Just a heads-up for everyone who’ll start the Halo Infinite campaign today:
In the campaign, there is a “point of no return”, from where you will not be able to go back to the open world in order to collect more Spartan Cores or collectibles. It comes earlier in the story than expected, and after that there’s going to be a good 3-4 hours of sequence of levels until the end of the story. Only after completing the campaign will you be able to go back to the open world to sweep up whatever you left before.
The problem is, the game does not warn you of this. It doesn’t say “upgrade whatever you want on your character or complete everything you want, because from now on you won’t access the world”. Nothing. You just walk in to the installation and then realize it just goes on and on and there’s no way back. So if your shields or equipment are not upgraded enough you might have a harder time finishing the campaign, because there will be no way to further upgrade anything (upgrades are tied solely to the Spartan Cores you can pick up in the open world section).
Now, since there are strict embargoes on what details can be shared about the game before release, I cannot exactly name the mission/installation in question right now, but I will update this post right after the game’s official release. In short, there is a door you have to unlock, and for that you have to do several things in the open world. That door represents the point of no return. After you walk in, there’s no way back to the open until the end.
I do think the game should indicate this, though, as if you’re playing on a harder difficulty setting you’ll probably need all possible upgrades for your equipment.
Edit: So the place you should look out for is called the Command Spire. To unlock its door you have to go to 4 places on the map and do something. After you did the four things, you can go back to it and open its door. However, that is the point of no return until the very end of the campaign. Make sure you have all the upgrades you need before heading in.