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Halo Infinite Review (2022)
291 Plays3 years ago
In the first episode of 2022, Adam and Satsunami take on the long anticipated Halo Infinite. Was it worth the wait? Or are some things better left banished? Join us as we tread old ground by revisiting one of the first topics we discussed on the podcast!
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Transcript
Introduction to Chatsunami 2022
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome to Chatsunami.
00:00:17
Speaker
Hello everybody and welcome to the very first episode of Chat Tsunami in 2022.
Who is the New Year's Sandwich?
00:00:24
Speaker
I'm Sad Tsunami and joining me today to… well, before I reveal the topic, I'm going to introduce the one, the only, the fantastic New Year's Sandwich,
Festive Season Reflections
00:00:35
Speaker
Adam. Adam, welcome back for another year of Chat Tsunami.
00:00:38
Speaker
Hello, hello. I've survived another year, can't quite believe it, but I'm glad to still be on the airwaves and I'm ready to give the Covenant back their bomb. Are you indeed ready to finish the fight in this episode? Oh, I was born ready to finish the fight. You could say you were infinitely ready. So, you know before we actually jump into what we're going to talk about today, how have you been over the festive period? I've been not too bad, thank you.
00:01:02
Speaker
It's been, yeah, it was some hectic points. We had a busy Christmas day, but, you know, it was good fun in the end, like, you know, everybody had a good time and, yeah, a bit more of a chilled New Year. So, yeah, it's been good. I'm still making my way through all my holiday chocolate. I can almost, I'm getting to the point now where I can't bear to look at chocolate anymore of gorge so much and enjoy my prezzies. So, yeah, it's been all good. How about yourself?
00:01:24
Speaker
They're very similar. I do sympathise with you in terms of the chocolate and the Christmas and festive snacks. I just look at them and think, my god, you disgust me. I haven't gotten to that step of the January New Year's resolution where it's like, oh, I'm going to go out for walks. I'm going to do this or that.
00:01:44
Speaker
This is far too cold and damp to be walking around Scotland just now, so you know what? Until then, I'm going to cosy up and just wait till it all blows over. A bit like Shaun of the Dead, you know? Hold up in the house known as Winchester. Have a nice pint. And just wait for it to blow over. You want to be somewhere where you know where the exits are.
00:02:02
Speaker
Yeah, of course, absolutely. But speaking of, you know, being in a house and just like being comfortable with lots of snacks, last year we had a good couple of games come out, didn't we?
Anticipation for Halo Infinite
00:02:14
Speaker
Not anything too groundbreaking, I would say, but one particular one which really shook people, that of course being Halo Infinite, I was laughing because I was thinking of our very first episode together all the way back in 2020, which I can't believe it's 2022 already.
00:02:31
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. That's my response to that. Yes, we're getting old. We're getting old, unfortunately. Your lettuce is getting crinkly and turning grey. I dare you to wear my lettuce like that.
00:02:43
Speaker
It's like, you know when you leave lettuce in the fridge for too long? It's ugh. Anyway, that aside, crinkly lettuce aside. For our first episode, we did a retrospective on the Halo series. You know, the sci-fi space shooter that everybody seems to fall in love with. But nowadays, it's not really as well revered, which is very peculiar. But, well, it's peculiar until you play the games, isn't it?
00:03:09
Speaker
And then you go, ah, this is why people don't like it. At the end of that, I always laugh because we covered Halo 1 to 5 with a couple of the offshoots like ODST, Halo Wars, that kind of thing. We joked and said like, oh, by the time this episode comes out, Halo Infinite will be out. Ay, yay! It was only December 8th, I think, that the campaign came out for Halo. Is that right?
00:03:37
Speaker
I think the multiplayer came out just like a week or two before that. Yeah fun times, fun times sort
First Impressions of Halo Infinite
00:03:45
Speaker
of that. So yeah it took them a good couple of years to finish Halo Infinite, a game that has been
00:03:51
Speaker
highly anticipated and yeah I just gotta ask what was it everything you wanted and more when you finally played it yeah pretty much it really like I say lived up to my hopes because I think I was I was a little bit concerned you know just how long it was taking and you do worry about but with some of the more recent entries what it was gonna be like but yeah definitely it definitely impressed me basically across the board
00:04:15
Speaker
and of course this is spoilers because we are going to be talking about Halo Internet in this episode but I was kind of worried after the whole cyberpunk thing, not gonna lie, because it's a way that the gaming industry is coping these days because you've heard that like plenty of times haven't you Adam? Like where a gaming company has brought out like a hyped game and then they've said oh no we've got to delay it, we've got to delay it for the fans and everything and everybody seems to say the same thing they'll say
00:04:45
Speaker
Oh yeah, that's okay, no problem. You take your time, it's gonna be amazing. And then by the time it comes out, it's just cyberpunk.
00:04:53
Speaker
isn't it? It has sadly been a more common occurrence than you'd like. So it was refreshing to actually see a game be delayed and then actually, what I would argue, be very good. So that was actually a nice change of pace. And did you hop on to the multiplayer when it was released?
Multiplayer vs. Campaign Preferences
00:05:10
Speaker
Because I know the multiplayer was released before the campaign, which personally I find that really weird, but I suppose it was good of 343 to release it early.
00:05:21
Speaker
Yeah, I suppose as well, like the campaign, I guess, sorry, the multiplayer will be the kind of moneymaker moving ahead, I guess. So perhaps, you know, they wanted to get that up and running as fast as possible. I didn't touch the multiplayer until I think last, until last week.
00:05:38
Speaker
I didn't touch it at all when it came out. I was more interested in the campaign. I've never been huge into Halo multiplayer, I have to be honest. So I was more interested in seeing what the campaign would be like. So that's what I played first. And after I finished the campaign, I thought I would have a go at the multiplayer.
