Is Halo Infinite the best multiplayer shooter available on the market right now?
No. Not when it comes to gunplay, anyway—that is, the feeling of the gun, the never-ending cycle of empowerment and disempowerment, and the more harder-than-it-looks balance that so many shooters crave—between that instant, crisp, punch-feedback delight and Halo’s renownedly slower, big-brain approach. No, it doesn’t exist. I’ve been prying at this game for weeks, trying to find some type of weakness by probing, poking, and peeling away at the edges, but I’ve been unable. It’s flawless in terms of multiplayer shooter gameplay right now. This is indeed the best there is.
The front end, sometimes known as the meta-game, user experience, or whatever term these days is used to describe this kind of menu-based game wrapper, is the sole issue. There are several oddities and peculiar decisions that might taint the normally clear waters of the “golden triangle” in Halo Infinite. Fortunately, however, you can and probably should disregard them in the majority of circumstances.
In case you don’t know, the story and multiplayer in Halo Infinite are essentially two different games. Wesley Yin-Poole of Eurogamer generally like the Halo Infinite campaign, which is a paid-for item that stands alone (though certain items unlock cosmetics in the multiplayer, presumably to encourage players to try both). There is an additional, free multiplayer option. That’s nothing new by today’s standards, coming as it does from a year and a half after Call of Duty Warzone separated from the yearly CoD and many after Fortnite outgrew Fortnite. However, that’s a rather bold first for Halo, a show whose conservatism has largely characterized it in its final years. A motif of little-firsts, mini-revolutions, and minuscule, hardly noticeable adjustments and alterations throughout Halo Infinite. Their un-Haloness is what unites them all; five or ten years ago, the Chief would never have been seen dead with any of them, but today it seems as if they have always been there.
The Assault Rifle, Master Chief’s dependable default weapon, is perhaps the greatest example. While it before looked to only tease victims with its rounds of flapping eyelashes, it now literally roars down on them, each bullet a divine hammer strike. Whether deliberate or not, the impact is an intense sensation of viability. Changing sound design is one thing; it’s been consistently getting better with each 343 Industries Halo, but it reaches a thundering, outstanding peak here in Infinite. Regardless of the level of the game, the AR has always been considered Halo’s swap-out fodder, but Infinite’s sensation of crushing input makes me strangely hesitant. To the best of my knowledge, the damage is essentially unchanged. However, when you combine it with a new, tasty little red cross to confirm the kill, a new, CoD-like ft-ft-ft when you’re landing a hit, and the left-trigger “smart scope” that was controversially added in Halo 5, you get a kind of magical placebo buff. I don’t believe my skill with a weapon has altered, but all of a sudden, I’m oddly adept at wielding it.
It’s also a great illustration of what Halo Infinite really is, since it’s clear that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, which debuted approximately 40 days after Halo 3, was the inspiration for these changes, or at least the game’s catalyst for the more than ten years of shooter trends that have since influenced Halo Infinite. Since 343 took over from Bungie, Halo’s allergy to change felt like a direct, if unconscious, reaction, a stubborn digging in and doubling down on what “real Halo” ought to be. You can’t blame the team for that catch-22, though: stick with old Halo and get left behind, or change too much and be accused of not getting it? While Halo winced at the mere notion of an endless sprint button, Titanfall was effortlessly vaulting over barriers with two jumps. As Halo managed to remove the annoying ADS that wasn’t really an advertisement off the clickable Right Stick and place it on LT, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds was thrilling shooters everywhere with its 100-player combat royale.
Now, for a poetic justice: Halo’s intransigence brought it to its knees, but its exile from the public eye, the general public’s perception, and, quite frankly, the discourse surrounding first-person shooters has allowed it to stage a kind of dramatic comeback, with Infinite emerging from the shadows like a third-act romantic comedy. With every new game, 343 has drawn us all into a discussion over the “essence” and “purpose” of Halo, what makes the game unique, what we ever enjoyed about it in the first place, and if it can still function today, it seems like a game bound to fail. All of a sudden, the series transformed into a playable Ship of Theseus. How many times can you replace outdated weapons with new ones before creating a whole new series?
That tenacity seems to have finally paid off for Halo with Infinite, as the several significant modifications that remain true to the model now feel like audacious affirmations rather than intimidating opposition. Because it is afraid to give in, fearing that it would be seen as “copying” the popular Call of Duty, or because its new studio is perceived as being too committed to the Bungie model, Halo is not a hip-fire game. Halo is a hip-fire game because hip-fire is fantastic, it gives you a sense of legendary strength in your casual demeanor, and you are a Spartan, not some weak little Jackal timidly raising his gun to peer down the sights. After realizing as a franchise that it can do whatever the heck it wants, Halo is now able to stand up and make that assertion.
