Halo Infinite Deep Dive | 1. Spartans, Pilots And Weapons
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- čas přidán 4. 07. 2024
- It’s been nearly three months since 343 Industries' Halo Infinite released on PC and Xbox, and to this very day, I’ve struggled to decide what I actually think of it.
Is Master Chief's latest adventure good? Is it bad? Or is Halo Infinite's campaign slap bang in the middle?
Honestly, I think an argument could be made for all three - which is why I’ve decided to put together a series of videos examining Halo Infinite’s campaign in detail from beginning to end, the first of which covers the game's opening, as well as the missions Warship Gbraakon and Foundation.
In this video, I analyse everything from Halo Infinite's level design and gameplay to its story, setting and soundtrack, while also drawing comparisons to missions from other games in the series, including Halo Combat Evolved and Halo 5.
If you enjoy the video, do consider subscribing, and thanks for watching!
#Halo #HaloInfinite #343Industries
Contents:
00:00 - Intro
00:56 - A Cinematic Opening
02:44 - 216 Meet Master Chief
05:35 - Storming The Gbraakon
11:12 - Brief Interludes
12:38 - Forerunner Foundations
15:09 - Cortana Done Dirty
19:13 - Cylixes, Bosses And Foreshadowing - Hry
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The first script I wrote covering the entire game would have made a 20-minute long video if I'd gone ahead with it. May have initially underestimated things a little...
They really had a chance to make the Brute leader more interesting in a you never know who will replace a dispatched leader, they could be way worse. That was never really fleshed out though.
Something I have learned from playing the games; 343 seems to love the expanded lore and wants to have lots of references and moments for fans but as consequence they kinda expect the fans to know the entire lore just to know the context; 5 was particularly bad at this and infinite does it some
You're spot on Macaroon, there's some really weird choices in terms of what we're told/not told during Infinite. It's confusing enough at time for fans of the series, so I can't imagine how more casual players with felt at times!
@@BenPlaysGames here’s hoping they find a middle ground at some point that doesn’t require reading external material
I just wish I liked 343s expanded more. I don’t.. at all
@@tylerasweet they tend to try and pay respect to bungee expanded lore in my opinion
@@BenPlaysGames they never told many of the plot holes in the books.
Not too far in the video, but I understood the scene with the recording of Echo 216's family was simply to show the passage of time and his main motivation for getting home. I don't think his family is meant to be any more than a motivational factor for his character and the (totally not rushed) growth he has as a character.
Yeah it’s a pretty standard plot device. They didn’t need to be brought up multiple times throughout the campaign to drive the point across
Who else just loves the piano bit after Echo 216 wipes the dew off the windshield at 3:37, I freaking get goosebumps!
I don't think the family was ever meant to be a big deal in the story as much as it was to make clear to the player why the pilot keeps wanting to go home so badly
yeah i dont see any issue with that scene at all
It just seems so half baked considering they're introduced basically at the same time as he is and then the next time you hear him mention them is way into the campaign, when he basically says "yeh they're not about anymore". There's a few parts of Infinite's story that I think lack depth and, for me, Echo 216's family is definitely one of them.
The Cylix in Foundation is definitely a flood infection form. I saw someone else covering this (I think maybe HiddenXperia?) and they wondering if it was maybe a new species or an alternate form of the endless. But the Harbinger's cylix is orange, so it probably means any other Endless would be in orange cylixes (unless orange means open). Off the top of my head, I can't remember what colour the cylixes were in the ending cutscene. This cylix being an infection form definitely explains why it is being kept the way it is, the best hypothesis (again, from that same video) is that Zeta Halo/Mendicant Bias/Adjutant Resolution/Despondent Pyre/etc are scanning the cylix constantly to monitor any potential breaches so they can either act immediately based on the scanner alerting them of the breach, or maybe the scanner has some kind of damaging effect to anyone that steps through. But yeah, definitely infection form. I hope we get DLC, something that deals with the flood would be great
I came to the same conclusion as you re the Endless cylix, Jodie - assumed they were a different colour compared to others. And yes bloody please to Flood DLC, it's been ages since we last saw them and I miss them terribly!
it really bothers me that everything happened 6 months ago, like oh yeah that whole cortana created uprise thing, yeah thats done now you just missed it all cause you were sleeping in space cheif....
also hugeee miss with jega, i got so excited when they said "follow him, from a distance" where was he invasble miles away with binoculars??? imagine being stalked by an ex silent shadow member, that would be so cool
Also... Fucking power seeds... I don't think I have to say more...
It's mad that the detail they do go into is added towards the end of the game - surely it's information you want to share up front. Love the Jega idea too, the Halo Infinite version of Nemesis!
Also his fight was totally rushed. The other main boss fights all had their own mini campaigns before the fight but unfortunately the blade master was crammed in before facing the big fight with esharum
@@BenPlaysGames im so mad Jega was rushed, i wanted to see him in open world. from a distance; standing in front of those Forerunner artifacts w a blue circle; looks kinda like a StarGate
It's really hard to describe this game's campaign. Like i sometimes think it's good, not amazing but the best since Halo 3. But it feels like a downgrade from the Halo 5 campaign. For example the variation of environments and the pure repetitiveness of the missions especially the interior ones. The story was good i guess. But i hope they improve the game via DLCs.
