I can’t remember how many years since the last Halo game I played, or which game it was. None of those vague memories match how great Halo Infinite is. It recaptures some of the magic from Halo Combat Evolved from 20 years ago. It’s great to see Halo do open world well, while still retaining the feel of a true Halo game.
Halo Infinite Graphics are Better than the Trailers
Like most people last year, I was not impressed with the Halo Infinite gameplay reveal trailer. Sure the Halo ring was open world now, but the graphics were dated. It was especially apparent in a time where ray tracing appeared in more and more games.
It was almost a last generation Halo look. The fact it took a whole year delay before release confirmed that initial trailer was rushed. That’s the bad news. The good news is Halo Infinite looks very good. There’s no ray tracing, but the lighting and effects are much improved. It includes full ultrawide screen monitor support in game, menus and cutscenes. Nothing better than those vistas on an ultrawide at 1440p.
The graphics are not as impressive as the ray traced goodness of Cyberpunk, but it is next gen and ray tracing is coming to Halo later. After my fond memories of Halo Combat Evolved, it was a real treat to see the next gen vistas of the Zeta Halo ring.
The Great Sound Quality Surprised Me
I usually don’t notice the sound of a game, unless there’s a problem. Halo Infinite’s sound quality and content is impressive. Right from the jump, the Halo theme song brought me back to the Halo Combat Evolved days. It set the mood and brought back all those great memories of that first playthrough a Halo game.
The classic sounds of shields recharging, energy blasts, gun shots and more, are familiar, but with noticeable pop. There’s definitely good balance, but definite bass boost. Forza Horizon won the TGA award for sound, so I wonder if they lent a hand to the Halo team. Sounds are that good.
Quality of sounds is great, but the content is even better. There’s a whole community of streamers creating videos of the Banished Grunts (the little guys you shoot at). Grunts have an insane amount of recorded lines of funny banter and one-liners. They are hilarious and improve the game.
Halo Infinite Gameplay is Familiar, but a Lot More Fun
The gameplay is great fun. Some worried about the open world move for Halo Infinite, but it enhances the experience. Sure there are some icons cluttering the map like a Ubisoft game, but it’s fun and is very much a Halo feeling game.
Gunplay feels good, but the grappling hook is a true game changer. With the open world and elevation changes, it’s a great tool to get around quickly or evade. It’s also satisfying to grapple enemies before punching them in the face or grabbing fuel containers to throw.
Capturing FOBs (Forward Operating Bases) is satisfying and important to enhance the fun. After capturing the FOB, soldier can spawn there and equipment is available for air drop. I’ve unlocked the warthog and love gathering some of those troops to go stomp the Banished grunts.
Soldier AI is good enough to gather the best weapons in the area to fight. Nothing like rolling around in a Warthog with a soldier on the gun turret and another soldier riding shotgun with a rocket launcher. I’ve spent hours on the activities outside of the main campaign story, but barely scratched the surface.
I’m really looking forward to playing it for hours, but first I need to finish Far Cry 6 which is also a lot of fun now before I go down the Halo rabbit hole.