As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/

[Halo Infinite/SplitGate] Halo Infinite available now! Closed Spoilers for story

19394959698

Posts

  • ShamusShamus Registered User regular
    edited January 2022
    CKFsMMn.jpg

    Mark V is obviously a best of Halo armor set, but I do love the Banished Deception skin on Mark VII.

    Shamus on
  • BRIAN BLESSEDBRIAN BLESSED Maybe you aren't SPEAKING LOUDLY ENOUGHHH Registered User regular
    Yeah the character writing is on point for Infinite, Weapon is charming and the Master Chief has a great deal of personality that comes about from being forced to confront his prior guilt about not being able to stop Cortana and all the ensuing repercussions, and it's clear that Weapon is responsible for making him come out of his shell emotionally, so to speak. That part I think is really super cool and it accompanies a minor but neat character revelation about the Weapon as well.

    It's just that everything else in the story contorts itself and bends over bass ackwards in service of the narrative soft reboot. You get these great moments of quiet introspection (that wouldn't exist without the plot beats of Halo 4 and 5, mind) but then the writers are so desperate to please the old school die-hards that we have to put up with these dumb flashback sequences that are basically like, "oh, that villain? that faction? Don't worry about it! Someone else already took care of it. How did it happen? Ehhhh don't worry about that either! Hey, but you're gonna Finish The Fight(tm)! Pssst Gareth go play the piano leitmotif they fucking love that shit"

    As an aside, I like the soundtrack in general but Gareth Coker's work in this game is pretty restrained compared to some of the other games he's composed for, I only really found a couple of his tracks all that uniquely memorable but just like everything else in the game, the music has to evoke the O'Donnell/Salvatori aesthetic so 343 can hang as many carrots on the stick as possible
    I guess I'm being a bit too nitpicky here, but I feel you don't hire Coker for the purpose of composing generic military beats and recycling the Gregorian Chant note-for-note. Feels like a wasted opportunity

  • LilnoobsLilnoobs Alpha Queue Registered User regular
    edited January 2022
    Welp, just uninstalled the game today because it was painful to just think about going back to the god awful campaign. Campaign is a fucking chore, the open world is lousy as they come, and nothing about the plot nor characters had me even care. Halo is dead to me, thanks 343.

    Lilnoobs on
  • ShamusShamus Registered User regular
    Congrats?

  • Big DookieBig Dookie Smells great! Houston, TXRegistered User regular
    Lilnoobs wrote: »
    Welp, just uninstalled the game today because it was painful to just think about going back to the god awful campaign. Campaign is a fucking chore, the open world is lousy as they come, and nothing about the plot nor characters had me even care. Halo is dead to me, thanks 343.

    Hah, I’m actually the opposite. Now that I finished the story, I’m actually enjoying just going back through and cleaning up FOBS, Targets, etc. I can just have wacky fun in the world with the excellent combat and not worth about all the plot/lore bullshit. I find it quite refreshing. I still probably won’t 100% it, but I can see myself getting pretty close.

    Steam | Twitch
    Oculus: TheBigDookie | XBL: Dook | NNID: BigDookie
  • Stabbity StyleStabbity Style He/Him | Warning: Mothership Reporting Kennewick, WARegistered User regular
    The open world was great, imo. Honestly wish they leaned into it even more.

    Stabbity_Style.png
  • BRIAN BLESSEDBRIAN BLESSED Maybe you aren't SPEAKING LOUDLY ENOUGHHH Registered User regular
    I couldn't be arsed 100%ing all the collectibles because it was too much tedium for me, but I definitely cleared out all the FOBs and HVTs for all the gimmick weapons and vehicles before rolling credits, because those mix up the gameplay in fun ways.

  • DysDys how am I even using this gun Registered User regular
    I did like the emotional beats with Chief, truth be told. I know they're a little out of nowhere for someone who hasn't explored any content outside of the games, but I still enjoyed them.

    Like, that moment when Weapons asks Chief if he's okay, considering where they are? I was expecting silence or a topic change as response.

    Hearing that stark "No." actually made me pause for a second. In a good way.