I think the gameplay being as good as it is saves the game honestly, as it does so much of the heavy lifting. If the campaign remained as it is now but the gameplay was also a let down, I think the game would have been a bit of a disaster.
Explain how the story was good please I hear that from everyone but I disagree in fact as far as narrative goes there was almost none, all the cutscenes were pan around shots of them talking with the only good part about it being fun to play but that’s also the only good thing about multiplayer too. I think this might be the worst halo and everyday that passes with the game in this state will Remove the nostalgia goggles some folk still have to see the game for what it really offers
@@TheSettttth bro the amount of times I’ve heard “worse halo game ever! REEEE!” When a halo game comes out, is sad.
You motherfuckers did this with reach.. FUCKING REACH!
@@beholden84 rightfully so
@@beholden84 I never understand the reach criticism. It’s amazing
I think 343 was going for a sense of mystery but instead wound up confusing players and delivering a half-baked story
It could have all been so easily avoided too - just spend a few minutes at the start filling people in or tying up loose ends and then crack on with telling a new story. As it is, you get this weird combination of the start of a new story (Banished/Endless) which is held back by the need to finish things up with Cortana, so you end up with a story that's constantly pulling in two different directions right up until the game ends.
They seemed to be going for what ce absolutely nailed.
@@BenPlaysGames Can I also say I'm not a big fan of delivering 95% of important plot elements via holograms?
I don't think the story was ever going to be a particularly good one regardless of how it was explained or explored. It's a very character based story, there's no world building. As such the story falls flat as it's more an emotional one rather than the world throwing obstacles at Chief for him to overcome.
I liked Halo Infinite in general but I'm confused (and slightly disappointed) about one thing : who is leading the UNSC on Zeta Halo ? What happened to Palmer or Lasky ? It seems like the UNSC now operates without any chain of command. It make no sense why Lasky is being relegates to audio logs when he should have been down on Zeta Halo coordinating an effective resistance.
Lasky is the best character 343 has brought to Halo and yet they have sidelined him since 2012! He's the only likeable character in 4 if you don't count Chief and Cortana.
This is something I'll cover during the open world part of the series - the reliance on audio logs is crazy honestly, especially considering how disconnected the story we do witness already feels.
@@BenPlaysGames Spartan Kovan has the woodland green camo Armor; looks soo good on my MP Spartan
I enjoyed Halo Infinite’s campaign. I don’t think it’s better than any of Bungie’s campaigns but for all its flaws it’s fun.
That's about how I feel too
You deserve more views on these man this series is very well made.
Cheers Dane! I also promise to finish it soon, only managed to get halfway through so far 🙈
great video bro. I was waiting for this one
Thanks Joe - more on the way this week too!
That Cylix is indeed a Flood infection form.
That's what I thought - it's either that or a Mass Effect reaper. Now, that's a crossover I'd pay to see.
@@BenPlaysGames I've never actually played Mass Effect. Is it something that you'd recommend?
@@BenPlaysGames Gravemind vs Sovereign's speech. Who did it better?? haha
@@Aaron-Fife he’s done videos on it. But I’d strongly recommend you play the trilogy it’s truly a masterpiece in story telling
@@Aaron-Fife Definitely play 1-3, they are a masterpiece in storytelling, world building and relationships.
Great video. You deserve more views and subs
Thanks Thorvald, appreciate you taking the time to check the video out mate!
@@BenPlaysGames i watch all your videos dude. Great insights as always
Cant wait till pt 2
This may be random, but I really enjoy your content and find it insane that you don’t have more subscribers. Keep up the great work! Cheers from Houston Texas
This game needed the opening to be at Reach recovering part of Halsey’s brain while fighting the banished. Atriox gets alerted and you get some time seeing him command them on Reach. After narrowly escaping, you go to Zeta Halo, deliver “the weapon” and then the opening cinematic hits, but you actually play the level. Allowing some of your allies to escape. Then you get tossed off the ship. Then Halo: Infinite.
Infinite really should have had the infinity be the opening mission. You fight your way to the hanger, then have Atriox as an unbeatable boss at the end, but instead of Atriox just tossing Chief out the window, instead an explosion or something should have flung Chief away instead right before Atriox can deal the decisive blow. It would have kept in the theme of Chiefs luck being a big factor in his success, plus it wouldn’t have made Atriox come across as a Marvel villain
great video!
Cheers for checking it out Curtis!
From a gameplay stance, it’s the best feeling and most polished FPS
Definitely, it feels amazing to play and that's something I'll talk about more during the open world part of the series. Unfortunately, however, everything around it is a little bit iffy!
the grapple hook made this game immense
'John and cortana's relationship was somewhat ronantic' you wot mate
So glad you mentioned the repetitive use of copy pasted rooms for indoor sections in Assault on the Control Room. If it wasn’t for that the tank guns shitty aiming it’d be great. But now I list it as above-average.
Assault on the Control Room has a special place in my heart as I absolutely love the outdoor battles, but the interior stuff is pretty awful at times. Would never rank it as one of the series' best missions, but it can be a fun one every now and then.
Those jackals with manglers in the tremonious bossfight are mean on legendary. Just barely managed to get past them.
I might just be weird, but I never got bored of the forerunner structures. I'd say partly because of the enemy encounters, the amount of places you could find hidden rooms, sandbox, and just how nice the new aesthetic looks.
