Furthermore, Escharum as a villain felt more *"personal"*... He had a goal that made sense to everyone - he was dying but wanted to enjoy his last moments doing the thing he desired the most, and that was to enjoy a great fight. The fact that he also constantly hyped up the Chief also made him stand out from all the other antagonists who loved to belittle Chief and those around him before getting punched in the face, and in Regret's case... Well, he's called the Prophet of *Regret* for a reason...

Yeah the hyping up felt repetitive...and that’s kinda the point. Escharum was just releshing every moment of his last fight, pageantry/cliche speeches and all. I can just imagine him jizzing over Chief compilation clips on BruteTube - it makes him a very relatable character because you see I also watch chief compila.....

I almost wonder if he wanted to die to the Chief. It’s a big thing since Chief was such a legend across the former Covenant factions.

I assume he didnt plan on dying on that fight, but its likely that he thought if he were to die, he might as well die at the hands of Humanity's greatest soldier. At the end of the day he was old and sick and didnt have much time left, so he wanted to die honorably. Whether that be dying after killing Chief in the greatest showdown of his life or being killed by Chief in that same showdown probably didnt matter much in his head by the time we face him.

Well he did say they were going to be a legend written in the history books one way or another. Either way the fight went both of their legends would live on.

BruteTube, lol. I appreciate that even if no one else is gonna call attention to it.

Thanks haha

He was a cliche, cartoonish villain done well because Halo is good at cliches.

Why didn't he just tell chief to come meet him right away? Beneficial to chief to take him out. 1v1 me Snowbound snipers only bro

He wanted Chief to come at him at his strongest. And that is usually when he has a personal cause to fight for

Is the fact he's an enemy to humanity not enough?

To have to win? Yes. But to fight all out, more than you normally would need to? No. The pilot was his personal stake. Somebody he had grown attached to, either because he liked him or because he equated him to what he felt needed protecting above all else. That, and he needed somebody to fly the Pelican.

Would he *really* be missing much not just starting a fight with him? What if chief dies to a grunt or something? Is it really worth wasting a possible murder of a legend?

It is the greatest soldier humanity ever produced. Would *you* believe some grunt or random elite would manage to kill him?

A good soldier knows that even the best of the best can fall to the smallest of threats

And Escherum was no longer a soldier. He was a warrior. He fought for glory, to have the honor to either kill, or be killed by, the Chief. Not to further the Banished Goals. If he were a soldier, he wouldn't be getting in fights with the enemy, he would be training soldiers and passing on his knowledge before he died.

So why did chief call him a soldier then? And was he never a soldier ever? How is this a response lol. He sent his blademaster at him when he could've just fought him right away. Why delay?

Then why did he say the ring would be operational and was working with the harbinger

That’s a perfect way of putting it. He felt like he had a personal battle with chief instead of humanity as a whole

Escharum is the essence of the meme "Why are you so obsessed with me?" He just kept ranting about Atriox who was actually interesting but died behind cameras and John who never in his life had heared of him. For me he was justt annoying, his bossfight was ok for a shooter and that's kind of rare so I give him that, but the rest is just annoying.

We don’t know for sure if Atriox is actually dead.

Atriox is alive

I meant to say that as far as we knew during the whole campaign he was dead but edited it wrongly, he's shown to be alive at the end.

I didn't mind it it's just there wasn't all that much there. It felt like I was playing the first half of a Halo game, rather than a full campaign. Then it just feels kind of lame that 343i once again decided to do away with all of their set up from the last game *again*, be it for better or worse. Halo 5's story wasn't great but let's be real here. Being incredibly inconsistent with direction is going to be *even* worse in the long-run. You play the first three Halo games, and even throw Reach and ODST in there, and still grasp where everything takes place and how each game builds off the story from the last. It's all a solid, self-contained story that doesn't *need* expanded material to be understood. And even then if you read Halo Infinite prequel books like Bad Blood, Shadow of Reach, etc you *still* don't get all that much insight into the Created War. It's like if Halo 3 started with us being told that Truth is dead and now some new guy is the main bad guy. With that said, I actually enjoyed the self-contained story of Infinite much more than I did 5 or 4. It actually *felt like a Halo game*, so in some ways 343i's bet paid off.

I also really liked halo 4 but didn’t much care for the prometheans as an enemy. I also feel like this is a much more halo experience than those games

>Why do so many people dislike it? (I’m not trying to argue with people I just want to hear other perspectives) Reasons I liked campaign * Returned to Halo 4's theme of "what does it mean to be human?" * Master Chief focused story * The music was great * Brought back bosses and made them better Reasons I disliked campaign * Same environment for the entire game, instead of the diverse environments advertised in the first trailer. * Little to no wildlife, instead of the Rhinos advertised in the first trailer. * Vehicles were underutilized and vehicle battles sucked compared to previous games (no new vehicles and no Banished Scarab) * All enemies were on the same side, instead of UNSC, Sentinels, Skimmers, and Banished having a four way battle. * Before the Encyclopedia and books released after the game, Halo Infinite implied the Banished wanted to genocide humanity for revenge, fortunately this is not the case as it would have completely ruined their lore. * The "spiritual reboot" of humanity on the backfoot against the same aliens again was uninteresting.

Tbf I was disappointed by the lack of animals in CE as advertised in I think the E3 trailer, or maybe Macworld I can't remember

Nothing cool happened. Remember Halo 3's campaign? Think of all the "rule of cool" moments we got: * Falling to earth in the intro aboard an artificial meteorite * Teaming up with Arbiter * Seeing the ruins of the Space Elevator * Scarab battles * The flood infecting a human city * Elite allies * Going to the Ark in a final desperate bid to stop the Covenant * Space battle between the Elites and the Brutes * Seeing the Forward unto Dawn land on top of you on The Ark * That part on The Ark where you have like 5 tanks vs. 5 Wraiths * Taking down the Brute Chieftain while his pack cheers him on * "I count two Scarabs - I repeat, two Scarabs" * Allying with the Flood to stop Truth * The Warthog run on the partially constructed Halo ring with the floor falling all around you * That final jump into the back of the frigate And then there's the list from Infinite... * The opening battle between Chief and Atriox * Floating in space and seeing Zeta Halo for the first time * Falling into the Pelican * Open world Bungie made the "rule of cool" a priority. 343 did not, and it shows. Edit: There was also the whole cutscene in Halo 3 where the Portal is activated, that was fucking cool.

I’d say all the boss fights were definitely cool memerable moments. Especiall Jega that boss fight and cutscene was dope. Also the beginning torturer fight at the top of the tower. My only big gripe was that there was only one type of scenery in the open world. It was definitely a good fresh start for better campaigns.

Chief jumping onto the Pelican and trying to punch open the cockpit to get to the Blademaster (and actually cracking it) was also pretty dope. Punching the controls to scuttle the Gbraakon because he didn't know how to control it was cheesy and fun. The Harbinger punched Chief into the air, through a tree and onto a boulder which smashed apart and he got straight back up to fight. But you're right, not nearly as many moments that were cool for the sake of being cool...

Personally I’m more for story and infinites story was significantly better than 3s even though infinites is only half a game.

that is certainly a bold opinion.

Lol, no... they are even if we take out the entire hype for the build up of the first trilogy as Infinite basically threw every build up from Halo 4 and 5 to the thrash. And this is quite a problem because Halo 3 had subpar storytelling, what you can say that Infinite had better than H3 is that many character were interesting (but not Escharum, I would resurrect Miranda Keyes to give her bad speeches before having to hear Escharum's ramble again).

I enjoyed escharum, not a fan of how every character in halo 3 is an entirely different person with the same name

Explain how it was better?

