One of my dirtiest gaming secrets is that I have never played a Halo game. For starters I never owned the original Xbox due to my early siding with PlayStation but admittedly I also was an early adopter of the console wars and simply put refused to play anything that was not on PlayStation. Thankfully life gave me the opportunity to grow up and well here we are now. Halo Infinite's free to play multiplayer beta is out and it has made its presence known!
When Halo Infinite was first revealed the internet was set ablaze with Craig memes and criticism. To many Infinite did not look the way a title on the most powerful console should. Shortly after the reveal it was announced that the game would be delayed to give it the polish it deserves. Roughly one year later and it is safe to say that time was well spent. Visually the game looks great, it runs great, it feels great but above all things it plays great. As a matter of fact it feels so damn good to play this game that two things have happened as a result. First, all other FPS's in the market now feel sub par and secondly it has awoken a voracious hunger for competitive play. The latter is something that only Starcraft Wings of Liberty and the early days of PUBG have been able to accomplish.
What makes the Halo Infinite experience so great is its simplicity. Unlike its “competition” Infinite does not focus on having a huge map housing over a hundred players or a already worn out battle royale mode. It doesn’t overwhelm the players with an overabundance of weapons to choose from. The game excels at doing very little, if anything at all, to get in it’s own way thus creating a very engaging and free flowing experience for players. The variety in weapons are not overwhelming, you've got the right amount of options for your individual style. Learning how each weapon plays can only be described as invigorating. Getting a kill with the needler, a no scope headshot with the sniper, a good ol' shot with the spnkr, even the assault rifle pistol bread and butter feels so good to execute as a newcomer.
The more time I spend with Halo Infinite the more I find it resembles an onion, and this onion in particular has several layers that get better and better the deeper you go. If gameplay is the outer layer then the next must be the level design. Years of Call of Duty have nauseated me with their unnecessarily complex designs or Battlefield's huge maps that take several minutes to traverse if God forbid you don't hop into your buddy's jeep. Thankfully for us Halo Infinite has kept things simple. The 4v4 arena maps are small, concise and to the point. This creates for fast paced, deliberate encounters with the opposition and very little, if any, time is wasted getting from point A to Point B. The larger 8v8 Big Team Battle maps feel just right and never feel like their size overstay their welcome. All maps across both team sizes have an excellent blend of verticality and lane type structure to them. Each individual map feels like every box, crate, path, platform serves a purpose. It's just up to the player to find that purpose.
If gameplay and level design are the outer layers of the onion we know as Halo Infinite then the game modes are the core of the experience. Prior to Infinite I never really cared for any game modes outside of Deathmatch, Domination, and Headquarters. Reason being is that all the other game mode options felt like fluff, something that they just had to put in the game just because. Halo Infinite however has some of the most entertaining game modes in any FPS I have ever played. Slayer (Team Deathmatch) and Stronghold (Domination) are classic modes across most FPS's that are fun to play still but throw in Capture the Flag, a mode I traditionally dislike, and you're in for a damn good time. Oddball is what really set this game on a higher level for me, here you have to pick up this skull and hold on to it for as long as you are able. The longer you hold it the more points you get until you eventually hit the maximum and win. Where oddball get fun is the frantic nature of hunting down the opposing player holding the skull, praying that you and your team (who usually don't use mics) are able to strategically rush the opposing team and get away with the skull as quickly as possible. It fascinates me to see how different teams play this one mode in particular, some like to all hunker down in the corner of the map in one room and get bathed in grenades while others like me, grab and go! Halo has few game modes when compared to other shooters but the ones it employs it executes expertly. Sadly the same cannot be said about the progression system for its Battle Pass but if that is the biggest criticism Halo Infinite will get in a time where games like Battlefield 2042 and Cyberpunk 2077 and countless others are releasing in a broken state then things are looking good for Infinite.
As a first time Halo player, Halo Infinite has been a surprising experience. From the smooth gameplay, deliberate level design, and entertaining game modes, Infinite has breathed new life into a genre that's been on life support for some time. It accomplishes this by being easy to play, easy to understand, easy to enjoy, and not getting in its own way. Halo Infinite is out now and best of all, its free!