PS. I agree with cortana just being gone to be a "bit" of a pitfall. Still, I'd say that for the first installment of the campaign, not bad. Its pros outweigh the cons in my opinion. Mainly the grappling hook, the grappling hook, the grappling hook, and the grappling hook. Did i mentions how good the grappling hook is yet?
Jokes aside... lack of weapon variety... slight feeling of repetitiveness... not knowing what the Endless could possibly do thats worse than the flood... making the graple so good all other equipment feels meh... atriox being gone for the whole damn thing after being hyped up... 343 baldmonkey feeling like a "plot twist! That wasn't the big bad" type of villian... yeah. They got some stuff to work on.
Excellent video as always, Ben. Halo Infinite is (in my opinion) a refreshing change of pace for the series in general. However, I feel that 343i has let many fans down with their particular execution of an "open world" Halo title. Considering the exceedingly long time in development, the massive size of the team at 343i, and the enormous budget given to them, I'm fairly confident in stating that the "finished" product presented to fans fell quite short of our (admittedly) lofty expectations. What's there in ζ Halo is great fun, but (in my mind) it's what ζ Halo lacks that is the true source of our disappointment.
Cheers Aaron mate! It's mental isn't it, I honestly cannot believe Infinite is what came out of six years' of development. I'd never call for people to lose their jobs or anything mad like that, like some do, but I do think there needs to be a massive reshuffle at 343 Industries after this.
I think I agree with just about everything. I’m glad to hear someone else point out that the constant reminders of Cortana from the past were a bit unnecessary. And honestly it get worse throughout the game. However I did like the Cortana narrative despite her lack of presence in the story. I really enjoyed watching her and strips talk. How she destroyed his planet, and how he got back at her for it was really cool and made atriox even cooler (I also agree he should have been more present in the game). I wish the villains were a lot more fleshed out. the act man put it very well. they basically talk shit to you in a recording repeatedly, then fight you, and you beat them. They don’t really do much in the story beyond that. They aren’t really doing things to make it feel like a real war. Act man’s review of the halo campaign was very well done and I agree with his points a lot. You should check it out if you haven’t seen it already.
Loved the vid, can’t wait for the next one!
Cortana’s face doesn’t move while talking, just a thing I noticed 14:32
Good spot! I noticed that too when I was putting the video together but figured it was a glitch or something - not sure if it always happens and couldn't be bothered to go back and check haha.
Game will age like fine wine. Cheers to the 20 year retrospective videos.
Here here!
Excellent video as always! I’ve been looking forward to your take on Infinite! I think I largely agree, with me being frustrated with the game at times but also thinking it‘s the best campaign they‘ve made since CE (which I consider to be the very best).
«James Bond level of stupidity»
You say that like it’s a bad thing. I’d say Halo being goof is good! Espescially after it taking itself sooo seriously for the last 3 previous mainline games (Reach, 4 and 5). Generally speaking I love the humour in this game.
«It could just be me»
It’s not just you! I see a lot of callbacks to CE in this and I love it! Time will tell if it stands, but I think this might be my favourite campaign since CE!
«Nothing exiting happens during early part of second mission»
Are you kidding me? We meet new elites (with excellent art direction and fun to fight AI).
«Story not done»
I don’t think it‘s fair to call it lazy. I think they clearly wrote themselves into a corner with Halo 5 and made the best of a unfortunate situation. I do understand your frustration though. Literally all of 343’s mainline games felt like the beginning to something that was not followed up properely (yes: include 4 in that, 5 is a strange shift from 4 imho). And I certainly hope they *do* follow up this time around.
"I need a weapon"
This line worked well in Halo 2, because it was so blunt, but here. Meh, they gave 117 so much personality and than such a one liner.
I think the recording of Echo-216’s family is used as more of a symbol of his hope. It’s first used to symbolize his waning hope and later used to symbolize his just about broken hope
Ben I’m playing through this campaign again (on legendary as always) for the first time in over a year. What I’ve done this time is skip most of the cutscenes involving the pilot and esharum and completely ignored the open world sections apart from getting to the next mission for example and I’ve had so much more fun with it. It’s like the game just needed editing 😂 cut the bloat. I always really enjoyed the main story missions and when played like I am now it feels more like classic halo.
It's rather ironic how Escharum calls us "Prey" while we're the ones doing the hunting.
i always think its annoying that when most players throw a grenade, they stop shooting and stand still looking for the blast and hoping that they get the satisfaction of the blast connecting with the group, but this leads to the flow of the combat coming to a screeching halt while they are standing there getting lit up for those couple seconds. it would make more sense and be tacticool to just toss-shoot-run all at once.
Everything infinite does is really strong, but it doesn’t do nearly enough to make you feel ful filled. Everything feels like the best food you could ever eat but isn’t ever enough to fill you up
As someone who has only played the Bungie games and listened to the Fall of Reach Audiobook, I would agree Atriox's introduction was pretty bad. It sets him up as a big villain, to seemingly kill him, and then have the pieces picked up by not very compelling underlings. To be honest, I didn't even realize that _was_ Atriox in the post credits, since all of the Brutes are not as distinct as the Elites are. Especially since we haven't seen him since the start of the game.