  • Stabbity StyleStabbity Style He/Him | Warning: Mothership Reporting Kennewick, WARegistered User regular
    I couldn't be arsed 100%ing all the collectibles because it was too much tedium for me, but I definitely cleared out all the FOBs and HVTs for all the gimmick weapons and vehicles before rolling credits, because those mix up the gameplay in fun ways.

    I did all the major stuff that showed up on the map, but skipped getting all the audio logs or broadcast towers or whatever. Which ended up being armor points, multiplayer cosmetics, hvt's, fobs, marine squads, and enemy bases. Pretty good set of stuff to go after, imo.

    Stabbity_Style.png
  • ShamusShamus Registered User regular
    Fuck me, the threat detector is good. Maybe only in Fiesta? But that map awareness is amazing.

  • KarlKarl Registered User regular
    The interactions between the chief and the weapon were excellent.

    And i liked the mechanics of the campaign.

    I did not like the overall plot.

    It felt like a giant exercise in wiping the plot down of anything to do with halo 5.

  • King RiptorKing Riptor Registered User regular
    So Tactical Slayer is hell right?
    Thebother team is always full of psychic death demons or something
    Shamus wrote: »
    Fuck me, the threat detector is good. Maybe only in Fiesta? But that map awareness is amazing.

    Its useful in multiplayer if you stick a team mate or vehicle they can essentually see through walls

    I have a podcast now. It's about video games and anime!Find it here.
  • Local H JayLocal H Jay Registered User regular
    If you weren't aware, tomorrow they shut down the Halo 3 servers. I'm gonna be on tonight to let the game go, people should join me

  • Local H JayLocal H Jay Registered User regular
    edited January 2022
    Welp me and Arteen enjoyed some Halo Reach after Halo 3 fell apart for some reason. We ended on a win in Invasion, a good final memory for the original games.

    Here's some nostalgia dumping

    Local H Jay on
  • IncenjucarIncenjucar VChatter Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    Did they ever fix the multiplayer bugs with audio and melee, or make the radar better than hot garbage?

  • King RiptorKing Riptor Registered User regular
    So it turns out the Enemy radar has one more useful feature. It can chain the disruptor pistol.
    Fun to to know

    I have a podcast now. It's about video games and anime!Find it here.
  • ArteenArteen Adept ValeRegistered User regular
    That was a fun, if brief, nostalgia trip. Our Invasion match was a 5v6 because of course it was, but we clutched it out and stopped the other team from completing the first objective, while we managed 2/3 of the objective during our offense.
    8WGYVD7h.jpg
    Let it forever be known that my highest rank in Halo 3 was 44, while Jay's was a mere 43.

    wep1k4dh.jpg
    U5EUHXqh.jpg

  • mRahmanimRahmani DetroitRegistered User regular
    Finally wrapped the campaign. Overall, incredible gameplay, very good music, meh storytelling.
    Let’s start with the good. I loved the exploration and the combat. I got to really explore Halo and it’s fantastic. Kind of bummed that the only environment we got was generic forest, when previous Halo games had desert/tundra/beach/etc, hopefully they expand in the future. Combat is super solid and all of the weapons feel good to use. Upgraded Sentinel beam marines are ludicrous and great fun to have around. The Skewer is a brilliant entry, I miss the old shotty but the bulldog is a decent replacement. Commando shines in campaign too. 343 really nailed the classic Halo “30 seconds of fun” concept here and the grapple is a great addition. If nothing else the game is worth picking up and playing for that.

    The missions overall were pretty fun. Capturing strongholds and blowing shit up was gratifying. I feel like vehicles are a bit weak but maybe that’s just how heroic is tweaked. Music is great! I was hoping to see some more memorable content from Gareth Coker after his incredible work on Ori but this is still pretty good.

    Not so good: the boss fights range from “dumb” to “fucking bullshit.” Harbinger especially is BS. Teleporting asshole with high damage, homing projectiles? And no checkpoints after clearing out the mooks? Fuck whoever thought that was a good idea.

    Story…. Yeesh.