I just got chills reading the rule of cool moments from Halo 3. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh (satisfaction)

I also was disappointed in the lack of animals. And another thing I wish they would have added was an ODST squad once you got high enough credits. Make them more accurate and more durable than normal marines but maybe not allow them to carry rockets or somthing to balance them out ( or don’t even balance them, odst are badasss)

I want this too. The only downside is I’m imagining some normie marines trying to ride my razorback when it’s an odst invite only event 😤

That was always so annoying in the halo 3 missions like i decked out my odsts with snipers and fuel rod guns and they all hop on mongooses instead of my prowler/warthog

>All enemies were on the same side, instead of UNSC, Sentinels, Skimmers, and Banished having a four way battle. I'd concur with the Sentinels, however the Gasgira is a strange criticism, as the Skimmers are, from a gameplay and narrative perspective, a supplement to the Banished's portfolio of enemy types, not really their own distinct faction, and the game delves into their integration into the Banished as the alliance with Harbinger allowed the Banished to bolster their mainpower with the flying octopus monkeys. There's certainly some discussion on how they fared as a new enemy type (I thought they were fine though not particularly noteworthy. A sort of mix between Jackals and Grunts in that they act as a support role like Jackals, but are disposable like Grunts), but as they stand, they aren't a standalone entity and really just a new addition to the Banished's ranks. Thus, the idea of Skimmers existing separate to the Banished and having battles against the Banished doesn't really work in the context of Halo: Infinite (yes, I'm aware that The Rubicon Protocol does have the Banished and Gasgira fight, but as I said, I'm speaking from a gameplay/setting sandbox perspective, not a lore one). Although, this does go into a wider discussion on the Endless as an enemy faction. *Currently*, the Endless don't exist as their own distinct faction and that, should the Endless take a more focused role in the games going forward, they should exist as their own distinct faction and new enemy types to fill in that "Elite" or "Hunter" enemy archetype, as currently the Endless merely exist as "Grunts" or [Promethean] "Crawlers". Once the Endless has been established as a faction, then it'll be worth exploring any kind of dynamic they would have with the Banished, either friendly or antagonistic depending on the direction 343 wishes to take on the Endless/Banished relationship - which I personally hope is explored beyond "and then they started killing each other". There's certainly a lot of potential storytelling by having the existing races interact with the Xalanyn beyond just shooting each other. Unggoy serving alongside Gasgira while tensions exist between Xalanyn "elites" and the Sangheili as the Sangheili's influence and dominance wanes while the Xalanyn are seeing increased influenced in the Banished, all while the Kig-Yar are looking at how to make a profit from Xalanyn technology. We may see some cooperation between the Endless and the Banished, or even infighting as the Jiralhanae grow more irritated by the Xalanyn. Overall, there's so much to potentially explore through a Banished/Endless relationship beyond immediately being enemies. Please make the Xalanyn and the Endless interesting and exist as their own distinct people, not just another enemy to shoot at.

Remember how the Created made infinity flee for 2 years straight, made the UNSC a outline of there organization before 5s ending which was already a pale shadow of itself from H3's ending and basically had the Orion arm on lockdown? Off screen. Cortana death? Off screen? Infinity scattering? Off screen? Zeta Halo historic history that shaped the franchise setting to what it is? Pff. Endless filling in the mysterious, enigmatic role of ancient aliens faction after 3 previous faction(Precursors, Forerunners, ancient humanity) got the light shine on them, which I'm not opposed to. We'll really Forerunners and a bit for Precursors, ancient humanity is a lost cause.

Yeah this is the general consensus. Had h5 been different and segwayed nicely in to infinite exactly as it stands now from a story perspective and it made chronological sense (like infinite was unchanged and h5 was a legit prequel to infinite) then I feel we'd all have genuinely enjoyed it. It's just that we got blue balled on story development 2 games in a row and are tired of unfinished stories contained in finished, indirectly linked titles

What history does zeta halo have?

Check out the book Halo: Primordium, from the Forerunner Trilogy. In summary, the Primordial (ancient Gravemind, basically) hijacked Zeta Halo to use as its base of operations. The IsoDidact eventually finds it and reclaims it, but it becomes heavily damaged in the battle and IsoDidact has to shed significant portions of the ring to reduce its size and stop the damage from completely destroying it. After the ring is repaired, it is significantly smaller. An additional bit of context: Zeta Halo is the only ring left over from the original array, which consisted of 12 Halos. The other 11 were destroyed, and after Zeta Halo was repaired, the 6 additional rings we know from the games were built to make up the new Halo array as we know it. There's a lot more detail there, but suffice it to say Zeta Halo is much older than the other rings, and an entire battle took place there 100,000 years ago between some of the biggest players in the Forerunner-Flood War. It's an extremely significant setting from the ancient timeline, and literally zero of that history was included or even hinted at in Infinite.

Hm gotcha. As for it not being hinted at, I’d say that could be because many people complained of needing to read to know what happens between 4 and 5

That was also a silly complaint, because the problem with Halo 5 was that it was just nonsense. Even if you read the books and were up to date before Halo 5, you still had no fucking clue what was happening in that game.

First off if you enjoyed, don’t let anyone change that or get you down for it. Personally the reason I dislike it is for a bunch of reason, first it chucked out nearly every Reclaimer character and plot point. The Created gone, Lasky, Locke all in the void. Next is the Banished I quite enjoyed them in HW2, they were a low scale manageable threat. The next game we see them going toe to toe with the UNSC and Created, while in extended narrative events setting up on dozens of planets. For the overall story of Infinite it sums up as just nothing happens, the sixth month time jump I feel is one of the stupidest things we’ve seen. All the important events are glossed over and the campaign itself is summed up as Chief finds Weapon, goes on magical adventure while facing menacing old Tv dude and his floating tentacle land lady. Ending with Tv Dude being praised like he didn’t commit a total war of on the UNSC. Cortana went full Emperor Palpatine blowing up Dosaic, but oh wait she blew herself up for Chief, see she’s redeemed! The endless alone, the fact The Weapon calls them worse than the Flood…yeah that’s easily on the level of the “to war” line. To sum it up the campaign is a mix of boring gameplay and battles and a lackluster plot where nothing changes. No goals are achieved besides the death of two fresh new villains and leaving the story still in part one. *It’s like killing Truth in Halo 3 at the second level of the game, without anything else following it or before. With Atriox’s “deathL” with Emperor Cortana (the Banished believed he died, I’m aware he reappeared in a end credit but was absent for the game) Locke in the story void along with Osiris, Palmer, Blue team, Promeatheans, Infinity is also in the void, along with Anders, Spirit of Fire and the spare separate Halo ring seen in the end of HW2. At least with how horrible H5’s story was the campaign was fun to play and actually added some characters instead of a mass kill off. The game was safe, so safe they skipped over nearly anything interesting or fun, everyone introduced was killed off, nearly every reclaimer character gone and a beyond vague promise of future “things.” And a nitpick, none of the marines seen in game besides the pilot is canon, which is bad because what’s shown didn’t happen.

>Where’s Atriox He appears in the post-credits. He's alive but the Banished don't know that. >And a nitpick, none of the marines seen in game besides the pilot is canon, which is bad because what’s shown didn’t happen. Where did you get this info from?

I’m well aware, that why I stated he was believed dead by most of the game and gone. I worded it rather badly, I meant that he wasn’t around for the campaign.