I almost expected a deeper look at who Master Chief was; with all the Halsey references, especially about him in the spartan program. and while there was an element of it present in the story, I also thought it would’ve been cool if escharum was more infatuated/obsessed with Master Chief and his legend
Inb4 they make a Halo prequel where you play a Zoomer Master Chief voiced and motion captured by some B-list Zoomer actor.
Because Zoomers are literally being handed EVERY franchise ever despite being an awful generation.
20:41 looks like a flood spore to me
I see Atriox as being somewhat akin to the Prophets in the initial trilogy. We heard a lot about them at first too, but didn't really come across them til the end. I think Atriox is gonna serve as the full Infinite saga's big bad
People complain a lot about echo216's complaining and cynicism. I feel it really shows his desperation to see his family when he felt stuck for 6 months. This really appeals to fathers which many original players are by now. That first scene when he was holding the hologram of his wife and child hit me really hard . And later on when you're trying to rescue 216, the hologram playing messed me up and made me extremely nervous about the fight coming up
I think for me it's the frequency towards the start of the campaign which I dislike in particular - I should have mentioned it during the video, but nearly every scene in which Master Chief and 216 interact, he's essentially saying the same things over and over again. I also feel like the family story wasn't very well explained throughout the game and is used as a vague reason for his outlook even though it's really not expanded upon in any meaningful way. Definitely get what they were going for, but would have liked a little more exposition around it!
@@BenPlaysGames I'd argue it's hard to explain. He has been gone so long his baby is probably all grown with her own family and doesn't even know who he is. They coulda elaborated on this but failed to. That's why he is so depressed and cynical. He even brushed it off, (which I hated) when he said he has nobody. He coulda turned it around and made it like he still has somone he is fighting to protect. Or perhaps they were killed and that's all he has left of them. It wasn't explained but my kids are the same age as the one in the hologram. Those scenes fucked me up the first time around and I wish it was explained more. Perhaps dlc will show more
I didn't realize there was a right side if the hangar, the scans drew me left for weapons.
That's so funny, completely the opposite of my experience. I must confess, I used scan way less than I was perhaps meant to, I find those detective mode, listen mode kind of things really irritating!
@@BenPlaysGames I can't wait to see your breakdown of infinite. While playing I came across a side room in the letter stage of the game with many skewers and rocket launchers. Having watched your previous halo videos I knew how intentional such placement was as a foreshadowing to imminent combat. I swapped all my weapons for these and proceeded. Iirc it was a few rooms and I was thinking about dropping them but then ran into hunters. With the arms I quickly dropped them. It made me think about your videos. If you find it, it's a great example for your series.
One thing I didn't like was how the end shoehorns you from mission to mission without time to rearm and reequip, take a quick breath.
I thought the campaign was fun but I didn't think there were really any memorable story beats except the opening and getting cortana 2.0. It really felt like a standard open world but with not enough progression so I kinda got a bit tired of shooting enemies in the head after 3/4 through
I came to the conclusion that the game is a ton of fun, which is why it got such great reviews from most of the community. 343s campaigns have lacked that fun factor and infinites gameplay loop nail it.
Completely agree Brian, the gameplay is excellent. If they can now figure out how to attach it to a more traditional Halo campaign, they'll be on to a winner.
I have a weird feeling about Halo Infinite.
I haven't finished the campaign yet and it's definitely better than Halo 5, but I feel like the gunplay and movement in the previous games feel better.
Master Chief's health also seems to be way lower than in all previous games, at least on normal difficulty.
I also think Halo 4 looks more impressive than Infinite.
At least the grapple hook feels good.
Gun play is better than 4&5 in my opinion
I really liked the game. Could the story have been better executed and written? Yeah. But I found all the elements to be fun additions. Gameplay is really really good, driving marines around is awesome, and the little dialogues are great. I feel like it has a lot of soul if not a very much depth. If 343 is able to make some good story DLC then I think it will make infinite a much better game.
Also grunts are my favorite characters in the game and I want a grunt focused campaign now
still waiting on the spv mod, hope you might be able to get some time to get to it.
My question is how did Brohammer even find Chief? He was dropped from a spaceship into an environment with no air, and thus no drag. So how was Chief just floating there peacefully? Lol
Let’s go… and steal Titanfall 2’s grapple!
Man, I wish Titanfall 2's campaign has a level using the grappling hook, would have been such a good addition! Titanfall 3 maybe...
@Ben Plays Games stop! It hurts just to think about it😩
My main issue with the Banished is the fact that it's so unclear to me what they're main goal is, and what they're about. Do they hate humanity because... of Cortana? And what she did to the Brute's home planet? And because she was created *by* humans? That's what I've managed to gather, but that to me feels rather weak in terms of story telling.
More importantly, what even were the Banished's goals before Cortana happened? Freedom from the Covenant? Well, they've had that since Halo 3, so now what?
And don't get me started on the Atriox and Escharum. The former has zero personality, because we never see more than thirty seconds or so at a time, during which he reveals nothing of the personality we've been *told* he has, that being a tactical genius or whatever, instead he just seems to me like any other brute.
Meanwhile Escharum only ever talks about the "Will of Atriox" (whatever that even was), and how he wants a good fight against the Master Chief... Yeah I don't know about you, but as far character motivation goes, this is frankly really dull to me, and still tells me nothing of what the banished are about.
