arguably, it is the worst. It depends on what matters to you.

I would rank Halo 5 as my least favourite, because the story of a Campaign matters most to me. But it terms of diversity of environments and combat arenas, Infinite is definitely the poorest. That isn’t to say that I think Infinite has a good story, but only that I think 5’s is worse.

I don’t enjoy the open-world. I knew I wouldn’t before the game launched, and my mind hasn’t changed. But even with an open-world, there could have been diversity in the environments. Make an arid low-lying area, or a very mountainous snowy area.

The Endless are…pointless. I really couldn’t care less about them. Firstly, their name sucks. It’s not an intimidating name, and it sounds like they’re trying to impress you. The Flood or the Reapers (Mass Effect) sound menacing without being over the top. They also didn’t name themselves (at least the Flood didn’t name themselves in the Campaigns - not sure about lore overall), and don’t care what they’re called, because they’ll be your destruction either way.

Secondly, worse than the Flood? How? You can’t just drop that on us, and then never even allude as to how for the entire Campaign (end credit scenes don’t count, and you shouldn’t have to complete the Campaign on Legendary).

Thirdly, why do we have yet another faction? The Banished were nothing: just some old Brute. Nonsensically powerful, but also far less threating than they were in Halo Wars 2. Prometheans have disappeared, and the Created were swept under the rug. There was ample factions already - not even to mention that the Didact could have come back (Cortana did, and retconning a comic few people read isn’t worth losing a good story for). This was literally a Forerunner, and was so powerful that Chief couldn’t even fight him 1 on 1, but he’s just gone after one game? Chief beat the Harbinger easier than he beat an old Brute. How am I meant to take the Endless seriously if I can’t take their only representation in the story seriously?

See, I said I cared most about the story.

It’s just such a nothing story. 5’s was bad, but Infinite doesn’t have anything for me to like or dislike, because I have no reason to care. I felt more fighting against that random Brute Chieftain at the end of The Ark in Halo 3, because I hadn’t just had 8 hours of him telling me how great and important he was, when to Chief (me), he was just some Brute. The environmental story-telling of the Chieftain fighting Chief 1 on 1 with his Brutes watching made me care more. Escharum was definitely not on the level of Tartarus.

There was also no mention of Lasky; Blue Team; Arbiter; etc, beyond some audio logs. Great(!) Audio logs can work very well, like in BioShock, but they don’t here. They’re meant to be additional - not fill you in on the more interesting story that you’ve missed, and would rather be playing.

Succinctly, it serves only as an epilogue to 5’s story, and prologue to whatever is next. That’s boring. That’s what a short tie-in comic is for - not the Campaign itself. Imagine if Halo 3 was instead Chief waking up on the Forward Unto Dawn, and crashing into Requiem - with a random boss Elite spouting some stuff, and the Didact just making hollow threats about composing all humans, before dying. That’s Infinite. Escharum is Jul 'Mdama.

TL;DR: I’m not mad. I’m just disappointed.

8 Likes
146

Of course Infinite’s campaign is 1 of the worst but not sure if I’d call it the worst campaign since I believe that belongs to Halo 5.

For me best to worst is probably:

  1. Halo 1
  2. Halo 2
  3. Halo 3
  4. Halo Odst
  5. Halo Wars 1
  6. Halo Reach
  7. Halo Wars 2
  8. Halo 4
  9. Halo Infinite
  10. Halo 5

Reasons why Halo Infinite maybe one of the worst:
No splitscreen
No respect for Cortana
Lack of any chapter select
Open world that feels kind of baron
Banshee controls are one of the worst in the series.
Endless are bragged about being better than Flood with zero hype
Flood are still MIA despite the lore of the Halo ring.
At the end of Infinite’s campaign I had zero clue what to get excited for the future of Halo for the 1st time ever.

6 Likes
147

This is a great point, that I didn’t really highlight in my own. Even at the end of Halo 5, I was excited that Chief reunited with Halsey (especially after playing Spartan Ops, which isn’t something I’ve considered before, but is now the main reason I’d recommend it to someone to watch), and Arbiter.

4 Likes
148

#1 can’t even replay missions without starting a whole new game.
#2 there isn’t much to do in the open world after you do the missions and targets… Compare RDR2 open world to Halo Infinite. Holy lack of content Infinite.

Halo should have stayed linear game. It seemed like they didn’t want to even make a campaign IMO. They were clearly more concerned with squeezing out every dime they could on cosmetics for multiplayer.