00:05:57
Speaker
Again, I'm in the same boat as you, I'm not as big into multiplayer in games, like especially for games like Call of Duty, because unfortunately that's another franchise that we both, I was going to say like, but I think at this stage it's like Tullery. I like it! I can't imagine saying I like it! Don't encourage them Adam!
00:06:17
Speaker
Oh, that's too late. It's like first they ask for £5 at Christmas, then they're like raiding your bank account. Don't encourage them. Nah, go ahead. Have anything you want. Take it all. You're just ruffling there, here. Go ahead, scan. Just give me the Second World War and I'll be fine.
00:06:34
Speaker
But after we did an episode on Call of Duty Vanguard, and of course I made my opinion very clear on like the multiplayer and things, and I feel as if like overall Vanguard just kind of reached like mixed opinions across the board. Like some people saying it's a return to form, other people saying no it's not great. So when Halo Infinite came out I was kind of like ah this is gonna be you know the same old stuff. And I'm not gonna lie, although I am terrible at the multiplayer, I'm
00:07:02
Speaker
really bad. I really enjoyed it. It felt as if, you know, you were returning to like a period of like childhood wonder almost. You know, it's like it's not something I've felt with a video game in a long long time and I don't want to get too deep into that to be like I'm getting old Adam. I could see the Reaper.
00:07:23
Speaker
It's just I played the multiplayer, I really enjoyed it and I will like get on to talking about the multiplayer a little bit more when we go into the main topic but overall I really enjoyed it and then the campaign came out, I played the campaign, spoilers, I enjoyed bits of it but we will get
00:07:42
Speaker
that it has been quite an interesting journey hasn't it with not only the development of this game but also really the reception and the kind of state it's in just
Excitement for Halo Infinite Campaign
00:07:54
Speaker
now. Yeah like I mean certainly it is interesting to see kind of responses to it and stuff and I think it has generally had a positive response but I know some people obviously more
00:08:03
Speaker
more keen on it than others and everything but yeah I think generally for certainly compared to a lot of more recent Halo games I think it has had a generally more positive review than certainly five and probably four as well I can't really quite remember I remember four getting a lot of like praise at the time maybe that's me looking back nostalgically so I think I think it has it has had a more positive response and some of the more recent entries
00:08:23
Speaker
You know, it's like Halo 4, it does feel as if that was kind of the start of something new. So a lot of people are very unsure and I think you're right. I think people generally liked it, but they were still kind of like, this feels weird, which is understandable because it was 343's very first game in the series. So you can kind of understand that. But you know what? I'm probably getting ahead of myself. Will will just jump in and tell these lovely people listening at home what we think about the series.
00:08:53
Speaker
Let's do it! Okay, and before we do it, we just have some very fun transmissions that we need to go over first, so we will be right back after these messages.
Where to Find More Chatsunami
00:09:04
Speaker
Welcome to Chatsunami, a variety podcast that talks about topics from gaming and films to streaming in general interest. Previously on Chatsunami, we discussed game of the decade, deadly premonition, the romantic thriller, bardemic, and listen to us get all sappy as we discuss our top five Christmas films.
00:09:22
Speaker
If that sounds like your cup of tea, then you can find us an anchor, Spotify, YouTube and all good podcast apps. As always, stay safe, stay awesome and most importantly, stay hydrated.
00:09:35
Speaker
We are Beer and Chill Podcast. Podcast where we review TV shows, games, movies, and whatever else takes our fancy. So what are you waiting for? If you're a cool kid like us, you're gonna listen to the Beer and Chill Podcast. You can get it anywhere from Spotify all the way to your grandma's radio. My name is Jan. And I'm Cricky C. And we are Beer and Chill.
Deep Dive into Halo Infinite Multiplayer
00:10:10
Speaker
And we are back, just in time to finish the fight. So before we start with the campaign, because let's face it, I feel as if the campaign is the more meatier subject in this discussion, will we talk about the multiplayer first? Yeah, makes sense.
00:10:28
Speaker
Yeah, so I'm quite curious, like what did you feel when you were playing the multiplayer? Like what was your first kind of impressions? The first match I played, so I've only played Team Slayer, which is basically Team Deathmatch, which is a 4v4 mode. So I've not really played any of the kind of big battle modes, so again I maybe don't have the most like well-rounded experience of the multiplayer, but the first match I played I
00:10:51
Speaker
really, really liked it. I had a lot of fun. I felt like I was worried going into the multiplayer that I would just be like such a like disadvantage. Having not played as much Halo multiplayer, I thought I'm just gonna get wiped. I'm just gonna get like, you know, I'm just gonna get curb stomped here. But actually I held my own and I felt like I was actually able to like, you know, I was able to get into it and you know, I said I could hold my own and everything. So I really enjoyed that. A lot of fun.
00:11:13
Speaker
playing it as I've played some more matches since then I haven't I've generally enjoyed my time with it I'm not I'm not entirely sure if I prefer it to something like Call of Duty multiplayer and I think maybe it's just because I played more Call of Duty multiplayer I kind of like what I don't like so much about some of the Halo multiplayer as I find it a bit slower like especially it takes longer to kill people and as well like I don't like the fact that you there's like a kind of you have to wait to respawn for a while with Call of Duty it's quite instantaneous you can like
00:11:40
Speaker
get back into the action so quickly. I much prefer that, and I kind of prefer a bit of the fast pacing of Call of Duty multiplayer, I think, to Halo. But I still really liked, I've still really enjoyed my time with it. I think I'm definitely going to play some more of it. So perhaps as I play more, perhaps my opinions will change. But generally from what I've played, I have really enjoyed my time with the multiplayer.
00:11:57
Speaker
I do agree with that, like just kind of hopping onto one of the points you mentioned there about it taking absolutely ages to kill someone because oh my god I emptied like a whole, I think it was like an assault rifle that like emptied the whole magazine into them and the guy was still standing as if.