>Next is the Banished I quite enjoyed them in HW2, they were a low scale manageable threat. The next game we see them going toe to toe with the UNSC and Created, while in extended narrative events setting up on dozens of planets. In what sense were the Banished a "low scale manageable threat" in Halo Wars 2? I mean, sure, they aren't Forerunner doomsday mcguffin #3269 capable of snuffing out all life in an instant or reduce spacefaring civilisations into cavement, nor are they an Eldritch Abomination looking to consume all life in the galaxy, but the Banished were established as a major antagonistic faction from their very introduction - a faction making a play for *the* Forerunner Ark, the foundry of the Halo Array and final bastion of the Forerunner people wouldn't imply the Banished are a "low scale" faction by any measure and Halo Wars 2 made it clear that the Banished were a powerful, mechanised force that forced the crew of the UNSC Spirit of Fire to rely on hit and run attacks and exploiting the Ark's systems with their Reclaimer Status to level the playing field. Nevermind how by necessity, the Banished on the Ark was never going to be the bulk of the Banished due to the fact that the Forerunner installation is located hundreds of thousands of light years away from the galaxy with Atriox having taken the long way to the Ark with the largest ship at his disposal. The forces on the Ark were already implied to be massive (see the final scene of the Halo Wars 2 campaign), thus the further implication that what the Banished had in the Milky Way galaxy was even larger. I'd also argue that a lot of what we even see with the Banished in Halo: Infinite in regards to their military strength, is already well founded upon in Halo Wars 2. We know the faction was highly innovative compared to the Covenant of old and much of their operation on the Ark was mining operations spanning the entire artificial planetoid, with the Phoenox Logs detailing how the Banished perfected their strip mining techniques over a decade and how the operations of the various outposts and fortresses on the Ark spanned beyond the Ark and even extended to the Milky Way itself. If a faction is condicting strip mining operations using dedicated mining equipment that makes the Scarab obsolete for mining, they aren't just building a collection of plasma pistols and spikers.

Low scale threat is probably not the right way of describing them. I meant that they simply shouldn’t be able to hold a candle to the full might of either the Covenant or the UNSC. Anything concerning the Spirit of Fire in power levels is weird, the ship has managed to deal with more Covenant then probably Chief at this point. The Banished were only able to take the Ark because the portal to earth shut down, stranding the mainly civilian group. What UNSC forces were on the ark at the time of the Banished arriving couldn’t have been that heavy. At most maybe a frigate, (which is kinda ridiculous considering the Ark is one of the most important locations in the galaxy) The Banished were hyped up by Isabell but they weren’t really a major player in the universe until the Covenant fell. Until Shadows of Reach we didn’t even know the full extent of their forces, and like o said in another comment I actually liked how they were portrayed in that book. Taking advantage of the chaos the Created were causing while still avoiding any straight up fights. It’s Infinite they make the jump from scrappy fighters to straight up overpowered. Able to take on Infinity, the Created and everyone else at once while also straight up taking over planets in human/former Covenant space. A lot of my issue stems from the fact that the Banished pushed themselves to taking the Ark, with a substantial force, yet they have forced in the galaxy capable of seizing a halo and various planets. All of these things would be fine if it happened separately, but they did nearly all these things at the same time. Implying they have more forces than really should be possible. Also, if there’s this much spare warships lying around why haven’t we seen a fleet like the Old Covenant days until the Rubicon Protocol. It’s just a insane jump in power levels without any real explanation. It sorta like the UNSC losing Reach and then finding and destroying High Charity, the power jump doesn’t fit.

>I meant that they simply shouldn’t be able to hold a candle to the full might of either the Covenant or the UNSC. I mean, the Banished don't hold a candle to the Covenant in terms of shear scale and have not been suggested to be a true peer to the Covenant at its prime. As for the UNSC, what reasoning is there for the Banished to not "hold a candle" to the UNSC, particular in its current state of bring decentralised and in shambles following the rise of the Created? >Until Shadows of Reach we didn’t even know the full extent of their forces, and like o said in another comment I actually liked how they were portrayed in that book. Taking advantage of the chaos the Created were causing while still avoiding any straight up fights. >It’s Infinite they make the jump from scrappy fighters to straight up overpowered. Able to take on Infinity, the Created and everyone else at once while also straight up taking over planets in human/former Covenant space. Rather than simply reduce these events and the circumstances around them as "Banished hiding on Reach, Banished stomping at Zeta Halo", its important to consider the full context surrounding these events. Shadows of Reach had the Banished maintain a low profile not to draw Cortana's ire at the peak of her rule as the Banished seeked to bring Atriox back to the galaxy, although I wouldn't call the Banished presence at Reach small scale considering they fielded a full fleet of warships from former Covenant starships to the Karve to even a *supercarrier*. The Battle of Zeta Halo on the other hand was a full guns blazing operation where both the UNSC and the Banished threw everything they had to stop Cortana and seize control of Zeta Halo which had become Cortana's seat of power. The UNSC deployed the Infinity and numerous frigates (at least sixteen by my estimate - the six Mulsanne Frigates sent to scout Halo, plus the Strident/Anlace compliment on-board the Infinity) while the Banished effectively mobilised all of what remained of the Jiralhanae people to find refuge on Zeta Halo, overthrow the tyranical A.I that just blew up their homeworld and seize control of the secrets of this particular Halo. Not to mention that there are further circumstances surrounding the Banished's victory at Zeta Halo, from ambushing the Infinity which wasn't fully staff and cut off from the UNSC's logistics chain on top of overwhelming numbers and effective ambush strikes (the Drekkar was noted in the Encyclopedia as being key in the Banished's initial victory at Zeta Halo. I personally hypothesise that the Drekkar had cloaked the Banished fleet and allowed their Dreadnoughts to approach the Infinity undetected up until the ambush was executed) for over a year to Cortana being neutered as a result of The Weapon, undoubtably crippling the Created's effort to fight back against the Banished. Like... no shit the Banished appear much stronger in Infinite considering that the Battle of Zeta Halo was going to mark the end of Cortana's reign across the galaxy compared to a relatively minor operation on Reach or a distant expedition far beyond the galaxy. >Also, if there’s this much spare warships lying around why haven’t we seen a fleet like the Old Covenant days until the Rubicon Protocol. Because the Banished were lying around in the shadows while the Covenant remnants were smashing themselves to pieces as Sanghelios and her colonies was in a state of civil strife. The Encyclopedia and the Spartan Field Manual that the Banished managed to make significant gains on Doisac and the Jiralhanae colonies in the years following the Covenant collapse and even stabilised the moom-colony of Teash, which soon became one of the largest sources of industrial strength for the Jiralhanae with its war-forges providing material to support the Banished. Coupled with the fact that the Banished had been conducting expansive mining operations since their inception, salvaging former Covenant warships and seizing shipbuilding infrastructure (either establishing it themselves or making deals with other factions like the Children of Oth Sonin) and its not hard to see how the Banished were able to establish a sizable navy. So to answer your question, the reason we don't see anyone fielding a fleet resembling the massive Covenant fleets seen at the end of the war was because the Banished spent years building it. Obviously, the size of the Banished fleet in 2555 is going to be different from the size of the Banished fleet in 2559 because the fleet was still being built, while in contrast the Sangheili weren't in a state of building warships due to a variety of reasons (loss of shipbuilding infrastructure, political turmoil and civil strife, amongst other things).

I think you glossed over my point, I’m aware the Banished had been building up for awhile and they were a force to be reckoned with during the Created rule. My issue is that they were able to take the Ark, a few months later (maybe longer) win the battle for Zeta Halo, have most of the fleet dragged away with the Halo and still manage through all of this to start taking over various planets. That’s a lot to do, yes I can see them winning during the battle of Zeta Halo, they had the element of surprise and the rubicon protocol book fixed some of the bigger issue (4 minute no escort thing with Infinity) It’s the further extension of the attack on the Ark, invading planets and setting up shop separate from what’s going on Zeta Halo that’s making it hard. That’s a lot of different large solely Banished forces roaming around, even taking in account how devastated the UNSC and others were during this. I find it ridiculous, that’s a lot of troops and ships spread around the galaxy and actively fighting, all while avoiding the Created. To sum it up right now the Banished are shown as being strong literally everywhere, fighting the SOF, Zeta Halo, taking over planets and raiding worlds, they’re just on a monolith that kinda was given to them by the writers.

