You've played Halo Infinite before, it just wasn't called Halo Infinite. There's lots to like I'm going to talk about the stuff that sucks...
If you've played FarCry 3, 4 or 5, then you have already played this game.
Open world game mechanics are content light and they tend be heavy on fetch quests and few are as content light as HI. There are a few collectibles sprinkled around the map, but nothing beyond the standard datapad and dull audio recording. This is a huge contrast to the MCC remasters and the other 343 games, which are cutscene rich and outclass HI in environmental storytelling. Previous titles criss-cross the galaxies, but here the open world forces us into monotony.
Boss fights with healthbars try to break that monotony, but there are plenty of powerful enough weapons so no boss ever really threatens, being open world, most boss fights can be dealt with from a safe distance. Gone is the revert to last checkpoint feature that has accompanied every single Halo game, allowing you to replay sections over and over, discovering new ways to destroy the opposition, instead when an area is cleared of enemies in HI they are gone for good. Just as well, the map "design" is abysmal, compared to say Halo CE or even Halo 4, by giving the player so much space to use, the map mechanics of previous games are made useless, so to make the game fun there are plenty of power weapons, 8 grenades to spam, lots of AoE weapons, and those ridiculous explosive throwables everywhere. This means the trad Halo gameplay of chess combat is gone, and instead we are left with a Doom Eternal clone in a FarCry sandbox.
Before playing this I did a heroic run of all the games starting from Reach and culminating with HI, and Halo 4 is a better game than HI. I wonder how many people will actually complete the campaign?
Yes, the gameplay is a huge improvement on Halo 5, but going open world has turned Halo into a chore. Getting around the map is an inconvenience alien to Halo games, and frankly the missions in Halo CE - which all take place on an intact ring - had brilliant, huge, interesting outdoor environments far more explorable than anything in HI by comparison.
The covenant weapons have all been nerfed, the Needler a shadow of its former potency, the plasma rifle gone and the plasma pistol nerfed. The AR has received a long-overdue buff, but the BR has been nerfed instead. The Hydra is a beast and there are many weapons that are new and fun to use.
There are some light RPG elements, but is content light and the upgrade UI couldn't be more basic. Retrieving the upgrades feels like a chore because the world is so big, repetitive, and awkward to navigate.
The console combat at higher difficulties is completely ruined because of the bad grenade switching mechanic on controllers. I thought this was completely unacceptable and bordering on stupid. Just let the player cycle through the grenades instead of having to remember a button combo for each grenades, until this feature is changed the game is not worth bothering with above normal difficulty.
The multiplayer is where Halo Infinite shines. Ignoring the F2P model and its problems, the gameplay in multiplayer is where the player is challenged, rather than the campaign, which is either too easy or too difficult and never feels compelling as say Halo Reach or Halo CE.
All in all, it's a mixed bag, I think the game is unfinished and suffers from poor environments. Having taken 6 years to get this far it is an underachievement, but following on from Halo 5 this is a huge improvement for the franchise. It's a very good game, but not a great one.
If you've played FarCry 3, 4 or 5, then you have already played this game.
Open world game mechanics are content light and they tend be heavy on fetch quests and few are as content light as HI. There are a few collectibles sprinkled around the map, but nothing beyond the standard datapad and dull audio recording. This is a huge contrast to the MCC remasters and the other 343 games, which are cutscene rich and outclass HI in environmental storytelling. Previous titles criss-cross the galaxies, but here the open world forces us into monotony.
Boss fights with healthbars try to break that monotony, but there are plenty of powerful enough weapons so no boss ever really threatens, being open world, most boss fights can be dealt with from a safe distance. Gone is the revert to last checkpoint feature that has accompanied every single Halo game, allowing you to replay sections over and over, discovering new ways to destroy the opposition, instead when an area is cleared of enemies in HI they are gone for good. Just as well, the map "design" is abysmal, compared to say Halo CE or even Halo 4, by giving the player so much space to use, the map mechanics of previous games are made useless, so to make the game fun there are plenty of power weapons, 8 grenades to spam, lots of AoE weapons, and those ridiculous explosive throwables everywhere. This means the trad Halo gameplay of chess combat is gone, and instead we are left with a Doom Eternal clone in a FarCry sandbox.
Before playing this I did a heroic run of all the games starting from Reach and culminating with HI, and Halo 4 is a better game than HI. I wonder how many people will actually complete the campaign?
Yes, the gameplay is a huge improvement on Halo 5, but going open world has turned Halo into a chore. Getting around the map is an inconvenience alien to Halo games, and frankly the missions in Halo CE - which all take place on an intact ring - had brilliant, huge, interesting outdoor environments far more explorable than anything in HI by comparison.
The covenant weapons have all been nerfed, the Needler a shadow of its former potency, the plasma rifle gone and the plasma pistol nerfed. The AR has received a long-overdue buff, but the BR has been nerfed instead. The Hydra is a beast and there are many weapons that are new and fun to use.
There are some light RPG elements, but is content light and the upgrade UI couldn't be more basic. Retrieving the upgrades feels like a chore because the world is so big, repetitive, and awkward to navigate.
The console combat at higher difficulties is completely ruined because of the bad grenade switching mechanic on controllers. I thought this was completely unacceptable and bordering on stupid. Just let the player cycle through the grenades instead of having to remember a button combo for each grenades, until this feature is changed the game is not worth bothering with above normal difficulty.
The multiplayer is where Halo Infinite shines. Ignoring the F2P model and its problems, the gameplay in multiplayer is where the player is challenged, rather than the campaign, which is either too easy or too difficult and never feels compelling as say Halo Reach or Halo CE.
All in all, it's a mixed bag, I think the game is unfinished and suffers from poor environments. Having taken 6 years to get this far it is an underachievement, but following on from Halo 5 this is a huge improvement for the franchise. It's a very good game, but not a great one.