00:12:14
Speaker
what was that supposed to do? And I'm like, ah, shit, time to get out of this one. And yeah, I got my ass kicked. I see what you mean. It is like a lot more slower. And I know a lot of people will defend that by saying like, oh, it's because they're in space armor, you know, but it's like, yeah, I would agree with that. Out of curiosity, have you gone back to play something like the Master Chief Collection for the multiplayer?
00:12:39
Speaker
I think I have played it. I think I dabbled a little bit into the multiplayer and the Master Chief collection, but not a lot. I think it's probably Halo has always had that kind of, I say slower pace because the action is still quite fast. It's not like it's like plodding around and stuff like that. Like it just, just with the way people have more, because everybody has shields, you know, so it's like always a layer of health. So I guess that has been a thing in Halo multiplayer since the beginning. It is accurate, I suppose, in that way. It's perhaps just I have less experience with it. So I just don't like it as much.
00:13:07
Speaker
because I ended up going back to the Master Chief Collection, it must have been a couple of months ago, and I thought, oh boy, I can't wait to go back and play my childhood favourite games and all of this, or childhood teenage favourites.
00:13:24
Speaker
yeah, I got my ass absolutely handed to me by people who looked like futuristic anime characters. I was like, what is going on? You know, katanas everywhere, flaming heads. I was like, oh my god, this is completely rough. Because I think that now the Master Chief Collection has overtaken the originals. Before I go on to talk about Infinite again, have you actually heard the sad news that we got this month
00:13:48
Speaker
about Halo. Apparently they are shutting down the servers for the old 360 versions of the games. So like for Halo 3, for Halo Reach, those are the two big ones. I don't know if Encompass has ended the others. Maybe Halo 4, I don't know.
00:14:07
Speaker
Yeah, ODST would probably be covered by that. Yeah, so I can't remember the official date because I think they're pushing it back. I think I heard January 22nd. I could be totally wrong. They could have like pulled it forward or pushed it back, but it just feels quite sad that now we've only got two versions of Halo now. Now it can play online.
00:14:27
Speaker
I'd say what you have about Halo 3, Halo Reach and their multiplayer, but when we were growing up, we put so many hours into those games and now it kind of feels almost like the end of an era with that. I guess so, yeah. It's just like, obviously with the re-releases under the Master Chief, I guess it does feel like, as much as they are quote unquote, the same game, same game to a certain extent, it does feel like a kind of new era, I suppose, in a way like it is sort of different to when we played it back in the past.
00:14:56
Speaker
Because I have to admit, even with going back to the Master Chief Collection, and I know some people might be listening and thinking, you know, as you pointed out, oh, it's technically the same game, which it is. But I had no fun on the Master Chief Collection whatsoever. Like, I just kept getting killed instantly. And that's not like a get good moment. It was genuinely just like really frustrating dying over and over again by people who clearly had spent like a lot more time and or
00:15:25
Speaker
money on certain upgrades and things but with infinite although it did feel a lot of fun it almost feels quite weird to think that this is the only like Halo online experience we're gonna get now if that makes sense because I'm gonna like
00:15:42
Speaker
Well, I'm gonna rant a little, like a very brief two-minute rant on the multiplayer progression system and things. So see before I do, Adam, is there anything you want to jump in with? No, I've kind of said my piece on the multiplayer, so have at it. Halo Infinite, unfortunately, because it's free to play, is afflicted by not so much P2-1. I will give 343 that courtesy, it's not P2-1. But have you had an experience with the Battle Pass system?
00:16:12
Speaker
It does seem like it's very, it takes a while to unlock things and level up. I feel like in the, so I think I've gone up one level in the matches that I've played and I definitely feel like, not to like directly compare the two, but I definitely feel like the amount of time if I put that into Call of Duty, I would have gone up several more.
00:16:30
Speaker
Yeah, no, I totally agree. That's exactly what I was thinking. Because as much as I didn't enjoy Vanguard, at least I thought that my, well, my performance in the games were kind of reflected based on, like, the progression system for Halo Infinite. And I could be wrong, because at the time of recording this, the only XP that it takes into account, as far as I know, is the challenges. And I think it's the amount of games you play, so I think you get like 300 or 200 EXP for the first game.
00:17:00
Speaker
game and then it halves that up until a certain point and those are the only exps you get. So I don't know, see when you kill someone and you get like a headshot and it flashes up and it says 200 points or something. I don't think that means anything, does it? It's just numbers.
00:17:16
Speaker
Yeah, that's one thing as well. I did find it odd that when you kind of reach the end screen, I kind of found it a little bit difficult to tell who'd done the best in your team sometimes. I think you can see your kill death ratio in-game, if you hit the scoreboard button. But you don't seem to be able to, unless I'm just missing it, you don't seem to be able to see that at the end. And it does give you the number of points that you've accumulated, which I guess is like...
00:17:41
Speaker
the way but it's not like it doesn't do it like so it's not like the player who got the most is at the top which I don't know like maybe this is just growing up with kind of maybe this is an old-school mentality but I kind of like the kind of like you know old-style scoreboards where the you know people did the best on the top and then you go down that way just easier for me to see perhaps this is just like a newer system of being a bit more fair and I just don't like it because good
00:18:00
Speaker
You know, you shouldn't get medals or participation. If you suck, you should see that you suck. But maybe that's just me with a very old-school mentality. But I wasn't a fan of that. And I think you're right. It does just seem to be like those challenges that get you the kind of experience level up, which is a very grindy. I think what annoys me the most is the fact that we had a better progression system in about, what, 2010, 2011 through herory.
00:18:24
Speaker
and then Halo Reach, the way it worked was you would complete a game, you would get so many points based on your performance and everything, and your participation and all of that, and that would count towards, and I'm getting to the Battle Pass, so I'm looking at it in the corner thinking you're next. Don't you run away. But I absolutely loathe
00:18:44
Speaker
the Battle Pass in this, and I can't believe I'm seeing this, but Call of Duty actually does it better. I'm not a big fan of the Battle Pass system, and I know it's been popularised by Fortnite, by Call of Duty again, you know, so a lot of games are kinder.