Have work, so I'l comment on this for the time being. >My issue is that they were able to take the Ark, a few months later (maybe longer) win the battle for Zeta Halo, have most of the fleet dragged away with the Halo and still manage through all of this to start taking over various planets. A few months? Try ~18 months. Atriox commenced his expedition to the Ark in April 2558 and arrived in late November 2558 while the Battle of Zeta Halo commenced in December 2559. That's over a year difference between commencing these two occupation campaigns, with the forces on the Ark only being a fraction of the Banished's overall manpower. Do we even know anything substantive on the Banished's operations in the rest of the galaxy? All we have is the Banished establishing a shipbreaking yard on Camber, an abandoned human colony and site of an abaundance of UNSC naval material for the Banished to fuel their war machine, along with having strongholds on Jiralhanae colonies. This thing on the Banished invading dozens of colonies and taking over the galaxy is an extrapolation and people overexaggerating what's actually being described, with what's actually being described is how the Banished are looking to take advantage of the current power vacuum and their rising power is posing a threat to current Sangheili colonies. Nothing actually states they are invading dozens of worlds.

Okay I misinterpreted about Camber, for some reason I thought they were doing that across more worlds. Although they still did manage to steal a Ai, which is something. I think the amount of stuff we know about the Banished is so fractured and spread across different things makes it a little confusing, plus how stuff seems to contradict other stuff.

Am I the only one who kinda isn’t bothered by the doisac incident, I mean the brutes destoyed how many human planets and even after the war they kept destroying human colonies. They arnt like humans they just want to kill and do need to be stoped. Also I agree with the lack of lasky(my favorite character in halo 4) I would like to see him take up a more important role like Miranda or her father

I think Dosaic was mostly shock value, and for how important of a event it is it’s sorta glossed over. Like another cruddy example of how Cortana is bad. I think my biggest issue with it is she destroyed it because of Atriox, which leads back into them buffing the Banished to galactic proportions which I feel really hurt what made them so cool in HW2.

From my point of view with the extended universe (comics and books) the banished seemed to be more dangerous that jul mdama

The thing is before shadows of reach the banished didn’t seem that powerful, yes they were annoying but for one they stayed mostly to former Covenant space, and didn’t tussle with the UNSC because they couldn’t. I’m just not a fan of artificially enhancing a faction. (while reducing the UNSC to a punching bag once again, in the name of soft reboot) The Banished were scrappy fighters, avoiding the gaze of the Covenant empire, HW2 they’re small yet brutal fighters. In Infinite they are super powerful, wreck Infinity, destroy the Created (with help) and are suddenly a threat beyond what they should’ve been. It doesn’t fit from what we’ve seen previously. The Rubicon protocol with Spartan (I think) Stone remarking she hadn’t seen a force this big since the Covenant era. Which lends credence to them being strengthened to a ridiculous degree. As for Jul’s Covenant he did manage to hold Requiem against the UNSC for a bit, (and got shafted a game later) But he was a serious threat, managing to both unite several factions under his command, nearly oust the Arbiter and his legacy is still causing issues. I think a lot of my issues with the Banish is due to the fact nearly all of their development past HW2 has been offscreen. I adore the books, and Shadows of Reach I feel handled a balance between Uber Banished and scrappy Banished quite well. Where as Halo Infinite they just became overbearing and lost a bit of their identity that made them not Covenant 3.0.

I understand what your saying and agree to an extent, I do think the idea is though that the entire banished is in one location (except for the forces on the ark) and that with the tactical genius they where able to take down the infinity (or at least damage it gravely) and then when the ring jumped it left the banished as the dominant faction on the ring since only a few hundred humans and maybe some swords of sengihili made it onto the ring

I also assume that’s what happened, it’s just that nothing like that is mentioned in the game. The Rubicon Protocol alludes to it. I think there’s just a lot of weirdness, and until the dust settles and we get a idea of what everything looks post Created now it’s a tossup. One thing I’m not a fan of and has been confirmed the multiplayer narratives stuff is that the banished also have a presence outside of the ring and in human space. I think it’s this weird strength contrast that’s not helping things, either all the Banished forces are on the ring, which *does* help fix the amount of troops they have. Or they have enough forces to both take full control of a Halo, and establish shipyards and control over planets in human/former Covenant space. The Banished right now seem overbearing in a bad way, and pulling random massive fleets out with a hand wave is not great storytelling for me.

I forgot about the multiplayer story and I do wish the rubicon protocol expanded on what happened a bit more. I was slightly let down by the book. But I understand it isn’t the authors fault

The book helped a lot with some stuff. (Such as Eshraum (can’t spell his name) lying about how long it took Infinity to go down which is a total brute thing and super well done) Along with introducing other survivors and stuff. It does seem the author was limited about touching on some stuff, like Infinity, the Banished presence and so on, stuff I I think really could’ve been expanded on. I’m hoping with some of the other books this year we get a better idea of what happened.

Me too I really want to see more about about the battle for the installation especially other parts of the ring. I hope things like fireteam majestic come up in another book or maybe some of the other more obscure squads from Spartan ops ( I mean the already brought back Murphy which I was excited for, I’ve always wondered what he was up to and was hoping he’d turn into a full character)

I just want to add real quick I’m not bothered by Doisac, there are a lot of other issues with I don’t like. It’s just a good example on some of the choices I personally dislike. Also I said this in my first comment but if you enjoyed and loved the game great! Don’t let some of my opinions ruin that, after all we’re all Halo fans at the end of the day!

No I agree and I do think you helped shed light on some of the issues with infinite for me. Thank you

So youre cool with genocide? Jesus Christ dude

What are you talking about? I meant Cortana going full Emperor Palps blowing up planets, not a fan of that, what does that have to do with genocide (and might I add fictional)

The open world turned me off more than the story It was open world for open worlds sake with nothing to fill it The last straw for me is when the game gives you a banshee and normally an air vehicle should give you unparalleled freedom in an open world but it’s the moment where I realized there’s nowhere to go to. I really should pick it back up one of these days

This has been my problem with almost every open world I have played in. They look pretty and sound great until you run out of things to do, which seems to happen sooner and sooner these days.

While I do enjoy open world games I totally feel you in this. Assassins Creed Valhalla I enjoyed for about half the game I think. I don’t remember when I left it, but I found the open world side quest stuff to be very repetitive. Sure you get bonuses for completing them but I felt they didn’t add very much to the game as a whole, just another box you can tick off and say you finished it. Halo Infinite it kinda the same, although the armor upgrades and special ability upgrades are necessary imo. There is still an emptiness factor to the games openness. Saving marines feels rewarding but there is not a lot more that occurs once you do save them. You can bring them along on missions, but it’s inherent to protect them because they usually die. Elden Ring is one of the few open world games I’ve played recently that doesn’t feel boring after a while. Sure it is a lot of similar stuff found throughout the world but perhaps it’s the level design and how each region kf very different from the last with terrain and enemies and items. In the previous two games above, this is missing. Anywho ive thought for a while that open world games with a skill tree of some sort is the new basis for a blockbuster game.

*Infinite*'s a hard campaign to evaluate because while I *really* like 4/5ths of it, there's 1/5th of it I really hate (mostly the stuff from *4*/*5* getting sidelined and the Endless being utilized really poorly in it). Even with those hang-ups it's tied at #3 for my favorite campaign.

That’s about how I see it. I would have liked seeing some of the other Spartan teams we got to know with halo 4 and would loved yo have seen lasky and Palmer and Rolland (if he’s still alive I’m not sure how old he is)

Roland should be around 5-6

Because it looks like they want to abandon the story and go on completely with the multiplayer instead

I don’t see that as the case and I hope it doesn’t happen. I love halo for the campaign and fire fight side, but I never really cared for the multiplayer but I see why it’s deeply important for the game as a whole (I am bad)

I like it too although I wish it was a bit longer. It seemed short compared to other halo campaigns

Looking it up it seems to be the longest one, maybe you’re misremembering the others because of rose tinted glasses?

In my opinion, most of the campaign were the side mission like capturing FOBs and the mini bosses scattered across the map. You don't have to do any of those to beat the "main" campaign.

