Alright, I must admit I had a lot of concerns. Halo Infinite only had me watching from a distance. Now it has my full attention. It gives me no joy to see Cortana is still alive and kicking, and I would prefer any attention on her is kept at a minimum. It was also obvious to me from the start that The Weapon was created to stop her, in parallel to the conflict between Mendicant and Offensive Bias, but look, I’m interested in how everything has been tied together, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it plays out. The new enemies are especially interesting, particularly the Harbinger. Maybe 343 has found a way to throw a spanner in the Forerunner’s works. What shape that will take, I do not know.
The campaign has had significant improvement since the E3 demo. The graphics look much better, and it’s very much to my delight that 343 seems to have found the balance with character designs. The Elites have regained their slender, intimidating physique but still retain the bulkiness that their redesigns had in Halos 4 and 5. The Brutes look great too, and it’s nice to see their armour doesn’t break as easily as in Halo 3. The new variants such as the flaming jetpack Brute look fun to fight too. The gunplay looks great fun; 343 seems to have refined that particular aspect quite nicely. But above all else, the decision to make Halo Infinite open-world is shaping up to be an inspired choice. I really hope the game places value on what targets you should go after first, especially with every increase in difficulty. Like The Weapon would analyse the number of Banished present, the weapons or sandbox elements available to the player (such as fusion coils) and her best assessment on the outcome of every engagement, but always leaving the final decision to the player. I would also love if The Weapon could detect UNSC forces under fire like Kat did for Noble Six in Halo Reach, and direct the player up the quickest route to get to them.
Overall, I do still have some concerns about Infinite. But I can’t argue with the evidence; 343 are taking this game much more seriously. The delays may have even afforded them more time to tidy up and polish whatever needed doing, so that Infinite can look and play at its best when it releases. However, in light of the car crash that was Halo 5, I won’t be forking over any money for my own copy right away, but I’m not saying never. I might just if Infinite turns out to be spectacular and then some. And it’s on that note that I wish 343 the best of luck. I have lost a serious amount of respect for them after their series of poor creative decisions, particularly the one where they turned Cortana evil, but if they could overhaul The Master Chief Collection, then maybe, just maybe they can pull the rabbit out of the hat with Infinite. I will be watching them closely.