This is an in depth review for Halo Infinite, the latest installment in the Halo franchise. (TLDR: Average Score. 2.1/5). Below are detailed sections of my review, divided into two parts: Campaign and Multiplayer, for clarity and consumer preferences.

Story, 2/5: The story in Halo Infinite is 343's attempt at recreating the Halo 4 drama with a classic Bungie tint. The themes of the story are easily identifiable and true to 343's marketing material, Halo Infinite delivered a narrative that focus on themes of heroism, hope, and humanity. However, the plot itself faces scrutiny. While the plot line surrounding the main cast is generally great, almost no moments were spared for the classic Halo's epic telling of a story Halo fans came to enjoy in the past two decades. This may be the case due to 343's decision on bringing Halo back to its root, which is Halo:CE, however in no narrative aspect is Halo Infinite required to limit itself, as this game is seen as a soft reboot of the franchise, as well as the first chapter of a new, expansive Halo universe. Aside from the general reaction to the story, many of the old issues in 343's writing can be found. Halo Infinite introduced some significant plot points that are still yet to be resolved by the time the credit rolls, and the introductions of a few major characters lack weight or are out of touch with players.

Dialogue, 3/5: This section critics the literary beauty of the in-game dialogues. The formulation of Cortana's dialogue during the third act of the game contains some of the best lines I have heard in all video games. Master Chief has gotten some of his iconic satire back in his dialogues, and other major characters all share to a certain degree well written lines that enhance the narrative experience. However, like all 343's games, Infinite still is plagued with filler dialogues which only involve tropes rather than substance. For example, Cortana (echoes) likes to speak of mystic yet unfathomable things which without deliberately reflecting on, feels like cheap attempt at invoking a sense of mystery. Escharum delivers some of the most intense lines but ultimately they lose their charm and threat after players have heard them for a couple of times. All in all, Halo Infinite's dialogues are good but not great.

Characters, 3.5/5: Aside from The Harbinger, most characters are enjoyable, relatable, and have no major issues. The Weapon written as a naive, cute, and in general more approachable version of Cortana is a interesting and appreciated; Master Chief has gotten some of his Bungie era charm back though still resembles a more human spartan; The Pilot is a reflection of the most ordinary people in the Halo universe, who is afraid, anxious, lacking confidence and trust, and ultimately was inspired by Master Chief's miraculous comeback; Escharum, although in no way as well portrayed as Atriox, is a fearful, ruthless and blood-crazed antagonist who has a clear motivation and was crashed due to his fixation on glory instead of victory... Minor characters are memorable and lovable, and some are clearly representing some of the characters back in the Bungie days of Halo. Good things aside, character developments and personalities are still in some aspect feel forced, and one of the most speculated character The Harbinger ended up being a generic ancient evil whose plan is as abstract as 'the reclamation', and Cortana and Atriox's appearance in this game created some of the most confusing plot thread while the game still leave existing questions surrounding the characters unanswered.

Gameplay, 2/5: Thanks to Halo Infinite’s great attempt at bringing back the old Halo dance offsetting some of the bad aspect of gameplay, more points were to be deducted which will correspond with the game not being enjoyable in the first place. The issue is mostly level design, while linear levels include amazing call-backs and impressive sights, after reaching the open-world section of the game, players will be bored as they experience similar environment over and over again playing through copied and pasted side content as well as major story missions. Legendary difficulty showcases some of the worst aspects of the combat: bullet-sponge enemies, inconsistent/unintuitive weapon damage and damage feedback, unnatural AI-awareness, issues with vehicle and vehicle section designs… A few examples of these are: player driven tanks can be disabled with one sticky grenade while the enemy vehicles in general take at least two grenades to fully disable; Elite minor units are able to take 2 rockets in the face and sometimes shield-less grunts are capable of surviving one rocket too; Enemy brutes are able to fire projectile based weapon with pin-point precision regardless of line-of-sight, the worst offender in this case is the ravager; Aside from bosses and bullet-sponges, Legendary in this game is a cake walk akin to Halo 3:ODST, with most combat scenarios can be dealt with precision weapons or hard hitting weapons like the mangler. From a macro perspective, the open world adds little value to the game, though it is fun to traverse in, it still lacks purpose and significance in the grander story telling.

Cutscene/Cinematography, 3/5: Halo Infinite decides to abandon the traditional third person cutscene fans have been used to and in most cases used a combination of third and first person perspective camera angles (Through Chief’s lens) to convey its unplayable storytelling. Animations are a pleasure to look at, the usage of lighting is clearly artificial but graceful, combined with great dialogue and soundtrack, cutscenes engender feelings that are sure to be memories. Though the lack of grand-scale scenes leave the grandeur of Halo’s settings less-appreciated.

Soundtrack (and its implementation), 3/5: Although Halo Infinite’s soundtrack artists did a superb job at recreating the melodic encounter created by Marty (who was the Bungie era soundtrack designer), the game’s soundtrack, when it comes to evolving the old music, captures memorable themes and core melodies but fell short at creating a complete experience, that is to say few tracks in the OST can stand on their own. Many tracks when isolated from the legacy Halo sounds do not possess a clear identity, which for a Halo game, is too safe and backwards of a practice.

Performance, 2/5: *This specifically applies to PC version of the game. My experience with Halo Infinite’s campaign is plagued with technical issues, not bugs, but framerate drops. The open-world consumes at least 20 fps without entering combat or resource intense situations which, makes my experience in the open world a sluggish one. Frame drop spikes are common and usually tanks my framerate to below 20 fps, rendering the game unplayable. Dynamic resolution greatly downgrades the game’s visual whilst barely improving framerates. Graphical settings seem to have little impact on performance, nor visual style. The game looks amazing in some areas but without a great art direction a lot of spaces are looking dated. In summary, the performance of this game will let you believe that Halo Infinite is definitely an unrefined product, and it is very rough around the edges. Given the context of modern 3A game scene, its performance is dead average.

*See comment for multiplayer review: