It's a fun and addicting game, but the story makes no sense and is quite badly written. I've been playing Halo since 2001, and have noticed that 343 has gotten worse at storytelling and writing from game to game. Halo 4 was very well written, full of emotion and compelling dialogue. Halo 5 was a bit of a mess with a lot of cringe, and yet oddly that still has stronger dialogue and writing than Halo Infinite.
Here's a list of stuff about the game that I had a problem with:
Despite all of those complaints, it's still a fun game, with decent gameplay. The strongest aspect of the game is the enemies, especially their voice-lines.
Overall in terms of nonsensical story in relation to the lore and essential plot points from previous Halo games, I'd rank this game as the worst Halo story yet, even worse than Halo 5, which is a tall order that I never thought would happen.
The redeeming qualities of the game manage to keep this at a 7/10 for me. Sadly, it feels the least like a Halo game that any Halo game has ever felt. And that ending, my god the cringe.
Nevertheless, worth playing. I'm already on my 5th playthrough just because it's fun to explore and discover all the game has to offer in terms of collectibles, easter eggs and skulls. Just that the story really tarnishes this game for me, and as an avid Halo fan for the past 20 years, I just felt hurt and disappointed at the end of this campaign. The storytelling magic that the original Halo games had seems to be completely out of reach for 343 sadly. When will they learn how to write a compelling Halo story?
Here's a list of stuff about the game that I had a problem with:
- Scorpion tank has no marine side mounting
- When you die the voice lines just stop
- Annoying Spanish guy with bad lines and who is only in cutscenes. Why is he in the game?
- Long loading times after death
- No manual revert to last checkpoint
- No manual saves
- Audio lines trigger in different approaches even though the target has already been killed
- Marines get stuck on nothing or jump off cliffs off the map
- Warthogs are too floaty and get stuck on rocks too easily
- Marines stand right under the vehicle drop in the FOBs, and get squished
- Marines jump in front or stand in way of moving vehicles and easily get run over
- Uninspiring music, no new themes
- Cringey and terrible writing in places
- Marines voice lines trigger in one spot and not stay with the actual marine when moving
- Assets get glitched out and the game soft locks
- Bad writing, I got bored at the Silent Auditorium as the "big reveal" was so deflating and stupid
- Repetitive combat
- Clunky switching between the four equipments with a controller
- I hate the Spanish guy, he's pointless and annoying
- How did Atriox beat Cortana? It's not explained? Why is Atriox and the brutes in the game?
- Bad story, no stakes
- The open world aspect could have been better, lots of the map is empty and not with much going on
- Severe lack of characters, no epic story moments
- Artifacts / Forerunner Rings / Archives are not recorded in match from the map to the database, for example in my database it shows I'm missing artifact vii, but when I locate that on the map it shows as completed. When examining which one i'm missing by cross referencing a guide, artifact iv showed up in my database as collected, but it's not on my map, and when I went there it was yet uncollected, and then showed as a different artifact.
- No coop
- No level select or mission replay, so getting skulls is only doable from a new game
- No physical skull shows in your hand when you collect them
- No power ups, i.e overshield, invis, bubble shield, regen field, etc
- Brute chopper doesn't splatter vehicles anymore
- Rescuing squads still mission passes when all the marines died
- Half of the map is unexplorable, protected by "return to battlefield" barriers
- Boring boss battles
- Cringey ending, why does MC give respect to Escharum when he's dying? He killed everyone on the Infinity
- The original Halos had horror elements with the Flood etc, but that element and all the main elements from the original Halos are absent in Infinite, i.e. Mystery
- Flat villains
- No threats or pressure or tension
- Lots of Brutes around, but no Brute Shot, Mauler or Brute Plasma Rifle
- No gauss warthog
- No prometheans even though there are hardlight weapons
Despite all of those complaints, it's still a fun game, with decent gameplay. The strongest aspect of the game is the enemies, especially their voice-lines.
Overall in terms of nonsensical story in relation to the lore and essential plot points from previous Halo games, I'd rank this game as the worst Halo story yet, even worse than Halo 5, which is a tall order that I never thought would happen.
The redeeming qualities of the game manage to keep this at a 7/10 for me. Sadly, it feels the least like a Halo game that any Halo game has ever felt. And that ending, my god the cringe.
Nevertheless, worth playing. I'm already on my 5th playthrough just because it's fun to explore and discover all the game has to offer in terms of collectibles, easter eggs and skulls. Just that the story really tarnishes this game for me, and as an avid Halo fan for the past 20 years, I just felt hurt and disappointed at the end of this campaign. The storytelling magic that the original Halo games had seems to be completely out of reach for 343 sadly. When will they learn how to write a compelling Halo story?