Halo: Infinite (Dec. 8th, 2021) - Xbox Series X

[S E P H]

Sorry lads, I meant to say that the game is a Microsoft Exclusive in the thread title. Updating it now.

 

[CokenoPepsi]

To me the bungie era of Halo is the greatest FPS franchise of all time.

But after 343 took over it lost its way, not just in gameplay but in story and soul too.

They just don't know what they are doing and just seem insecure such drastic changes from Halo 4 and 5... I'll give infinite a chance but this created vs creator story has to end soon

 

[S E P H]

Really interesting if that's the main enemy...

 

[Commander Clueless]

Really interesting if that's the main enemy...

I like the tie in there.

 

[x Tame Impala]

That’s a f***ing badass teaser

 

[Super Cake]

Someone please jog my memory here please, who are the banished?

 

[Commander Clueless]

Someone please jog my memory here please, who are the banished?

I'm not exactly a Halo lore master, but they were the bad dudes in Halo Wars 2. A group of ex-Covenant renegades.

 

[x Tame Impala]

Someone please jog my memory here please, who are the banished?

I think they were only in Halo Wars

 

[Beau Knows]

Well at least the game is still alive. They'd better show off a huge portion of it in their July event.

 

[Super Cake]

I'm not exactly a Halo lore master, but they were the bad dudes in Halo Wars 2. A group of ex-Covenant renegades.

I think they were only in Halo Wars

Oh, ok. I never played Halo Wars.

Thanks

 

[The Mars Volchenkov]

Well at least the game is still alive. They'd better show off a huge portion of it in their July event.

That’s been confirmed so it’ll definitely happen. I do wonder if COVID delays it from launch though.

 

[x Tame Impala]

Hopefully this means we don’t have to fight the stupid Prometheans anymore and that whole storyline can be put to bed

 

[JaegerDice]

Hopefully this means we don’t have to fight the stupid Prometheans anymore and that whole storyline can be put to bed

The Prometheans were a boring slog in Halo 4, but I thought the weakpoints they gave them in Halo 5 made them more enjoyable to fight. Unfortunately, the decided to add that one bullet-sponge boss-character that you had to fight like 50 times. Ugh.

I actually liked where the storyline ended in Halo 5. I actually think they should have pulled the trigger on Crazy Cortana at the end of Halo 4. It felt like they invented this mini story with Chief and Locke that went absolutely nowhere in order to fill time between the end of Halo 4 and the end of Halo 5..... if you just slap Cortana succumbing to rampancy at the end of Halo 4 after she saves Chief, you basically have a pretty tight story and can run with Crazy Cortana trying unite the AIs against humanity in Halo 5, and then build to the Hunt and Destroy mission Chief would be on in Halo 6, to destroy his best friend.

I feel like somebody high up at 343 or Microsoft decided 'no, we can't turn this character heel in our first game'.

It didn't help that from a design perspective, as far as encounter design and level layout, Halo 5 was f***ing garbage.

Ugh.... I've just talked myself into being less excited for this game.



I hope the multiplayer is good(?).

 

[Frankie Blueberries]

Yeah I'm remaining cautiously optimistic. Every release since Halo: Reach has gotten slightly worse IMO (aside from MCC). Halo 4 was good but you could see they were starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel for new ideas. Halo 5 had decent multiplayer (felt a bit too similar to CoD for my tastes), but it was the first Halo game where I didn't complete the campaign (played about 2-3 hours and noped out of it - found it very boring and not compelling at all). I don't have high hopes for this one, but I'm hoping they take it into a different direction with a more open-world and light RPG elements...but we'll see.

 

[x Tame Impala]

It didn't help that from a design perspective, as far as encounter design and level layout, Halo 5 was f***ing garbage.

There are some pretty good youtube critiques out there that go into the flaws of the campaign-gameplay design. Long story short they designed the game in such a way to where the player inadvertently just has to get in long-rang shootouts with almost 100 enemies.
There's a youtube critique strictly about the campaign-gameplay in Halo 4 & 5 that I liked. Long story short they designed the game in a such a way where you're inadvertently just shooting a ton of enemies from far away behind cover and it's basically you're only option. Those bosses sucked as well.

Ugh.... I've just talked myself into being less excited for this game.

I'll wait until the reveal in July to decide one way or the other but 4 & 5 have made me real skeptical about 343's ability to produce another Halo game at the level of what Bungie did. 343 will have had 5 years to make this game so if it doesn't knock my socks off in a few weeks i'll be pretty disappointed.

I hope the multiplayer is good(?).

You and I have disagreed on this in the past. I generally wasn't a fan of H5 multiplayer and I hope there's a lot of things they change. There's some speculation they'll add a "Battle Royale" mode which I couldn't care less about but I'm hoping the reverting back to the original Halo art style as well as the continued popularity of Halo MCC, means that the game will come back to its roots a lot.

