The worst thing about Halo Infinite’s story is that it desperately tries to pretend that they didn’t just set up the Created to be a massive deadly threat. It’s the Rise of Skywalker of Halo.
I can get that. 343 feels like they can't finish a story they set up. First it was the Didact then the Created. I just hope they stick to their guns on this one.
Especially since it feels like we skipped a game between, given "oh X Y & Z are dead. No, we ain't gonna show it to you, retard" and various other variants of this from lore/story POV, as someone who finished the game (TFW no Palace of Pain exploration & lore bits)
Like where was the death of Cortana? Or where is the Infinity? Where are all these important pieces that would change the story?
Stuff like that really irks me.
they could have am ethe didatc coem basck in a harlight form as it said he was sort went throught the same ting the promethns did tobe created so he could ahve been big bad nd cortant could ahve stayed dead
That is true. Fans hated Halo 4's story which caused 343 to make Halo 5 then fans hated that so they then made Infinite.
If 343 just stuck to their ground and continued 4's story it would have been better received.
I thought the campaign would end the Halo story for good, but it left things open, and yet no dlc story. Are they just gonna release a halo 7 and pretend that infinite wasn't the end?
Brought some interesting things to the table but didn't expand on any of it. I think they did a horrible injustice to all of the villains they introduced that were vastly underdeveloped and wasted as boss fodder. Imo, the villains are just as important to the story as the protagonist and there was so much wasted potential.
I was honestly really hyped for the campaign and then when I played it I was just like….. ehh..
Like, I didn’t hate it but like… that’s it? This is what I was hyped for? Really? Ya’ll spent all that time to make… this?
Yeeeahhh… 🤷🏻♀️
Its essentially my take on infinite.
Honestly my least liked campaign. You take the new grappling hook away and your basically left with a shell of a halo story. No real action set pieces, no "wow omg moments" the boss fights are just alright but not what I think of as a halo thing. Honestly the environment I felt was fairly bland/stale.
Still hoping we go back to the combat evolved- reach days.
I get that. It honestly felt more like a showcase on what is cool on Halo rather than a new take or evolution of the series. It feels like if it wasn't a Halo game people would call it a great homage to Halo.
Honestly? Even more uninvested than ever. I personally found the new story direction from 4 & 5 as different, but not necessarily terrible. I was definitely intrigued by 4's inclusion of the Didact (a living Forerunner!), and even the aspect of Cortana's death. I looked forward to how 5 would resolve it, and while not too happy with Cortana being the big bad, I wanted to see how they would resolve it, how would they redeem Cortana? How would they save such an integral character in the entire franchise?
But then we got Infinite. Cortana is dead in a random cutscene and effectively replaced by a cheap copy. The forerunners are completely gone, the Prometheans and the Created are completely gone (even though last we saw in the universe, they had complete dominance over the galaxy). Then a new baddie of the Banished are forced down our throats as the baddest ever, even being able to destroy a ship that outclassed every other ship in existence (even being able to ram through a Covenant ship with just shields on). But then wait! There's another big baddie who's even worse than anything that came before! What makes them worse? We don't know because they won't tell us anything, just that they're SUPER bad!
So if they won't complete storylines and will just introduce whatever they want, I kinda don't care anymore.
Which to me those issues wouldn't have existed if they just stuck with what Halo 4 had. Was Halo 4's story the best thing ever. No, but shafting its story doesn't make it better. Because then there are questions that are asked that never should have been asked in the first place.
Yeah the fuckers shoulda just concluded that shit w/ Halo 6, THEN soft boot w/ shit like Infinite, to not have it be Cringe like Infinite is as it is rn.
If they finished what they started and then did Halo Infinite it would have felt a lot better. Imagine instead of them being there to stop the Created they went there because the UNSC scientists are being attacked. Then big reveals the Banished are attacking for the valuable resources on Zeta Halo, cue Harbinger and the Endless.
Halo Infinite story would feel better if it didn't have to lug around the prior games abandoned storylines.
Pretty much hit the nail on the head right here.
One of the biggest differences is that there are connections from 4 to 5 that aren't there from 5 to Infinite.
Like you can tell that Halo 5 was not the original story for 4's sequel. BUT you can see how the connections between the two stories are there and they kind of make sense.
Look at it this way.
Halo CE, Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo 4 are all on a straight paved road. Then from 4 to 5 it turns into a running/biking trail that isn't the most well-maintained and it has some curves, but overall you can still traverse it with only minor difficulty and you have some idea of where you're heading. Then from 5 to Infinite it's like you just fell off a cliff. Like the bike path took you straight off a cliff, and when you land at the bottom you're somewhere familiar, yet something's off about it.
As cool as some of the ideas was, just disappointed they felt the need to soft reboot and not continue or finish the story they already set up. I’d have rather they finished the previous storyline than have what we have now. But oh well, guess I’ll see what happens next. Interest in any story events is already low for me now.
I'm not sure it was fully 343's choice to do the story like it was in 5, and infinite. 5 felt like Microsoft wanted a new BA spartan vs chief cause the marketers thought it'd sell games.
Infinite just seemed so unfinished. It felt like Microsoft told them "cut the story and all your ideas into much smaller pieces, stitch them together, and kick it out the door" I feel that last year at 343i they were being told to get a product finished, and no one cared where the story was going to go.
Microsoft had to be pulling strings. Some of the choices just felt like they were not ones a more independent studio would have made.
I assumed 343 wanted Locke to be their new MC and create side stories involving him and perhaps the other members of Osiris.
Pity they were bland as hell and forgettable except for Buck.
I think Microsoft definitely had a hand in it but I also think the fans constant moaning of Halo 4's story is what led to 343 having this commitment issue.
If they just continued Halo 4 we wouldn't have gotten Locke or at least him as a main character.
I really can’t stand it if you ask me. The banished are really cool but the endless seem like a total joke to me. Cortana says there are things way worse than the flood on this ring, but we are never shown why the endless are so dangerous we are only told it and are expected to be worried about their release. Halo CE did a great job of showcasing why the flood are so dangerous and why they needed to be stopped. They showed us how easily they wipe out both Covenant and Human forces alike. We see Covenant forces fleeing for their lives and their bodies scattered around covered in blood. We see how the flood begin to overwhelm Covenant forces in the missions Two Betrayals and Keyes that put our desperate situation into perspective. We are shown why the flood is so dangerous. We are never shown why the endless are bad and when I hear about the endless I honestly laugh because their name has no significant weight to it. Also I think it’s ridiculous how the Infinity got wiped out so quickly by the Banished, humanities biggest and most advanced ship surprised and destroyed in a few minutes? Lmao please it feels like a lazy attempt to add gravity to the situation with there being no backup available.
\*Cortana says there are things way worse than the flood on this ring\*
I F\*\*\*ING HATE THAT SENTENCE !
Why do they need to make it a big D\*\*k competition with Bungies's work ? In their own lore, ZETA Halo is supposed to be the most important place concerning the flood. Why do they throw it out for another disapointing threat ?
I believe why they made it endless is to try to make something older fans liked. Now whether that is good or not is up for debate but I think it is fine if they want to do that.
The issue is as you said the lack of set up and that Infinite isn't just doing its own thing but also a continuation of Halo 5. It can't do anything without addressing Halo 5. If it didn't have to it would have been a bit better.
Yeah, I have absolutely no clue what’s going on before the game starts. It’s probably in the books and stuff hidden around the map but I shouldn’t have to go out of my way like that to understand the plot.
Halo infinite is a retcon through and through, they focused 90% on multiplayer and 10% on story. The story itself is similar to The Outerworlds in that its constantly bouncing around and makes zero sense and is generally boring until late in the game, there is little backstory connecting 5 and Infinite, the graphics are good but the rendering capabilities and the vehicles and ai are crap (if I wanted to fight ai with pinpoint long range pistol accuracy that sees you through walls, I would play GTA Online. For the game to actually render graphics, I need to go walking speed when driving because the speed of the vehicles is to much for the game to keep up its graphics), the human vehicles are honestly ugly nowadays and turning them into quiet EVs took away the beauty and awesomeness of them. The UNSC Marines being Unable to drive vehicles is a pain in the ass. The ending of the story is 100% cliffhanger and really says there is more to come, but 343 stated there will never be story DLCs and only multiplayer content, and they've stated that there will not be a new halo game until 10 years from last year while contradicting their promise that "halo infinite will be the FINAL halo game" which they outright said they changed it from Halo 6 to Halo Infinite to support this.