18:55 the weapon is not cortana 2.0
shes the small cortana
I wish the game was as good as your videos are man!
Yeah the pilot really kind of gets of your nerves...Echo 419 he is not. Makes me miss her all the more.
Thanks Burge, that's super kind dude! Watching the video back a moment ago, what I really should have mentioned is that its not necessarily the moaning that is the issue, but the amount. During the opening hour or two covered in this video, there's 4-5 separate occasions where he shouts about how everyone is doomed and they need to leave. It's just too much in too short a space of time, especially right at the start of the game where you should be getting people pumped up.
@@BenPlaysGames That is a very good point. Like it would be totally fine him starting out with an all is lost attitude, I mean everything did go to hell....but after literally rescuing the Chief and seeing him work his magic, he should have acted more confident and inspired, instead of griping and trying to run away.
I don't actually believe that Cortana is deleted. Bimbo Cortana said that her program was unable to complete so something has gone wrong in the process, imo likely that Cortana has hidden herself within Bimbo Cortana
Infinite definitely felt like the best campaign 343 has managed to create but by the half way mark I was already growing fatigued of the constant repetitive nature of this game. It got to the point that I have zero intent on replaying the game for the foreseeable future. I'll be interested to see your complete thoughts about the open world aspect of this game, as you've made your concerns known before.
Repetitive is the word I reckon mate! Having played it twice through now, I'm in the same boat as you - I can't see myself going back to it for a long time now. Not including the option to replay specific missions is a killer too. As I said in the video, the game starts off pretty well, but as soon as you realise nearly ever level includes some degree of stuff copy and pasted from numerous other levels, the shine really begins to wear off quickly.
When I first seen esharum I was like wow he’s cool but by the end of the game I was sick of him. Too much talking in infinite. Combat evolved didn’t say a lot but we knew what was going on.
Especially since from minute one it was clear he'd be gone by the end of the game. They talked about Atriox way too much for him not to have returned quickly.
343 messed up by killing attriox off screen and not actually let him fight you. I was greatly pissed off with the ending of halo wars 2 being hidden behind a paywall dlc and then the fact you don't get to fight in infinite is a tragedy. If they kept him in as the big bad for this game as the end boss would have been better.
I agree with everything you said, the intro was jarring,
Ive played all the games, read almost all the novels, so I went in prepared narrative wise. but when it came to infinite, 343 made the same mistake they did with halo 4 & 5's intros. 343 could have done better by releasing Halo wars 2 on steam before infinite dropped to introduce the banished, not fighting cortana's created was also a bummer.
I honestly did not enjoy the game, it gets boring and tedious real quick, When it comes to level progression, It is unbalanced.
It's only enjoyable the first or second playthroughs, but that's pretty much it.
Ive played all the other halo titles multiple times but halo infinite only twice.
there's no reward to finding all the logs, the most fun i had was rescuing marines and freeing FOBs.
don't even get me started on multiplayer.
I still play Halo 5 for the multiplayer and warzone.
I’ve got mixed feelings for infinite.
Likewise my man!
Infinites campaign was finally a big step in the right direction but then they dropped the entire team
Who even knows what the next game is going to look like...
Would a New Game+ mode work well for this game or not? Why?
What could be changed though?
They should have just retconned halo 5 say it was a training simulation
I can't wait until season 15 when they bring back assassinations 🤪
Ya... throwing Master Chief off the Infinity... I seem to recall Chief doing something very similar, voluntarily, involving a large bomb and a faceplant from orbit... I think he'll be ok 👍
Haha exactly mate, he's wearing a super high tech killin suit for goodness sake!
I think the first mission was the best in infinite
It's up there for sure. I really like Pelican Down myself, was glimpse of how the open world could have been used, even if it is just ticking things off a list at its core.
The tone is perfect.. but the story is quite lackluster.. and the one shot camera style is exhausting. Felt like 75 percent of the whole game is the camera just spinning around master chief and the weapon inside a pelican or an identical dark forerunner room.. also 343 writes all villains as if halo is a superhero story
All halo villains are like supervillains.
The amount of cutscenes which begin with putting The Weapon inside waist-high terminal thing is absurd 😂
It's a huge nitpick for me when I noticed they changed "No, we meed to fight" to "I need a weapon" its not as bada** and it doesn't match the dialog like the og line did and was clearly only done to reference a previous game. For me it somes up what Infinite is as a whole. A game trying to stich together remnants of the past rather then just making something it's own. Specifically Bungies past over there own. Completely cutting the reclaimer saga short in favor of reminding you about the bungie era of games. Ugh. Although, the gameplay loop is solid and what it does bring new to the table is great and what it does manage to bring over from the reclaimer era is pretty good for the most part. I just wish I didn't feel like I was playing MCC in 1 game most of the time.
The atriox throwing chief off the ship could have easily been done better if he smashed chiefs visor and significantly damaged and exposed chiefs suit. Then throwing him out and using nano bot tech to seal and repair his suit which could eaily be explained through a brief dicsussion with the pilot and on screen hud error warnings as he is thrown out
This would have solved 2 issues i had which was the stupidity of atriox letting chief live, this way its understandable as to why he would throw him out since he reasonable assumed exposing him to the vacuum of space would kill him; as well as adding character to the new suit and how it differes from last gen.
So simple but would make a big difference.