 

[S E P H]

You and I have disagreed on this in the past. I generally wasn't a fan of H5 multiplayer and I hope there's a lot of things they change. There's some speculation they'll add a "Battle Royale" mode which I couldn't care less about but I'm hoping the reverting back to the original Halo art style as well as the continued popularity of Halo MCC, means that the game will come back to its roots a lot.

I am honestly surprised to see all the people who liked the Halo 5 multiplayer.

My biggest issues I had were...

- Grenades were insanely overpowered.

- Grenades blast radius on small maps were a rage.

- Lack of map design, all maps played the same way which was...high ground wins. As you said very CoD-ish and I don't want that in a Halo game.

- I didn't mind some of the traits like clamber, sprint, and jetpack, but spartan charge needs to GTFO.

- Don't remember the weapon balance, but I still think that Halo 3 was superior.

- Disregarded BTB or even one medium size map. Made a BTB playlist due to outcry from fans from the Forge system. Experienced an insane amount of lag on the Forge maps. SMH

And when was the last time that Double Team was a special playlist that you could only play during the weekends? I loved Halo 4 multiplayer - which I know is not popular on here - because they had a dedicated playlist to CTF and that didn't exist in Halo 5.

 

[x Tame Impala]

I am honestly surprised to see all the people who liked the Halo 5 multiplayer.

My biggest issues I had were...

- Grenades were insanely overpowered.

- Grenades blast radius on small maps were a rage.

- Lack of map design, all maps played the same way which was...high ground wins. As you said very CoD-ish and I don't want that in a Halo game.

- I didn't mind some of the traits like clamber, sprint, and jetpack, but spartan charge needs to GTFO.

- Don't remember the weapon balance, but I still think that Halo 3 was superior.

- Disregarded BTB or even one medium size map. Made a BTB playlist due to outcry from fans from the Forge system. Experienced an insane amount of lag on the Forge maps. SMH

And when was the last time that Double Team was a special playlist that you could only play during the weekends? I loved Halo 4 multiplayer - which I know is not popular on here - because they had a dedicated playlist to CTF and that didn't exist in Halo 5.

Grenades are devastating for sure.

Not only the map design, but the lack of maps in rotation for 4v4 modes gets really boring as well. I feel like there's 3-4 maps i play over and over and over and over and over.

Still don't like the pistol. Halo 3 did it best. If i can plunk you with 4-5 shots that come out at a relatively slower rate then I deserve the kill and you deserve the death. With H5 you can legitimately walk around in tight areas with your pistol out and do just fine.

Firmly don't like Warzone, the REQ system, or the dedication the put into it. I'd much rather have a standard BTB mode.

One other thing I didn't like was the art design. The maps and the Spartans all look way too cartoonie, if that makes sense. The lighting was all off and it didn't feel like Halo. It felt like an arcade mode Halo

 

[S E P H]

Grenades are devastating for sure.

Not only the map design, but the lack of maps in rotation for 4v4 modes gets really boring as well. I feel like there's 3-4 maps i play over and over and over and over and over.

Still don't like the pistol. Halo 3 did it best. If i can plunk you with 4-5 shots that come out at a relatively slower rate then I deserve the kill and you deserve the death. With H5 you can legitimately walk around in tight areas with your pistol out and do just fine.

Firmly don't like Warzone, the REQ system, or the dedication the put into it. I'd much rather have a standard BTB mode.

One other thing I didn't like was the art design. The maps and the Spartans all look way too cartoonie, if that makes sense. The lighting was all off and it didn't feel like Halo. It felt like an arcade mode Halo

Good points, I honestly could not remember any of the maps or names. I just remember that majority of them are multiple platformers with dreary beige styling. The only one I can honestly recall off the top of my head is the underwater one with that huge alien whale swimming around it, which sucked but at least felt open. That and I think there is one called The Rig, but that might be Halo 4.

Great point about the pistol, people will say the weapon balance was amazing, but honestly all the guns were pretty much useless. All the maps are too close that your average lifespan is so short that getting weapons like BRs, snipers, and whatever are completely pointless since the pistol can down you out in, what, three headshots? I actually think they're onto something with the pistol as a starting weapon, but make it less powerful and the gameplay won't suffer and make other guns less meaningless.

Everything about the other modes are just brutal, one gamtype is styled only after MLG and if you lot ever watched MLG games it's all about standing in certain spots for like 98% of the game. One appeals to pretty much just 12 year olds with all the different cards, different colours, and super powerful weapons. Then one is just fighting bullet sponge enemies in a small location of a huge map lol. So bad.

 

[x Tame Impala]

Not at all a fan of the pistol starts and motion tracker that only detects shots fired and spartan moves. It’s not Halo.

 

[AllAbout813]

They definitely need more (original - not forge) maps from the start.

 

[x Tame Impala]

Been playing a lot more Halo 5 lately. It’s amazing how many more games you win if you just follow a teammate or two around and help them out. Your K/D benefits a ton too.

Still think the pistol is way too overpowered. 2 of my last 3 games I played today had a guy on the other team exclusively using a pistol. Checked the carnage reports after the games. 1st match the guy had 8 kills with the magnum and the 2nd match a guy had 10. I think it needs to be brought back down to “secondary weapon” tier status instead of the mini-DMR it is now.