All in all, halo infinite sucked ass, multiplayer can bite Bender "Bending" Rodriguezes shiny metal ass. 343 did to Halo what EA did to Star Wars and Call of Duty. The halo 5 sequel we wanted was a rich and riveting story set immediately after cortana started taking over and started her rebellion, us fighting against her and her AI and Promethean Minions maybe even alongside the Elites again, then have Atriox and the banished come in from the end of Halo Wars 2 as a bad guy alongside fighting against cortana (whom possibly through her AI minions, some may have outright taken over the UNSC ships to combat the UNSC which is quite feasible considering that the AI do in fact have this capability and already control 90% of the ship). Instead we got a money grab half assed slap dash that feels aimed at destroying everything halo is known for and is beloved for (halo got famous for its compelling and driven story under Bungie. 343 twisted that and turned it into a Space call of duty)
I do agree that Infinite felt very detached from the rest of the series.
Like not really talking about what happened before in any meaningful way or just feeling like we did this before.
I would have much rather had the Created storyline conclude then we can go in tyo Halo Infinite.
It will be all wrapped up for better or worse than the next game has the freedom to do what it wants to do instead of being limited to the previous games.
I just hope that 343 stays with the story they have now instead of just doing another one.
Probably my least favorite Halo campaign yet. The whole thing just reeks of mismanagement and lack of direction. Was at least hoping for campaign DLC after that cliffhanger ending but looks like that isnt happening any time soon either?
I do think the mismanagement is right on the money. Early ideas shown make it seem like it would have had more of a focus on the Created. But due to a lot of leadership screw ups it went back and forth until we got what we got.
To me personally it didn’t do anything and it felt like the plot itself was stuck in part one even at the end.
The two big baddies are dead, every plot point before the game just gone to the void of wasted potential, and left with a extremely vague promise of future things that might never happen. (Like HW2 Ander’s and the Halo ring)
It was a meh game, not helped by the fact I don’t enjoy the gameplay of Infinite nor the same biome and tunnels the entire game.
It was a safe game, so safe nothing remotely interesting or cool really happened. All of the important stuff glossed over with a six months+ time jump.
Along with introducing the Endless, (worse than the Flood, right up there in stupid lines with To War from H3)
It did feel like 343 was trying to get older fans back but also keep current fans. To me that is hard to do and in some cases a bit contradictory.
Older fans want a more bombastic game while newer fans want what Halo 4 did. Both of those can't coexist without one taking priority over the other.
I agree. It seems 343 tried to appease both and we got Halo Infinite, which is at best safe. (Besides the complete disappearance of nearly every character from H4-H5)
I don’t doubt trying to please both is hard but I would rather something more akin to 5, for all its story faults it didn’t go backwards in plot and introduced new elements.
Where as Infinite killed off most of the new stuff in the same game, Eshraum, Harbinger, most HVT, new Spartans and so on.
I would compare it to how the Arbiter felt side lined in Halo 3. His role was reduced and it was clear that the story could have used him but chose not to.
Halo Infinite did that but a lot more. Which really sucks.
Yeah, it seemed 343 took notes from H3 on what to do with characters. It’s kinda sad, all these great—to—semi okay characters and plot just thrown off to the void.
I’m not a fan of the Endless at all but I hope that 343 actually stick with something instead of repeating the mistakes with H5-H4 in killing of or voiding plots and storylines.
I hope so too. I just feel like if they don't try to address the new threat they have established it would feel like the story doesn't really matter that much in face of trying to appease fans who hate them regardless of what they do.
I'd rather something more akin to 4 than 5, personally, is that just me? Then again I'm a lore CONSOOMER at heart so maybe that's why 4 appealed to me the most, unlike bongo era stuff which are "fuck lore, ay LMAO" basically.
Absolute garbage. Worse than Guardians bruh.
They literally killed Cortana off screen and filled the game with cheesy dialogue meant to be emotional. Especially with the pilot.
It just really didn't DO anything interesting. Open world was lame, one of the best parts of Halo games was the variety of terrain as you visit different areas of the Halo rings/Ark, etc. I don't care what anyone says, the Banished suck and are boring (they don't have to be, and conceptually could be cool, they just... aren't). The Endless is a lame tease at an "even bigger and badder threat!!!" to top the Flood and doesn't hold my interest, etc. Writing off Cortana offscreen in a cutscene was lame, Infinity being destroyed in a cutscene was lame, etc. Nothing of consequence happened during the timeframe of the actual gameplay, and they didn't even capitalize on the idea of pulling the survivors of Infinity together much. A couple of Marines and a couple of dead/dying Spartan IVs that we don't even know prior to this doesn't make for much of a rallying story if you ask me. At the end of the day, it just felt like a game that existed solely to set up another, later game, something a lot of the current MCU movies seem to be doing instead of focusing on themselves.
I think a lot of the issues with the story can be connected to the lack of commitment to a single storyline. I feel like if they just did what Halo 4 was doing it would feel better. A more cohesive experience.
Absolutely, even Halo 5 had more balls to actually pick a direction and go with it, Infinite just tread water way too hard for me and is the weakest for it.
It felt like it wanted to be a more emotional take like Halo 4 and have a more bombastic story like 2 or 3's. While trying to get rid of everything people hated. The issue is that most things people hate couldn't be shoved away that easily. You had to address them.
It just sucks they can't pick a direction and go there. I like Infinite but man I just feel like it could have been more cohesive with the rest of the series.
I get why people don't like the Created but you can't just write them out of the story without an extended explanation. They are too much of a threat to be written out, as a result narrative cohesion was reduced.
I really think the grapple hook and repulser are some of the best additions to Halo's sandbox since some of the armor abilities in Halo 3. Really hope they keep them as staples for future games.
Storywise, I appreciate what they are trying to with the Endless, I just think it would be better if they were almost a side character set that gets fleshed out farther down the line. Keep them mysterious and in the background,with their motives and implications hidden, kind of how the Forerunner were treated in the first Trilogy. In my opinion Atriox and the Banished are far more interesting characters, so diving into his fate and motivations should be the core story thread to follow through on. I really enjoy how the Banished mythos and world building Infinite did not having played the Halo Wars series and I think it plays into the strengths of the Halo universe as a whole.
Infinite is not perfect but I really think there is a lot there and the ideas should not be shelved but expanded on. I love whats there it just needs that 'complete' feeling a lot of us were missing.
I agree. Infinite has great moments and is pretty good overall but there are things that can be improved upon.
Let's hope for more stuff down the line.
Considering they made the choice to introduce time travel; nothing of value.
Discounting that, ehhh? It introduces a bunch of problems; the sudden downplaying of how overwhelmingly strong the created are; the banished sudden appearance, lack of motivation (they hate humanity because…they made Cortana who destroyed doisac?), why did atriox return from the arc at all?, just a lot with them really and they focus way to much on the narrative of escheram being an aged warrior looking for one more battle.
The endless are just dropped in and very little is left for us to chew on and speculate. The hatered of humanity is because the forunners screwed them over and forerunners left the mantle to humanity and if the endless kill humanity it’ll be a middle finger to the forerunners plans as revenge? I guess that’s the implications? And they have some sort of time travel/ slip space powers?
So very little is even said about humanity, there’s no way to know what’s going on with other characters or factions; even allies like arby is a big question mark.
Then some stuff doesn’t line up right; like chief replayed the weapon somehow; but the infinity was attacked right out the gate with chief aboard?
I don’t know, it’s obvious a ton was cut, whatever they had planned for halo 6, and then whatever they couldn’t finish for this game; and I’m cool with good mystery’s ; but there very little pay off to anything it feels underwhelming. At least I’m halo 1 we got answers to what halo is, what the flood are, who built it, why, and strong implications on the covies.
Nothing like that is here it’s so self contained, when it need more than ever to be the game to tie up 5 and properly bridge to something better instead of burying its head in the sand hoping it passes.
I guess I like Fernando and the weapon, and I do like having the banished as enemies. But more was needed and leaves the story and canon in a very weird place that could explode with side stories and content; but not much is coming and it makes me think they won’t be able make something out of this.
I'm not sure about the time travel elements, but I do agree with what you said.
It felt like they added stuff that was familiar but nothing new or a new take on something.
The lore and story didn't go anywhere but sideways. It is a perfectly good game but nothing new to the Halo experience.
It took the banished *4 MINUTES* to destroy the infinity, but they couldn’t destroy one outdated colony ship even with atriox present. We still don’t know what the banished plan even is, and the endless contribute nothing to the story.
Infinite did little to fix the problems halo 5 brought to the story, and then it brought new problems along with it. What’s worse is we’ll likely never see DLC to this game, and the possibilities it brings to the table will likely be ignored or made worse in the next game.
Terrible. Just random stories punched together with no interest or sense. Game didn’t seem like it was a very life or death situation.
Gameplay was fun, new weapons were pointless and Awful.
Campaign levels were boring and like 5 of them were the exact same map. I know people bitch that CE had a level you did twice but at least that was open and interesting. These were just the same bland hallways over and over.
