Halo Infinite – The Return of Master Chief to Fight Again!! A Celebration of 20 years of Xbox and the legacy of Halo
Halo Infinite is the latest entry in the Halo franchise from 343 Industries. Halo holds a special place in my heart as it was the game like many gamers that sold me on the original Xbox. The Xbox when it launched was the newcomer into the console space amongst Sony and Nintendo. It was challenging and entering a multi-billion dollar industry with titans such as Crash Bandicoot, Mario, Sonic, and many other mascots and icons in the gaming industry that had established a presence in the fray.
Microsoft was a newcomer in the console and games industry. Halo instantly became the killer app/launch title that made the Xbox what it is today. It revolutionized online gaming building upon the roots of the Sega Dreamcast, the FPS genre in consoles which was predominately owned in the PC space for years with Doom, Quake, and other heavy hitters.
Halo Infinite completely restored my faith in the franchise after the lackluster and disappointing campaign in Halo 5: Guardians. It was a fun campaign from start to finish giving about 8-12 hrs. of gameplay with more additional missions and challenges sprinkled in with the new open world design which was a paradigm shift the linear play of the previous titles in the series from the former developer Bungie as well as 343 Industries who took over the series after Microsoft acquired them and begun work on Halo 4.
The newest addition with the open sandbox gameplay was the addition of new challenges such as capturing FOB bases, eliminating high priority targets, and much more. I found this to be the perfect excuse to continue playing even after the credits roll. It was also incentive when the campaign co-op mode launches later this year targeted around Summer 2022. The campaign does lack co-op as many modes before launched needed to postponed/delayed due to making deadlines to launch by Dec 2021. 343 has mentioned this feature and many more quality of life features or expected additions will be rolled out over the next year as new features are being added and integrated.
The graphics were astounding I found myself constantly staring at the background and being delighted by the visual fidelity from my 8K TV. The amount of rich detail from the character models to the environment such as trees, mountains, and hills to be jaw dropping. The enemy variety also kept the challenge and pacing to be varied and keep the gameplay engaged and fresh.
The story returns with you chasing after Cortana as the Master Chief Spartan 117 in his fight against the enemy Banished on the Forerunner ringworld Zeta Halo. The story continues from the ending of Halo 5: Guardians yet was much more engaging and I could follow it more closely and the subtle nuances. My only complaint about the story was towards the end the waves of enemies and amount of halls to pass though was a bit lengthy and took too long. Aside from these notes it was a fun campaign from start to finish.
The multiplayer returns with the staples and framework that the series has been known for and continues to be polished with the classic modes such as CTF and Slayer. I played some of the multiplayer as part of my review assessment and found it to be solid with no major changes but was solid fun and what I expect this mode to play as amongst my online buddies. I will start with in my assessment that I am more a single-player gamer then a multi-player one. I tend to sample them for the changes and try it out but I don’t spend hours to grind for all the powerups, extras, cards, etc.. perks.
So you might ask is the new Halo worth it? Absolutely yes! If you have an Xbox Series X you finally have a killer app or must own game aside from titles such as Forza. You can still play this even if you own a Xbox One or Xbox One X as well. It has something for everyone whether you are a single player gamer like myself or you enjoy the multiplayer thrills with titles such as Call of Duty you will feel right at home! My recommendation is to level-up. It is a must buy with its fantastic campaign, exciting and fun multiplayer that builds on the great fun that has been running since Halo 2 and the inception of Xbox Live all those years ago, and lastly the open sandbox opens the franchise for new types of content, innovation, and story expansion across the Halo universe and new stories with Master Chief or even new characters that may enter the fray.
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