00:19:00
Speaker
taking off of that and I wouldn't mind as much but considering how slow it is to actually unlock anything when years ago we had like a perfectly good system to level up and now it's basically P, not P to one, I keep thinking P to one but it's not really P to one but it's paying for basically the horse armour in Oblivion. Yeah yeah I mean the horse armour is a very good example to be honest of what it's like
00:19:28
Speaker
And I think the most egregious thing is, have you actually seen the storefront? No, I've not actually been on to look at the store at all. Is it bad? Well, see if you want a thing of cat ears. Fun fact, if you want cat ears for your Spartan, you would have had to have paid, I think it was a thousand Spartan points or whatever like monopoly currency they're using, but that's equivalent to like £7.99.
00:19:53
Speaker
I want to say. Give or take. Yeah, for poorly rendered pyramids on top of your head. Yeah, £7.99. Wow. And the sad thing is there's so many people like coat on coat ironically buying them and you're like,
00:20:08
Speaker
Yeah, you know the whole vote with your wallet thing? Nah, it's not going to happen. There's too many kids and people willing to sink money into it that I feel as if this kind of system is never going to go away despite the backlash and the vocal fans who are saying we don't want this and it's like well you don't get a choice because Timmy's got his mum's credit card and now he looks like Iron Man and now you've got like things called armour cores?
00:20:34
Speaker
I think it is. Where it's like you can't even mix and match. I don't get it. The worst thing I saw just before we move on to the campaign, the worst thing I saw was something called Mr Chief. Have you heard of this? No. So Mr Chief apparently, so I wasn't
00:20:51
Speaker
really big into Halo 5. But apparently, during Halo 5's multiplayer, there was this poorly drawn version of Master Chief called Mr. Chief, and he was trying to justify, I think it was called the REC system, and it was basically loot boxes in Halo 5. You
00:21:12
Speaker
know he was like a very condescending character and people really did not like this guy or sorry I say this guy this character then they brought him in as like a charm which was about I want to say it was like between a thousand to two thousand spartan points I mean about 14 to 20 pounds you would be paying for a poorly drawn version of Master Chief and a couple of like sprays for the armor and
00:21:39
Speaker
Yeah, that seems to be the way that customisation is going as well. That's a shame. That's a shame. If I could inject a potential note of optimism. Oh, go for it.
Quality and Release State of Halo Infinite
00:21:50
Speaker
I think it's fair to say that this multiplayer is still in a kind of beta format. Am I kind of fair in saying that? Oh, absolutely. It is still evolving.
00:21:59
Speaker
But that's to counter that. And again, you make a fantastic point. I feel bad counting to be like, you have a good point, but I feel as if a game that they're, and I know it's on Game Pass, £10.99 a month, you can get it on Game Pass, but for a game that the retail price here is about £55, give or take.
00:22:19
Speaker
And again, as I said before, this is something that's kind of like a blanket on the whole of the gaming industry, but it does feel as if a lot of companies are just releasing half-baked games and then saying, oh, it's okay, we'll patch it later, we'll patch it later, and you're like,
00:22:38
Speaker
Ah here we go, so that's what Halo feels like, it feels like one of those, even though I have to admit, even though the game is more fun I would say, I think they're decisions and maybe it's the you know the pandemic, maybe they're greedy, you know like I can't speak on behalf of like 343 and WOT they were thinking but it does feel as if there's a lot on this fire from their side in regards to the multiplayer.
00:23:01
Speaker
That's fair. That's fair. Yeah, I said like, and you make a good point about it being in beta and like, you know, how like indefinite that can be, whether things will change, whether things will get fixed. So these problems might still be there a year down this time next year, maybe even longer. But you know, they may get changed. I don't know. I don't know. But you are right. It is a kind of indefinite, you know, state of play with it with it being in a kind of
00:23:24
Speaker
extended beta but i mean it's even like really basic things like i remember when i first started playing it and although i did have fun i love that i did have fun with the game but i couldn't even choose whether or not i wanted to play slayer like i think and correct me if i'm wrong adam but i think it's changed now yeah you can choose slayer now i i had difficulty i think getting into a match of slayer so that might be a problem you might run into it depends who else is playing it
00:24:05
Speaker
launch? I don't know, I feel conflicted because I know they developed this game during the pandemic and everything but at the same time, did they have to release it as a beta? I hate to say this but the campaign definitely feels a lot more finished than the multiplayer.
00:24:17
Speaker
because I've heard that team battle as well has issues with getting into it.
00:24:22
Speaker
Yeah, that's fair. But the multiplayer in some regards, it just feels as if they pushed it out and it's like, oh, here it is. It's like, well, what about co-op campaign? Forge? What about this? These aren't really modes that I have to admit that I'm like up in arms at because I've never really played much Forge, but I know a lot of people in the community are really into these modes. And you know, they've created amazing things and, you know, machinimas.
00:24:45
Speaker
as well it just seems baffling but 343 said oh we're not gonna you know produce like something half baked and i'm not gonna lie like although it does look nice you know you can still see like the duct tape holding it together in some regards
00:25:01
Speaker
Like, it's still fun though, but speaking of fun, to borrow a phrase from yourself, we'll inject a bit of optimism in here and move on to the campaign. Let's do it, let's do it, let's put our positive thinking hat on. Since it's 2022 and it's the start of a new year, let's not break old traditions. Adam, what is Halo Infinite
Overview of Halo Infinite's Storyline
00:25:19
Speaker
about?
00:25:19
Speaker
So, Halo Infinite takes place six months after the destruction of the UNSC Infinity, which is one of the flagships of Earth, you know, Earth and its military force. And the ship is destroyed over this newly discovered Halo ring called Zeta Halo.