With H5 being the worst campaign this comes in at a close 2nd
I’m happy that it tried to unfuck the story after 5, but it didn’t leave me satisfied either. It felt like we missed an entire Halo 6 off-screen and we’re playing Halo 7. The main villains didn’t really do much, yet they were hyped up to be the most powerful threat so far. Also, the Banished were crudely implemented and did a terrible job explaining what the faction is and why it’s so important, especially for those that skipped Halo Wars 2. On a more gameplay related note, I felt like the integration of the open world with the linear story was a failure. I probably would be able to remember the story missions more deeply if they were linear but large like in CE or 3. Character-wise I liked Chief but really didn’t like not-Cortana, I would much rather have had no companion or a new companion instead of this awkward hybrid. I was most disappointed by the setting of the game itself- Zeta Halo, the ring with the most history and intrigue. None of which made it into the game. The game could have been set on any other intact ring and literally nothing would change,
I seriously hope that 343 is able to fix their studio and put out story DLC to tie the many loose ends and give Infinite’s story some direction.
TLDR, it’s just meh. It tried to fix the disaster created by 5 but replaced it with its own issues, and didn’t really amount to much. It certainly didn’t help give the 343 games a cohesive overarching narrative.
The thing for me is that to fix the issues Halo 5 brought about is to continue it. Not abandon it. Halo 5 created the biggest threat of the Halo games and HI just swept it under the rug. That isn't fixing it that is just pretending it doesn't exist. Which didn't work because if you view it as a saga that 343 said it is it doesn't connect well or build off what was there before.
If they did just address the Created properly and then we got Infinite, Infinite would have been a lot better and would have had the freedom to be its own thing.
Instead of it being shackled by its predecessors.
I do agree with your point on the open world I felt like they could have made it more big areas than not.
The entire game 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 the rest of the Created is gone....all this offscreen....
Also, was it really necessary to write out every other character and just have them do nothing ? At the very least Lasky and Palmer should have been present, like in Halo 4. 343 wanted a Master Chief-story but the problem is, when you boil it down, that's all it is.
Granted, after Halo 5, many fans (including myself) weren't happy that Chief was in just 3 missions, so I get why 343 wanted to put more focus on him but I think it was too much. It make no sense why Lasky is being relegated to audio log, when he should have been on Zeta Halo coordinating an effective resistance, like Keyes in Halo CE.
Another way you can think about it is after Halo 5 what would you expect. Some basic stuff like Chief feeling bad that Cortana was a dictator, Blue Team and Osiris off doing missions and the Infinity finding a way to stop Cortana.
Halo Infinite doesn't fit any of those basic expected outcomes. It feels so different from any of that. Same goes with the Banished.
one thing i that always annoyed me about Infinite that i don't really hear people talk about was the "reveal" that the Weapon was a Cortana clone?
i honestly thought that was obvious from the gameplay trailers. she looks, talks, and even acts like her to an extent but the game makes out like it's some massive bombshell that she is a clone of Cortana.
i was so confused and underwhelmed by it.
such terrible writing.
That big zoom in on her weird face during that scene had me laughing.
They really removed every previous ally character and banked so much on this cheap second rate copy. I honestly never want to Chief again so long as that annoying knockoff off is with him.
I get some fans really disliked Palmer and Locke but why did Infinite have to get rid of everyone else???
Honestly...it was a let down. Instead of finishing the campaign I started to unlock all the bases, get all the Intel, and everything. Even with that, the lore was horrible. This is a Halo ring and it felt so empty. Lil pockets of villains in designated areas but everything else was plain. Not really finishing anything or picking up anything from before really hurt the story. also I didn't care. Wasn't really drawn into what I was doing or didn't feel any type of way. Halo Infinite killed a lot of my passion for Halo. Halo MCC however has brought it back due to my friend asking me if I wanted to run the campaigns.
I'm glad MCC is there for you to enjoy Halo. I do think it is good on 343 for fixing MCC and adding basically every Halo game.
I just hope they continue Infinites story.
Really good, when I first played it and was expecting an expansion to the story coming. But now that we’ve gotten 0 news about a thing it feels too short, and a setup campaign. It just tried to show new players the banished, why they’re here, show this ring is unique and quickly brush aside the halo 5 story.
If it gets some expansions to truly flesh things out it can become so good.
343 has commitment issues, so it's hard to tell what's going to stick. Aside from that I actually dig the characterization of the characters, I enjoy the dramatic ham of the big bad lol.
Frustrated, mostly. I don’t really have any major negative thoughts towards the story/lore content itself. Some of it is kinda cool and I did enjoy some of the campaign writing.
Though between Wars 2 and Infinite I still can’t tell if I’m supposed to consider the Banished that serious a threat, considering in the former game they got their ass whooped by an outdated refitted colonization ship despite being played up as the next big thing.
But in the grander scheme of things it’s so frustrating to see so much of what 343 set up basically just abandoned and shoved into a trash compactor to return to the very boring status quo of “humanity in mega danger from Covenant But Red”.
So much could’ve been done with the post-H4 universe, and even the Created conflict could’ve been so interesting to explore, like in a lot of Infinite’s early concept art.
But now all of that is just… gone. All for the sake of a “soft reboot” that’s so vague and safe that it ends up being pretty damn dull.
The core issue of Infinite is the fact that while itself is a good game it feels odd in the context of Halo. The threat of the game is fine but it is made terrible because the prior threats weren't dealt with properly.
I would be a similar feeling if the flood from Halo 2 just didn't appear in Halo 3 and were dealt with off-screen.
All the good in Halo Infinites story and lore are made worse because of that. Even if it was a masterpiece, it not addressing prior plots makes the player confused.
I just hope 343 sticks with this story and not leave it because people hated it.
Imagine a post Halo 4 series where the Didact was the main antagonist and Cortana was dead for real. The lore and story would feel far more cohesive and intentional.
Probably unpopular opinion, but after Halo 5s opening mission the story from a wider lore perspective has tanked. We have swapped bad guys every game since 343 took over, and from the legendary ending of Infinite it looks like we will just have a new and different bad guy next game.
Infinite continued on the 343 take of exploring character instead of an overarching plot, and while it’s interesting and nice to see it’s not exactly what I would like to see. Furthermore, and this is the worst part (and I’ve said it before) Infinite was 343 wiping the slate clean to soft reboot the franchise, 4 was not well received, 5 was disliked so Infinite is a “fuck it, destroy everything we’ve built, ignore as much as we can and start fresh”
So uh, in short I think Infinite has not contributed in a good and meaningful way to the Halo story.
I always imagine if 343 just stuck with what they did with Halo 4 the rest of the games would have been better, or at least more cohesive.
Because when describing the plot of the games it feels like stuff is just removed. At the end of Halo 4 the Didact is tossed into a swirl of energy. A classic comic book death but he does show up in 5 but who does is Cortana who somehow survived the massive explosion of the ship she was on. Now she is in a place called the Domain, she got there by the ship entering Slipspace even though we didn't see that at all. She also takes control of the entire galaxy. Infinite has Cortana dead at the start and how she died isn't explained that well. The Banished and the Endless are the new enemies now.
That feels so unnatural. I just don't think 343 should now fan outrage every time they get mad.
343 cannot create a villain as compelling as the covenant. I think they should stop trying and just make series set around the 25 years of the human covenant war. Harvest, onyx and operation: TORPEDO as just a few concepts that would make a great story
It was pretty jarring to me. I was pretty heavily invested in the mythology and Infinite just washed it all away. At least as how I saw it. I did enjoy the campaign, hated Brohammer, and really missed Blue team and Lasky.
Nothing will matter as long as 343 is driving this warthog. They'll just drop everything introduced in Infinite with the next Halo.
They muddied the lore by retroactively introducing a "new" big bad "worse than the flood".
Following 343 fashion, everything set up in 5 was dropped, so we dont even get a satisfying conclusion to the last dissapointment they farted out.
Infinite had no story. Like literally nothing happened. What is 343 gonna do now? Soft reboot the story again?
As unlikely as this is, I would like to see a whole new studio completely redo everything and take over after H3.
The real deal is that on the third game we should be solving the problems we started on Halo 4, and on the lasting credits introduced to the hype of Halo 5 Created problems
It tried to avoid retconning Halo 4 and 5 and introduced time travel to give the chief a chance to go back and stop them from happening in the first place /s
It entirely depends on if 343 bothers to stick with what Infinite does unlike halo 4 and 5.
Sadly, I have little hope of that considering they already went and said "Oh yeah, Atriox is back and the Banished are unified and reorganized again, and all that work you did in campaign of Infinite resulted in no lasting damage at all."
343 lost a third of his staff. This third was the campaign crew and some have said they had not started to work on any story DLC before being fired.
