Halo Infinite: First Impressions

Because I’ve not played Halo 5 or Halo Wars 1 & 2 I made sure to watch a recap video before jumping in to Halo Infinite. I’m glad I did because without doing so, the opening of Infinite would have been even more confusing. It kind of just drops you into the action with little explanation of where you are or why. It does reveal these important things as you progress, but I’d say it’s better to go in prepared, despite seeing some reviews say you can go in entirely blind.

The first few levels of Infinite play out more like the structured, linear levels of past games. But once you clear these you’ll arrive in the semi-open world of Infinite. I say ‘semi-open’ because the map is essentially split between multiple ‘islands’ each of which you’ll unlock and gain access to as you progress through the game.

The islands aren’t massive, which I’m actually quite pleased about. They’re big enough for what they need to be and the game doesn’t flood the player with pointless filler objectives or collectibles. In fact, you can ignore the ‘open’ nature of the game if you prefer and just focus on moving from one main mission to the next. But to do so, I think, will miss what makes Infinite special and how it offers a unique experience compared to previous Halo games.

Halo Infinite is like someone looked at the iconic ‘Halo’ level from the original game and decided it would be neat to make an entire game that reflected that experience. You can traverse the map, rescuing squads of marines, securing operating bases (which act as fast travel points) and destroying enemy installations.

Exploring each island is fun and there’s lots of cool little things to find. And the side content really does reward the player by unlocking new skill points to upgrade your equipment and new weapons and vehicles you can access at each operating base. And I love how, thanks to the grapple shot, you really can go pretty much anywhere you can see. This lets you approach missions in any way that you want.

You might prefer to find a high point and snipe the enemy from above. Or you might prefer to go in fast, using the grapple to stay mobile, swinging and sliding through an enemy facility like you’re playing Titanfall. Or, if you’re heavily outnumbered, you might want to round up some friendly marines from a couple of bases, load them into a warthog and attack in numbers.

Halo has always been a series that has leaned heavily on the ‘sandbox’ nature of combat – no scripted sequences, just pure, physics led chaos directed by the actions of the player and the – as you’d also expect from Halo – clever enemy AI. The gameplay is superb, but I already knew that having sunk a lot of time into the MP beta. The movement, shooting, weapons, vehicles and equipment all combine to create one of the most enjoyable, satisfying and tactical shooters you can play.

Technically, the game could certainly be better – without the not-too noticeable adaptive resolution option, I wouldn’t be able to maintain 60FPS, even on medium settings. And although the game does look good thanks to its colourful and clean art style, it’s not exactly a visual powerhouse that should prove as taxing on my system as it currently does.

I’ve not progressed far enough in the story to comment on that, only to say that the ‘weapon’ is cute as f**k. Oh, and the ‘boss’ fights I’ve had so far have also been pretty fun and much better than similar attempts in previous Halo games. I’ll wrap this post up here because I’m still just getting started with Halo Infinite and it’s a game I want to take my time with. My first impressions are very positive, but don’t expect a final review until early next year.