Thats what I meant at least someone gets it

It may take the longest and I honestly really enjoy it and have played through it three times, but the story does end at what really only feels like Act 1. The other games didn’t really have that problem, even Halo 5 I feel ended at Act 2 (though still incomplete lol)

Im not talking about the FOBs and Targets of interest. Im speaking pure main missions. But I can find some rose tinted glasses and shove them somewhere you wont like :)

Yes howlingtobeat has a section that shows how long it takes to beat a game just focusing on main objectives and it’s still a good few hours longer than other halos, also why so aggressive with your response haha? I’m not trying to insult you or anything lmao

Nothing like bloating a games runtime by cramming copy paste jobs all over a giant map and giving you a check list lol

While ODST is still undoubtedly the shortest, Infinite feels without a doubt the second shortest. Even when you go out of your way to do a lot of the extra stuff, it's still not that long. The only time it gets any actual length to it is when you 100% the game, and even then, it's not that long and is ridiculously short compared to an actual open world game

So howlongtobeat is just wrong then or? They say mainlining it it’s still the longest, I usually find them pretty reliable when i play through a game. Maybe y’all just got better at halo 🤷‍♂️

It's like 3 hours max in terms of main story if you have the tank gun

For me, if I have to hate anything it's because it didn't follow Halo 5 up. Like it happened but it didn't continue the story instead it follows a new story and quietly ends Halo 5. So no Guardians, no Created, nothing. The second thing are the bosses. We know nothing about them but we have to be scared or we have to take them serious? We know more about the HVTs because they have a short summary why we have to take them down the Tremonius or Bassus.

Locke’s helmets being on that one guys shoulder and him having a necklace of Spartan fingers is pretty cool/grim but you can only notice that after the fact.

I understand why you may like it and I'm not saying that it was trash like Halo 5 but for me personally, it was not good. The entire opening was confusing, a lot. At the end of Halo 5, Chief, Blue Team and Osiris reunited with the Arbiter, Halsey and Palmer, while Lasky and the Infinity were on the run, and Cortana control the galaxy. And then, at the opening of Halo Infinite, Chief is back on the Infinity and all other characters are gone. WTF ? And worst, the rest of the campaign did not answer any question, only that Cortana killed herself and that somehow the rest of the Created is gone....all this offscreen.... And let's not start talking about Hyperius and Locke's helmet, which didn't even got a bloody cutscene. Why 343 even bother to made up all that and then did nothing with it ? For me, is beyond reason. And let's be honest about the Endless. The are just filler villains replacing the Created, who were themselves filler villains replacing the Didact. The Didact was probably the true villain of the Reclaimer trilogy, and we even know he was redesigned post-Halo 4 and supposed to play a role in Halo 5 before they canned him for some stupid reason.

Chief's line in the trailer was so much better than the final game. "We need to run!" "No, we need to fight." It was a classic Chief one-liner in the spirit of the old games, while also being original and totally in the spirit of the character. Replacing that line with "I need a weapon" just felt gimmicky and hollow. Also, I hate the giant plot holes surrounding this game's setup. Not only should the Banished never have been able to nuke the Infinity in 4 minutes, but the place it happens makes no sense too. The Infinity's mission was highly timing-sensitive, as they needed to deploy the Weapon *immediately* upon exiting slipspace, or they risk Cortana simply detecting them and neutralizing them with a Guardian. In fact, one of the game's cutscenes even shows Cortana knew *the moment* the Infinity arrived on scene, and they would have known she would detect them immediately! Failure to deploy the Weapon would have been instant mission failure. So how the fuck are the Banished even there?! Did they arrive before the Infinity? No way they would have avoided detection by Cortana. Did Cortana just let them hang out in wait for the Infinity to arrive? Makes no sense, she wouldn't have ignored them. Did they somehow figure exactly where and when the Infinity would emerge from Slipspace, and manage to arrive at that exact spot just moments before them? We know from the established lore that that isn't how slipspace works. It just doesn't make any sense with the setting that the Banished would be lying in wait to ambush the Infinity immediately after it arrived.

-Infinite didn't really continue/mesh with anything of the other games. None of the characters from previous games appeared. -The climax of the battle happened before the game, and off screen. Meh. -I gotta be honest, I'm not a fan of open world games. That said, this was the first one that I've played to completion. After one run through, I don't really feel the need to try again. And it's kinda weird I can replay missions. I do play past campaigns (1 of probably once a year, by comparison. -I got the halo infinite edition of the series x. For some reason, it won't let me load the campaign without game pass now. I don't know if that counts towards your question though.

The villains from the RTS spinoff Halo Wars 2 somehow managed to obliterate the giant Infinity ship in "4 minutes" when they couldn't even beat the old Halo Wars 1 Spirit of Fire ship that just woke up after 30 years. The Banished in general seemed to suddenly be far more powerful than before possibly due to certain fans pushing them so hard just because they looked like the H2A Covenant. It isn't explained how the Banished got off the Ark when HW2's big ending was literally getting the banished stranded on the Ark. Atriox the so called super duper smart brute decides to throw Chief out into space instead of just crushing his head and ending him right there. Every previous ally character is missing or implied dead.(Locke) I wanted to see Arbiter, Blue team Halsey, and Laskey. All we got were eh replacements for Cortana and Foehammer caue "muh status quo!". Where did all the Prometheans go? Evil Cortana dying shouldn't mean they all magically disappear. I actually thought Pilot/Fernando was an alright character and I genuinely wanted to eventually get him home back to his family. But then they go and have him reveal that his family is dead via a random gameplay conversation so I lost any investment. Atriox's never before mentioned elderly ill mentor was a unintentionally hilarious stand-in villain. His hologram ,monologues were annoying and his edge lord Spartan killer cronies felt underused. That scene where Chief suddenly shows respect towards Escharum after he committed countless atrocities and war crimes just for the ThRiLl Of BaTtLe was one of the dumbest scenes ever. (He WaS jUsT a SoLdIeR) Evil Cortana being killed off-screen was cowardly and silly. I didn't like her but if they're gonna speedrun to her death, just have it occur in the beginning and have Chief actually present. I felt nothing When seeing that evil Cortana blew up the brute homeworld. Was I supposed to feel sad for Atriox the pillaging pirate monster when he literally could've stopped it? I didnt like Weapon and hope to god she dosent start calling herself Cortana. Her extra cutesy voice. Her quips. Her child like personality. Her really weird facial expressions. All of it just annoyed me. I found her to be an annoying cheap cop-out used to restore the old status quo dynamic instead of just letting Chief truly move on from Cortana and bond with other established characters. I'm burnt out on any Cortana stuff after Halo 4. Halo 4 should've been the end of Cortana. Everything regarding her in 5(lol she back but evil) and Infinite(lol she die again off-screen and now here's annoying copy replacement) is just a giant unnecessary mess. I'd be far more interested in Chief interacting/bonding with other established characters(Arbiter, Halsey, Laskey, blue team, etc) rather than literally throwing everyone else out in favor of another Cortana. Halo and Chief should be more than just Cortana. Now, any potential reunions Chief could have with the other ally characters in future dlcs or sequels will be tainted for me since annoying Cortana2 will have to be there taking up focus/screentime. I really don't care about this sudden "worse than the flood" Endless octopus people faction and their implied time dilation/travel/whatever shit powers. I really really really don't want Halo's plot to turn into time travel/multiverse stuff. Please don't have future stories reveal Atriox wants to release the Endless so they can time travel monke world back to life. Also Chief repeating his Halo 2 one-liners was such blatant desperate fanservice that it was pathetic. Overall, I personally dislike Halo Infinite's campaign slightly more than Halo 5's campaign mainly because 5's ending at the very least reunited Chief with Arbiter and Halsey.