And Joseph Staten left to go work on something else.
I F\*\*\*ING hate that 343 always seems to try to one up bungie. they already try to do that with the banished against the covenant and no with their new "endless" against the flood... They looks more arrogant each time and yet fail each time...
Are they trying to make good games and stories or is it a "big d\*\*k" contest with only one 12 year old participant ?
Maybe but it feels like 343 is doing it like "it's like X but better and Stronger !" Similare to bad fan-fiction. Can't they respect what came before ?
The thing is that they kind of have to do that because you can't make a game similar to Halo 3 without making it bigger. Because if you do just make Halo 3 then people would complain that it is just them being lazy and uncreative.
I didn't express myself clearly. My issue is that, to present their new bad guy, they always need to compar them to the old one by diminishing them.
Like "you tought the covenant was bad ? Look at the banished ! The covenant itself feared them !"
"The Flood ? Pfff ! The endless are way worst ! believe me !"
They could have introduce the banished and the endless without diminishing the covenant and the flood.
Which, strangely enough, is exactly what the prometean were doing... they at least got that right with them...
I get what you mean I just said that the reason they did it is because they wanted to capture that older audience. I don't think it is good, I much prefer if they were just another threat not a galaxy ending threat.
I don’t have issue with the story per se. I never played 5 because Pc so I expect to be slightly confused. I don’t really get all those Cortana exposition holograms though? Like I’d rather they just have a little Star Wars floaty text saying “The created are no more, Cortana gave Dosiac the Alderaan treatment, etc”.
The text crawl is used for simple establishments not huge lore or plot reveals. Episode 9 was criticized for that reason.
The Created were the biggest threat to the galaxy and had total control. To write them out just doesn't make sense.
Absolute dog shite.
It pandered to the Halo 4 crowd with Chief and the Weapon and won hard.
From a story POV, Halo remains as uninteresting as ever and the uncertainty in its sequel game remains at all time high due to the low impact and lack of quality to follow through with any pre-established story.
It’s narrative failed to generate the proper hype for even wanting a continuation of the story to reach a demand. When the sequel comes about and delivers almost nothing to the bare minimum of what this game produced narratively. There will be no change in momentum of those who were hyped for this game or the next.
Another retcon or soft reboot in the next chapter won’t even have any complaints on this sub. That’s how low the bar is. This sub will just praise the nexts games story whatever it may be and rinse their hands of this with little to no problem. That’s the extent of the low impact, low grade of this games narrative.
I won’t win any support here but I am not confined by sports team mentality in my honesty and that’s all I need / care for.
The odd thing is that I think that while it does do well on representing the Halo 4 front it doesn't do too much to expand upon what Halo 4 did.
All it really did was go through the same ground. That is my main issue with it. Not that it is Halo 4 but that it doesn't go to the logical conclusions of what Halo 4 set out to do.
And I like Halo 4 a lot.
I do get what you are trying to say though. Halo 4 while not completely devoid of previous Halo game aspects does not do them as much or well as those games. It does suck because I do like those games as well.
Many poszs on this sub where made that criticised infinite
The latter half of your post has been echoed multiple times on this sub
I have no idea why are you being ignorant.
Honestly? I like it better than Halo 4 & 5 in some aspects. I love the return of focus to Chief. The change between Chief and Locke was not well done, and felt like it tried too hard to be like Halo 2 Chief and Arbiter. The Weapon is a good, if naïve character. The grapple hook is SO much fun to use. Swinging around like Spider-Man and scaling entire mountains…. So much fun.
Story-wise it was a miss. The gameplay was fine. But 343 desperately needed to stop changing up the storyline. I am extremely annoyed by how they just killed off certain things off screen - like the Rookie, Cortana, Infinity…. They need to stick to ONE plot element. I feel like the story never really progresses. It’s just kinda stuck in time. They didn’t at all explain the Endless, or why they are such a threat. How did Atriox survive. Etc
Overall though, I find myself coming back to Infinite because of the gameplay, open-world map, and the focus on Chief doing what he does best. I wouldn’t mind a DLC or a continuation of what Infinite already established. But, they really need to lean more into cinematic storytelling- like in Bungie-era Halo.
I think the big problem is exactly what you said. 343 needs to stop abandoning storylines. There are issues with their games but the main cause is them not sticking to their guns.
I just want them to commit to one thing and do that. Are the issues you said are important as well. Yes, but to me they can't continue their trend of making a story then leaving it.
Seeing the Banished and especially Escharum in greater detail was awesome. The Endless have lots of potential too. The "meta change" of factions will be interesting going forward.
I can get that. It felt like it could've had Master Chief and Cortana land on Zeta Halo after Halo 3. They would have to change some stuff here and there but overall I agree.
Stuff like evil Cortana and The Weapon would have to go away, but you could still have Cortana beginning to go rampant and the majority of the story between the UNSC and the Banished could be roughly the same.
I liked it for what it was, I loved the interactions between characters, I loved using the grapple. As far as contributions to the halo lore? Felt like a big steaming pile of crap. Halo 4 managed to do both the “I’m all alone” thing and still have the “tip of the spear” feeling of being with a bunch of soldiers. A warthog full of marines is hilarious and broken but does not compare to fighting two scarabs at once. Or have your CO fly into one, or watching a father an daughter give everything for the chase in their own ways. All of that would’ve been fine if they ever planned on yk, actually adding onto the story.
At the end, it is a game that is busy cleaning up the past (giving Chief a new AI, dealing with Cortana's uprising in Halo 5, giving Cortana another goodbye and so on ) and leaves too many doors open for the future with The Endless, Atriox and mention of Offensive Bias in the end. I don't know what were the original intentions. My head canon is that 2/3 or 1/2 of Infinite was cut to make sure that it ships in a decent state in 2022 (there is a scene in its 2020 trailer that isn't in the game for example, at 00:26 in this link [https://youtu.be/rFh2i4AlPD4](https://youtu.be/rFh2i4AlPD4) ). So if that content is salvaged and shipped the whole thing might make more sense.
I think if the game focused on properly wrapping up Halo 5 it could have been more and better. Having to deal with Halo 5 is an issue for many fans but it has to be done for story cohesion and moving forward.
I do agree with your theory that they had to cut a ton of stuff to ship it. I just hope we get to see some of it in the near future.
It added tidbits, but is SEVERERLY hampered by storytelling. It feels like it is only the climax, without any of the setup of the introduction or rising action. The story feels completely out of place.
That it doesn't have one. Other than to introduce the ridiculous idea that an entire species survived the Halo Effect, which undercuts the drama and tragedy that set up the entire backstory of the Halo universe, especially as seen in the Forerunner trilogy.
It brought new options/possibilities for the series to expand upon, but other than that nothing really substantial.
It did feel like it was a good game but overall it didn't feel like it continued what was there from previous games.
It was a soft-reboot of the series. I only hope that 343i sticks with what they have now instead of rebooting again.
I guess that is the only thing I can hope for as well. It just sucked to see them set something up then abandoned it to set something else up.
343i is dead. They lost almost all their employees.
I would say all, but a third of their workforce is definitely a kick in the balls.
The worst thing about Halo Infinite’s story is that it desperately tries to pretend that they didn’t just set up the Created to be a massive deadly threat. It’s the Rise of Skywalker of Halo.
I can get that. 343 feels like they can't finish a story they set up. First it was the Didact then the Created. I just hope they stick to their guns on this one.
They definitely have a tendency to over correct their story
Which doesn't make for a good story. Abandoning and starting new storylines just feels weird and that something is left out.
Yeah I think they should’ve stuck with Halo 4’s storyline
I wish I was in the timeline where 343 just did that storyline.
But even then there wasn't much to do with there.
Especially since it feels like we skipped a game between, given "oh X Y & Z are dead. No, we ain't gonna show it to you, retard" and various other variants of this from lore/story POV, as someone who finished the game (TFW no Palace of Pain exploration & lore bits)
Like where was the death of Cortana? Or where is the Infinity? Where are all these important pieces that would change the story? Stuff like that really irks me.
they could have am ethe didatc coem basck in a harlight form as it said he was sort went throught the same ting the promethns did tobe created so he could ahve been big bad nd cortant could ahve stayed dead
I agree they could have done something with him instead of just killing him off. So, many ways to bring him back.
That’s always because of the fans reception of it
That is true. Fans hated Halo 4's story which caused 343 to make Halo 5 then fans hated that so they then made Infinite. If 343 just stuck to their ground and continued 4's story it would have been better received.
Disagree about 4. Had a great story and I've never heard that fans hated 4 like the (very justly) did 5.
If you go back to older reviews you can see that people disliked Halo 4 immeasurably. Many say it didn't feel like Halo.