It's also annoying that as the player you didn't kill Atriox yourself. I fought in Halo Wars 2 (and 1) and iirc I didn't get to kill him there, so for him to beat MC and get whacked before I take control was annoying.
I have some good news for you Sean - he's alive! So, you might just get to put an end to him yet. Check out the Halo Infinite post credits scene on CZcams.
@@BenPlaysGames that's awesome, I'll check it out! Thank you for all the videos, it really helps as a ttrpg GM. It's why I support you on patreon :)
Story-wise, it's damage control. It's like Halo 6 happened off-screen, and Infinite is a prologue for the next story-arc. Probably a Microsoft mandate. It's done as well as can be, but it doesn't cover the fact that it's damage control. Still, I enjoyed Infinite well enough
I haven’t played it yet but from what I’ve seen infinite isn’t bad in itself but it just isn’t haloish
The gameplay is very good and I’m happy that the alien species actually resemble their original style
The red esword elite is a fucking menace in my opinion
The equipment? Their awesome, balanced and yes, even grapple(the game is open world so you can see what it could do)
Weapon is a great companion, she is a good cortana replacement but she just feels different ima judge her when I actually play the campaign
Echo216 is a baby but I can’t complain cuz he is just a human he could trip, bash his head on a rock and die
But yeah that’s all I think so far
Thanks for the new insight Ben wasn’t expecting this but I’m definitely not disappointed
I'd never describe it as a bad game, it's competently made in many ways and as you say, the gameplay is really, really good. Is it a good Halo game? That I think is a little harder to answer. To be honest, I think it's a good foundation to build further entries in the series off now the tech is there, story has been set up etc, but as a standalone title I'm in two minds about it.
@@BenPlaysGames agreed🤝
Halo infinite is so diverse and is something brand new to the franchise and even after three whole months I can’t make up my mind wether I love or hate it
Grapple massively de powers vehicles. Enemy vehicles are never a threat. It’s super fun for exploration tho
@@tylerasweet you could fly a mongoose with grenades and grapple it
Homemade banshee
343 really seems to struggle with having villains to be invested in since they seem to show up for one game and are then made irrelevant in the next. And with Atriox, even in Halo Wars 2 he rarely ever shows up unless it’s in a cutscene, and if I’m remembering right you only ever fight his stooges. And in infinite you are once again fighting his stooges as he himself has been made irrelevant to introduce the new threat of the Endless.
And if the endless were actually a fleshed out enemy faction in this game, they would probably once again be made irrelevant by something different in the next game.
Yeah I never understood why Atriox would just throw Master Chief off the Infinity and leave it at that; doesn't really establish him as a serious threat, which he's meant to be. He had clearly overpowered the Chief, so why not just kill him then and there? Why not have it so that MC jumped off the ship to escape Atriox, which would've made more sense to me.
Atriox’s audio logs paint him as a someone who INHERITED leadership of the Banished whilst they were already on their last legs - every previous Banished leader is revered for having died in battle.
Regardless of whether MC lived or not, the Banished were doomed to fail, Atriox knew this, he knew that he’d go down in history as the one who lead the Banished to failure (even though its not his fault)
Dying/losing to Master Chief, The Demon who thrwated the Covenant and the Flood, would justify that failure.
Thats why Atriox let MC live, to give him another shot.
@@lingricen8077 thanks for your comment! It makes sense now.
The Warship is a great level but I feel it puts this unrealistic expectation on the rest of the game, with its incredible set-pieces, familiar, but unique Halo combat spaces, and an exciting urgency during the mission. Sadly, this is a cheque that Infinite CANNOT and does not cash until essentially The House of Reckoning, and by then you've been slogging through samey Open world environments for the last 15 hours, doing busy work. It sucks because it makes me long for a linear mission in an actually interesting level, something Halo has always excelled at. Except maybe the Library haha.
And let's just have a little giggle at "We could be the only 2 humans left alive out here" like you don't rescue and encounter hundreds of marines during the course of the game, Marines that could easily have helped with 90% of the game's proceedings ;)
!!Slight spoiler warning!! Watching 15:09 again is actually really confusing because of certain story revelations near the end of the game, I'd even go as far as to say it sounds like a contradiction in the narrative. The only saving grace being "did you hit your head" but that also kinda makes it worse because of who's saying it, since she isn't supposed to be savvy to prior events either. God, this story is a mess.
Too much was sacrificed for an open world and 40 bosses. I play for story and action set pieces
Massively so! I was really excited to see what set pieces were in stores... and in that regard, the game is barren to say the very least. Mostly filler, no killer.
@@BenPlaysGames they shoulda had it set up like destiny instead
Ye
Yessir.
i never played halo wars so i had no idea what was going on in this game. I hate those kind of games so i will probably never ever play halo wars. i too was sick at the fact that they completely got rid of cortana right from the start. i kept hoping we would see her in the story somewhere but nope. they ruined that.
This game gives me so many mixed emotions, on one hand, the moment to moment gunplay is the best in the series, but the level design is so mediocre and repetitive that every encounter just blurs together. There’s no distinction between levels, and if you showed me a screenshot or even gameplay from a level, I’d never be able to tell you what part of the campaign it was from, minus The Road, House of Reckoning, and Warship Grabbakon.
