Halo Infinite | Review Thread

[Sealord of Braavos]

Just woke up here on the West Coast to see the review consensus. Pretty much how I expected it it to be. Well, my official prediction was an 85 Meta. Given the circumstances around Halo Infinite's development an 87 is an EXCELLENT SCORE.

Now I need to decide how many reviews I'm going to allow myself to read. Can't wait to play this Wednesday.

Saw that Youtuber extraordinare Rand al Thor had extremely high praise for it, saying it might be his personal GOTY. That's probably all I need to know.

 

[UltimateHigh]

shame about the story complaints. it sounds like it ends right when it gets more interesting narratively.

 

[nihilence]

If this was supposed to be an Xbox one game, what would we be waiting for now?

 

[Ocarina_117]

So is this still a case of the game being a platform for expansions to drop?

Or will we see subsequent sequels?

 

[The Main Event]

Great score. Looking forward to see how it stacks up against the OG trilogy.

 

[Guerrilla]

I thought the game could crack the 90+MC, but good scores anyway.

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Me too, but I think Halo just might never again be able to crack that 90, no matter how good it is. Expectations for Halo are just so different for so many people and some people might never get the appeal of the "30 seconds of fun". Also, no matter how bad one game in the series was (Halo5 wasn't "bad" but certainly not at the franchises peak) The expectations for a new halo are always at absolutely insane levels not matched by the vast majority of games.

 

[Scottoest]

decent? Is that what halo 5 revisionist say now? At the end of the day it's a AAA game on the 7-10 review scale

I love the franchise but 5 was embarrassing

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The story sucks, and it's not a particularly great HALO game. As a sci-fi FPS? It's hardly "embarrassing". The combat and level designs are good-to-fine by their own merits, and the multiplayer suite was very good. There wasn't some collective global delusion going on when reviewers saw fit to give it scores in the 80s.

The people who tend to think it's the shittiest garbage ever are Halo fans, who only see it by their criteria of what a good Halo game is. I think it's the worst Halo campaign personally, and it's not close. But for someone less invested in the franchise and without the baggage of those expectations, it was largely just another pretty good sci-fi shooter to them that came and went. Halo deserved more than that, but the game was... fine.

 

[LhommeCornichon]

I can't stand the hype, even though I have alot of games to play I can only think about Halo, reinstalling MCC right now trying to marathon the series fast !

 

[onibirdo]

No, but the story starts in medias res and fills in a lot as you go along. Some of the terms thrown around might be confusing, but nothing old's really relevant to the plot except for Cortana's rebellion and what a Halo is, and those get explained.

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Good to hear, thanks.

I started watching the Halo story recap by IGN but gave up half way scratching my head.
Just point me at the guys I need to shoot thankyouverymuch.

 

[Banamy]

Me too, but I think Halo just might never again be able to crack that 90, no matter how good it is. Expectations for Halo are just so different for so many people and some people might never get the appeal of the "30 seconds of fun". Also, no matter how bad one game in the series was (Halo5 wasn't "bad" but certainly not at the franchises peak) The expectations for a new halo are always at absolutely insane levels not matched by the vast majority of games.

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To be fair, hitting 90 for an fps is extremely difficult in modern gaming. I can't even remember the last FPS to hit 90.

 

[MadScientist]

I've had no issues with gamepass PC and the latest xbox pc app is actually great. Give it a go

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This thread has me worried about currently using the xbox pc app: https://www.resetera.com/threads/xb...e-folders-freely-and-mod-games.512874/page-13

 

[TooBusyLookinGud]

Great scores but I don't want to read the reviews. Have they stated how long it is?

Edit: 12+ hours.

This thread has me worried about currently using the xbox pc app: https://www.resetera.com/threads/xb...e-folders-freely-and-mod-games.512874/page-13

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I use the GP on PC often and I haven't had any issues. Just remember to leverage the Windows Store app if you have issues because it's the main driver for the GP app. Never install anything on the drive your OS is on. That goes for everything and not just games.

 

[Nintenleo]

Me too, but I think Halo just might never again be able to crack that 90, no matter how good it is. Expectations for Halo are just so different for so many people and some people might never get the appeal of the "30 seconds of fun". Also, no matter how bad one game in the series was (Halo5 wasn't "bad" but certainly not at the franchises peak) The expectations for a new halo are always at absolutely insane levels not matched by the vast majority of games.

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In this case, I think it was mostly held back by the absence of campaign co-op. Gameplay-wise this game is getting universal acclaim.

 

[Dancrane212]

12+hours for quick normal run with just main missions
aprox 25h for 80% completion on normal
approx 30+h for 65% completion on heroic

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Oh lordy. I'd been keeping my head down when it comes to campaign coverage since the reveal last year—I assumed we were getting 12 hours at most. So much for the holiday vacation taking down 2-3 games off the backlog haha.