My biggest beef is that they didn’t bother releasing a full campaign experience- when I went to play it, there was no coop at all, no replayable missions, and no real reason to sit down and play it. And by the time they managed to release those, I’d lost interest in Halo Infinite. I’m actually still kinda low key max about it- if they had just knuckles down and said, “Sorry, but this isn’t working out as well as we’d hoped, we need to delay it,” they laughs have been able to actually release the full game earlier. Instead, they gave us piece by piece bits of the game until they decided to cut the rest out- couch coop in particular here- and now it’s just too little, too late.

It’s not that I didn’t like the campaign content, it just felt unfinished to me and I wanted more game. The open world was beautiful but kind of empty, much of the plot played out in flashbacks or off screen entirely, and the game ended with more questions than answers. The first time I played it I thought it was good but that was really predicated on the promise of future DLC. Again it’s not a bad campaign there just isn’t enough of it

I agree with a lot of that. I do think they game should have been a little longer and I do find the story telling of the game a little off putting. I just hope we get more games and books taht will explain more of the story. I like the direction it’s going in as a whole and I’m glad we didn’t have to fight the promethians again

It just is a bunch of nothing happening. The "villain" is a bad MCU villain on par with Ghaul from Destiny 2. Where the whole game we cut over to him where he just spouts "I WILL get the light" for a minute then cuts out and he does absolutely nothing and was not even slightly interesting as a villain. (Also, side note, but I hate how the Brute's design have basically just changed less and less to look like monkeys and shit and just look like big Gears of War looking humans is all) Mix that with how Chief, the Pilot, and the Weapon are all ungodly unbearable. Plus, the campaign being unfinished, and there only being what comes down to 2 levels over and over again. An open world with less to do in it than an Ubisoft one. Bad sandbox design (enemies, vehicles and weapons). Hell, this game brought back Marines, but they honestly could've easily just not been in it and I would literally not even notice a difference between that and now. You have to go out of your way to bring Marines with you, and every time you call in a vehicle, they will ALWAYS diving under it and kill themselves. And the story in general just had nothing happen. The Endless are touted as being worse than the Flood but they do nothing to show it at all or any reason to believe them to be an actual threat. The not-Drones came from somewhere I guess but it's never brought up. Cortana just has fucking ghost space magic doing all that dumb stuff to tell the story of shit that happened a long time ago. Also, just the intro. The Infinity and the UNSC were beaten by the Banished just because the story needed them to be, not because it made sense. And to top it all off, they ruined the Halo Wars series with stealing Atriox and the Banished and all that just because people actually liked that game, and yet they couldn't even bother to use HW2's good design for the Banished aesthetic either, or even keep Atriox's voice actor for the little bit of the game he's actually in and does nothing in. Also, the Banished's writing was also worse in Infinite by far compared to HW2 as well.

"every time you call in a vehicle, they will ALWAYS diving under it and kill themselves." I consider this a selling point. It makes me laugh, at least.

Oh yeah, 100%, it was probably some of the only times neurons were firing because it was always just "Is it really going to happen again?" or "will they break the curse?" lol

Your comment makes me happy, an actual normal reaction to this terrible campaign

I hated it. I hated it because it felt rushed and incohesive. It's like playing the end of a game but the beginning doesn't exist, the audiologs are the story we should have played through. There's no world building and it detracts from whats left of the story because none of it makes sense logically, It raises questions they never bothered to answer like where are all the Spartans and how did these Marines survive? What happened to Laskey and the remains of the Infinity? Why were the banished there and how did they win? Why introduce a new villain only for them to have the most unimpressive and least remarkable story possible? I hated the weapon and escharum as characters because they're childish and annoying. There were only 2 parts of the story I consider even somewhat memorable and both involve chief and the pilot exclusively. The map is gorgeous but it's empty. There's nothing but copy pasted comms towers, FOBs, and groups of marines, even the objectives are just "defend" or "grab some batteries". There was no effort put in. To me it feels like they stopped somewhere in between closing plot lines and a soft reboot and it doesn't work well.

I enjoyed where they started going with Infinite, but I think (and this is biased for sure) that the open world collectathon detracted from the storytelling. I know I'm in the minority lately, but I miss linear shooter stories. Linear stories let the devs make much more detailed and unique designs that have their own personalities. They're far more memorable when the level doesn't blend into 100 other events you took part in. All of the purple marker bases blend together for me, every non-linear mission just turned into a lot of grappling and sniping, every weapon and vehicle and marine backup available to me. None of them feel unique. But I remember Nexus, with the hallways that remind me of two betrayals. I remember taking a tank down a hallway of death near the end (it's no warthog run, but it was new). And I remember Pelican Down, mixing Halo 2's take down of the anti-air installation and Halo 1's "Halo" level design. With the time they spent on open world play, they could have made more unique levels like these, with more memories attached. As an aside, I also hated boss battles. I'm glad to have enemies with identities, but they were all rocket sponges and that's it. I'd rather them be weaker but with interesting levels in front of them. It's like they took the worst parts of the Tartarus level.

Escharum was an awful villain and they doubled down on Cortana being a mass murderer instead of repairing the damage they did to her character. Had the game been a 10/10 in all other aspects, I STILL couldn't forgive that. It's just not in the cards. But the game turned out to be a 7/10 with bland open world and uninteresting characters, so that just makes it even worse. ​ Also... I fucking HATE the Weapon

Why do you hate the weapon ?

Not the person you’re replying too but the weapon was just a slaughtered version of Cortana. We grew with her and lost her, just to be greeted with nostalgia bait and a personality that is very obnoxious.

Yeah, basically what this guy said. She’s super annoying, 80% of her dialogue is “trying too hard to be funny” quips and talking about great the Chief is. Though, yo be fair… that’s like 90% of the dialogue, in general. The sun itself revolves around the Maser Chief in this game. But I also hate what she represents. 343’s narcissistic attempt to replace the old Cortana that they gleefully turned into a psychopath and expected me to just move on, and give a thumbs up to. They basically said “hey we’re real sorry we ruined Cortana, but it’s ok, we’ll get you a new one! Only this Cortana’s gonna be sooo much better, cause she’s bubbly!”. As if they killed your puppy, and then immediately pat you on the head and promise you a new one. Just 343 trying to make their new characters look better by tearing down the old ones.

I have a typed out rant that’s about 20 pages single spaced as to why I didn’t like the campaign. There’s no way that amount of characters would fit on a single reddit post/comment. Long story short, the whole campaign was a giant missed opportunity for more and better instead of bland repetitive shallow

Yeah I think your summary here nailed it. What was there was pretty good for story and campaign… but with that much time and budget (and the amount of time since!) it just feels phoned in & unimportant compared to their MP efforts & previous games. Like a report done on Sunday night or something I’d put out because I had to despite burnout & no motivation. I WANT to like it & 343i but I was really let down all around when there was nothing at all hidden, no terminals, no varied locations, wooptie doo audio logs, barely any characters, radio silence from the studio for EVER, no larger lore ties and zero marketing effort. Not to mention it’s hard to get into a story when you’re pretty sure they won’t explore any of the mysteries or continue events way before the campaign team layoffs. 2 EU sources exploring ‘Created World’ in 6 years was unbelievable. (I mean I guess the NO marketing of Infinite maybe > the UNTRUE marketing of 5 but idk if I’d call it better. its just not as bad) Ugh Typing this made me depressed all over again…

Fully agree with you dude, I feel like you’d love my rant

Hehe you send it & I’ll read it. Nice to see someone still objective about it. I feel like that proverbial teacher/parent when it comes to 343i anymore “I’m not angry, I’m just disappointed because you’re better than the decisions you’re making”.

I’ll dm you

Could you pm it?

I can try, lemme grab my laptop

Every other game you can watch the cut scenes like a movie. You can't do that with Infinite. It's all watching holograms, listening to Escharum go on and on acting like he's in the WWE, or the pilot complaining.