I think 343 did a phenomenal job with the enemy design, combat loop, and weapon sandbox, even if it is a little small, but then didn’t have time to create levels that would truly let those encounters shine. There are some highlights, but ultimately the game feels like it’s levels really took the biggest hit in quality due to the rush to push it out the door.
The Story is… fine? I guess? It has a lot of issues with exposition and throwing the baby out with the bath water, something that Halo 5 also did as well. It always feels like there’s something exciting about to happen, I spent the whole game hoping that at some point, We’d accidentally release the flood or something just to spice things up, but it never happened.
We constantly get told that “This ring is different from the others” and instead of actually tangible differences, it’s just used to brute force plot convenience. My issue with their attempt of creating a mystery was that often it boiled down to “ooooo the ring sure is mysterious, isn’t it?”
“Oh a weird thing happened, that sure is mysterious! Don’t you feel the mystery?”
A lot of the more subtle stuff is great for invoking that mystery feeling, like the audio logs, forerunner ring structures, and the Cylix containing an infection form, but the main threads are hitting you over the head with a frying pan telling you how mysterious this ring, and it never actually pays off.
I think that’s my biggest gripe with the game in its current state, there’s so much buildup that just never pays off, it ends with a climactic boss battle that never explains anything about the main story, and just asks more questions that “ooo look at this interesting plot points we might explain in some upcoming DLC!” Which might be too cynical, but it definitely makes it feel like It’s the prequel to a much more interesting game.
And the whole situation around multiplayer is a nightmare, I haven’t touched the game in weeks, even before Elden Ring took over my life, the idea of opening up Infinite to play some multiplayer just made me sad. This is the first halo game that I haven’t made an actual attempt to get good at, Halo 5 might be the game that I spent the most energy improving my skill set for, and I feel like Infinite could have been that again, but due to the lack of polish and awful UI designs (horizontal menu navigation is a war crime), it’s just not something I want to put any amount of time or effort into.
That’s my thoughts, a bit rambly but that’s why you make the Video Essays and not me 😋
I have a lot of the same gripes as you. One of my biggest was finding something in the world, be it an audio log, an encounter during a mission or environmental storytelling and it would pique my interest and get me asking all these questions that would keep me entertained and playing, searching for the answer, only for there to be none. It was just a one off audio log or something an artist thought looked cool and put into the game.
It really felt like they took the least interesting direction with the story and threw in a bunch of entertaining, thought provoking material that dead ends into fluff because they don't do anything with it. And then there's the open world, which kept me mostly entertained at first, but by the time I unlocked the third area all I was doing was going through the motions. It felt like I was just doing the same missions over and over again and I wasn't getting the sense that I was pushing the story forward, which is somewhat odd because I can still play CE and 3 and not be bored despite playing them countless times.
Don't get me started on the multiplayer, it's broken, unfun, lacking basic features, has horrible map design and just about the only thing that was working day one was the store. Beyond disappointing, to say the least.
@@ianhall6614 It's like an old GDC talk with one of the developers for the original Deus Ex, "If something fun happens, make sure the player is doing it". It feels like there was 6 months of fantastic Halo Game between the Infinity exploding, and Chief being found. Starting with the battle for the infinity, losing the battle and being forced to get down to the rings surface, then the game could be about setting up those FOBs that you reactivate during the actual game.
I was always hoping that I might find something on the ring that was actually meaningful. But I never did. The most important thing found was the Cylix with an Infection form and that wasn't even in open world section.
I played the campaign once, I will play any story DLC that gets released, but I won't be going back and replaying it on Legendary.
@@olly123451 most of the in between plot takes place in Halo Novels
hmmm i think
The thing I liked most about infinite was the fact they realized they didnt have the talent to write-in a way to fix the story of the previous two games, so instead they went for "mystery" and retconned it all. They didnt try to explain why Atriox went MIA, they didnt try to show how the UNSC's most impressive military accomplishment and the most advanced pieccce of technology the humans have was defeated so easily, seemingly without a fight. They decided that trashing basically everything they had done for this trilogy and hand waiving all the details all while shoving superficial fanservice in our faces like "ooh look its back to being like Bungie's Halo, isnt that awesome?" was the better option. Sure its a terrible way to make a sequel, but damn am I THOROUGHLY convinced that they could not have turned the garbage they were trying to sell us around.
Game's some weird halfway house between 5 and something completely new. And unfortunately, it doesn't tie up previous loose ends particularly well or create an engaging new story.
I'm as loyal as it gets to this franchise....no assassinations in SP, lack of biomes, Repetitiveness, cut content, all while having endless resources and 6 years of development. The first time in 20 years....I refuse to play it and I just don't care. Cause I can only care as much as the franchise does.
MOM SHUT UP BEN PLAYS GAMES UPLOADED
Bring me a Mountain Dew!
Also legendary difficulty is too easy
I've not actually done a legendary run yet - played heroic my first time through and it was really rather easy compared to other games in the series, so I'd imagine legendary is similar.
@@BenPlaysGames I set off on normal but started again on legendary after playing through the first mission
I'm 100% sure that this game's development was an absolute shitshow and that a ton of story/campaign content was cut because of this.
Absolutely dude. I'm not one to get angry or upset over things like this, after all, it's just a videogame, but looking at everything objectively, it's hard not to think that the series needs a new developer or 343 Industries needs a serious overhaul. It's been an on-going disaster since they took over the series with no signs of things getting much better.