    The plot is actually not bad. They wanted to go for a soft reboot and I’m willing to work with that. They made enough references to Halo 5 that it does feel like the game had an effect on the setting even if we won’t see the conclusion ourselves. Last time the Forerunners hid something on a ring it was the Flood so why the fuck is Chief and Cortana Jr going after it? But otherwise it’s serviceable. Your ship got shot down and you’re stuck waging guerrilla warfare until reinforcements show up, I can work with that.

    Character development was a massive step backward from Halo 4/5. Both of those games had their flaws but I actually really liked seeing how the Chief and Cortana grew as characters in those games. 4 especially did a brilliant job humanizing the Chief and his relationship with Cortana. Here he’s robotic to the point that it’s downright silly. At one point he just ignores comms from Cortana/pilot and it’s just bizarre. Dude is a trained soldier that’s supposed to excel as part of team, and there’s none of that here. I dunno if there just wasn’t enough time to record lines or what, but he has so little to say that this feels like the most mute/robotic Chief we’ve ever had.

    The villains sucked. I don’t even remember what monologuing brute was named but holy shit he had too much time on his hands, I had to listen to him growling every ten feet at the end. Not-343 was mildly amusing but pretty forgettable. No real explanation given for what harbinger is or why we should care. At least the high value targets were fun to fight, but the story villains were terrible.

  • TOGSolidTOGSolid Drunk sailor Seattle, WashingtonRegistered User regular
    edited January 2022
    Zilla360 wrote: »
    Big Dookie wrote: »
    Finished on my end too. I’ll probably go back in and clean up a couple of FOBs I missed, but I doubt that I’ll 100% it. Then again, I almost never 100% games anyway, so that isn’t necessarily a knock against this one.

    Frankly, the more I think about it, the more I recognize that the story in Infinite is hot garbage. I understand that they wanted to “reset” everything, but the way they did it felt really bad. I may not have loved the way things progressed in Halo 4/5, but at least they were building toward something. The resolution for those story lines landed like a wet fart here. I feel like the biggest mistake was dropping us in after everything went down instead of before or during. They could have found a way to make Master Chief an active part of that conflict, but just dropping him in after the fact and then telling us all about it through audio logs and flashbacks felt lazy.

    That said, the game was still extremely fun to play, thanks to the strength of its moment-to-moment gameplay alone. They fucking nailed everything about combat and movement here, so even despite not liking the story at all, I still loved playing it and will probably go for another replay sooner rather than later. The open world structure with more traditional Halo missions mixed into it worked really well I think, and they should absolutely continue forward with that formula. Now they just need to mix up the environments a bit and provide a few more engaging side missions.

    It’s really tough to rank Infinite because of the huge disparity between gameplay and story. Gameplay wise, it’s probably the best Halo game we’ve gotten so far, while story-wise it’s way down at the bottom. My hope is that, now that there reset is in place (for better or worse), they can finally take it in a more interesting direction. That said, the ending does not inspire much confidence in me.
    Eh, I really liked both the story and the gameplay. :)
    Weapon is a great character, she works really well as a dynamic paired with the Chief's stoic gruffness, I really liked how she even gets the Chief to develop a sense of humour as the plot progresses. :)
    Even Fernando gets a few good scenes (talking to the Chief about failure etc) when he's not being an adorable goof-ball scaredy-cat coward who's terrified of everything.
    The really fucking funny thing about Harbinger is if you just stand under a ramp it break the boss, or at least it did for me. Their projectiles did squat and the boss ended up just standing there unsure of what to do besides get shot in the face. Phenomenal cosmic power defeated by an itty bitty living space.

    The boss design in Halo is definitely pretty meh though. The most fun was Esharum or whatever his name is and even then that whole thing was just a matter of using the outer ring correctly and having fun using random weapons to shoot him in the face.