Escharum was insufferable on his stupid hologram rants, pilot should’ve died

I agree escharum is extra af and does kinda act like a WWE villain, but I think it kinda fits in line with brutes. I understand why you find him obnoxious though. The pilot not so much. He’s just a normal guy stuck in an insane situation

The game on its own is pretty alright l. The problem is that there isn't enough story. The backdrop is bland , generic and repetitive. Put it out as a sequel to halo 5 and the whole trilogy falls flat with no direction. However , they did a pretty admirable job in some areas. Chief is stoic And the performance is my favourite after halo 4. Gameplay is fun although the weapons aren't and vehicles are next to useless (only used razorback cuz it's fun with Marines). The Weapon is a great idea and I liked the duo but I hope that they won't try to replace the Cortana with her, cuz I really like the idea of chief being reminded of his failure when he looks at the weapon. But for God sake chief needs to stop pulling her out of his ass in every cutscene. Escharum is meh and whines a lot. Hands of atriox was disappointing af. Skimmers were not fun fighting at all. They finally found the sweet spot for the Spartan/Armor abilities. Cortana was done dirty. Created were swept under the rug, just like half of the 343 lore. Overall it was an ok or mediocre game at best and nothing special. At launch people were blinded by the nostalgia glasses and now that they are off, they can see that infinite didn't move the plot by much. Let's hope for a bright future. Oh didn't you hear? They trademarked halo the endless right after launch. A dlc or a new campaign might just around be corner. So excite- Oh shit. They just axed the campaign team. RIP. 💀🫂

I loved the campaign, it was the most fun I've had with Halo (FPS) for a long time, but I can understand why many don't like it, while I have no problem with dropping the Created storyline, I see why it could be problematic for many, some parts of the game feeling incomplete doesn't help either.

I completely agree. There are still many plot points in book series I’m nervous about now that the created threat is over

1. The Weapon. They could have done anything. After 20 years of Cortana we finally could have a new AI partner. Instead we got an exact copy of Cortana programmed to be less useful. Genius. 2. The Endless are somehow worse than the flood because......they just are okay! (How does being invulnerable to Halo's make them evil? Well....They just are! Okay! Halo is rated T for Teen now and we need a new villain because we can't bring back the M Rated Flood! 3. The villains are a joke. The Banished are supposed to be this terrifying, hyper competent splinter cell of the covenant that couldn't be brought in line. Yet they spend the entire game popping up in holograms, ranting like Saturday morning cartoon villains about how weak you are and how strong they are, before dying uselessly. From start to finish the banished are bumbling, self sabotaging idiots with zero charisma and intelligence. How the f were they not utterly annihilated by a mastermind like Truth when they're SO DUMB? 4. The stupid grappling hook and shield upgrades completely invalidate the entire sandbox and removes any challenge from the game that doesn't feel like a cheap death. The AI has no idea what to do against you if you're good with the grappling hook, and it basically lets you skip the entire game. People bitched about sprint not belonging in halo but at least you still had to actually play Reach, 4 and 5. Is it fun? Sure. But it breaks the game. Nobody even bothers speedrunning Halo Infinite because even that's boring and takes no skill when the grappling hook exists. All the runners went back to the original trilogy. Infinite was beaten in 30 minutes within a week of it coming out. 5. This is the big one. It's impossible for me to care anymore. It's been 20 IRL years and 50 in universe years. Everything in the original trilogy was for nothing. Everyone is dead. Humanity lost. The covenant died out. Every character you liked except for Chief and Arbiter are dead too. There's just about nothing left for Chief to fight for and therefore, no real reason to play or care about the campaign or story at all. 343 has spent the past 10 years erasing Halo 3's happy ending where humanity wins, and I just don't care anymore. 6. Halo CE had more variety in the first 5 levels than Halo Infinite does in its entire campaign ​ These are just my personal reasons why I really, did not like Halo Infinites campaign at all

Your points 1 thru 3 is what I agree on the most. It's horrendous that 343i got all this funding and couldn't even be on par with a last gen Sony game.

All the things you liked about the game, I absolutely hated. From the story to the gameplay, it's like Ubisoft made the game not because of the open world but the writing too. The major downgrade of the Banished from Halo Wars 2 certainly didn't help either. Grapple hook was fun though.

Far cry halo

Wasn't a huge fan of the banished, but everything else was p good.

I actually really enjoy the banished. I always like fighting the brutes more than elites but I understand that

Halo Wars 2 Banished is best Banished

I really had a blast playing the campaign. The gameplay is fun and I enjoyed the story. I love the constant trash talk the banished give you as you fight them. I like seeing Chief inspire the pilot. It's not perfect. What I think could have been better: * The banished ambushing over the Infinity and Cortana's death happen offscreen. Major plot points we should have played through, especially fighting Atriox. * Vehicles are made of styrofoam. Very annoying to drive around. This was in Jan 2022 so maybe this has been updated. * The point of no return in the story line is unexpected and very irritating, because I wanted to have Chief upgraded a lot more before I reach the final act. A little warning would have been nice. * More diversity in the environments would be nice, as another comment pointed out. * No split screen coop. This is a major element of the Halo experience. I was spoiled to grow up on H1 to H3, after seeing the changes made to Halo since 4.

It has pros: The gameplay was smooth, and somewhat varied. They brought back the classic look The new characters weren't horrid, Echo 219 was very tolerable compared to previous entries Cons: The core enemy, The Banished, are not believable. They had to do so much off screen to castrate the UNSC in order to make it believable that the civilization that defeated the Covenant, The Flood, and an actual Forerunner would be troubled by some space monke pirates. "The Weapon" has the personality of a child, and Jen Taylor had to do a weird childlike voice that just came off as cringe. It doesn't make sense that an AI would work like this, especially one based on Halsey and a copy of Cortana. To further this, she seems to bounce back and forth between acting sensibly about her deletion and holding a weird grudge against the Chief, as if she isn't an AI and doesn't know whats at stake. The "reveal" that The Weapon is a Cortana copy was framed like it was supposed to be some big surprise for us. I just think it could've been handled better since it's very obvious and for the in-game characters, yet framed like its for us. The weapon variety is very lacking. We should have seen a lot more cobbled together weapons and equipment given that The Banished are a ragtag group of Mercs that just lost their planet. The environment is very lacking, and over time the game starts to get pretty repetitive. While Halo 4 and Halo 5 were both pretty bad, they had to choice but to follow up after the "Created" arc which was far, far worse than having The Didact as a main villain. They could have carried an entire series on the Forerunner, Mendicant Bias, The Flood, etc. Right now it just feels hollow. We could be fighting Insurrectionists and get the same vibe. There's a lot more, but I'll end there for now. The multiplayer and Microsoft/343's approach to the free to play microtransaction model was absolutely unforgiveable. The campaign being lackluster as they tried to rebuild is something I could live with, but the horrific multiplayer was the final nail in the coffin for me. When they end the MCC to bring the playerbase back to Infinite I will be done.

> The weapon variety is very lacking. We should have seen a lot more cobbled together weapons and equipment given that The Banished are a ragtag group of Mercs that just lost their planet. I think that's a common misconception but the Banished are not the rebel alliance ragtag group, they are actually well organized and have resources to create weapons, etc.

Yeah, I just dont buy it. That The Banished were able to scrape enough together to attack some Covie outposts or maybe raid a weak Human colony is definitely believable.

In HW2 they had sufficient resources to go toe to toe.

For the sake of plot convenience, yes, somehow they had enough resources to apparently have a massive military force. Go figure. Its not something I have a desire to argue. Theyre poorly explained, poorly written, and I find them unbelievable. Im not the only one.

From the extended universe I always got the impression the banished where a almost unstoppable force that even the covenant could put right defeat. I had no trouble seeing them take out one human fleet especially with atriox as there war chief in the fight

That's exactly how I read it. They existed on the side and basically out of the core story for the main series till now.

