Halo Infinite

Doubt the single player will ever be really good again because 343 aren't very good at making SP games. They've proven that conclusively. I'm enjoying Infinite because the one thing they have absolutely nailed is the feel of combat and (so far) ditched the robots. Combined with it being an imitation of Halo 1, it's at least better than 4 or 5. Since opening up, it's had no narrative drive or excitement, can't remember hearing any of that iconic music but it feels great moment to moment.

I think this is as good as it's going to get under 343. The terrible boss fights show they have no finesse whatsoever but can manage a decent cover version. Glad they've settled on just being that after 5 personally.

I think the Prometheans were fucking awful enemies to fight. A bit like the Flood.

I like the Prometheans more than the flood.

I feel like 343 nailed the brief. Give me Halo CE if it was 20 years later.

You may not like the brief, but it's hard to look at Infinite and pick it apart for unashamedly being exactly what it is.

I'll never get boss fights in FPS games though, they'll only ever be annoying bullet sponges and who has time for that?

I didn't mind fighting Prometheans. They required a somewhat different approach to the Covenant, but in the end most weapons worked against them - they were certainly better than the cheap and mindless hordes of Flood, which you absolutely needed a shotgun to kill. I always hated the Flood with rocket launchers. Worst enemies in the series. Yes, worse than Jackal snipers.

Yeah, Halo 2 had a few boss fights. They were pretty bad. There's a reason bosses didn't return for a long time.

The flood werent amazing enemies to fight but they were thematically good enemies.

They had clearly defined goals (eat everything), clearly defined motivations (eat everything) and they were a clever juxtaposition of a mindless, unreasonable force set against the techno wizardry of the covenant and, to a lesser extent, the humans. They allowed the story to be a lot more than humans vs aliens.

Every other enemy introduced since then has not, which is why they all suck. The Didact was probably the best stab, maybe? 'I just woke up and you fuckers are in charge?'. I dunno.

I can't imagine caring about the enemies' motivation tbh.

I quite like the Flood for the reasons you describe, they fit the (first) game pretty well and while there weren't as fun to fight against as the covenant by a long shot, they added an interesting dynamic.

Though, after just doing a replay I remembered Guilty Spark bigging up their intelligence -"Its parasitic nature belies the Flood's intelligence".

I agree the Prometheans were a rubbish enemy. Robot-esque things always feel pretty soulless in games I think.

Personally I haven't cared about a Halo story since the first one (and even then not that much). Though Reach was pretty cool.

Not always, as in the case of Doom 2016 and how some people didn't like that Doom Eternal leaned into a story, but for something like Halo with all its lore a good, comprehensible story feels like a necessity.

Interesting article on the troubled development.

www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-08/how-microsoft-s-halo-infinite-went-from-disaster-to-triumph

Lucky they stuck the landing as well as they did. 2/3rd of the game cut, even features like having marines come on your adventures 343 didn't see as a good idea, until they brought someone back who worked on previous games.

Oh yeah I posted that earlier in the thread.

From a pure gameplay perspective I actually think this is the best Halo I’ve played. It reminds me of the good bits from Halo 3, expanded out and improved.

Story wise, I’ve honestly not had a clue what is going on since Halo 2. The whole thing is a mess. What Infinite is lacking though (so far at least) are some stand out designed story missions, like the beach fight through to the spaceport in Reach for instance.

All in all I think it’s pretty great so far, but is lacking some needed direction.

But it's definitely the most double-A triple-A game I've ever played.