The Halo series, from the jump, is a series that is known for creating the illusion of large open spaces for the player to explore, especially through the various levels of the game that combine large driving sequences with areas where the player has to get out and plunge into various Forerunner or Covenant facilities. So, by all rights, Halo Infinite just going full Open World game should be the right call, right? Right?
The core fundamental problem with Halo Infinite as an Open World game, compared with the other titles in the series is that the earlier titles created the illusion of being a larger open space – they did an excellent job of creating channels for the player to go into, with places where the route branches to allow for different playstyles, while having those routes come back together at similar key points along the track. On the other hand, the wide open areas in Halo Infinite’s Early game feel more directionless, in ways that also make them feel like they’d be rather frustrating to play co-op (another of the Halo series’ long-running strengths).
This is also all aggravated with some of the issues with the game’s story. Halo 5 wrapped on a really strong cliffhanger. Cortana had gotten a bunch of the various AIs that the UNSC had depended on for years to bond together and revolt against humanity, while also taking on the Covenant and the new faction of the Banished. By the conclusion of Halo 5, some AI, like the shipboard AI of the Infinity, were still loyal, but Humanity, and the Covenant themselves, were now on the ropes, and Cortana had taken control of a Halo Ring, and was busting out some familiar humming that would be disconcerting to long time fans of the series.
By the start of Halo Infinite, it feels like instead it’s all over but the crying. We open with the Banished storming the Infinite, beating Master Chief and tossing him out of a docking bay, the ship being consumed in flames, while on the other hand, the Halo ring that Cortana had taken over has had a big chunk blown out of it, and Cortana herself is dead. We have no sense of how we got here, or what trials and tribulations it took to come to this point. Additionally, many of the supporting characters who have been introduced in past games, and played a major role in 5, like Halsey, like Spartan Jameson Locke and his team, like Captain Laskey, are missing with no information on their ultimate fate.
Halo 4 & 5 had an interesting plot, with Cortana’s rampancy and apparent demise in 4, leading to her re-appearance and change to seeming villainy in Halo 5, with the question lying on where she’d go next. Would 343 Industries use her as an analog of Durandal from the Marathon games, as a character who is revealed to ultimately be something of a manipulative antihero whose acts are planned as a long-game method of saving humanity? No – she instead does some truly villainous stuff mostly off-camera, before half-getting killed, half-committing suicide before the start of the game, with a cutscene at the end attempting provide our emotional closure.
It’s ultimately very disappointing in terms of the game’s story, and a little disappointing in terms of the game’s play. I honestly would have preferred a game that fit the archetypes of the earlier Halo titles – the introduction of 4-player co-op with AI-controlled teammates to allow for drop-in-drop-out co-op in Halo 5 was an excellent idea, and I’d hoped they were going to run with the concept here, but they didn’t, presumably because they couldn’t get the AI Spartan team-mates to work in the planned open-world environments.
It makes for a game where I want to like it more than I do. I do like the Halo series a lot, especially for its story, and what we got doesn’t quite cut it. It’s very much a bummer.
Halo Infinite is currently available through GamePass (Affiliate Link).