@@BenPlaysGames I have all the sympathy of the world for the developers that I'm 100% sure worked their ass off every single day of the 6 years of development BUT it is obvious that management/the higher-ups at 343 are not capable of successfully directing the process of developing a AAA-game of the scale of Halo.
Truth be told I'm not a huge fan of Halo Infinite but I would say Campaign wise it's the beast 343 era Halo game I've played But in terms of following up on story from the previous game. I personally don't care if they want us to forget Halo % was even a thing cause in my opinion that game never should have existed in the first place, Halo 5 is by far the worst Halo game ever made but the problem I have with Infinite stems more from the fact that they made a straight up copy of Cortana instead of moving on which shows that 343 are incapable of doing anything original & have to resort to Milking Chief into oblivion & recycling things that Bungie did before despite Halo 3 ODST & REACH proving that a game without chief can work (but 343 aren't confident enough to try) & Chief's story already concluded in Halo 3 but of course 343 can't survive without him so instead of having a great send off like in 3 Chief will end up being warped beyond recognition to keep the dyeing franchise a flout...
I am very glad that 343 ditched the shitty plot and characters of H4/5 and started on a clean slate. AI rebellion are overdone in sci-fi, and was never a theme in Halo.
As for gameplay, Infinite would be perfect without the remnants of Halo 5.
I'm not overly unhappy about it either, but I just wished they spent a little more time properly wrapping up things up post-Halo 5. Just a mission at the start with some extra exposition about what had been going on would have been enough I reckon. Completely agree with you on the gameplay side of things too!
In the main timeline infinite is infinitely better than 4/5
Oh definitely, it's still pretty middling but I'd much rather play it than 4 or 5.
For me the story was way more disappointing than bad, they just had so much lore to make a story with and all they did was make us fight a couple of bosses. I haven’t watched the whole video yet, but one of my main problems is that no other halo game (except CE) had this much copy paste level design. It’s just a huge step down with all the unique areas of all of the halo campaigns and in this one there is none.
The gameplay is amazing but the story was mediocre
This is pretty similar to my view, although the story does have the odd moment I don't mind. Hopefully they can build off this first campaign and start ramping up the excitement a little more.
Halo Infinite has a terrible introduction. We're literally just thrown into space. We never find out what happened on the Infinty sans for audio logs. That is something that should not be glossed over. Nor should Cortona have been stopped off screen. The one thing I liked about Halo 5's story was that Cortona was leading an ai conquest of the galaxy. That is a monumental plot point that disappears. Worse Cortona herself died so we get no resolution for her actions. If that all wasn't bad enough Infinite doesn't tell a compelling story of its own either. It's just the Banished won and we need to stop them from doing whatever they're doing. The Harbinger is completely pointless as are the Endless. Halo Infinite should have been the resolution to what Halo 5 set up. The Banished could still have been used as both sides rush to Cortona to stop her in their way. That is a far more compelling story. We could still have the pilot and the Weapon theough all that. There you go 343 I singlehandedly came up with a much better story integrating elements from the last two games for you. You're welcome.
Can't argue much with this mate, you make some good points! Something I'll touch on in one of the later videos is that despite the fact this game is meant to be a fresh start, it's surprising how many things are essentially new versions of those featured in previous titles. The Banished are basically The Covenant, The Weapon is basically Cortana, The Endless are basically The Flood. Considering Infinite is meant to mark the start of something new, it sure feels like the same old story at times...
@@BenPlaysGames One item I take issue with in that list, "The Endless are basically The Flood"
They definitely aren't. They're 343's cheap and failed attempt to one-up the Flood. They're hyped up to be a far worse threat than the parasite, both by some throwaway lines from Cortana and the Legendary ending, but all they amount to is one "new" enemy type (that's basically the Drones but with hitscan or pretty-much-hitscan weapons) and a bossfight. They had nowhere near the impact the Flood did in Halo 1.
For the first few hours I felt like I was playing a sequel to a game that didn't exist because Infinite acknowledges the events of Halo 5 and Halo Wars 2, but then tells you forget about all that, we already concluded that without you. It was so confusing.
I would love to know how to like a game but ignore all the backlash, I just want my peace, things were never this bad for MCC and 5.
and not all the people at 343 are to blame, that's just absurd
Halo infinite is good buts its incomplete due to lazy developers not releasing it with all its content again( no forge mode no infection or invasion etc etc.). And its poisoned by the modern day Microtransaction bullshit that started to become popular with gtaV 2013 that people refused to get pissed about like they should of. I would rather pay 60$ for a full campaign and access to all multiplayer content by earning it rather than paying $30(full price for the campaign) for half a game and then another 1,400$ in total to get access to all the rest of it. Its just a scam. We know they don't have to do this but they did it out of greed. you shouldn't have to pay for blue. Many features like FUCKING BLUE that were free years ago are now completely locked behind moneywalls and with this in mind if you are smart and don't waste your money you get little content and the game gets boring fast. If you are a idiot you contribute to the problem and continue to buy into microtransactions and reward the companies for bad practices and you let them get away with this shit. So i would say Halo infinite is a good base game but it subverts expectations and overall hurts gaming as a whole to see these scam practices in THE xbox game.