 

[Septy]

To be fair, hitting 90 for an fps is extremely difficult in modern gaming. I can't even remember the last FPS to hit 90.

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Last one was Overwatch I think.

 

[Skywalker333]

Oh lordy. I'd been keeping my head down when it comes to campaign coverage since the reveal last year—I assumed we were getting 12 hours at most. So much for the holiday vacation taking down 2-3 games off the backlog haha.

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to be honest, seeing what other colleagues said, I might be one of the slowest ones :P
i tend to play very methodically and busying around so I assume someone who is more target oriented will finish it a fair bit faster.
But in my eyes, its at least double the size than any of the older ones.

 

[ExhaustedWalrus]

I never played Halo 5. Should I play that one beforehand or is it not that important? I know we don't know plot details but I completely forgot what happened in 4, I only played it when it released.

 

[Mr.Deadshot]

To be fair, hitting 90 for an fps is extremely difficult in modern gaming. I can't even remember the last FPS to hit 90.

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Half-Life: Alyx is sitting at 93 Metascore.

It is not more difficult than any other genre. It feels more like no one is seriously trying. Halo is the first big AAA FPS in a while that isn't another COD/Battlefield/FarCry ... These franchise just feel way too familiar to really shake up things.

Both Deathloop and DUSK were close enough though. But probably a bit too niche, in the end, to really breakthrough.

 

[Blue Ninja]

to be honest, seeing what other colleagues said, I might be one of the slowest ones :P
i tend to play very methodically and busying around so I assume someone who is more target oriented will finish it a fair bit faster.
But in my eyes, its at least double the size than any of the older ones.

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I'm more of a guns-blazing, improvise-adapt-overcome player, so that probably shaved off a lot of my game time. I only bothered getting power weapons and vehicles for the final mission and a few of the HVT's.

I never played Halo 5. Should I play that one beforehand or is it not that important? I know we don't know plot details but I completely forgot what happened in 4, I only played it when it released.

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Part of Halo 5's plot is pretty important, but they do cover most of what happened as you're playing. If you don't remember 4, just playing 5 won't help much. :lol

 

[jem]

decent? Is that what halo 5 revisionist say now? At the end of the day it's a AAA game on the 7-10 review scale

I love the franchise but 5 was embarrassing

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Halo 5 had a messy story but it still played very well and the MP was superb. It absolutely deserved the review scores it got.

 

[Anno]

To be fair, hitting 90 for an fps is extremely difficult in modern gaming. I can't even remember the last FPS to hit 90.

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Half Life: Alyx did last year.

 

[MadScientist]

Great scores but I don't want to read the reviews. Have they stated how long it is?

Edit: 12+ hours.

I use the GP on PC often and I haven't had any issues. Just remember to leverage the Windows Store app if you have issues because it's the main driver for the GP app. Never install anything on the drive your OS is on. That goes for everything and not just games.

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Thanks. My OS is on my 1TB NVME and that's where I would prefer to play my games, on the fast SSD. I know many haven't had issues with GP on PC, but when you read that thread it makes me want to stay far away from it until it's fixed...

 

[Prine]

I never played Halo 5. Should I play that one beforehand or is it not that important? I know we don't know plot details but I completely forgot what happened in 4, I only played it when it released.

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Avoid 5 imo, watch the cliff notes and go straight into Infinite.

 

[Zor]

The story sucks, and it's not a particularly great HALO game. As a sci-fi FPS? It's hardly "embarrassing". The combat and level designs are good-to-fine by their own merits, and the multiplayer suite was very good. There wasn't some collective global delusion going on when reviewers saw fit to give it scores in the 80s.

The people who tend to think it's the shittiest garbage ever are Halo fans, who only see it by their criteria of what a good Halo game is. I think it's the worst Halo campaign personally, and it's not close. But for someone less invested in the franchise and without the baggage of those expectations, it was largely just another pretty good sci-fi shooter to them that came and went. Halo deserved more than that, but the game was... fine.

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Yeah, all of this basically. I too think it's the worst Halo campaign, but a good shooter on its own. The stuff it fumbles with character and story are a real shame as a lifelong fan of the franchise, but the moment to moment gameplay is legit fun.

It's amazing how there's seemingly rarely any nuance with this stuff...

 

[Deleted member 22750]

Gotta love hostile posts. I guess thats the nature of review threads. :D

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Did you play the game?

 

[SasaBassa]

Looking forward to getting more time with this. Quite the turnaround from its reveal.

 

[Snake Eater]

Is heroic difficulty still the "meant to be played" difficultly like it was for the Bungie games?

 

[Prine]

Half Life: Alyx did last year.

