Hi everyone,
I wanted to post a fairly in-depth review to share my thoughts on the HALO INFINITE flight and how I have been getting on so far. I have never written a review before and so please bear with me regarding format and structure, hopefully this flows well for anybody who wants to take a read through.
A little about me… I am an avid HALO player and have been around since HALO CE. I have played fairly religiously since HALO 3 however and I have spent thousands of hours over the years in Multiplayer, Campaign and Forge. HALO has been a huge part of my life and I wanted to share some feedback on INFINITE as I feel it is a new direction in which 343 is taking the franchise and with the 20-year anniversary just passing, there seems to be a lot of hype within the community for HALO currently which is great to see!
What have I played / done so far on INFINITE?
I played the initial closed flight and have played the following Two flights since also. I have played all of the game modes available within the flights and also all maps. I have completed all of the weapon drills and played a fair amount of the training academy with bots. I have completed the Battle Pass also. I feel as though I have experienced enough of the flight now to give a fairly comprehensive review and share my general thoughts.
Also, I am playing on an XBOX Series X with a 4k monitor. So all of this is based on a console player using a controller.
Overview
Movement
The reason I have started with movement is because it is a huge part of the gameplay and a huge factor for me in terms of how I get on with a HALO game. There is a divide within the community from people I have spoken with in-game and on Facebook Groups etc. For years HALO was a fairly slow movement-based game. REACH came in and introduced sprint which then slowly escalated to things such as boosters and everything else along with this.
My personal opinion is that HALO 4 offered the best all around movement combination balance between player map manoeuvring and gun skill. There is a fine line between taking gun skill away and replacing it with being able to ‘out-manoeuvre’ your opponent rather than out-gun them, which IMO should never be the case.
HALO INFINITE seems to have taken a drastic reduction in player manoeuvrability and returned the focus back to gun skill. This to me is the best thing they could have done. HALO has always had a very high skill gap and focused on a combination of gun skill and map control / movement. INFINITE still has sprint, clamber and now a grapple (Which is awesome btw). However, gameplay is a lot slower compared to HALO 5 and for me, this is a win!
Maps
I will not go in to too detail on every map as I could probably do a full review for each map.
Bazaar – (5/10)
The design for Bazaar is great, it gives me real HALO 2 vibes. It really is a lovely map to look at. However… The layout really doesn’t do it for me. The two spawns are absolutely fine as they offer a 3-lane system for players to split and get set up for the game. The centre of this map is where it loses me. Having a huge open space that links the 3 lane spawns just creates a huge mess in the centre and negates having a 3-lane system.
It works quite well for CTF as players can set up in the outer lanes for map control and rotate flags through the middle etc. Slayer is unfortunately a write off for me on this map and I am just not a fan of the rooftop-to-rooftop Commando and BR battles combined with the Cluster**** in the lower section in the centre of the map.
Bohemoth – (7/10)
As simple as this map is, it is a lot of fun. It is an open oval, with a central interior. The outer section of the map is heavily dominated by the ghost and is usually the best initial breakout push. This can be a slight issue though as it’s normally a mad scramble from both teams to get control of the ghost off the bat.
CTF on this map can be frustrating as the flag can be pushed across the map by a ghost in about 15 seconds. I am not sure if the ability of being able to push the flag with the Ghost is intentional or not, however I feel it should probably not be in the game.
Live Fire – (9/10)
IMO this is easily the best 4v4 map on the game. It’s use of the 3-lane system is perfect and offers a solid mix of enclosed, open and height bases combat throughout.
The only reason for the 9/10 and not a full 10/10 is that it is every so slightly too small. I feel as though it could do with an extra 5-10% in area space.
Recharge – (8/10)
This map for me is fun to play. I enjoy the height-based combat along with the enclosed elements also. It is a great mix of distance-based combat along with close quarters also. It works well in both Slayer and Strongholds. I have not played CTF on this map as of yet, I am not sure if it is a variant they have included or I have just not had it pop up for me.
A gripe for me on this map if how OP the gravity hammer can be in a lot of situations, especially on Strongholds.
Fragmentation – (8/10)
Design…Layout…Map Size… I love this so much. I have not always enjoyed BTB in HALO but I honestly love this so much. Slayer or CTF, this really encapsulates how a HALO BTB should flow. 3-lane system used to perfection along with smaller flanking routes etc.
I also really like how the vehicles are now ‘Spawned’ in to the map via a Pelican, this is really cool. Suggestion though; it would be good to have objectives or trigger points within the map to try and control or activate to have the chance to spawn a vehicle for your team specifically rather than waiting.
Audio
The music in the game is awesome, enough said. I don’t have too much else to say on this other than a few points regarding weapons and vehicles. The UNSC weapons have a much more realistic sound to them, which to me is not a problem. Covenant guns also sound pretty sweet, although I know there has been some feedback on things like the needler from people.
Vehicles on the other hand do sound a little ‘off’ if that is the best way to describe it? Things like the Warthog just don’t sound very… HALO? It’s difficult to explain but if you know, you know.
Weapons
As a whole, I think the facelifted existing weapons are fantastic. I also am a fan of the new additions. I will not be reviewing all of the guns as I am a creature of habit and tend to only use specific weapons if I can help it… Apologies!
