This is a tough one for me.

After playing the entire series (except for Halo 5), somehow, an open-world Halo game didn’t sound that good. This is also why I have mixed feelings about it.

To get the first things out of the way: the graphics and sound effects are great. The graphics could’ve been better, but they’re still great. The level design as well (especially the alien structures and ships) is excellent — it looks and feels like Halo.

The open-world part, not so much. It’s okay, but the world feels empty, repetitive, and way too close to a Far Cry game.
Same goes for the side quests. You’ve got FOBs (Forward Operating Bases), which act like the bases/towers in Far Cry games. You can unlock them, and they’ll automatically reveal new side quests, collectibles, and Spartan Cores. In fact, the only collectibles worth getting — if you don’t want to run around looking for easter eggs or multiplayer cosmetics — are the Spartan Cores, since they’re used to upgrade the suit’s abilities (there are five of them, each with five levels). You can finish the game without them, but they really add to the experience, and since you unlock most during the main quests, it’s worth upgrading them.

Other than that, the game is quite close to a standard Far Cry loop: unlock a FOB, run around collecting things, destroy propaganda towers (still not sure why those exist), kill Banished assassins who took out Spartans and high-profile targets, sabotage your own bases now controlled by the Banished, and rescue marine prisoners or squads under attack. Then unlock another FOB and repeat.

There are also other things to collect that, for some reason, aren’t on the map (you can find them here: https://mapgenie.io/halo-infinite/maps/zeta-halo). Probably someone thought this would make the game feel longer.

After a while, this gets boring. The only thing that keeps it interesting is that you can unlock and use vehicles (the Scorpion and the Wasp are really fun to play with), and bring marines along for support. The downside? You need Valor points to unlock them — which mostly means doing side quests. The upside? The map isn’t nearly as huge as a typical Far Cry one.

Another aspect I personally didn’t enjoy is that you have to progress through the main story to unlock some FOBs and continue side quests. You can’t just clear all the side content first, then tackle the main missions.

As for the main story, this is the Halo everyone expected, I guess. It’s very similar to the old games (with a few exceptions) in terms of level design and gameplay. The most notable addition is the suit upgrades: Grappleshot, Shield Core, Threat Sensor, Drop Wall, and Thruster. The Grappleshot is especially useful for reaching high places or during combat, while the Threat Sensor helps spot hidden or cloaked enemies. The others are interesting, but I didn’t use them much.

Other than that, it’s all classic Halo gameplay. The shooting is great, with lots of enemies that have varying abilities and health levels. In many ways, it’s actually better than the older games.

Story-wise, it’s kind of meh. It’s interesting and, in a way, refreshing since it tries to retcon the Halo 5 story (haven’t played that one, but that’s what I’ve heard). The problem is, you get more context from YouTube than the game itself. It really feels like there’s a lot more lore that just didn’t make it into the game. That would’ve been disappointing in a regular linear game — even more so now, when this open-world setup can stretch to 25 hours just doing map content (maybe up to 30 if you go for everything).

There are also a few hints toward a sequel (who would've thought), but by the end of the campaign, it’s clear the story won’t follow the same path as the older Halo titles — at least not narratively.

As for the most annoying part? It feels like a DLC for a multiplayer game.
The loading times are awful. Basically, you start the main multiplayer client, wait for it to load, then launch the campaign, wait again — the game then switches to single-player mode (screen flashes, game closes, reopens), wait again, resume campaign... wait again. Max time I’ve waited for all the loading screens? Around 5 minutes. Seriously, who thought this was a good idea? I haven’t seen loading this long since Chrome. Also, this is the first game I’ve seen with multiple loading screens in a row.

Fortunately, once it’s running, the game is smooth. No lags, crashes, or bugs.

In the end, all I can say is that the game is worth it. It’s not the standard Halo experience, but it’s still a Halo game.
Now I’m looking forward to seeing where the story goes.