Halo Infinite has been out long enough now that players have already discovered all the easter eggs and finished campaign speed runs on Legendary with every skull activated.
Alas, I'm not in that camp. Over the last couple of nights, I finally had the chance to slide back into my spartan suit and terrorize outmatched grunts. And man, oh man, did I miss it.
Here's my five-bullet review thus far:
- The open world takes some getting used to -- but it's a blast. Historically, Halo has been a linear franchise. There was a clear-cut path to follow and very little strategizing necessary. Infinite has flipped that script upside-down. Now, strategy is paramount to success. And I love it.
- Ammo is scarce but weapons are bountiful. I don't think I've held on to the same gun for longer than five minutes. Maybe there's simply more Banished to eradicate than in previous titles. But I think the developers intentionally scaled back ammo to encourage us to try the game's vast arsenal of weaponry.
- Dying is easier than I remember. As a veteran Halo enthusiast, I naturally started at Heroic rather than Normal difficulty. (No, Legendary wasn't on the table. I want to actually enjoy my first playthrough.) Regardless, I've already died about a dozen times. It could be rust. It could be that there's a higher volume of forces with more firepower. Or it could be that Halo has transitioned to be a more strategic combat approach rather than a hasty, guns-a-blazing shooter. But I don't remember perishing at the hands of low- to mid-level combatants so often.
- Mini-bosses can be quite the challenge. (See previous bullet.)
- I'm not quite sure what's going on with the storyline. This one's at least partially on me. It's been a while since I've acquainted myself with the Halo story arcs, and I didn't put much time into preparing for Infinite. Although I'm not deep into the game at all, I don't really understand how we got here. Soft spoiler (maybe?): Chief has been lifelessly floating around for quite some time after a rather one-sided defeat at the hands of Atriox of the Banished. How he and the UNSC arrived at that point? I don't really know, and the campaign cinematics don't explain it. Call it laziness (that's probably what it is), but I felt it deserved a mention.