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Thats a VR game with dedicated hardware and controls, not an experience to compare to I'd say, prior to that was Overwatch.

 

[asmith906]

Glad it's getting good scores. I've got my preload started.


Can't wait.

 

[kmfdmpig]

The Giantbomb review is spectacular (but not because it's a Halo review).

I think has finally convinced me to figure out the cheapest way to get GamePass. I have a 10+ year old computer and no XBox capable of doing GamePass. What are my options here? Anyone done that analysis yet? I'm betting it's getting an older Xbox? Don't know if I have it in me to build another computer again (both for time, and money reasons).

Also, Good job 343. Hopefully you guys get some rest.

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It doesn't work out to the cheapest over the course of years but if you mean cheapest in the short-term then All-Access might be worth looking into. It's basically a subscription that nets you a console and Gamepass.

 

[AndrewGPK]

Half Life: Alyx did last year.

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How many total reviews did HL:A get versus a typical AAA FPS? I know for a lot that played it, it was their GOTY, but fewer have played it.

 

[idioteque]

I mean it has a considerably better rating than BF2042 and COD:Vanguard.

I genuinely didn't think I'd be saying that a year ago.

 

[Irrotational]

I thought the game could crack the 90+MC, but good scores anyway.

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Me too - i'm weirdly dissappointed with an 87 even though it's got nothing to do with me and isn't going to change the game or how i play it and how much i personally enjoy it.

The psychological impact of numbers is weird...

 

[Scottoest]

Yeah, all of this basically. I too think it's the worst Halo campaign, but a good shooter on its own. The stuff it fumbles with character and story are a real shame as a lifelong fan of the franchise, but the moment to moment gameplay is legit fun.

It's amazing how there's seemingly rarely any nuance with this stuff...

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I think the decline of Halo's popularity at the time, six long years with no game to change the narrative, and the internet... being the internet... is what led to the spiraling hyperbole about how it's an embarrassing software trash fire, and not just a decent-but-very-flawed sci-fi shooter that wasn't what Halo fans were really looking for by and large.

 

[J_ToSaveTheDay]

Not gonna lie, this looks kind of like a dream game to me. Expanding the wide-linear old sections to an even wider space with dips into more linear structures from time to time, with Halo's signature feel of guns and enemy AI sprinkled throughout.

I do hope it receives some technical updates as after watching the DF video, it feels like this game isn't quite maximizing its technical potential. Wanna see some of the weird animation refresh async get addressed, and maybe implement some long-distance shadow detail back into the world. None of this is enough to kill any of my hype as the game's design just looks very, very fun and appealing, but it would be nice to get this looking even better with further development on Series X.

 

[DarthWalden]

That Giant Bomb review is really funny and interesting to me.

It's like barely a review of the game at all and more just an op-ed of the state of the industry how a big tentpole title is launching into gamepass and whether reviews even matter now because people can just play it for basically nothing and make their own opinion.

 

[chrominance]

Possibly a really stupid question: do any reviews talk about how the game plays with mouse and keyboard? I'm not terribly concerned or anything but it would be nice to play this on PC and I realized I haven't played a Halo on PC since the original Combat Evolved back in the day. I was kind of expecting to see something in the PC Gamer review at least but didn't see anything obvious.

Maybe I'll just find out for myself at some point; in theory I still have to play Halo 5 (which sounds pretty much mandatory), which I'll have to do on Xbox, and Halo 2 (probably not as important), which I assume will give me a decent idea of how M/KB feels.

 

[Shrennin]

Just noticed that DOOM Eternal and Halo Infinite have very close scores actually.

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Which I think shows the quality of Infinite. I'm glad for 343 :D

Is heroic difficulty still the "meant to be played" difficultly like it was for the Bungie games?

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So even for 343 games this was the case, until Infinite. With Infinite, normal is the mode that's "meant to be played" or rather that the game is tuned for.

 

[Arn]

Half-Life: Alyx is sitting at 93 Metascore.

It is not more difficult than any other genre. It feels more like no one is seriously trying. Halo is the first big AAA FPS in a while that isn't another COD/Battlefield/FarCry ... These franchise just feel way too familiar to really shake up things.

Both Deathloop and DUSK were close enough though. But probably a bit too niche, in the end, to really breakthrough.

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If the only example that can be used is a platform-defining game built entirely for high-end hardware then I think it kind of proves the point.

There's enough variety and quality in the space, with the likes of Deathloop, Doom & Eternal and Prey, but since the start of last generation it feels increasingly difficult for the genre to top 90 across an average review score. I think the generation before it was much easier to hit that target. Even Bioshock Infinite is sat on 96 on Metacritic.