00:25:36
Speaker
I think if I remember rightly. And basically during the fight, Master Chief is launched into space by a brute war chief called Atriox. And he recovered six months later and awakens to find that basically the surviving members of the Infinity and the UNSC had been fighting a battle on Zeta Halo against a new faction called the Banished, which comprised a lot of the same enemies that formed the Covenant, but they are a kind of splinter group.
00:25:59
Speaker
the Covenant and the USA have been fighting this battle against the Banished but have lost. All hope seems to be gone like you know the UNC forces are ever dead or captured by the Banished and so it's up to Chief to basically take the fight to the Banished, liberate you know captured UNSC soldiers, rebuild the UNSC force on Zeta Halo and also discover the kind of mysteries of the Ring, why the Banished are interested in it.
00:26:21
Speaker
and also what Zeta Halo has to do with his former AI partner Cortana. So that's kind of the central premise of which the game revolves around. May I just say what a fine recap. Hopefully I pronounced names right because there's some names in there. Ah, I'm sure I'll be fine. There's no fact checkers here, don't worry.
00:26:41
Speaker
It's actually the Banished, thank you very much. Damn it. I practiced that before it went on air. Yeah, it's quite an interesting... I don't even know how to describe it. It's quite an interesting decision to set it the way they did, if that makes sense. I'm gonna be honest, is the after playing Halo 5, did you expect this is the way that 343 were gonna go? Probably not.
00:27:06
Speaker
because Halo 5 brought in such a large cast of characters because it seemed to be a lot of the focus was they really wanted you to play with three other players. So each game, rather than being like four clones of the Master Chief or like the Arbiterne
00:27:22
Speaker
elites like he used to be in the old games. He wanted to give each player a character with a name and look different, so that kind of maybe felt like the way the series was going. It's kind of nice that they have scaled it back to an extent to basically just have Master Chief as the main character. That was a nice surprise to find.
00:27:38
Speaker
I don't know if you felt the same way, but do you feel as if this almost feels like a soft reboot?
Is Halo Infinite a Soft Reboot?
00:27:46
Speaker
Because again for long term listeners, you'll know that your first Halo game was Halo Combat Evolved, the very first Halo game. Would you say that this is quite reminiscent of that game in some regards?
00:28:00
Speaker
Yeah, first of all, soft reboot I think is the exact right term for this. It definitely feels like something new in a way to certainly the last couple games. I totally agree with your second point there. Do you know what this feels like to me? In the same way that people said that Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild was the Legend of Zelda game that Miyamoto and Nintendo wanted to make back in 1986 when they released the first Legend of Zelda game, this to me
00:28:25
Speaker
Halo Infinite almost feels like the hate of the game that Bungie perhaps wanted to make back in 2001, because the kind of open world of Infinite is really reminiscent to me of some levels in the original Halo, especially levels like The Silent Cartographer and also the second level of the game where you first land on the Halo Ring. And it is this large kind of open environment with a lot of kind of freedom of movement.
00:28:49
Speaker
But whereas in 2001, there was these kind of large maps, there wasn't always that much in it. You know, it was kind of a lot of empty space as you went from like point A to point B. Now in Infinite, it feels like, you know, with the technology we have now and, you know, the design lessons that have been learned in the 20 years since, you know, the first Halo was released.
00:29:07
Speaker
been able to kind of populate this open world with things and activities and things to find, things to explore, things to do. So it does feel like a very kind of, as much as this feels like a kind of soft reboot, it also feels like a very natural progression to me of what Halo originally was, you know, and how they've got to where they are now, if that makes sense.
00:29:23
Speaker
Because 343 definitely solidified their kind of identity. Correct me if I'm wrong, but was it 343 that developed Halo Wars? Like 1 and 2? Or was that someone else? It's just I'm trying to think of like see the art style between like the Bungie games. Like the Bungie games had this very kind of, I mean maybe except for Reach, but Bungie had this very uniform like art style
00:29:50
Speaker
it really just developed on top of what it had before because of technology. Halo 4, and I know you and I have kind of joked about the art style being terrible and things, it legit is, but you know, because there's so much going on in Chief's armour, there's all these kind of wee small bits, and for the 4Runner technology it's all too
00:30:11
Speaker
Bitty and they developed that in Halo 5. For Halo Infinite, I was
00:30:27
Speaker
really surprised they went back to basics with the designs. You know, the armour looked a lot smoother, people were kind of joking saying, oh it looks like the old games in a kind of derogatory term.
Return to Traditional Halo Style
00:30:39
Speaker
But I have to admit, going back to what you were saying, I think this is what the franchise needed. It had to scale itself
00:30:46
Speaker
back a little bit both with its design with its kind of characters and while I'm not the biggest fan of the banished I will say that because it is all the same aliens you know you've got the elites you've got the grunts the jackals the brutes of course we'll get to them don't worry
00:31:05
Speaker
We've got all the same characters, you know, to fight against, and it does. It just feels like a traditional Halo game. You know, all you're missing are the profits and the purple colour scheme, but that's it. You're essentially fighting the Covenant 2.0. And in a way, that's kind of what I liked. I thought it was like a lot of fun to almost revisit that, or not revisit, but kind of go back to that time where Halo games were fun.
00:31:32
Speaker
and not like a chore to get through and it wasn't filled with like tons of lore and don't get me wrong this game has those problems but it's nowhere near as agreed just as like four or five. Hashtag who is the diadact? No one knows. No one knows. The II kid, people doing the please don't spam me with like links to the diadact. I'm looking at US banks, don't do it please.
00:31:57
Speaker
But jokes aside, I did think that was a very good point that they did. And of all the things, the grappling hook. Can we talk about that? Oh, let's do it. That was a really surprising addition where you could basically swing like Spider-Man, I would say.