4 Likes
149

Disgusting retcons that sidestepped the campaigns of 4 and 5. Even kind of ruins the bungie halos by bringing back enemies “worse than the flood”

No assassinations.

Terrible example of an open world.

Grappleshot completely ruins the flow of combat. It makes the game way too easy. In fact the AI in gereral cant seem to handle the equipment. They dont adapt or change tactics when using something as simple as the shield wall. Once you upgrade the thruster with active camo. You can literally just run past every enemy.

Network coop came a year too late.

And probably more that i couldnt think of while pooping

4 Likes
150

the worst?

While halo 4 and 5 exist?

Hardly.

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to be fair, i do believe there is a difference between the content of the campaign and the execution of the campaign. For example, I LOVED halo 2’s campaign’s content. I LOATHED its legendary execution of campaign.

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What was retconned?

5 stepped away from h4 not infinite. infinite actually shows a memory from 4

1 Like
153

I enjoyed the rebel planet where you get a nice tank/warthog run as Osiris team. I also liked the bit where you run down the surface of a Guardian, but Infinite didn’t even have that. The world state never changed, I was never brought anywhere I didn’t expect, and I never got to interact with anyone like Johnson or Arby who had my back. Not even Cortana’s confidence, “The Weapon” just acted like a Marvel character with no experience to back it up.

2 Likes
154

Halo 5 ends with Cortana and the Created beginning an effort to take over the Galaxy.

Halo Infinite begins with this entire war concluded, swept under the rug and we’re presented with a completely different setting and conflict with humanity on the back foot against the Banished and something to do with squid aliens.

So this amounts to a retcon because you’ve consciously removed these really significant events involving the two main protagonists and any consequences that might have resulted from them out of the continuity. It’s not it’s that they skipped time or fast tracked a redemption arc. For example, giving Chief a blank slate version of the previous character who turned bad that he can without consequences carry on having adventures with a minimum of fuss and conflict.

It would be like if you did an episode 1 of Battlestar Galactica where you see the colonies destroyed by the Cylons and the Galactica flee. Then, next episode the Galactica has been destroyed and we’re fighting aliens that came out of nowhere, with all the Cylons dead and the implication the humans got the colonies back. That is the story you are presented with in Halo Infinite.

It’s jarring and given the game is a mystery box it’s difficult to sort what we’re meant to question from hand waving retcons we aren’t meant to question.

That depends on where you thought they were going with Halo 4. I thought moment they said the story was about Cortana going rampant then you’re automatically discussing her going bad.

The Didact could show up tomorrow because 4 was a self contained narrative and didn’t end in a cliffhanger. Villain of the week. Halo 5 was meant to set up a wider conflict, as is Halo Infinite BTW. It would be very difficult short of time travel or Chief being in the matrix/Cylex to shove Cortana and the Created into the story. You would be introducing the Remnant of a faction you basically didn’t introduce in the first place. Whereas the Didact could literally just rock up. I am here for revenge. It doesn’t require any explanation beyond that.

3 Likes
155

you need a different word than retcon. Retcon means making things that happened in the past no longer having happened.

156

Because it’s the newest. In time, this will be called the best campaign.

157

people said the same thing about 4, but… well, 4 is still among the most poorly executed campaigns among all halo games. I’m a fan of 4, but there’s just things that are bad ideas that it did a LOT of.

RE retcon: Consider how Cortana, who had died, was brought back in halo 5. That wasn’t a retcon. It played off of the events that already happened. I didn’t LIKE IT, but that doesn’t make it a retcon.

158

It has been retconned. If there’s no consequences and those events have no bearing on the narrative or our characters then they might as well have not have happened. It is a conscious effort to cut them out of the story and the wider world.

For example, let’s say you still do a time skip and you resolve the war offscreen.

  1. There should be a massive conflict and continued mistrust between AI and humanity. You should not have humans casually putting AI in their armour. The implication is that this isn’t an issue or major plot point. That’s a clear example of trying to sever and cut story points rather than simply change direction. You’re basically presenting an entirely different setting.

  2. It should be a massive deal that Chief has a copy of Cortana and every single character should make a big deal out of it. Without exception. Not a five second exchange where they all shrug and decide to get on with things. It should be the most notable thing about him right now. Escharum does not even acknowledge the Weapons existence even though apparently Doisac was destroyed. I call that a retcon. If you were trying to make a story here you would want to touch on that conflict and make something of it.