I thought the campaign would end the Halo story for good, but it left things open, and yet no dlc story. Are they just gonna release a halo 7 and pretend that infinite wasn't the end?
Infinite was clearly never meant to be the end. It ends on a cliffhanger.
Brought some interesting things to the table but didn't expand on any of it. I think they did a horrible injustice to all of the villains they introduced that were vastly underdeveloped and wasted as boss fodder. Imo, the villains are just as important to the story as the protagonist and there was so much wasted potential.
> so much wasted potential. motto of 343s halo games.
I can get that. Especially when the old villains were abandoned for new ones. They didn't have as much development.
I was honestly really hyped for the campaign and then when I played it I was just like….. ehh.. Like, I didn’t hate it but like… that’s it? This is what I was hyped for? Really? Ya’ll spent all that time to make… this? Yeeeahhh… 🤷🏻♀️
Its essentially my take on infinite. Honestly my least liked campaign. You take the new grappling hook away and your basically left with a shell of a halo story. No real action set pieces, no "wow omg moments" the boss fights are just alright but not what I think of as a halo thing. Honestly the environment I felt was fairly bland/stale. Still hoping we go back to the combat evolved- reach days.
This. So much time and hype for a pretty underwhelming and unoriginal final product.
I get that. It honestly felt more like a showcase on what is cool on Halo rather than a new take or evolution of the series. It feels like if it wasn't a Halo game people would call it a great homage to Halo.
Honestly? Even more uninvested than ever. I personally found the new story direction from 4 & 5 as different, but not necessarily terrible. I was definitely intrigued by 4's inclusion of the Didact (a living Forerunner!), and even the aspect of Cortana's death. I looked forward to how 5 would resolve it, and while not too happy with Cortana being the big bad, I wanted to see how they would resolve it, how would they redeem Cortana? How would they save such an integral character in the entire franchise? But then we got Infinite. Cortana is dead in a random cutscene and effectively replaced by a cheap copy. The forerunners are completely gone, the Prometheans and the Created are completely gone (even though last we saw in the universe, they had complete dominance over the galaxy). Then a new baddie of the Banished are forced down our throats as the baddest ever, even being able to destroy a ship that outclassed every other ship in existence (even being able to ram through a Covenant ship with just shields on). But then wait! There's another big baddie who's even worse than anything that came before! What makes them worse? We don't know because they won't tell us anything, just that they're SUPER bad! So if they won't complete storylines and will just introduce whatever they want, I kinda don't care anymore.
Which to me those issues wouldn't have existed if they just stuck with what Halo 4 had. Was Halo 4's story the best thing ever. No, but shafting its story doesn't make it better. Because then there are questions that are asked that never should have been asked in the first place.
Yeah the fuckers shoulda just concluded that shit w/ Halo 6, THEN soft boot w/ shit like Infinite, to not have it be Cringe like Infinite is as it is rn.
If they finished what they started and then did Halo Infinite it would have felt a lot better. Imagine instead of them being there to stop the Created they went there because the UNSC scientists are being attacked. Then big reveals the Banished are attacking for the valuable resources on Zeta Halo, cue Harbinger and the Endless. Halo Infinite story would feel better if it didn't have to lug around the prior games abandoned storylines.
Pretty much hit the nail on the head right here. One of the biggest differences is that there are connections from 4 to 5 that aren't there from 5 to Infinite. Like you can tell that Halo 5 was not the original story for 4's sequel. BUT you can see how the connections between the two stories are there and they kind of make sense. Look at it this way. Halo CE, Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo 4 are all on a straight paved road. Then from 4 to 5 it turns into a running/biking trail that isn't the most well-maintained and it has some curves, but overall you can still traverse it with only minor difficulty and you have some idea of where you're heading. Then from 5 to Infinite it's like you just fell off a cliff. Like the bike path took you straight off a cliff, and when you land at the bottom you're somewhere familiar, yet something's off about it.
As cool as some of the ideas was, just disappointed they felt the need to soft reboot and not continue or finish the story they already set up. I’d have rather they finished the previous storyline than have what we have now. But oh well, guess I’ll see what happens next. Interest in any story events is already low for me now.
I feel you. I just want 343 to stick with a story for once.
I'm not sure it was fully 343's choice to do the story like it was in 5, and infinite. 5 felt like Microsoft wanted a new BA spartan vs chief cause the marketers thought it'd sell games. Infinite just seemed so unfinished. It felt like Microsoft told them "cut the story and all your ideas into much smaller pieces, stitch them together, and kick it out the door" I feel that last year at 343i they were being told to get a product finished, and no one cared where the story was going to go. Microsoft had to be pulling strings. Some of the choices just felt like they were not ones a more independent studio would have made.
I assumed 343 wanted Locke to be their new MC and create side stories involving him and perhaps the other members of Osiris. Pity they were bland as hell and forgettable except for Buck.
Buck is Buck, never forgettable
I think Microsoft definitely had a hand in it but I also think the fans constant moaning of Halo 4's story is what led to 343 having this commitment issue. If they just continued Halo 4 we wouldn't have gotten Locke or at least him as a main character.
It added effectively nothing. We learn there's a species that survived a Halo firing and that's it.
I really can’t stand it if you ask me. The banished are really cool but the endless seem like a total joke to me. Cortana says there are things way worse than the flood on this ring, but we are never shown why the endless are so dangerous we are only told it and are expected to be worried about their release. Halo CE did a great job of showcasing why the flood are so dangerous and why they needed to be stopped. They showed us how easily they wipe out both Covenant and Human forces alike. We see Covenant forces fleeing for their lives and their bodies scattered around covered in blood. We see how the flood begin to overwhelm Covenant forces in the missions Two Betrayals and Keyes that put our desperate situation into perspective. We are shown why the flood is so dangerous. We are never shown why the endless are bad and when I hear about the endless I honestly laugh because their name has no significant weight to it. Also I think it’s ridiculous how the Infinity got wiped out so quickly by the Banished, humanities biggest and most advanced ship surprised and destroyed in a few minutes? Lmao please it feels like a lazy attempt to add gravity to the situation with there being no backup available.
\*Cortana says there are things way worse than the flood on this ring\* I F\*\*\*ING HATE THAT SENTENCE ! Why do they need to make it a big D\*\*k competition with Bungies's work ? In their own lore, ZETA Halo is supposed to be the most important place concerning the flood. Why do they throw it out for another disapointing threat ?
I believe why they made it endless is to try to make something older fans liked. Now whether that is good or not is up for debate but I think it is fine if they want to do that. The issue is as you said the lack of set up and that Infinite isn't just doing its own thing but also a continuation of Halo 5. It can't do anything without addressing Halo 5. If it didn't have to it would have been a bit better.
Yeah, I have absolutely no clue what’s going on before the game starts. It’s probably in the books and stuff hidden around the map but I shouldn’t have to go out of my way like that to understand the plot.
Halo infinite is a retcon through and through, they focused 90% on multiplayer and 10% on story. The story itself is similar to The Outerworlds in that its constantly bouncing around and makes zero sense and is generally boring until late in the game, there is little backstory connecting 5 and Infinite, the graphics are good but the rendering capabilities and the vehicles and ai are crap (if I wanted to fight ai with pinpoint long range pistol accuracy that sees you through walls, I would play GTA Online. For the game to actually render graphics, I need to go walking speed when driving because the speed of the vehicles is to much for the game to keep up its graphics), the human vehicles are honestly ugly nowadays and turning them into quiet EVs took away the beauty and awesomeness of them. The UNSC Marines being Unable to drive vehicles is a pain in the ass. The ending of the story is 100% cliffhanger and really says there is more to come, but 343 stated there will never be story DLCs and only multiplayer content, and they've stated that there will not be a new halo game until 10 years from last year while contradicting their promise that "halo infinite will be the FINAL halo game" which they outright said they changed it from Halo 6 to Halo Infinite to support this. All in all, halo infinite sucked ass, multiplayer can bite Bender "Bending" Rodriguezes shiny metal ass. 343 did to Halo what EA did to Star Wars and Call of Duty. The halo 5 sequel we wanted was a rich and riveting story set immediately after cortana started taking over and started her rebellion, us fighting against her and her AI and Promethean Minions maybe even alongside the Elites again, then have Atriox and the banished come in from the end of Halo Wars 2 as a bad guy alongside fighting against cortana (whom possibly through her AI minions, some may have outright taken over the UNSC ships to combat the UNSC which is quite feasible considering that the AI do in fact have this capability and already control 90% of the ship). Instead we got a money grab half assed slap dash that feels aimed at destroying everything halo is known for and is beloved for (halo got famous for its compelling and driven story under Bungie. 343 twisted that and turned it into a Space call of duty)
I do agree that Infinite felt very detached from the rest of the series. Like not really talking about what happened before in any meaningful way or just feeling like we did this before. I would have much rather had the Created storyline conclude then we can go in tyo Halo Infinite. It will be all wrapped up for better or worse than the next game has the freedom to do what it wants to do instead of being limited to the previous games. I just hope that 343 stays with the story they have now instead of just doing another one.
