I finished up my Heroic playthrough last night. Took me just over 24 hours and this time I found all the Skulls. I have roughly a dozen Propaganda Towers to find and destroy, and then I need to listen to all the Spartan Audio Logs, and the playthrough will be properly 100% finished.
Overall, a very good game. The story is very well done and satisfying as a longtime franchise fan. The musical score, both new and remixed tracks, are fantastic, and the open world concept really works well for the game. Despite the criticisms it drew for visuals as well, the game really does look very, very good. Not next-gen, but it doesn't look bad at all.
I most enjoyed just exploring and screwing around in the open world itself, though I also found the majority of the main linear missions well designed and paced.
On to my criticisms.
- The higher difficulty (since I played on Normal the first time) really shows how badly the mark was missed on the game's vehicles. Only the Ghost feels right, every other returning vehicle in the game just feels wrong.
- I used the Grappleshot a lot more and of course under more challenging conditions, and I estimate between 25 to 30% of the time, it just doesn't work. It will not grab onto a surface and get you killed. It'll grab a weapon on the ground and pull that to you instead, getting you killed. I also swear it's effective range is not a constant and changes. So very frustrating. In most combat situations, especially against Melee enemies, Thrust is 100% the way to go since it always does work. I still maintain that Equipment switching on a Controller is cumbersome and also frustrating in a pinch.
- Balance. I do feel the game needs further balancing. Ironically, I feel the open world suffers the most from balancing issues and the linear levels are much better/tighter. There are just some encounters where it seems you need to get that Razorback full of Rocket Launcher Marines to succeed, which takes away from the classic Halo sandbox feel of approaching situations as you want.
Boss Battles, some are really well done, others less so. When I was getting frustrated by the game, I found myself thinking about Hugo Martin's talk about frustration in game design and how there's good frustration and bad frustration. Good frustration forces the player to learn their tool kit and to actually play the game, rewarding them when they master this. Bad frustration forces the player to look for exploits or means to circumvent challenges.
When I'm trying to have a boss get stuck on geo or abuse pathing issues, that's bad frustration. When I all out attack a boss and he despawns from the map by design and is completely unkillable in the opening phase of the battle (but can kill you), that's bad frustration (this is Jega, by the way). When a simple Grunt can survive four direct hits from the Variant Sniper Rifle, that's bad frustration. When I'm flying in the open world and racing to the next "zone" so the Banshee's killing me will despawn and let me live, that's bad gameplay design.
The Harbinger fight really, really angered me as well on this difficulty, but I have yet to determine if it's me or bad design/frustration.
Overall, I think the game's overall presentation is exceptional, and the overall gameplay is good, but in need of further polish/refinement. In this respect, I actually find Halo Infinite very much like Mortal Kombat 11, and fantastic production value game that shakes up many core mechanics with really good ideas, but sadly the ideas were not implemented well.
Overall, for the native Xbox One Halo shooters, Halo 5: Guardians has the more refined, traditional, and consistent gameplay (despite the inclusion of basic squad elements); it just feels better and more natural to play. Halo Infinite provides a more robust and open experience, but one that just isn't finished and needs more attention and fine tuning.
I absolutely recommend the Campaign at full price, there's enough gameplay, content, and good times there, but overall I'd have to place the game as "middle of the road" in terms of rankings compared to all the other Halo game's Campaigns.
If 343 Industries addresses bugs, makes the Grappleshot actually reliable in a pinch, adjusts vehicles to not feel sluggish, and tweaks the balance a bit, I would rank the Campaign upper echelons of Halo shooters.
. Other than that it looks pretty decent and they got Cortana's voice actor for this.
. I had no issue with that fight myself either. I really like Atriox, I think he's a fantastic character and a great direction for the Brutes. Did you notice in the post-credits