As of writing this review, the Great Journey Update has just dropped
Pros:
- This game is fun, all the tips and tricks you can discover and utilize is just similar to the old days
- Free to play means it is accessible to almost everyone provided they have met the requirements.
- Certain cosmetics can be earned by just playing
- the Exchange system is now available which enable new players to grind for old cosmetics, the grind might be tedious but it is well worth ( Looking at you Haunted)
Cons
- Free to Play meant they will have to monetize somehow, yet Halo studio ( formerly 343) decided to follow the worst path possible
+ The store will almost of all time the only thing functional in game
+ Most cosmetics are locked behind a paywall ranging from $3 to even $40 (yes you read that right). Even with me paying roughly $90 throughout my gaming years , I have not been able to push beyond 50% of most of the cosmetics so if you are going in F2P, you probably are getting less then %30. 90% of new armors which drops every month will be store bundle with noticeable trend such as: Armor - $20, individual piece is less then 10 while the color palate is 10. This wont be much of a problem until you realize: Hazop, Pilot, Security for Mark VI,and a number of old armor is behind the paywall. The decision represents a tone deaf coming from the publisher as these pieces which should have been in the game for free.
+ Cores such as Mark IV have not have much customization. having 13/14 pieces of armor behind the locked paywall for $16-$20
+ As of now, with the new operation, Mark VI GEN1 is $26 - the highest single bundle piece for any armors/kits ever since the game. The large bundles of 3 armors/kits is now $39 , compare both to recent bundles such as Omega Team and Mark V CE - the price has actually INCREASED - what is this ? Inflation ? Inflation for digital products ? Words which i never think I would see together.
+ The campaign is dead, being $60 DLC and having a few drop off the price once in a while. So i salute you campaign players, you got scammed
Honestly, having spent so much on these games, I have realized that, whatever advice or feedback we had since Seasons 1 has not changed anything and the studio rebranding has done NOTHING still a soulless cash grab.

I'd say Halo Infinite is like dating a supermodel. Looks pretty, but boy, does it have some issues. Still, you can't help but love it. Oh, the drama!

The microtransactions are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ terrible, 40 dollars for a armor kit is insane, for 40$ you can get the MCC right here on steam, and have FOUR GAMES IN ONE

Played Co-op campaign and it's horrifically glitchy, Glitched us out of missions where we had to restart. Loading times are real bad but the story itself is also pretty bad. Constantly running out of ammo... Overall very poor.

What the actual ♥♥♥♥ is the issue with the game freezing on launch? This is a chronic issue that has yet to be reliably addressed.

Miss the days of Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, and Reach? Well if that's the case, then this isn't the game for you!

As per my usual review guidelines, I shall grade it out of 10, and explain my reasoning along with the pros and cons.

Halo Infinite gets a whopping 4.5 out of 10.

Why?

Simply put the campaign feels mostly empty, devoid of life, and devoid of story. Halo games are meant to be played on linear maps with several routes and options and hidden toys to keep each and every playthrough interesting. They're meant to be a challenge, yet also meant to be fun. This game does neither. An open-world Halo game is potentially the worst thing 343 could have gone for, and even though they did, they executed it pretty horribly. The game feels more like an unfinished Unreal engine demo just like how Sonic Frontiers was initially received. A vast, empty, blank space that exists solely to take up your time and nothing else. The weapons feel weak, the story feels weaker, and the game as a singleplayer experience just comes off more like a waste of money than a Halo game built to cater to both the die hard fans and general audience. It doesn't feel like it caters to anyone.

The Multiplayer is a different nightmare within itself. When it launched it was barren, and to this day it still feels hollow compared to Halo games of the past. The Devs are far too interested in posting politically catering nonsense in their steam community tabs than they are in pushing effort into making a decent game, and while they'll keep the comments off and add a new nametag banner for the latest and greatest politically left identity, they won't put the same effort into making this game meet it's potential. And with that said, let's get into the meat of the review.

The Pros:

The game is at least a Halo game in upholding the tradition of Master Chief being the luckiest man alive, and it plays into that quite well. The introduction of the grappling hook is a bit mixed, with myself personally not liking it but definitely seeing the appeal of it to others. The main 'enemies' of the story definitely have their defining moments, with the two elite 'bosses' being quite a pleasant change of pace over the majority of enemies you fight in this game. The vehicles are more important than ever with it being such an open world and empty game, and thankfully they do not disappoint. You can roam in several variants of Warthog whether you want to load it up with an MG Gunner or just a squad of rocket Marines. The game at least gives you the option to do that. The graphics of the game are also fairly decent, the world is pleasant to look at, and the weapon design is still at least true to the Halo brand.

The Cons:

Unfortunately the game far outweighs it's positives with negatives, as a bulk of the initial review states. Open world for Halo sucks. It feels empty, dead, and comes across to me as a file size that could have been better put towards making several linear maps and telling a real story. Blood is also now non-existent as 343 decided a game about a mass galactic war involving the genocide of humanity and an incoming zombie-like apocalypse needed a T rating rather than an M like every game had before it. The guns look good and sound good but feel weak overall, and in mutliplayer this is especially an issue as by the time you're finished dumping your entire magazine into an enemy player, you've either only just killed them with the last bullet and are killed by their teammates instantly or are killed by them in a melee attack while reloading. Overall melee attacks are the only truly powerful attack left in the game, with an unhealthy bias of controller players giving them aim assist that locks onto enemy players where keyboard and mouse players have to manually do everything. The game just lacks balance, power, and presence in it's multiplayer. Nothing feels special about this game, and nothing makes me feel like the powerhouse Spartan warrior that UNSC intended me to be.

Long story short, you want a good Halo game? Get the Master Chief Collection, not Halo Infinite, and enjoy several amazing Halo titles and Halo 4 for the price of what you could waste on this mess. And last but not least, keep the downfall of 343 in your prayers, and pray that the next group of people to come in behind them actually care enough about Halo to make a proper Halo game worth your money.

Not only is the campaign just kind of okay (open world is fun, but long, linear segments that bookend the game are exhausting and mediocre), but this game is now no longer playable on my PC. One of the updates in June tanked my FPS in the multiplayer section (can now only get up to maybe 30 fps max on the absolute lowest graphical settings), despite the Campaign running at 80+ FPS on the highest settings. Now the latest update won't even allow me to open the game with my Intel graphics card. Almost $30 on the campaign is now wasted. Disgraceful

good game, i love it. been playing almost everyday

crashes on start. tried everything, this games does not run. terrible optimization. please save your hard drive space from this game. pos fr

Its halo.. who doesnt love halo