00:32:14
Speaker
Basically, it kind of reminded me of the Batman Arkham Asylum one. Yeah, I honestly thought that was a lot of fun to just swing about and just so good. The grappling hook is like part of a new mechanic where it's something called armor cores, isn't it? Yeah, they've got an upgrade thing. Yeah, and it's like the armor cores are things that
00:32:36
Speaker
Yeah, you can find on Dead Spartan 4s, which is another weird backtracking thing. I will get onto that later on, but it's almost as if throughout the game that the D4-3s trying to revert into a more bungy game, if that makes sense.
00:32:52
Speaker
You know, it's almost as if they've heard, oh, people didn't like the art design in Halo 4, we're gonna go back to the traditional Halo art style. Oh, people didn't like the Spartan 4s, we're just gonna kill them all off. Because there is a lot of retconning. Would you say retconning's the right word? Or maybe not retconning, but like... Change direction, I would say, maybe. Yeah, like hiding everything under a blanket, almost.
00:33:17
Speaker
I think going back to that Bungie thing is a good way of putting it, because it feels like, with Chief being the central character, he is like back to being the kind of saviour. Especially if you look at something like the original Halo game, as much as you would fight alongside Marines for some levels, there were large sections where it was just Chief by himself, you know?
00:33:33
Speaker
fighting, taking it to the Covenant. And Halo Infinite feels like that again, you know, like you do have your kind of like, there are like the Marines and everything to help you out, but there's no, there's no like other Spartans that you fight a lot. Well, sorry, for now anyway, certainly the single player, that'll change obviously, you know, when they had co-op in.
00:33:49
Speaker
But like if you're playing it, you know, as it is now, you're really not fighting alongside any other kind of like any other kind of Spartans or anything. It really feels that kind of almost back to basics in a way. So we're telling where it's like chief is the central figure and chief is the hero. And I think that's why I also really liked Infinite because it reminded me so much. You can hit that activate my nostalgia glands. And I thought like the central premise of this game taking place like six months later was really, really clever. And it really worked.
00:34:14
Speaker
It worked really well with the open world because I like the idea of Chief being the savior, the one to bring the UNSC back and humanity's last hope. You were exploring this world that the Banished had taken over and you were taking the fight to them and liberating bits of the ring from them and bringing it back to UNSC control. That really worked well for me, so I really liked that.
00:34:35
Speaker
And out of curiosity, what did you think of The Banished? Because I know we've talked about this, like, off air, you know, about our opinions on The Banished, but what did you think of them being introduced as the main antagonist? Overall, I actually really liked The Banished. I don't know how, I don't know what the general consensus is, I don't know whether people now find these enemy types stale, but I really like
00:34:55
Speaker
the established Halo enemy types now of those kind of covenant aliens, because I like the fact that they're all very distinct, so you can easily tell at a glance who's who, and then you can adapt your strategy accordingly. You know that, for instance, the hunters are going to be really tough to take down, and you're best avoiding them, but you know the grunts as well are the kind of cannon fodder, and you need to be careful with the elites and everything, you know they've kind of got different strategies. So I like the fact
00:35:20
Speaker
that Infinite still incorporates as enemies because I think they're really strong designs. I think they're really strong enemies. I think Infinite does really well at giving each of these alien races really distinct personalities, which are just so much fun. Especially the grunts in this game were just incredible. I love the grunts in Alien Infinite. They're like the stars of the show. They're so funny to listen to. There's one of them that's on a kind of propaganda tower thing you can hear throughout the game and it's just hysterical. I love it so much.
00:35:43
Speaker
So I like that, and I like the idea, as much as, you know, like, oh, it's like a reskin of the Covenant in some ways, I kind of liked that we got to see the Banished in a slightly more positive light at
Explaining The Banished in Halo Infinite
00:35:55
Speaker
points. Like, they still are very much the bad guys, but there are points in the game where it's like, well, like, here's, try and look at it from their perspective here, and I kind of like that. I mean, the game doesn't really go fully into that. They still are very much the bad guys of it, but there are moments where you're like,
00:36:07
Speaker
you know maybe from like you know if you step outside you know a human quote unquote human perspective and look at it from you know the side of the banish you can see why they're doing these things and you know there's a bit of honor there to them and everything so i kind of like some of those themes that the game brought in i found it a little confusing at first because like so the person who takes chief out is a
00:36:25
Speaker
Brute War chief called Atriox and I just presumed that was going to be the main antagonist of this game. Same. Spoiler alert here again, he doesn't show up again until the end credits. Right, so he tells him a little bit at the end but it's in kind of flashbacks. He doesn't show up to the end credits and it's a guy called Esherom. You're fighting. That kind of confused me. So I got a little bit confused about who was who and I was like, but where's Atriox? Isn't Atriox the main guy? And there was a little bit confusing but you know there's some audio logs that kind of explain these things but
00:36:50
Speaker
I think that gets to a more central problem of the Infinite's campaign, which I'm sure we're going to talk about. But overall, I did like The Banished as the enemy faction.
00:37:07
Speaker
After that, I did my research because I never really played Halo Wars 2, so I had no idea who the Banish were. I was like, okay, they're just led by Brutes who, I'm going to be honest, they are my least favourite faction in the Covenant. I think the elites are the best, and maybe that's just like a hangover from when I played Halo 3 for the first time, expecting to go toe to toe with them elites and be like,
00:37:30
Speaker
oh yeah I can't wait and then all of a sudden it was like who the hell are these monkey guys you know it's like oh they're the brutes it's like I don't want to fight the brutes I want to fight the elites and you don't get that and you're like oh god I'm not a fan of the brutes like it's almost like 343 arm trying to make them a thing and it's like please stop
00:37:50
Speaker
a bit clearly, you know, they've taken off so there's not really much to be done about that. It's just, it's weird because as you said on the one hand it's like, oh yeah sure, like the banished are like this faction who are very wronged by the Covenant, they're used as like meat shields and things like that, they were used for basically suicide missions and you know, they're just disposable and that's why Atriarchs took
00:38:15
Speaker
power blah blah blah. Can I just say by the way none of this is explained in Halo Infinite and this is where 343 again fall into that trap of explaining nothing unless you hunt for the audio log so you read a book or something. The banish just appeared. Did they explain the banish? Not, I mean again you hear a little bit in audio logs but like you telling me that about there being like meat shields in the company, I had no idea about that.
