In my effort to write nothing but positive articles on Thanksgiving morning here, I want to circle back to a game I have been roasting pretty hard this past week, Halo Infinite.
I’ve been concentrated on its battle pass system, which requires challenges and challenges only to make progress, which has now led into a live event using a somehow worse version of that same system. But every time I write about Halo’s flaws, I always make sure to emphasize a main point:
This game is just so fundamentally fun.
I lay into progression because it’s the only thing holding the game back from being one of the best shooter debuts in a decade. And in terms of only gameplay, it’s certainly in that category. 343 has been refining their own, non-Bungie version of Halo for a generation now. Halo 4 was way off, veering too close to Call of Duty. Halo 5 had many steps in the right direction. But Halo Infinite? It’s easily the best-feeling Halo multiplayer experience since Halo 3, meaning it’s better than Bungie’s own Reach, if you ask most players.
In general, Halo has recaptured a kind of wacky fun that has been missing from this genre for a long while now, yet simultaneously has managed to produce a pretty competitive shooter at the same time with a solid ranked system and support for a real esports push this time around.
This time, what’s been added to the game has done nothing but benefit it. We have fun, physics-based additions like the grappling hook and repulsor, which can latch onto vehicles or Spartans, or blow them away respectively, both of which produce hilarious results.
Gunplay feels great this time around, and out of a massive host of weapons, only a few feel undertuned right now, which can be remedied. The gameplay itself has its hooks into you almost immediately, and the sensation of “just one more game” is never-ending.
Is it perfect? There are a few areas that could use more polish. Hit registration on melee. There’s plenty of grenade spam, the eternal holy grail of Halo issues. But this is easily this finest iteration of multiplayer we have seen from the series since 2007, and 343’s finest work yet. And as someone with early access to the campaign, I can report that those same mechanics translate wonderfully to fighting AI opponents in fun and creative ways too.
This is why I have such a bug about progression. If there’s anything that isn’t fun during matches, it’s the fact that these challenges are always rooted in your mind, and you’re tempted to forgo the objective to pursue some dumb thing you’re supposed to do (capture the flag? Sorry, I need five Ghost kills). And if you complete a whole match, even if you play well, it can often feel like a let down with the end screen shows you have gained exactly 50 XP because you weren’t challenge-focused enough. This is why it needs to change, and why XP being rooted in performance and objective completion seems like the obvious change. Challenges and progression systems should work with the fun of a game, not against it. And Halo is very, very fun.
I am deeply impressed with what 343 has done here. Battle passes can be fixed, but getting a polished, balanced multiplayer experience out is a herculean task, and they have 98% nailed it here with Infinite. Job well done.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and its audiobook, and The Earthborn Trilogy, also on audiobook.