    TOGSolid on
    wWuzwvJ.png
  • augustaugust where you come from is gone Registered User regular
  • King RiptorKing Riptor Registered User regular
    Prices dropped on the shop. Cleared 3 levels on the new event too.
    Attrition is . . .odd

    I have a podcast now. It's about video games and anime!Find it here.
  • TOGSolidTOGSolid Drunk sailor Seattle, WashingtonRegistered User regular
    After going through the campaign the Skewer in MP has gone from being kinda ok to being the funniest fucking thing in the game. Just a total point and click delete adventure.

    wWuzwvJ.png
  • BRIAN BLESSEDBRIAN BLESSED Maybe you aren't SPEAKING LOUDLY ENOUGHHH Registered User regular
    For what is supposed to be a power weapon I am astoundingly bad at estimating the projectile speed and drop for the Skewer to the point where if I'm not up close I don't even bother

  • TOGSolidTOGSolid Drunk sailor Seattle, WashingtonRegistered User regular
    For what is supposed to be a power weapon I am astoundingly bad at estimating the projectile speed and drop for the Skewer to the point where if I'm not up close I don't even bother

    Just go play with it in SP and do silly shit like Grapple drive byes and weird trick shots with it. It's worth learning precisely cause each shot is a one hit kill.

    wWuzwvJ.png
  • King RiptorKing Riptor Registered User regular
    TOGSolid wrote: »
    After going through the campaign the Skewer in MP has gone from being kinda ok to being the funniest fucking thing in the game. Just a total point and click delete adventure.

    As a rule I stay away from sniper type weapons but when that fucker lands no scope you feel like a god

    I have a podcast now. It's about video games and anime!Find it here.
  • ThegreatcowThegreatcow Lord of All Bacons Washington State - It's Wet up here innit? Registered User regular
    Finished the campaign earlier this week and I'm now replaying it on legendary some thoughts
    I echo a lot of folks' sentiments on this game. This game is utterly carried by the changes to gameplay and how well they slotted it into an open world. The grappleshot is such a major quality of life improvement for Chief I can't see it not being included in future iterations, at least if they're sticking to this whole open world format. Combat is by far the best it's ever been halo wise.

    Story-wise, I have to admit it just feels so...I dunno empty. By getting the vast majority of what ultimately happened prior to the game through collectible audio logs and coming across a propaganda tower at the right time, so much just feels empty. Like all they had to hold onto was Chief and the Weapon and nothing else. There's no sense of grand scale or epic set-piece moments ala "To give the Covenant back their bomb" here that make you go "Fuck yeah that's Chief for you". It's all just a gigantic tease of potential expansions/story/dlc, stuff that I hope we get sooner than 6 years from now. Like we get teased that this Halo is different somehow, we get allusions to this Harbinger's race being even more evil than the Flood or the Covenant somehow with literally zero payoff other than Icing her. About the only thing we do get is Cortana's storyline getting tied off (in theory) and pretty much everyone from the Infinity wiped out along with the ship. Just the way they've dealt this retcon-by-ignoring it hand to the storyline kind of leaves a bad taste in my mouth at the end of the day, and if the gameplay wasn't so good, I'd be more angered by it rather than just disappointed.

  • King RiptorKing Riptor Registered User regular
    Almost done with the event soon Ill never have to see Atrition again

    I have a podcast now. It's about video games and anime!Find it here.
  • MadpoetMadpoet Registered User regular
    I just found something in an old stack of papers, thought I'd share. Halo 3 had just come out, and there was this insipid song constantly playing on the radio that I absolutely hated. So I wrote this:

    Hey there Cortana
    What's it like inside my head
    There's a thousand flood on board
    And without you I'd be dead
    Without you
    There's no telling what the flood would do

    Hey there Cortana
    What's it like inside the gravemind
    The covenant have found the earth
    We're kind of in a bind
    It's not good
    I'd come and rescue you if I could
    Guess I should

    Oh, it's time for Halo three... oh, it's time for Halo three...

    (Yes, I know hundreds of people had this same idea, this was mine)

  • ThegreatcowThegreatcow Lord of All Bacons Washington State - It's Wet up here innit? Registered User regular
    Finished the campaign earlier this week and I'm now replaying it on legendary some thoughts
    I echo a lot of folks' sentiments on this game. This game is utterly carried by the changes to gameplay and how well they slotted it into an open world. The grappleshot is such a major quality of life improvement for Chief I can't see it not being included in future iterations, at least if they're sticking to this whole open world format. Combat is by far the best it's ever been halo wise.