00:38:39
Speaker
to you just told me. This game has a problem with context which I'm sure we'll get into in a little bit but yeah they don't really do that good a job at telling you who this kind of faction are apart from like they're like the next version of the Covenant to an extent I guess to simplify it. Yeah it's really not well done.
00:38:55
Speaker
And I do like the audio logs, but one thing that did annoy me was like, you know, you go through the one old and it's like, oh, what happened to like Spartan lock, for example, or, you know, don't get me wrong. I'm not like a big fan of Spartan lock, but apparently he's dead because of like one throwaway line from one of the grunts that said that one of these Spartan colors, Hyperius, I think, has his helmet on his shoulder. And then he's like saying, oh, he didn't last long.
00:39:24
Speaker
blink and you'll miss that, like small facts behind it. Yeah, no, genuinely. I can remember hearing that and I didn't hear it until I looked it up on YouTube and I was like, oh, because you don't really understand what happened to anybody on the infinity.
00:39:39
Speaker
And again, I know I'm very biased against this trilogy of games, but I hated the Infinity. The fact it was like a super duper special ship and the only time that it shines and actually does anything good is on the spin-off for Spartan Ops. And I was saying this to one of my other friends who's a big halo aficionado, but I was like, let's review the Infinity. What achievements has it had in the video games? Halo 4 crashes on Requiem.
00:40:09
Speaker
the Forerunner Planner. Halo 5 has to run away from Cortana. In Spartan Ops, while it does rip through one of the Covenant ships, it also gets blasted and boarded by the Prometheans. Or Promethean Knights, so it's like, well, not doing well there. Halo 6, you know, maybe Infinity will shine? Because it's called Halo Infinite? Nah.
00:40:32
Speaker
just gets blown up right at the beginning. In four minutes, they say, which I don't believe, even for the space version of Sun Tzu here, who's blowing up the infinity in a couple of minutes, it's like, sure, sure, okay, okay 343. And I get that's what they have to do, kind of establish the basic premise of Chief Being alone and the UNSC being in tatters, but really,
00:40:59
Speaker
I don't know. The Banished for me, although again it feels like a soft reboot, it feels like because they can't use the covenant and for some reason the covenant remnant hasn't taken off. They've been like, oh yeah, the Banished. Because something else, and again this is me deep diving into the lore, so Adam please feel free to stop me whenever you're ready.
00:41:20
Speaker
But apparently in Halo, I think it's Halo Wars 2, they banished fight against the Power of Fire, I think it's called. Now, the Power of Fire is a ship that fought against the Covenant and in Halo Wars, and then they ended up getting lost in space, and they all went into cryo sleep for about 20 years I think, and then they wake up and they end up like near a
00:41:44
Speaker
I don't know if it's near this ring or another ring but it's like one of the rings anyway it ends up near and it's like oh yay it's you know we're fighting the covenant again only they're called the banish this time and they make like such a big thing about that but see despite that and being like outclassed out guns you know Atriox makes it clear that he's you know gonna beat them down and everything they still beat
00:42:08
Speaker
the Banished, even though they're decades out of date with their technology. How is it that they're able to defeat the Banished, but the UNSC Infinity isn't, even though it's the biggest ship? And I know this is the biggest nerd run ever, but I don't get it. I feel as if they wrote themselves into a corner. And this is something... do you mind if I jump on this point just about the villains?
Critique of Halo Villains by 343 Industries
00:42:33
Speaker
No, go for it. I feel as if 343 have a really bad problem with
00:42:38
Speaker
being able to write a good villain. So you have the Diadat too. Apparently he created like a Promethean army to fight against the flood. He wanted to save his people blah blah blah. But unless you listen to like that long-winded speech by the librarian or listen to like the hundreds of terminal logs
00:42:56
Speaker
You know, you're not gonna get the full experience of that. You don't get him monologuing about his tragic past or anything. He just calls you like a... I can't even remember. He calls you something, then throws you through a building. Same with Halo 5. Cortana, she's just evil now for some reason. Is it because of her rampant say? Is it because... I can't actually remember why she turned evil.
00:43:17
Speaker
Do you? It doesn't do as well. Part of it is her emphasis. It doesn't also do with the fact that she's like an avatar for Dr. Halsey. She's not just like an AI. She's like a special kind of AI. So I guess that maybe adds into it. She's got more, I don't know, like potential or whatever, more agency in a way.
00:43:36
Speaker
probably it just it seems as if it came out of nowhere and then you kind of think okay is 343 gonna follow up with that are we gonna get like this emotional you know finale like literally the game begins with Atriox is dead Master Chief's been dead for six months and then he's come back the UNSC is dead Cortana's dead you're like ah okay okay this um this clearly went through one set of eyes when they were proofreading the script
00:44:05
Speaker
Because don't get me wrong, going back, the game is fun. I want to emphasize that it's fun and it's worth playing through, but the story is an absolute mess. And I know this is a point you've brought up, Adam, before, that past games haven't had the best story. But something I feel as if 343 does a lot is the bigger fish trope, where it's like you had the diadact to, you know, he had his Promethean knights. Then you had Cortana who could control these huge
00:44:33
Speaker
Someone called them space owls, which I never really thought of, but you're the guardians that can blow up planets apparently, which I thought, wow, OK. And now we've got something, I can't remember what she's called, is it the harbinger? Yeah, harbinger. Yeah, who apparently is going to roast the endless, and the endless are worse than the flood, and the flood are the reason that the halo rings have been created. You know, it's just a narrative mess, a complete and utter shambles.