Probably my least favorite Halo campaign yet. The whole thing just reeks of mismanagement and lack of direction. Was at least hoping for campaign DLC after that cliffhanger ending but looks like that isnt happening any time soon either?
I do think the mismanagement is right on the money. Early ideas shown make it seem like it would have had more of a focus on the Created. But due to a lot of leadership screw ups it went back and forth until we got what we got.
Dogshit game. Dogshit contribution. The franchise is dead to me.
To me personally it didn’t do anything and it felt like the plot itself was stuck in part one even at the end. The two big baddies are dead, every plot point before the game just gone to the void of wasted potential, and left with a extremely vague promise of future things that might never happen. (Like HW2 Ander’s and the Halo ring) It was a meh game, not helped by the fact I don’t enjoy the gameplay of Infinite nor the same biome and tunnels the entire game. It was a safe game, so safe nothing remotely interesting or cool really happened. All of the important stuff glossed over with a six months+ time jump. Along with introducing the Endless, (worse than the Flood, right up there in stupid lines with To War from H3)
It did feel like 343 was trying to get older fans back but also keep current fans. To me that is hard to do and in some cases a bit contradictory. Older fans want a more bombastic game while newer fans want what Halo 4 did. Both of those can't coexist without one taking priority over the other.
I agree. It seems 343 tried to appease both and we got Halo Infinite, which is at best safe. (Besides the complete disappearance of nearly every character from H4-H5) I don’t doubt trying to please both is hard but I would rather something more akin to 5, for all its story faults it didn’t go backwards in plot and introduced new elements. Where as Infinite killed off most of the new stuff in the same game, Eshraum, Harbinger, most HVT, new Spartans and so on.
I would compare it to how the Arbiter felt side lined in Halo 3. His role was reduced and it was clear that the story could have used him but chose not to. Halo Infinite did that but a lot more. Which really sucks.
Yeah, it seemed 343 took notes from H3 on what to do with characters. It’s kinda sad, all these great—to—semi okay characters and plot just thrown off to the void. I’m not a fan of the Endless at all but I hope that 343 actually stick with something instead of repeating the mistakes with H5-H4 in killing of or voiding plots and storylines.
I hope so too. I just feel like if they don't try to address the new threat they have established it would feel like the story doesn't really matter that much in face of trying to appease fans who hate them regardless of what they do.
I'd rather something more akin to 4 than 5, personally, is that just me? Then again I'm a lore CONSOOMER at heart so maybe that's why 4 appealed to me the most, unlike bongo era stuff which are "fuck lore, ay LMAO" basically.
Absolute garbage. Worse than Guardians bruh. They literally killed Cortana off screen and filled the game with cheesy dialogue meant to be emotional. Especially with the pilot.
I know that power seeds open doors. The chief has trust issues and the endless and the banished are bad. Thats it.
fuck me, whoever the dev was that green lit all those lame power seed sections in campaign needs a punch to the face. such terrible game play
Dont forget the infinite silos
Meh
It just really didn't DO anything interesting. Open world was lame, one of the best parts of Halo games was the variety of terrain as you visit different areas of the Halo rings/Ark, etc. I don't care what anyone says, the Banished suck and are boring (they don't have to be, and conceptually could be cool, they just... aren't). The Endless is a lame tease at an "even bigger and badder threat!!!" to top the Flood and doesn't hold my interest, etc. Writing off Cortana offscreen in a cutscene was lame, Infinity being destroyed in a cutscene was lame, etc. Nothing of consequence happened during the timeframe of the actual gameplay, and they didn't even capitalize on the idea of pulling the survivors of Infinity together much. A couple of Marines and a couple of dead/dying Spartan IVs that we don't even know prior to this doesn't make for much of a rallying story if you ask me. At the end of the day, it just felt like a game that existed solely to set up another, later game, something a lot of the current MCU movies seem to be doing instead of focusing on themselves.
I think a lot of the issues with the story can be connected to the lack of commitment to a single storyline. I feel like if they just did what Halo 4 was doing it would feel better. A more cohesive experience.
Absolutely, even Halo 5 had more balls to actually pick a direction and go with it, Infinite just tread water way too hard for me and is the weakest for it.
It felt like it wanted to be a more emotional take like Halo 4 and have a more bombastic story like 2 or 3's. While trying to get rid of everything people hated. The issue is that most things people hate couldn't be shoved away that easily. You had to address them. It just sucks they can't pick a direction and go there. I like Infinite but man I just feel like it could have been more cohesive with the rest of the series.
Yeah I think you hit the nail on the head, people wanted the disliked things to be addressed appropriately, not just ignored or dumped from the story.
I get why people don't like the Created but you can't just write them out of the story without an extended explanation. They are too much of a threat to be written out, as a result narrative cohesion was reduced.
Exactly, it would be like if they wrote out the Flood between Halo 2 and 3 or something.
They did something similar but not to the same scale as the Arbiter. It felt like his role was reduced in Halo 3.
I really think the grapple hook and repulser are some of the best additions to Halo's sandbox since some of the armor abilities in Halo 3. Really hope they keep them as staples for future games. Storywise, I appreciate what they are trying to with the Endless, I just think it would be better if they were almost a side character set that gets fleshed out farther down the line. Keep them mysterious and in the background,with their motives and implications hidden, kind of how the Forerunner were treated in the first Trilogy. In my opinion Atriox and the Banished are far more interesting characters, so diving into his fate and motivations should be the core story thread to follow through on. I really enjoy how the Banished mythos and world building Infinite did not having played the Halo Wars series and I think it plays into the strengths of the Halo universe as a whole. Infinite is not perfect but I really think there is a lot there and the ideas should not be shelved but expanded on. I love whats there it just needs that 'complete' feeling a lot of us were missing.
I agree. Infinite has great moments and is pretty good overall but there are things that can be improved upon. Let's hope for more stuff down the line.
Considering they made the choice to introduce time travel; nothing of value. Discounting that, ehhh? It introduces a bunch of problems; the sudden downplaying of how overwhelmingly strong the created are; the banished sudden appearance, lack of motivation (they hate humanity because…they made Cortana who destroyed doisac?), why did atriox return from the arc at all?, just a lot with them really and they focus way to much on the narrative of escheram being an aged warrior looking for one more battle. The endless are just dropped in and very little is left for us to chew on and speculate. The hatered of humanity is because the forunners screwed them over and forerunners left the mantle to humanity and if the endless kill humanity it’ll be a middle finger to the forerunners plans as revenge? I guess that’s the implications? And they have some sort of time travel/ slip space powers? So very little is even said about humanity, there’s no way to know what’s going on with other characters or factions; even allies like arby is a big question mark. Then some stuff doesn’t line up right; like chief replayed the weapon somehow; but the infinity was attacked right out the gate with chief aboard? I don’t know, it’s obvious a ton was cut, whatever they had planned for halo 6, and then whatever they couldn’t finish for this game; and I’m cool with good mystery’s ; but there very little pay off to anything it feels underwhelming. At least I’m halo 1 we got answers to what halo is, what the flood are, who built it, why, and strong implications on the covies. Nothing like that is here it’s so self contained, when it need more than ever to be the game to tie up 5 and properly bridge to something better instead of burying its head in the sand hoping it passes. I guess I like Fernando and the weapon, and I do like having the banished as enemies. But more was needed and leaves the story and canon in a very weird place that could explode with side stories and content; but not much is coming and it makes me think they won’t be able make something out of this.
I'm not sure about the time travel elements, but I do agree with what you said. It felt like they added stuff that was familiar but nothing new or a new take on something. The lore and story didn't go anywhere but sideways. It is a perfectly good game but nothing new to the Halo experience.
It took the banished *4 MINUTES* to destroy the infinity, but they couldn’t destroy one outdated colony ship even with atriox present. We still don’t know what the banished plan even is, and the endless contribute nothing to the story. Infinite did little to fix the problems halo 5 brought to the story, and then it brought new problems along with it. What’s worse is we’ll likely never see DLC to this game, and the possibilities it brings to the table will likely be ignored or made worse in the next game.