I have to take back my earlier complaints about lack of maps though. If you just play social slayer you only get 3-4 maps but if you play ranked slayer and arena the variety is pretty solid.

If anyone here wants to play some H5 some time my gamer tag is the same as my username “x Tame Impala”. Always better to play with teammates instead of rando’s

 

[CatchyTune]

I am honestly surprised to see all the people who liked the Halo 5 multiplayer.

My biggest issues I had were...

- Grenades were insanely overpowered.

- Grenades blast radius on small maps were a rage.

- Lack of map design, all maps played the same way which was...high ground wins. As you said very CoD-ish and I don't want that in a Halo game.

- I didn't mind some of the traits like clamber, sprint, and jetpack, but spartan charge needs to GTFO.

- Don't remember the weapon balance, but I still think that Halo 3 was superior.

- Disregarded BTB or even one medium size map. Made a BTB playlist due to outcry from fans from the Forge system. Experienced an insane amount of lag on the Forge maps. SMH

And when was the last time that Double Team was a special playlist that you could only play during the weekends? I loved Halo 4 multiplayer - which I know is not popular on here - because they had a dedicated playlist to CTF and that didn't exist in Halo 5.

Halo 5 was my best experience gaming. It was the only thing I played for about 2 years. And when I say only, I mean only. I dont think I touched another game until Overwatch/Battlefield 1 and I got into those late.

The multiplayer was something else, the variety of modes keep the game from getting dull. Warzone is my alltime favorite multiplayer experience. Seeing this post is making me load in right now lol.

I cant wait for Infinite. Does anyone know if it will release on the Xbox One, or will it just be the Series X?

 

[The Mars Volchenkov]

Halo 5 was my best experience gaming. It was the only thing I played for about 2 years. And when I say only, I mean only. I dont think I touched another game until Overwatch/Battlefield 1 and I got into those late.

The multiplayer was something else, the variety of modes keep the game from getting dull. Warzone is my alltime favorite multiplayer experience. Seeing this post is making me load in right now lol.

I cant wait for Infinite. Does anyone know if it will release on the Xbox One, or will it just be the Series X?

It’s coming to both.

 

[JaegerDice]

I haven't played Halo 5 for a while now. TitanFall 2 MP pulled me away, and then I caught the bug for Rainbow Six Siege on PC.

So anything I say is from memory, I'm not sure what changes have been made since 2017 or 2018 or so.

The major problem with Halo 5 is lack of modes and lack of maps.

Warzone was a bad bet. Simple as that. If they had added Warzone on top of BTB and Arena, then I don't think there's a problem. The idea that Warzone was a substitute was stupid. Over time, they added BTB back and a lot of the best maps were community map. So they didn't look great, but they played great.

As far as Arena, I think the maps suffered because they were all too close in size and feel. A lot of them felt laid out specifically to make use of the new mobility features, which is fine, but if they all serve the same purpose they all start feeling interchangable. I think Halo 5 needed more small-medium and medium sized maps in Arena. I know 343 didn't want the Halo 5 meta to retreat into a defense-first game like Halo 3 ultimately did, but for the sake of sheer variety, there should have been more maps that allowed for long-range engagements and more defensive play. Halo 5 Arena was all small-maps, all-offense all the time.

As far as the sandbox... I think it was close to perfect.

I personally disagree that the Magnum is overpowered. It's a 5 shot kill weapon (4 body, 1 headshot ...or 4 body followed by 3 more body shots) with lower range than any other precision (ie, weapon capable of crit damage to the head) weapon in the game. The BR is a 4 shot kill (3 body, 1 head) from mid-range, the DMR is a 5 shot kill (4 body, 1 head) from long range. So basically you have the BR as the 'average'. You move into short range, the BR is still effective, but not as effective as the Magnum. You take the BR into long range, and the BR is still effective, but not as effective as the DMR. You have two range-specific specialty precision weapons and one more versatile mid-range weapon that you can use to fight off the other better options long enough to reset the engagement to your advantage, be it through retreat, grenades, etc.

I think the problem people have with the Magnum is that the bulk of the maps they play are smaller Arena maps that intentionally or not, favor the Magnum. At least at higher levels of play. The major issue with Halo 2 and Halo 3 PVP at higher levels was that everybody spawned with essentially useless weapons (SMG, AR) compared to the BR... so whatever team picked up the BR first and controlled them had a hilarious advantage. That's why competitive Halo in both games started players with BRs. Halo 5 starts players with a very viable weapon... the problem is the maps turn that viable weapon into arguably the best weapon by virtue of context. If 90% of engagements start at close-mid range due to map design, than the weapons that benefit from longer ranges never see their time in the sun in the base modes.

As far as grenades, honestly, I never had much problem with them.

 

[Frankie Blueberries]

The box art was just revealed:

Maybe I'm reading too far into things, but this is the first time that the ring backdrop appears to be 3D. This leads me to believe that the entire ring will be accessible and the game will be more open-world.