Halo Infinite Review: ‘The start of something special but unfinished by design’

Halo Infinite review for PC, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One.

No game has been more emblematic of Microsoft’s shift in priorities post-Game Pass than Halo Infinite. Its free-to-play multiplayer launched ahead of its planned release date, with 343 Industries providing the full experience — albeit in beta form — in November. Now, its long-awaited single-player campaign is gearing up for launch, with it headed to Game Pass as a wholly separate component. This untraditional release highlights the good, the bad, and the ugly of games launching through the Game Pass service, as while Halo Infinite truly feels like the start of something special for 343 Industries — the developer has stated that Infinite is a decade-long platform for Halo — it’s also been left unfinished by design.

Halo Infinite: Single-player campaign review

Halo Infinite’s single-player campaign mixes a sizeable but manageable open world with linear sections, all taking place on the ringworld Zeta Halo. Master Chief once again leads the story, tormented by the loss of Cortana but now with a new, incredibly similar A.I. companion in the form of the Weapon. The pair look to unravel the mysteries of this new Halo ring, setting off to foil the plot of the villainous Escharum and his horde of Banished, a mercenary off-shoot of the Covenant who defeated the UNSC and took control of Zeta Halo in the process.

Zeta Halo’s semi-open world is peppered with a small selection of different objectives. There aren’t traditional side missions here, so you’ll mostly be routinely traveling to your next main mission, though there are different collectibles to find and Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) to take over. When captured back from the Banished, these FOBs allow you to spawn in vehicles and weapons on the fly, while new equipment can be unlocked as you progress. My go-to tactic is to spawn in a Razorback and pick up the NPC UNSC soldiers roaming the base, who are surprisingly handy at taking down enemies from their vantage point in your vehicles. While a co-op campaign mode has been delayed until after launch, the friendly A.I. is relatively adept, and although they aren’t crucial to victory it’s certainly helpful (and very fun) to bring a few soldiers along for the ride.

The many who have already played Halo Infinite’s multiplayer offering will be familiar with many of the weapons here, though there are a number of variations you can pick up across Zeta Halo. These add an extra twist to existing guns — for instance, the sniper rifle can be granted an additional shock effect — that can then be accessed from any FOB. Compared to other Halo entries that were typically dominated by one or two weapons, the useability of so many of the guns here is a big step up. Covenant weapons, in particular, are more viable than they’ve ever been, with the Pulse Carbine routinely being my go-to. There are still plenty of tweaks I’d like to see — the ammo for power weapons such as the rocket launcher and energy sword is way too low, both in single-player and multiplayer — but I found myself switching between weapons I’d have turned my nose up at in previous games.

The Banished are the real star of the show here, though. Halo has struggled with the direction of its villains since the fall of the Covenant in Halo 3, but the Banished make a lot of sense as a disillusioned clan of ex-Covenant criminals, while they’re also immensely satisfying to fight. By planting Halo combat in an open space, Infinite gets to showcase the immense variety in enemies the series has when compared to other FPS franchises. Within a few minutes, Master Chief can be disposing of a herd of Grunts, taking down a long-range Jackal sniper, firing explosives at a heavily armored War Chieftain, and desperately trying to get eyes on a camouflaged Elite wielding an energy sword. This is complemented by the Chief’s new suite of abilities, including a grappling hook, deployable shield, thrusters, and a tactical sensor, which Infinite asks you to take full advantage of given how challenging many of these enemy encounters can be.

But while the Banished are tons of fun to fight across Zeta Halo, they lack a compelling face of their movement. Escharum is the main antagonist here, a mean Jiralhanae War Chief who takes over from the previously established Atriox. However, it’s unclear why this change in villain was considered necessary, given that Escharum wants to simply achieve Atriox’s goals with little in the way of his own character development. It all feels like an unnecessary bait-and-switch to potentially set up something bigger further down the line, a common theme throughout the game.

Halo Infinite is a robust package at launch, there’s no denying it, but it’s also clearly a work-in-progress. The lack of co-op at launch is indicative of this, but it’s also glaringly apparent when exploring Zeta Halo. The linear sections players are transported to are incredibly similar to the point where I’d struggle to differentiate missions between one another — there’s no variety in locations outside of towering alien structures. Similarly, Zeta Halo may not be the biggest open-world, but it still feels pretty empty. There’s little to do here outside of traveling to and from objectives, and while they’re favorably clumped together, when you’re not making the journey between waypoints in a vehicle it’s clear how barren this landscape is.

Halo Infinite: Multiplayer review

But Infinite suffers most from its work-in-progress status with its multiplayer. Though still in its beta stages, there are so many questionable design choices here that it’s difficult to see a swift way out for 343 Industries. Much has been made of its woeful progression system, which doesn’t give players XP for anything related to their personal performance. 343 made amendments post-launch to give players more XP for simply playing matches, though XP is still predominantly earned by completing arbitrary challenges. XP is then used to level up the Battle Pass, which contains a selection of predominantly dull cosmetics, alongside an overpriced storefront where players can spend upwards of $15 to make their Spartan armor white.

Then there are the playlists, which are a random selection of mostly objective-based modes. 343 has stated that it is working on introducing Slayer-based playlists, but again, there’s no set ETA on when this will happen, and it’s curious why Team Slayer wasn’t prioritized at launch when it’s the most popular game type. Playing objective-based modes with strangers can be an enormous headache, and I’ve lost count of the number of matches where my teammates are refusing to stick to the plan.

343 Industries seem committed to making improvements across the board here, remaining communicative with players that it will look to resolve these problems after the holiday break — a commendable decision to not force their workers into crunch, as is so prevalent in the gaming industry. However, this means that Halo Infinite’s multiplayer is yet another game that has launched with the promise of eventually being something special, rather than being greatly enjoyable right out of the gate. There’s still lots of fun to be had here — Big Team Battle can be wonderful chaos, the high TTK is a refreshing change of pace for the genre, and it all feels comfortingly Halo-y — but there are so many little frustrations that it makes me want to put it down and wait until its issues have been resolved.

Halo Infinite Review: The final verdict

And therein lies the inherent issue with launching Halo Infinite as a platform for the Halo series. It’s clear that there’s tons of potential here, and there’s so much to love about what 343 Industries has already introduced, but playing it at launch feels like you’re playing the worst version of what could rightly wind up being a fantastic game. Game Pass lets subscribers experience games like Halo Infinite on a whim, and it also lets developers like 343 take risks on launching a “Halo platform” that’s a work-in-progress. Currently, its single-player campaign is fun if somewhat empty, while its multiplayer flickers between exhilarating and frustrating. With the former being available on Game Pass while the latter is free-to-play, it’s not much of a gamble to just play it despite its problems, but by now I think we all miss when games felt like they were finished at launch.