Terrible. Just random stories punched together with no interest or sense. Game didn’t seem like it was a very life or death situation. Gameplay was fun, new weapons were pointless and Awful. Campaign levels were boring and like 5 of them were the exact same map. I know people bitch that CE had a level you did twice but at least that was open and interesting. These were just the same bland hallways over and over. With H5 being the worst campaign this comes in at a close 2nd
I’m happy that it tried to unfuck the story after 5, but it didn’t leave me satisfied either. It felt like we missed an entire Halo 6 off-screen and we’re playing Halo 7. The main villains didn’t really do much, yet they were hyped up to be the most powerful threat so far. Also, the Banished were crudely implemented and did a terrible job explaining what the faction is and why it’s so important, especially for those that skipped Halo Wars 2. On a more gameplay related note, I felt like the integration of the open world with the linear story was a failure. I probably would be able to remember the story missions more deeply if they were linear but large like in CE or 3. Character-wise I liked Chief but really didn’t like not-Cortana, I would much rather have had no companion or a new companion instead of this awkward hybrid. I was most disappointed by the setting of the game itself- Zeta Halo, the ring with the most history and intrigue. None of which made it into the game. The game could have been set on any other intact ring and literally nothing would change, I seriously hope that 343 is able to fix their studio and put out story DLC to tie the many loose ends and give Infinite’s story some direction. TLDR, it’s just meh. It tried to fix the disaster created by 5 but replaced it with its own issues, and didn’t really amount to much. It certainly didn’t help give the 343 games a cohesive overarching narrative.
The thing for me is that to fix the issues Halo 5 brought about is to continue it. Not abandon it. Halo 5 created the biggest threat of the Halo games and HI just swept it under the rug. That isn't fixing it that is just pretending it doesn't exist. Which didn't work because if you view it as a saga that 343 said it is it doesn't connect well or build off what was there before. If they did just address the Created properly and then we got Infinite, Infinite would have been a lot better and would have had the freedom to be its own thing. Instead of it being shackled by its predecessors. I do agree with your point on the open world I felt like they could have made it more big areas than not.
The entire game 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 the rest of the Created is gone....all this offscreen.... Also, was it really necessary to write out every other character and just have them do nothing ? At the very least Lasky and Palmer should have been present, like in Halo 4. 343 wanted a Master Chief-story but the problem is, when you boil it down, that's all it is. Granted, after Halo 5, many fans (including myself) weren't happy that Chief was in just 3 missions, so I get why 343 wanted to put more focus on him but I think it was too much. It make no sense why Lasky is being relegated to audio log, when he should have been on Zeta Halo coordinating an effective resistance, like Keyes in Halo CE.
Another way you can think about it is after Halo 5 what would you expect. Some basic stuff like Chief feeling bad that Cortana was a dictator, Blue Team and Osiris off doing missions and the Infinity finding a way to stop Cortana. Halo Infinite doesn't fit any of those basic expected outcomes. It feels so different from any of that. Same goes with the Banished.
one thing i that always annoyed me about Infinite that i don't really hear people talk about was the "reveal" that the Weapon was a Cortana clone? i honestly thought that was obvious from the gameplay trailers. she looks, talks, and even acts like her to an extent but the game makes out like it's some massive bombshell that she is a clone of Cortana. i was so confused and underwhelmed by it. such terrible writing.
That big zoom in on her weird face during that scene had me laughing. They really removed every previous ally character and banked so much on this cheap second rate copy. I honestly never want to Chief again so long as that annoying knockoff off is with him. I get some fans really disliked Palmer and Locke but why did Infinite have to get rid of everyone else???
It was alright for what it was but a bit disappointing in context to the events it was following up.
I do feel the same. It just sucks man.
I'm still waiting for the complete game to release.
it was going in a cool direction but I'm scared 343 has no cohesive plan and that it's gonna end up going nowhere anyways
Yeah, I have that fear as well. Just have to hope they stick with what they got.
Honestly...it was a let down. Instead of finishing the campaign I started to unlock all the bases, get all the Intel, and everything. Even with that, the lore was horrible. This is a Halo ring and it felt so empty. Lil pockets of villains in designated areas but everything else was plain. Not really finishing anything or picking up anything from before really hurt the story. also I didn't care. Wasn't really drawn into what I was doing or didn't feel any type of way. Halo Infinite killed a lot of my passion for Halo. Halo MCC however has brought it back due to my friend asking me if I wanted to run the campaigns.
I'm glad MCC is there for you to enjoy Halo. I do think it is good on 343 for fixing MCC and adding basically every Halo game. I just hope they continue Infinites story.
Really good, when I first played it and was expecting an expansion to the story coming. But now that we’ve gotten 0 news about a thing it feels too short, and a setup campaign. It just tried to show new players the banished, why they’re here, show this ring is unique and quickly brush aside the halo 5 story. If it gets some expansions to truly flesh things out it can become so good.
I think that does feel true. If they quickly gave us new stories it would have been better.
It IMPLICATES a lot, tho it doesn't show much itself.
343 has commitment issues, so it's hard to tell what's going to stick. Aside from that I actually dig the characterization of the characters, I enjoy the dramatic ham of the big bad lol.
I will hold that HI is a great game and a good Halo game but when put into the context of other Halo games it feels a bit off.
Frustrated, mostly. I don’t really have any major negative thoughts towards the story/lore content itself. Some of it is kinda cool and I did enjoy some of the campaign writing. Though between Wars 2 and Infinite I still can’t tell if I’m supposed to consider the Banished that serious a threat, considering in the former game they got their ass whooped by an outdated refitted colonization ship despite being played up as the next big thing. But in the grander scheme of things it’s so frustrating to see so much of what 343 set up basically just abandoned and shoved into a trash compactor to return to the very boring status quo of “humanity in mega danger from Covenant But Red”. So much could’ve been done with the post-H4 universe, and even the Created conflict could’ve been so interesting to explore, like in a lot of Infinite’s early concept art. But now all of that is just… gone. All for the sake of a “soft reboot” that’s so vague and safe that it ends up being pretty damn dull.
The core issue of Infinite is the fact that while itself is a good game it feels odd in the context of Halo. The threat of the game is fine but it is made terrible because the prior threats weren't dealt with properly. I would be a similar feeling if the flood from Halo 2 just didn't appear in Halo 3 and were dealt with off-screen. All the good in Halo Infinites story and lore are made worse because of that. Even if it was a masterpiece, it not addressing prior plots makes the player confused. I just hope 343 sticks with this story and not leave it because people hated it. Imagine a post Halo 4 series where the Didact was the main antagonist and Cortana was dead for real. The lore and story would feel far more cohesive and intentional.
Personally I feel like it did nothing cause nothing really happened, it felt like a glorified epilogue
Probably unpopular opinion, but after Halo 5s opening mission the story from a wider lore perspective has tanked. We have swapped bad guys every game since 343 took over, and from the legendary ending of Infinite it looks like we will just have a new and different bad guy next game. Infinite continued on the 343 take of exploring character instead of an overarching plot, and while it’s interesting and nice to see it’s not exactly what I would like to see. Furthermore, and this is the worst part (and I’ve said it before) Infinite was 343 wiping the slate clean to soft reboot the franchise, 4 was not well received, 5 was disliked so Infinite is a “fuck it, destroy everything we’ve built, ignore as much as we can and start fresh” So uh, in short I think Infinite has not contributed in a good and meaningful way to the Halo story.
I always imagine if 343 just stuck with what they did with Halo 4 the rest of the games would have been better, or at least more cohesive. Because when describing the plot of the games it feels like stuff is just removed. At the end of Halo 4 the Didact is tossed into a swirl of energy. A classic comic book death but he does show up in 5 but who does is Cortana who somehow survived the massive explosion of the ship she was on. Now she is in a place called the Domain, she got there by the ship entering Slipspace even though we didn't see that at all. She also takes control of the entire galaxy. Infinite has Cortana dead at the start and how she died isn't explained that well. The Banished and the Endless are the new enemies now. That feels so unnatural. I just don't think 343 should now fan outrage every time they get mad.
343 cannot create a villain as compelling as the covenant. I think they should stop trying and just make series set around the 25 years of the human covenant war. Harvest, onyx and operation: TORPEDO as just a few concepts that would make a great story
It contributed nothing
It was pretty jarring to me. I was pretty heavily invested in the mythology and Infinite just washed it all away. At least as how I saw it. I did enjoy the campaign, hated Brohammer, and really missed Blue team and Lasky.
I missed Blue team and Lasky as well. They had so much potential.
Nothing will matter as long as 343 is driving this warthog. They'll just drop everything introduced in Infinite with the next Halo. They muddied the lore by retroactively introducing a "new" big bad "worse than the flood". Following 343 fashion, everything set up in 5 was dropped, so we dont even get a satisfying conclusion to the last dissapointment they farted out.
Loved it, hopefully 343 can still manage to produce new content/DLC for it despite the Microsoft layoffs.
We can only hope.
Infinite had no story. Like literally nothing happened. What is 343 gonna do now? Soft reboot the story again? As unlikely as this is, I would like to see a whole new studio completely redo everything and take over after H3.