  3. Characters don’t act like they’ve just freed humanity from the Cylons. They show a complete disinterest in events on Earth and the wider Galaxy. We are led to assume, again, that the UNSC has been reset to Halo 3 but there is zero reason to presume this is the case. Since our characters don’t question this we aren’t prompted to see it as a mystery. Again, this is presenting you with a new setting and thus a retcon.

  4. With the Weapon, bar some crazy theory, you’re being invited to headcanon Cortana turning traitor out of the story and to think of this character as just being Cortana. The ending of the game makes it very clear that where the writers want to go. Which is a retcon. Instead of losing Cortana being used as a motivation for the Chief to: I don’t know, get revenge, try to get her back, be something to bounce from on his own; you’re just handed another version of the same character.

  5. When they do make reference to Halo 5 or the events prior to Infinite. It is heavily disconnected from the characters and story of the game.

Doisacs been destroyed but the Brutes don’t talk about it. We’re told this world was destroyed but it’s humanity on the back foot and not the Brutes.

Escharum spends the entire game boasting about how the Banished are amazing but he never mentions about how they defeated the Created. Surely that is the most important thing Atriox and the Banished have accomplished; it should be a lot of them gloating about it. Instead Escharum only mentions this once, with it being a small point about how “oh it made us stronger.” Whilst devoting a ton of information about how he fought the Covenant and humanity. Surely if you want to say how amazing Atriox is and torment the Chief you would lead with that. :smile:

So that’s a retcon because you’re trying to trivialise and reduce its relevance to the lore. The Battle of Zeta Halo isn’t important because Atriox destroyed a UNSC carrier with 10000 humans. It’s important because the Galaxy was freed from the Created. So again, retcon and being presented with a different setting.

So either Chief locked in a Cylex and this isn’t being mentioned because it would jolt his mind out of the simulation. But it’s more likely just a retcon and do the absolute bare minimum to get us to the setting and story they want to tell.

5 Likes
159

Halo 5 will never be canon because there story writer hadn’t any idea what Halo was he didn’t even know cortana was dead.
I’ve also seen a lot of people here wanting Halo 5 story because thay hate Cortana and her being a mass murder in game canon helps there argument to get rid of her or live there fantasy of killing her.

160

Again, HALO Infinite was the best campaign experience.
Open-world world, campaign with replays implemented and imperfections reduced.
The presence of boss units on each map gives a different impression from past HALO.

The disappointing point is that there was no lack of flood and scarab warfare.
For example, the Scarab, which shoots Volidus’ poisonous chemicals, is a unit that didn’t exist in the FPS Halo, and must have been impressive.

It also disappointed me that there was no plan to add content over the year like Assassin’s Creed.

Infinite’s fault is that HALO4 connects it next, HALO5 makes it a cliffhanger, HALO WARS2 makes it a cliffhanger, and HALO Infinite also ends with a cliffhanger. what do you want to show
This is the next big boss. Most of the time I showed it, it wasn’t in the next work, and that’s 343’s HALO.
The Didact is gone, the Guardian is gone, and the Atriox is somewhere else.
I think that inconsistency is the worst thing about Halo right now.

3 Likes
161

Very few characters(and the ones that are there are uninteresting), almost complete lack of unsc presence, very little context for story and what context there is is locked in audio logs spread around the map to artificially pad gametime, small weapon and vehicle sandbox, very samey looking areas for missions, generic cookie cutter AAA “side missions” copy pasted everywhere around the map.

The open world dragged it down the most really. Halo 5 had a weak story and wasnt too great over all but still had some decent levels and impressive set pieces like running down the guardian’s back. Infinite traded the myriad of environments and amazingly designs sandbox levels of previous halos for a bland, generic open world setting with boring, cookie-cutter side missions and poorly designed main missions that lack most of what made halo campaigns so much fun.

2 Likes
162

I’d argue the Infinite writer has a poor understanding what the Halo actually is. Saying the Endless are more dangerous than the flood confirms this theory. Also having mindless elites working with the Banished. Also in the books there were people among the Banished as we are the only ones who can activate Forrunner artifacts. All of this was conveniently “forgotten” in Infinite

2 Likes
163

The closest they get are the audio logs of Browning saying they forced him to open things - no mention of a human sorting the prisoners etc