It's taken us a while to get here, but we've made it. "Halo Infinite," perhaps the biggest marquee Xbox Series X title announced before the console's release, has made it out just in time to help celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Xbox brand. While the "Halo" series has played one of the biggest roles in popularizing the Xbox brand, the series has gotten a lot of flak in recent years. While I enjoyed "Halo 4" more than most other fans, "Halo 5: Guardians" was a major disappointment in regards to its writing and gameplay, and it definitely had me skeptical for a new entry. It didn't help that a lot of the "Halo: Infinite" news I was hearing centered around a potentially tumultuous development cycle and instability among the teams making the game. While some of the early gameplay looked great, it was easy to be skeptical...which is why I'm pleased to report that this is the best "Halo" has been in many years.
"Halo Infinite" serves as a massive improvement over "Halo 5: Guardians," and a huge course correction for the series. The writing has some nice new emotional elements and characterizations, and while I'm not a hardcore follower of the "Halo" story, I think this will satisfy fans who were let down by the previous game. Visually, I'm happy to report that the game looks stunning. While I know there were some major concerns about the graphics early on, they are beautifully rendered and realized on the Xbox Series X, and it's great to see how much 343 Industries was able to push through with them. The gameplay also brings about some huge improvements and changes to the series to make it feel fresh, while also fixing some big issues from "Halo 5." In that game, I personally didn't like how you could pretty much ignore enemies and run past them, but here, they've worked harder to make destroying enemies more necessary. I also think the Grappleshot, which was a pretty polarizing addition pre-release, actually adds amazingly to the overall gameplay. It helps aid the much-improved movement options, making this a buttery smooth experience to play. I can also report that the multiplayer is a blast to play, and the fact that it's free-to-play is a great way to draw a lot of players in.
For me, there are a few things that hold the game back a small bit. While I appreciate the change of pace of adding a huge open world to the game, I think the open-world elements are a tiny bit bland. They certainly aren't bad, but the overall world is just a bit empty at points, and it's not the most unique or interesting thing. Also, this is probably just me, but I felt like the constant waves of enemies got a bit egregious at points. Even playing on the easier difficulties, I found myself constantly feeling overwhelmed by the swarms of them. It honestly makes me terrified to see what the game would be like on higher difficulties.
Overall, "Halo Infinite" may not have topped my Game of the Year list, but it did something that might honestly be better than that: it got me excited for the "Halo" series all over again. After all the skepticism and bad signs before release, I'm so happy to see that 343 Industries was able to make something really great with this new installment. "Halo 5: Guardians" left me extremely worried about the future of the franchise, but with "Halo Infinite," I'm suddenly more excited about where the series can go from here. It's a great revitalization of the franchise, and I can't wait to see what other exciting ideas 343 has for "Halo" in the future.
Final rating: 8 out of 10 "Great"