    Story-wise, I have to admit it just feels so...I dunno empty. By getting the vast majority of what ultimately happened prior to the game through collectible audio logs and coming across a propaganda tower at the right time, so much just feels empty. Like all they had to hold onto was Chief and the Weapon and nothing else. There's no sense of grand scale or epic set-piece moments ala "To give the Covenant back their bomb" here that make you go "Fuck yeah that's Chief for you". It's all just a gigantic tease of potential expansions/story/dlc, stuff that I hope we get sooner than 6 years from now. Like we get teased that this Halo is different somehow, we get allusions to this Harbinger's race being even more evil than the Flood or the Covenant somehow with literally zero payoff other than Icing her. About the only thing we do get is Cortana's storyline getting tied off (in theory) and pretty much everyone from the Infinity wiped out along with the ship. Just the way they've dealt this retcon-by-ignoring it hand to the storyline kind of leaves a bad taste in my mouth at the end of the day, and if the gameplay wasn't so good, I'd be more angered by it rather than just disappointed.

    Actually, another thing I wanted to touch on that I feel was a real major missed opportunity for the story, especially for emotional impact:
    The game keeps saying or alluding (via the audio logs and all the wrecked UNSC hardware) how scattered and broken the UNSC's forces are here on Zeta Halo. The fact we don't get a SINGLE major cutscene showing us rescuing a group of soldiers or liberating a critically important FOB aside from saving that ONE Spartan in the tower who dies literal seconds afterwards really REALLY deflated any emotional impact all the work chief got into reclaiming those fobs and freeing those soldiers under fire.

    Like, by the time I liberated the last fob, all I get is just a chipper congrats from the weapon and...nothing else?? Really??? All those Audio logs show how utterly broken/scattered/beaten the UNSC is at this point, and yet throughout the game, after all the work I go into uniting the scattered UNSC forces, all I end up with is scattered groups of soldiers hanging around a FOB who sometimes tag along with me on a Razorback. The biggest impact I get from my saved soldiers is them getting freaking PANCAKED by Echo-216 dropping a vehicle on them every time I call one to a FOB. We never see manage to recover Laskey (the audio log is kinda unclear if he's really dead), we never link up with another Spartan, by the time we're making our end-run, all we have is an exhausted Echo-216 and our Weapon AI and that's it. It's kind of like Weapon commented on what was left here, just Dust and Echoes, yet it never properly paid off an emotional impact it was trying to convey.

  • AvalonGuardAvalonGuard Registered User regular
    Attrition would be fun if people would bother to team play at all.

  • TOGSolidTOGSolid Drunk sailor Seattle, WashingtonRegistered User regular
    edited January 2022
    SWAT/Tac Slayer still the comfiest damn game mode ever since UT2k4 instagib death match. No worries, no radar, just vibes and headshots.

    TOGSolid on
    wWuzwvJ.png
  • King RiptorKing Riptor Registered User regular
    TOGSolid wrote: »
    SWAT/Tac Slayer still the comfiest damn game mode ever since UT2k4 instagib death match. No worries, no radar, just vibes and headshots.

    Yes but the headshots are on me.

    Fiesta and team are my go to.

    They need to add some damn maps though. Getting real sick of the same 4 or 5 in rotation

    I have a podcast now. It's about video games and anime!Find it here.
  • TOGSolidTOGSolid Drunk sailor Seattle, WashingtonRegistered User regular
    edited January 2022
    TOGSolid wrote: »
    SWAT/Tac Slayer still the comfiest damn game mode ever since UT2k4 instagib death match. No worries, no radar, just vibes and headshots.

    Yes but the headshots are on me.

    Fiesta and team are my go to.

    They need to add some damn maps though. Getting real sick of the same 4 or 5 in rotation

    MCC Fiesta is amusing but Infinite is too stodgy being team based only. They really need to roll out more goofball chaos modes on top of a few more maps.