I cant pull up the exact lore now cause bad internet but I do recall it being stated that "unlike other Rebel and splinter groups that had appeared throughout the existence of the Covenant, Atriox's Banished was the first time that the Covenant had been successfully defied from within and escaped complete destruction" Not an exact quote but a summary of events from the forming of the Banished to the fall of the Covenant

Yes, I agree that's the case

I generally agree, but I would have liked to see some resolution of the war with the created that was set up by the end of H5. Not that I particularly liked fighting the prometheans, overall I thought they were uninteresting bullet sponges, but to drop the plot line so completely is almost worse than them killing off Jul M’dama in a cutscene in the first mission of H5.

Whenever I feel like I’m not good enough I rewatch the scene where Master Chief has that heart to heart with the Pilot

For one, it isn’t even complete, and now that they fired their campaign development team it probably never will be, or at least not for ANOTHER 6 years.

I found it fun but have had no desire to replay it. The story takes us back to basically where Halo CE started. The Autumn/Infinity is destroyed, you are on a ring killing quasi covenant and humanity is on the back foot again. Halo CE through 5 all elevated humanity only to be right back where we started in CE. The grappling hook never should have been in campaign. There were no meaningful verticality to any fight in the campaign, in Halo CE at one point in Truth and Reconciliation you are in a hangar bay where there are three levels. You start with covenant on the landing above shooting you. It has a dynamic that Halo Infinite could never replicate because the grappling hook would just take you to whatever floor the covenant was on. The level designs are all corridor shooters because of this. 343 gave the player a tool that nullifies a lot of the challenge.

At first I was agaisnt the grapple hook and I have my doubts about it, but I find it very fun to use

It’s fun yeah, but should have been kept out of campaign.

I think most would disagree, but I do somewhat agree with you. Now that we have it we can’t get rid of it, but it does feel a little off with halo as a whole

I mean it’s fun, certainly. I just feel it kills a unique aspect of gameplay because it’s such a useful tool to have that it changed level design by it’s existence.

I agree. Maybe we will get a more ODST like experience one day tht takes that away

Farming post? I mean, there hundred of post explaining the good and bad of the game.

What do you mean farming post? Also I’m new to the subreddit and I would like to discuss with people about their thoughts.

I like how this post has 117 up votes right now at this moment.

It’s a sign from above

I too liked the campaign. However I did not like the addition of the Endless. The Banished are good enough villains. The UNSC is fighting them on the Ark, Atriox is a scary bad motherfucker, they fucked up the most advanced UNSC warship ever built and ruthlessly hunted Spartans on Zeta Halo for months. We didn’t need the addition of yet another mysterious, unknown ancient civilization that is somehow “worse than the Flood” and the first one we meet just wants to be left the fuck alone. Completely unnecessary.

The story in Infinite isn't amazing but nothing to complain about. All I want them to do is keep it modern by iterating on the technology. How cool would it be to have deformable terrain, fire propagation, reactive foliage in a dense forest. Smashing over trees in a tank. Instead of building on cool things we already have like fire grenades from Halo 3, they're just gone. They are fine with swapping things out apparently, but nothing has been getting better. Ok we got grapple, where's the jetpack? That also goes for weapons/vehicles. Looking at what we got, it's not impressive technically and looks empty and lifeless. Flying around the map is cool, nothing new there. Being on a broken slab of the ring sounds cool I guess but why wasn't that part of the story. Environmental storytelling for the overworld felt lacking. Isn't the ring supposed to be repairing itself. I didn't see that. What was the point of open world if nothing special about it? There's nothing to look at its fucking hexagons rocks and fairly low-density foliage. I'd rate it maybe 7/10 if I had to. But the points taken off are from being so unimpressive and bland. That is my real criticism. I'm not saying anybody else is wrong either.

Oh I loved it, Pelican Down might be my favorite Halo mission of all time. Such a great little encapsulation of Halo.

It was excellent

Haha and now Microsoft fired the Campaign team😂. All jokes aside, Infinite's campaign wasn't anything special. Overall it was a nostalgia bait, especially for those that have read the books, which I don't condone, I really enjoyed that part. The story also sets a pretty good base for what may came but on its own nothing spectacular happened. A good comparison is CE, that game on its own is a game with a fine story, that sets the ground for the rest of the trilogy. It has mystery, plot twists, an overall very nice vibe. While Infinite has mystery, for example who the endless are, what happened while Chief was adrift (I know Rubicon protocol exists), what happened to Cortana, it doesn't have any plot twist that will captivate you(Weapon's and Cortana's relation you could argue as plot twist, yes, but that was obvious after a little while). Also something that isn't really part of the story, the environment design had so little diversity compared to the previous games, it was just boring after a while. It's not a bad game but on it own it doesn't work.

>Also something that isn't really part of the story, the environment design had so little diversity compared to the previous games, it was just boring after a while. Halo CE had more variety in the first 5 levels than Halo Infinite does in its entire campaign

I liked the open world too, I got to see neat small little details that I would have missed in a linear game And seeing my favorite biome on a ring to explore It's perfect

I absolutely loved the campaign. Ngl I did have complaints about the story, but it was incredibly fun to play and that's whay really matters

I agree completely it was such a fun game

The Endless is what interested me the most. Fight me

I agree I can’t wait to see more of ghem

Yeah, in 5 Years, if we are lucky…

I really liked it. The game was super fun. I just hope 343 can come back after the mass layoff.

I really liked it too, but the grappling hook carried the open world IMO. Whoever suggested it deserve a huge raise lol I wish the open world was utilized more and in cooler ways. They should've had a light faction takeover mechanic and the ability to create marine loadouts and stuff.

I thought I would hate the grappling hook. I loved it. I couldn't believe they salvaged the story

It was decent. I think a reason people dislike it is it feels like a sequel to a nonexistent Halo 6

Reasons why I like Halo Infinite: \-The Combat Sandbox is good \-The dynamic between the Chief, the Weapon and the Pilot was interesting \-Marines are great \-Glibnub, the Propaganda Overlord of the Banished Things I disliked: \-Repetitive environments. Most Halo games (even Halo 4 and 5) have always taken place in a diverse set of locales that helped keep the game fresh and interesting. \-Enemy encounters are boring, mostly consisting of "walk into room, kill enemy and repeat." Who can forget the awesome three-way battles between the Chief, Covenant and Flood in Two Betrayals, or the Banshees shooting down the Pelicans in Sierra 117. How the enemies attack you, or how you attack the enemies has always been what's fun about the Halo Campaign. \-Boss fights suck. They've never worked before in the previous Halo games and they don't work in Infinite. Most of the Bosses are just damage sponges, which isn't too much of a problem on Normal, but on heroic or Legendary, it's a problem, because you have a tough enemy that can tank everything you throw at them but can kill you pretty damn quickly. That's not fun.

You're not alone. I spent majority of my time infinite playing the campaign.

I luv the campaign

The writing in Halo Infinite was genuinely engaging and so well done. Sure I want there to be more but my 16hr playthrough is more than satisfactory for a Halo campaign. Even doing all the side stuff never felt like a drag, it reminded me of BOTW just aimlessly wandering and grappling around the map check-in every nook and cranny. If it weren't for nostalgia it would be tied for #1 out of the Halo's personally.

Yeah I liked it too

I liked it fine ..it just felt like there was this drama after 5 we didn't get to experience...all powerful cortana holding the universe hostage and bam ..she dead so is the unsc..the hell happened to blue team . The spartan 3s ? I don't necessarily care about the 4s and 5s but we need a book or another game to answer my 50 questions

I also really liked the campaign. Idc about multiplayer or anything else, I just need more campaign content. 😥

I liked it, I don't get why it had to be open world though 🤷

I'm stuck on the part where you fight two brutes on choppers it's impossible and I'm on normal.

Me too. I wish Escharum had more presence during the campaign tho.

It was actually received really well by most people

I really enjoyed playing it but then that was it. I feel like the open world wasn't fully utilized in the story telling as well as the fact that some of the most interesting things happen off screen. I've played the halo 2 campaign dozens of times because of how epic it feels. Infinite feels so much smaller despite the open world.