 

[vixolus]

Possibly a really stupid question: do any reviews talk about how the game plays with mouse and keyboard? I'm not terribly concerned or anything but it would be nice to play this on PC and I realized I haven't played a Halo on PC since the original Combat Evolved back in the day. I was kind of expecting to see something in the PC Gamer review at least but didn't see anything obvious.

Maybe I'll just find out for myself at some point; in theory I still have to play Halo 5 (which sounds pretty much mandatory), which I'll have to do on Xbox, and Halo 2 (probably not as important), which I assume will give me a decent idea of how M/KB feels.

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Feels great on mkb

 

[Neverx]

87 is great, can't wait to play

 

[Odesu]

Is heroic difficulty still the "meant to be played" difficultly like it was for the Bungie games?

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The game is largely pretty easy on heroic with some HUGE difficulty spikes. I was way, way more frustrated at points on heroic than I ever was in any other halo game. Would honestly advice to start on normal for a first playthrough.

 

[Qudi]

Did you play the game?

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The game is not perfect as the scores and reviews suggests. Some could be minor or major depending on the person and if you can overlook them or not. As i said im going off the review by Robin from Hooked because his opinion on the Halo franchise is inline with my expierence of the past games. You are free to agree or disagree and explain why im wrong. But i dont expect a serious respond from someone who uses "yikes" .

Possibly a really stupid question: do any reviews talk about how the game plays with mouse and keyboard? I'm not terribly concerned or anything but it would be nice to play this on PC and I realized I haven't played a Halo on PC since the original Combat Evolved back in the day. I was kind of expecting to see something in the PC Gamer review at least but didn't see anything obvious.

Maybe I'll just find out for myself at some point; in theory I still have to play Halo 5 (which sounds pretty much mandatory), which I'll have to do on Xbox, and Halo 2 (probably not as important), which I assume will give me a decent idea of how M/KB feels.

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review codes were only for xbox consoles iirc
BUT u can simply try out the free multiplayer experience. Basically the same gadets, weapons and movesets. Imo Halo never felt better on PC than in Infinite.

 

[Garrett 2U]

That is a really good score, considering the delayed features and multiplayer controversies. The multiplayer gameplay is amazing, I am looking forward to the campaign! This is so exciting as a Halo fan.

 

[Anno]

Thats a VR game with dedicated hardware and controls, not an experience to compare to I'd say, prior to that was Overwatch.

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Ok? I just think that's the kind of separation it's going to take to get 90+ on a shooter.

How many total reviews did HL:A get versus a typical AAA FPS? I know for a lot that played it, it was their GOTY, but fewer have played it.

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Fewer than most, for sure. But enough that I think it's representative. Currently 74 on OC.

 

[tapedeck]

I think I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and get a storage expansion card…there is THAT much stuff I'm currently playing on Series X that I don't want to put on a usb hard disk..and it's only gonna get worse in a few months.

 

[DanielG123]

Looks like 343 fucking nailed it with the campaign. I mean, they already did with Halo 4's, imo, but after everything that's happened with Infinite, and the fiasco with Halo 5's story, this is nothing but great news. Amazing job, everyone at 343; I can't wait to jump back into the boots of Chief on Wednesday.

 

[Kittenz]

To be fair, hitting 90 for an fps is extremely difficult in modern gaming. I can't even remember the last FPS to hit 90.

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If I'm not mistaken, Doom Eternal and Apex Legends are the only new FPS to score as well since Overwatch in 2016, and neither broke 90.

It's almost impossible for an FPS to hit 90+ for whatever reason. In fact, in the past 20 years, there's only about 40 or so according to Metacritic that have hit 90+ as new titles, and they're almost all from 5 franchises: Halo, Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Half-Life and Bioshock. Throw in Metroid Prime, Overwatch and that's about it. And virtually all of them are 360/PS3 gen or earlier.

I mean, this whole year, only 3 brand new games total hit 90, iirc: Psychonauts, Forza Horizon 5, and Chicory.

Any Halo fans disappointed in high 80s maybe have their expectations set a bit unrealistically.

 

[dudu0609]

I always respect the reviewers' opinions/takes on games which I look forward to, even they are hot takes.
But the review from Ars Technica really surprised me.
How come that reviewer concluded Halo Infinite is a fine rental or just a 1month game pass game???!!!
And I have read the review twice. It made me feel the guy played a total different game.

 

[Yerffej]

That Giant Bomb review is really funny and interesting to me.

It's like barely a review of the game at all and more just an op-ed of the state of the industry how a big tentpole title is launching into gamepass and whether reviews even matter now because people can just play it for basically nothing and make their own opinion.

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When they haven't done a review in over a year, it's probably worth addressing from his end. I agree with him overall. In the traditional sense, I find them a relic of a bygone era. He's spot on in that anyone who clicked on his "review" already knew whether they wanted to give the game a shot.