‘Halo Infinite’ is best when it stops being ‘Halo’

As you’d expect, everything in Halo Infinite ultimately comes down to you blasting aliens into a pulp. Sometimes, you blow stuff up. But 343 Studios still found a few ways to change up the gameplay. When you go after a High Value Target, for example, you have to be prepared take on a over-powered enemy that’s typically surrounded by plenty of goons. Some of those encounters took me several tries on the Heroic difficulty setting, which forced me to optimize and reassess my attack strategy. Taking down those notorious bad guys nets you unique guns and plenty of valor points.

For a bigger challenge, you could also try to take over Banished Outposts teeming with enemies. Tackling one of those down was a multi-step process: I sniped the tougher looking soldiers from afar, grappled along the rooftops, and manually opened up and destroyed four fuel cores. What started out as a semi-stealth mission turned into an all-out frag fest—at one point I hopped into a trusty Battle Tank and started blasting Banished ships left and right. The escalation of that encounter left me breathless.

I waited until the very last moment before I tackled that overdue story mission—I just wanted to explore every nook and cranny of the world before my preview session was up. By that point, my shields and grappling hook were upgraded several times, and I fully grasped the importance of approaching combat encounters thoughtfully. As I peered at the looming tower before me, I noticed a rocky outcrop along one side. A bit of grappling led me to a sniper’s nest, where I found a rifle that helped me take out some of the more dangerous Brutes.

I could only do so much damage remotely, though. So I held my breath, took a running start, and leaped towards several Banished soldiers patrolling a nearby tower. I couldn’t quite clear the distance on my own, but thankfully my trusty grappling hook pulled me right up. At that point, I was in a typical Halo firefight, but it felt all the more special because I chose how to get there. 

Once I made my way into the center of the tower, a new tool awaited me: the threat detector. Think of it like a three-dimensional radar that can be deployed on any surface. It shows you exactly where enemies are hiding for a limited period. That was particularly useful as I made my way up every level of the tower, which was filled with Banished aliens waiting around corners and hiding behind debris. The threat detector was also key to defeating that mission’s boss, a Banished leader who spent the entire fight cloaked in invisibility. (Not so sportsman-like, I know.)

Despite the rocky start, I came away from my glimpse at Halo Infinity’s campaign with the urge to keep exploring. I wanted to optimize my Master Chief build, and I was eager to see if the game would somehow wrap up his relationship with Cortana, his previous AI who turned into a galactic threat. Mostly, though, I was curious to see what else 343 Industries had in store. After a decade leading the franchise, it seems like the studio is finally ready to let Halo evolve.

That’s also true of Halo Infinity’s free-to-play multiplayer mode, which Microsoft launched this week as a celebratory surprise. As someone who mainly plays Halo for its campaign, I really didn’t expect much from the game’s multiplayer, but it still managed to hook me during 343’s closed betas. Now that it’s open to everyone (though still a beta), I’m even more impressed. The maps are fun and inventive, the gunplay feels tight, and every match feels like a life-or-death battle between super soldiers. It’s the closest the franchise has come to replicating the glory days of Halo 3 (or back when I was hooked on the first game in college). And judging from its massive popularity on Steam, where more than 270,000 people were playing on launch day, it seems like for many gamers, the wait was worth it.