Assault Rifle – It has damage now! In certain situations, it can be a little OP as it offers players of any skill level the chance to get a kill rather than relying heavily on aim like with the pistol etc. Which is why there has been a lot of backlash from players who seem to be dying from it a lot. I rarely use the AR but when I have, it has been great.
MK50 Sidekick – Love it. Love it. Love it. I am an avid believer in gun skill and the Pistol now offers players the ability to be able to hugely outplay their opponent with the Sidekick as it takes, I believe 5 headshots to kill which in the heat of a firefight can be awkward for a huge amount of players to land.
BR75 – 10/10, nothing else to add.
S7 Sniper – I like the change in reticule that they have now moved forward with. It also sounds like a beast to me, very much a fan!
Vehicles
A lot of this is what it is and they perform as expected and have done previously. My only feedback is for the Ghost as it seems very, very, OP. Don’t get me wrong, against the right players a Ghost can be countered very easily but in a lot of cases it can just dominate with ease. It may be worth looking at some form of cooldown on boost ability or look at the amount of vehicle health perhaps? This is one for the community to decide.
Game Modes
SLAYER – I think it is only fair to start off by disclosing I am not a standard slayer mega fan… I normally play SWAT whenever I can. That being said… I have thoroughly enjoyed slayer within the flight and I would happily play it more often now in the full game. I think this is due to the balance between movement and gun skill being more on par with each other.
CTF – CTF is what it is… I mentioned earlier about being able to push the flag with a Ghost which as funny as it is, probably is not a great feature to keep in the game. Playing CTF with a team > Getting killed 10 times in a row by somebody with a worse weapon than yourself > Playing CTF with random players and no mics. This is a game mode that to enjoy and win consistently I have to be playing with a full team. Which I did a few times and it was a lot better for me.
STRONGHOLD – I have played a fair bit of Stronghold and it is a fun game mode. It pushes players to move around the map and not be as static as they may like to be. This engages gun fights a lot more and therefore creates faster paced gameplay… usually.
Customisation
Armour
I like the fact that we have full control over each individual element of the Spartan. For me, it is all about having full control and with the ability to change individual parts and even to the point where you can choose to have bionic limbs to replace arms and legs, Infinite offers full customisation.
However, when it comes to colours, I am not 100% sold as of yet. I like to have the ability to change colours with my own preference and I am not fully on board with the pre-set colour combinations available. Don’t get me wrong, if the ability to custom colour your Spartan is removed and everybody is forced to use pre-set colour combinations, I would be down for this. As long as the combinations are easily accessible to give players a wide range of choice… But also… Have a good selection of combinations available via PVP and PVE challenges to offer bragging rights for completion of potentially Normal, Heroic, Legendary, Mythic challenges (Potentially a way to structure them).
Regarding Armour, please, please, please have certain helmets, effects etc that are unlockable ONLY by completing certain in game challenges. I am not referring to weekly or seasonal things, although these would need certain armour unlocks… I am referring to having challenges specifically set up, similar to HALO 3 in which only some of the most elite players will be able to complete. Not grinding based things that require just an insane amount of time, but actual skill based completionism unlocks for people willing to put the effort in. Example, HELIOSKRILL in HALO 5, cool armour and it showed off a completion of something. HYABUSA / SECURITY in HALO 3 were a full on bragging right to other players to show you were a solid player. These are the things we hardcore fans miss and I know any new players would appreciate.
Training Academy
This was great in the flight but for me it is something I will probably never touch, unless there are achievements available for gun challenges etc. I get some people will only play this for bot games and that is fine also, but my opinion of it is that when the game releases it will be redundant other than for a quick blast with a gun to warm up before games. So… still worthwhile, but could do with some focus to improve it as it is a little stale in its current form.
Ranking System /Battle Pass
Okay… this is going to be a controversial subject as everybody loves different ranking systems and has different opinions as to what works best, doesn’t work and so forth… My opinion is as follows.
Combine what has worked in the past and create a hybrid of what people have fed back positively on in majority. For example, HALO 3 had a hugely popular ranking system as it was highly skill level based and if you saw a General, you knew that they were actually a solid player. On the flip side, I know a lot of feedback on HALO 5 ranks was that it was boring and was just a grind fest with no ‘personality’. MCC has a very nice ranking system in the sense there is a grinding element to it, but it also slightly mirrors HALO 3 in military based ranking. I think focusing on MCC would be a good start and tweaking in to more of a skill-based approach would be a good start.
Keep the military element with tonnes of ranks for grinding as an ‘overall’ indicator of ‘RANK’ but it would probably link closer to how much time a person has played really as this would be a cumulative XP rank overall in PVP and PVE rather than a show of skill. Offer then a secondary rank, similar to how it is done in HALO 5 for specific ranked playlists.
I also don’t actually mind that XP is rewarded purely from challenges currently, however it would be nice to have a full list of daily challenges, the way in which MCC does things. Also, it would need to be a much larger list for daily / weekly challenges to cater for people grinding these a lot harder if it’s the only way to gain XP.
That’s just my opinion but I hope it has a good mix of elements as some of the individual ranking styles previously have felt stale.
END OF REVIEW
That’s it… It’s by no means a professional review and I know a lot of things I covered are open to opinion. However, I wanted to share my thoughts as if just one person from 343 has a read and thinks certain things may be a good idea for the future, that would be awesome.
Thanks for reading… If you made it to the end!
TASTIC