The remainder of Halo Infinite seems to be a celebration after that; it seems like the game has rediscovering its mission, which is to just make everything feel utterly amazing. Every interaction seems like the boundaries between the game and the brain have been blurred. Halo Infinite is, in many respects, the ideal remaster of the original Halo game; it’s not so much the experience of playing the original game as it is your perception of it after 15 years.
For example, ghosts seem a bit quicker, more nimble, less drifty, and more likely to flip onto their small, grumpy, domed backs if you make a mistake on a curve. Highlights—the real highlights I appear to be obsessed to clipping videos and sharing them with everyone who would watch. There are toys everywhere, super weaponry abound, and there’s the additional bonus of those gorgeous flashing blue canisters that demand to be hurled at a group of enemies—ideally as you fly above them, launched from a launch pad. Everything is so dynamic, so physical. Everything is interconnected. After driving it away, grappling hook that. Leap forward, launch this, spear your opponent, and land with a massive blow to the other. Catching a flying vehicle is just half the enjoyment. The other half is stopping yourself and seeing the unique scientific mayhem below, where cadavers, rockets, and Mongeese are swirling around an object like the planets of an orrery. Half of them are participating.
The act of manipulating physics in motion is quite magical, hence it is truly unfortunate when little irritations with the overlayer arise. The obvious one is the absence of the Slayer playlist, which may really have an impact on how the game is played. Currently, the only options available to you are ranked Big Team Battle and small-sided 4v4 matches. However, within those two playlists, the mode you play in is determined at random. The end effect is a lot of corresponding, “go play Slayer” comments made in the in-game chat, combined with some players—clearly and understandably—playing to rack up kills in modes that demand appropriate cohesive effort towards a goal. There really should only be one split between objective and non-objective playlists, and even though Halo Infinite is likely to have experienced a number of technical difficulties leading up to the year-long delay, there must undoubtedly be a straightforward, practical solution here—not least because it’s a front-end decision that affects the gameplay and one that the series has had for a very long time.
“What Halo Infinite chooses to value is a heavenly satisfaction that makes this series’ old, arcadey soul feel new.”
In general, it also has a little thinness to it. Again, there aren’t many modes in the two playlists and there are just a few excellent maps when the game first launches. I miss the crazy things, the shotty snipers, the strangely eerie Infection, and the 4 a.m. Grifball sessions. Without a doubt, some will miss the PvE Firefight. Because of the diversity and spooky atmosphere that the Forge World maps added to the game, I miss them more than I ever imagined. Without a doubt, I miss SWAT.
Some of them will be available in some capacity after launch, but not before the end of the year, based on a tweet from a 343 developer. Halo Infinite has that concept throughout both the campaign and the single-player, and it’s unfortunate that even after such a long wait, there is still a sense of anticipation for what is still to come. There should be a clear option to play an objective mode or not upon start.
There is a combat pass in the end. Because Halo Infinite is entirely free to play and the pass has no effect on the game’s functionality, this is how the game is funded, making it a necessary evil. Even with the beta’s adjustments, the advancement is still tedious and sluggish. However, the main issue with battle passes isn’t how quickly you can complete them; rather, it’s that they make you feel pressured to do them all. Halo Infinite is by no means the worst example of engagement bait; yet, it’s a depressing technique that’s often used. By treating gaming as a means to a goal and creating a form of quasi-addiction, additional objectives that create a drive to play more take the focus off of the actual gameplay experience and its inherent worth and feeling of pleasure. It’s awful.
You may choose to disregard it at the same moment. I’ve played this way and I think I will play this way forever since it’s such an amazing feeling (also, I simply want to paint my Spartan a burnt orange color, which I can already do without the pass). This is the purpose of Halo Infinite once again, and it is also the recently rediscovered objective of Halo. You can choose to simply ignore outside influences, to disregard the feeling of “giving in” that may have arisen when Halo introduced a sprint, when gameplay appeared to be faster (even if it isn’t), when players felt a stronger desire to resume action immediately after dying, and when vehicles and power weapons appeared out of nowhere, akin to the killstreaks in Call of Duty or the loot crates in a battle royale. It vital that you be free to decide what values are important to you. Halo Infinite values a heavenly delight that breathes fresh life into the franchise’ ancient, arcade-style spirit. That’s also what I’ve decided to cherish.