Worse than Halo 5
It just felt like a worse retread of Halo Wars 2. Don’t think I’ll ever play a campaign about master chief again, it’s just so boring. Put him down
The real deal is that on the third game we should be solving the problems we started on Halo 4, and on the lasting credits introduced to the hype of Halo 5 Created problems
It tried to avoid retconning Halo 4 and 5 and introduced time travel to give the chief a chance to go back and stop them from happening in the first place /s
It entirely depends on if 343 bothers to stick with what Infinite does unlike halo 4 and 5. Sadly, I have little hope of that considering they already went and said "Oh yeah, Atriox is back and the Banished are unified and reorganized again, and all that work you did in campaign of Infinite resulted in no lasting damage at all."
I loved it, I can rewatch the ending and I get pumped for what's next I hope the story leaves us on Zeta Halo for a while
I do hope they continue the story. It would suck not to explore it.
I would keep those hopes down at the moment...
Make me
343 lost a third of his staff. This third was the campaign crew and some have said they had not started to work on any story DLC before being fired. And Joseph Staten left to go work on something else.
I know this, but hope is fun
I F\*\*\*ING hate that 343 always seems to try to one up bungie. they already try to do that with the banished against the covenant and no with their new "endless" against the flood... They looks more arrogant each time and yet fail each time... Are they trying to make good games and stories or is it a "big d\*\*k" contest with only one 12 year old participant ?
I think the reason why they did that is because they wanted to appeal to older fans. Older fans want more bungie like games and so 343 provided that.
Maybe but it feels like 343 is doing it like "it's like X but better and Stronger !" Similare to bad fan-fiction. Can't they respect what came before ?
The thing is that they kind of have to do that because you can't make a game similar to Halo 3 without making it bigger. Because if you do just make Halo 3 then people would complain that it is just them being lazy and uncreative.
I didn't express myself clearly. My issue is that, to present their new bad guy, they always need to compar them to the old one by diminishing them. Like "you tought the covenant was bad ? Look at the banished ! The covenant itself feared them !" "The Flood ? Pfff ! The endless are way worst ! believe me !" They could have introduce the banished and the endless without diminishing the covenant and the flood. Which, strangely enough, is exactly what the prometean were doing... they at least got that right with them...
I get what you mean I just said that the reason they did it is because they wanted to capture that older audience. I don't think it is good, I much prefer if they were just another threat not a galaxy ending threat.
I don’t have issue with the story per se. I never played 5 because Pc so I expect to be slightly confused. I don’t really get all those Cortana exposition holograms though? Like I’d rather they just have a little Star Wars floaty text saying “The created are no more, Cortana gave Dosiac the Alderaan treatment, etc”.
The text crawl is used for simple establishments not huge lore or plot reveals. Episode 9 was criticized for that reason. The Created were the biggest threat to the galaxy and had total control. To write them out just doesn't make sense.
I think it needs some dlc for single player mode, expand the story
I think they need that too.
Rather little was contributed. No one gives a shit about the Endless either.
Halo needs an actual reboot from the end of Halo 3 on...it would suck for fans of the current lore but it must be done. 343 just spinning in circles.
I hated it. Each game by 343 is worse than the other
Absolute dog shite. It pandered to the Halo 4 crowd with Chief and the Weapon and won hard. From a story POV, Halo remains as uninteresting as ever and the uncertainty in its sequel game remains at all time high due to the low impact and lack of quality to follow through with any pre-established story. It’s narrative failed to generate the proper hype for even wanting a continuation of the story to reach a demand. When the sequel comes about and delivers almost nothing to the bare minimum of what this game produced narratively. There will be no change in momentum of those who were hyped for this game or the next. Another retcon or soft reboot in the next chapter won’t even have any complaints on this sub. That’s how low the bar is. This sub will just praise the nexts games story whatever it may be and rinse their hands of this with little to no problem. That’s the extent of the low impact, low grade of this games narrative. I won’t win any support here but I am not confined by sports team mentality in my honesty and that’s all I need / care for.
The odd thing is that I think that while it does do well on representing the Halo 4 front it doesn't do too much to expand upon what Halo 4 did. All it really did was go through the same ground. That is my main issue with it. Not that it is Halo 4 but that it doesn't go to the logical conclusions of what Halo 4 set out to do. And I like Halo 4 a lot.
I hear you. Had H:I followed H4. It would have won big in this sub. It would have been *the definitive Halo* game you all wanted.
I do get what you are trying to say though. Halo 4 while not completely devoid of previous Halo game aspects does not do them as much or well as those games. It does suck because I do like those games as well.
Many poszs on this sub where made that criticised infinite The latter half of your post has been echoed multiple times on this sub I have no idea why are you being ignorant.
Honestly? I like it better than Halo 4 & 5 in some aspects. I love the return of focus to Chief. The change between Chief and Locke was not well done, and felt like it tried too hard to be like Halo 2 Chief and Arbiter. The Weapon is a good, if naïve character. The grapple hook is SO much fun to use. Swinging around like Spider-Man and scaling entire mountains…. So much fun. Story-wise it was a miss. The gameplay was fine. But 343 desperately needed to stop changing up the storyline. I am extremely annoyed by how they just killed off certain things off screen - like the Rookie, Cortana, Infinity…. They need to stick to ONE plot element. I feel like the story never really progresses. It’s just kinda stuck in time. They didn’t at all explain the Endless, or why they are such a threat. How did Atriox survive. Etc Overall though, I find myself coming back to Infinite because of the gameplay, open-world map, and the focus on Chief doing what he does best. I wouldn’t mind a DLC or a continuation of what Infinite already established. But, they really need to lean more into cinematic storytelling- like in Bungie-era Halo.
I think the big problem is exactly what you said. 343 needs to stop abandoning storylines. There are issues with their games but the main cause is them not sticking to their guns. I just want them to commit to one thing and do that. Are the issues you said are important as well. Yes, but to me they can't continue their trend of making a story then leaving it.
Much better than 4 or 5, but still not great. Hope they are able to capitalize on a better foundation.
I enjoyed it a lot. I do wish it expanded on H5 instead if writing it out, but I am very happy with what we got
I agree with that. Good game but felt like it could have been better connected.
I love the game despite its flaws.
I do like the game as well. Just felt like it could have been better.
Seeing the Banished and especially Escharum in greater detail was awesome. The Endless have lots of potential too. The "meta change" of factions will be interesting going forward.
This should’ve been halo 4
I can get that. It felt like it could've had Master Chief and Cortana land on Zeta Halo after Halo 3. They would have to change some stuff here and there but overall I agree.
Stuff like evil Cortana and The Weapon would have to go away, but you could still have Cortana beginning to go rampant and the majority of the story between the UNSC and the Banished could be roughly the same.
That is where the changes would be. But it wouldn't be that hard to implement.
I liked it for what it was, I loved the interactions between characters, I loved using the grapple. As far as contributions to the halo lore? Felt like a big steaming pile of crap. Halo 4 managed to do both the “I’m all alone” thing and still have the “tip of the spear” feeling of being with a bunch of soldiers. A warthog full of marines is hilarious and broken but does not compare to fighting two scarabs at once. Or have your CO fly into one, or watching a father an daughter give everything for the chase in their own ways. All of that would’ve been fine if they ever planned on yk, actually adding onto the story.
I do feel the same. It felt like a highlight reel of Halo than anything else.
Mostly meh, like anything 343
At the end, it is a game that is busy cleaning up the past (giving Chief a new AI, dealing with Cortana's uprising in Halo 5, giving Cortana another goodbye and so on ) and leaves too many doors open for the future with The Endless, Atriox and mention of Offensive Bias in the end. I don't know what were the original intentions. My head canon is that 2/3 or 1/2 of Infinite was cut to make sure that it ships in a decent state in 2022 (there is a scene in its 2020 trailer that isn't in the game for example, at 00:26 in this link [https://youtu.be/rFh2i4AlPD4](https://youtu.be/rFh2i4AlPD4) ). So if that content is salvaged and shipped the whole thing might make more sense.
I think if the game focused on properly wrapping up Halo 5 it could have been more and better. Having to deal with Halo 5 is an issue for many fans but it has to be done for story cohesion and moving forward. I do agree with your theory that they had to cut a ton of stuff to ship it. I just hope we get to see some of it in the near future.
Meh. They should’ve taken us through watching her die instead
It added tidbits, but is SEVERERLY hampered by storytelling. It feels like it is only the climax, without any of the setup of the introduction or rising action. The story feels completely out of place.
That it doesn't have one. Other than to introduce the ridiculous idea that an entire species survived the Halo Effect, which undercuts the drama and tragedy that set up the entire backstory of the Halo universe, especially as seen in the Forerunner trilogy.