    TOGSolid on
    wWuzwvJ.png
  • BRIAN BLESSEDBRIAN BLESSED Maybe you aren't SPEAKING LOUDLY ENOUGHHH Registered User regular
    I'd just like to see more Fiesta team formats that weren't just randomized Slayer, even.

    Just have Fiesta modes with Oddball and CTF even

  • LBD_NytetraynLBD_Nytetrayn TorontoRegistered User regular
    Doggone it.

    I had a craving to play just a little of the campaign earlier, so I loaded up my game, and the Rocket Hog I had at the FOB for the next big base attack was still there. I went out, grabbed an upgrade, came back, still there. Went to help a squad nearby out, and when I get back... the damn thing was gone!

    Any idea why it suddenly up and disappeared?

    I found it when rescuing a squad near the canyon north of the Tower, but I forget which locale that was, so I'm not sure where to go for another one. D=

    qjWUWdm.gif1edr1cF.gifJZuC7sH.png
    Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
  • King RiptorKing Riptor Registered User regular
    Vehicles can randomly despawn. Its just sort of a thing.

    I have a podcast now. It's about video games and anime!Find it here.
  • shadowaneshadowane Registered User regular
    Doggone it.

    I had a craving to play just a little of the campaign earlier, so I loaded up my game, and the Rocket Hog I had at the FOB for the next big base attack was still there. I went out, grabbed an upgrade, came back, still there. Went to help a squad nearby out, and when I get back... the damn thing was gone!

    Any idea why it suddenly up and disappeared?

    I found it when rescuing a squad near the canyon north of the Tower, but I forget which locale that was, so I'm not sure where to go for another one. D=

    Eventually you can spawn a rocket hog at the FOB, but I'm pretty sure you have to beat the game first to get enough valor. Spawning tanks at the FOB is fun though.

  • King RiptorKing Riptor Registered User regular
    shadowane wrote: »
    Doggone it.

    I had a craving to play just a little of the campaign earlier, so I loaded up my game, and the Rocket Hog I had at the FOB for the next big base attack was still there. I went out, grabbed an upgrade, came back, still there. Went to help a squad nearby out, and when I get back... the damn thing was gone!

    Any idea why it suddenly up and disappeared?

    I found it when rescuing a squad near the canyon north of the Tower, but I forget which locale that was, so I'm not sure where to go for another one. D=

    Eventually you can spawn a rocket hog at the FOB, but I'm pretty sure you have to beat the game first to get enough valor. Spawning tanks at the FOB is fun though.

    Rocket hog is inexplicably the last valor unlock

    I have a podcast now. It's about video games and anime!Find it here.
  • ThegreatcowThegreatcow Lord of All Bacons Washington State - It's Wet up here innit? Registered User regular
    Yeah it's incredibly annoying, I did a full, meticulous, find everything playthrough, and even doing that and deliberately immediately going after the special purple missions and rescuing fireteams, I only unlocked the rocket hog after beating the game....like...why even give us the option at that point? If going super collect-a-thon doesn't even reward me with using this souped up rocket hog, then why have it outside of the end run mission?

  • shadowaneshadowane Registered User regular
    shadowane wrote: »
    Doggone it.

    I had a craving to play just a little of the campaign earlier, so I loaded up my game, and the Rocket Hog I had at the FOB for the next big base attack was still there. I went out, grabbed an upgrade, came back, still there. Went to help a squad nearby out, and when I get back... the damn thing was gone!

    Any idea why it suddenly up and disappeared?

    I found it when rescuing a squad near the canyon north of the Tower, but I forget which locale that was, so I'm not sure where to go for another one. D=

    Eventually you can spawn a rocket hog at the FOB, but I'm pretty sure you have to beat the game first to get enough valor. Spawning tanks at the FOB is fun though.

    Rocket hog is inexplicably the last valor unlock

    Especially since the tank is right there and you can drive and shoot the tank at the same time. The various jeeps are fun, but since you can't drive and shoot them at the same time, they just weren't worth my time.

Sign In or Register to comment.