00:45:02
Speaker
Again, I don't want to be like, you know, that guy to be like, oh, if it was me, I would do a better job because probably not. But it just seems as if they keep writing themselves into corners and trying to get like a bigger and badder villain. And it seems weird that that's what they've done for the villains when everything else seems to have been scaled back.
00:45:24
Speaker
because I mean going back to like say you know the first game, the first game you're on the pillar of autumn, you're there with a handful of marines, you get like stranded on this halo ring and it's kind of similar to this but the difference is the UNSC infinity was like the last ship.
00:45:42
Speaker
the entire UNSC. There's no ship coming to rescue them. That's it. That's the end of the UNSC, because Cortana blew them all up in Halo 5. So where do you go from there? This feels like the start of a new trilogy of Halo games, so I guess we have to see where that's going to go to answer a lot of these questions. I agree with you to an extent that this story is a bit of a mess.
00:46:06
Speaker
Like, I like a lot of the, I like the themes in it. I like some of the themes that come through in it. I like some of the central points, and I really like the central premise of this being, you know, the fight back, chief fight back against the Banished. So I like all that. I feel like they do lack, it's a lack of context for me that a lot of these, I don't, I was like, I don't quite know who some of these people are. And then they reveal some big things. I'm like, whoa, that seems like a
00:46:25
Speaker
big thing. This feels like stuff. There's one bit where, again, another spoiler here, but there's a bit where you discover that Cortana has destroyed the brute homeworld. And I'm like, that feels like it should be a point of its own game. Maybe it's going to be, I don't know if it's going to be something in a TV show or whatever, or a book or something like that. But it feels like that should be a central kind of event. So I was a bit like, oh, the context is lacking in
00:46:49
Speaker
this and I agree the story is a bit of a mess but I I'm gonna be honest I've never thought Halo has been that good at storytelling and I mean any of the games the two best ones for me are like the original Halo and Reach because they're fairly simple stories I think that's where Halo kind of Halo storytelling is as best when it's simple but if there's anything is there anything else you'd like to say about the story because I was if I could talk a little bit about the gameplay but I don't know if you've got any more stuff to talk about the story I don't want to deprive you of the opportunity
00:47:12
Speaker
Don't worry, I'm getting my notes ready. Nah, I just want to echo that and say I agree with you. It does feel as if the old games were more focused on creating a fun game and then telling the story on the back of that. The only thing that annoys me, compared to the Bungie games, is the fact that 343 have tried to make more narrative games, but it seems as if they've just kind of
00:47:40
Speaker
I think that's probably what shot them in the foot, the focus mode and a deep, lower, heavy kind of setting. It's like taking the focus away, if that makes sense, from what makes it good. But yeah, that's the only point I want to bring up, because I'll let you take it away with the gameplay, which, go for it.
Gameplay Mechanics and Open-World Praise
00:48:00
Speaker
I love the gameplay of Infinite and I love the central loop of it. I found the combat so much fun. Sometimes when you find in open world games, you find enemy encounters to be a hassle and a nuisance. I played Far Cry 3.
00:48:16
Speaker
last year and that was the way like often if I'd run into enemies and I didn't have to fight them I would just try and leg it away you know just to avoid the combat because the comm I didn't find the combat all that much fun but in Halo Infinite like I don't think I ever ran away from a single enemy encounter like I always wanted to like get stuck in and just because the weapons are so much fun and the movement is great especially with additions like the grappling hook
00:48:36
Speaker
and you've got the thruster as well it makes it fun to kind of like maneuver yourself around the battlefield and it gives you lots of different options as i said before i love the enemy makeup like i love how they all have kind of distinct strategies like of how they fight you know how they react to you also as well what they do on vehicles which i think is really clever so it gives you like a lot of different challenges and you kind of have to you can do it a lot mindlessly as well kind of running
00:48:58
Speaker
but also I think it rewards you for it being a bit more strategical and putting thought into it. The open world concept I think is done so well in this game and it feels like it's such a great progression of Halo that I really hope, I genuinely hope that all future Halo games are open world now because I think it's such a brilliant addition to it and it just amplifies the fun of the gameplay. What I love about this particular open world is it's of a good enough scale that you want to explore but it's not too big
00:49:22
Speaker
It doesn't feel overwhelming. You know, it feels of a good size, a compact size, which I like. One thing I'd say is perhaps there's not as much variety and kind of landscape. It is all quite similar. It's a lot of grass and hills and kind of foreign architecture. So maybe in the future, I'd like to see a bit more variety and environment. But what I do love
00:49:40
Speaker
is that this feels like a world where there's been a huge battle because you can you can just see the kind of detritus of like the UNSC's war with the Banished and you can just come you come across like battlefield with like corpses still on them wrecked vehicles like guns lying about I love that this feels like it kind of feels like a living breathing world you know where stuff has happened in it and I really appreciated that kind of environmental storytelling in it I saw the open world I think is great one issue I do have is that for a lot of the main missions of the game
00:50:08
Speaker
They go into a very linear, they're very linear missions where you're in kind of one environment and it's a lot back to that kind of corridor shooting, which has been a staple of Halo since Halo Combat evolved 20 years ago. For the most part I like those missions. I don't think there's any really one to stand that as I thought, oh that was a slog. So I think they're quite well.
00:50:26
Speaker
I had more fun exploring the open world, especially towards the end. Like the last four missions, if I'm not mistaken, basically happened back to back. So you're in like, you're just in a series of linear environments where at least before early on in the game, you would have like a linear section, but then you could go back to the open world.
00:50:43
Speaker
And also some of the missions involved you have to go across the kind of the open world to get to different points to do objectives, which I really liked. And I wish they'd incorporated that a bit more into it because it does it does get a little bit repetitive when you're kind of just from one linear environment to the next. So I think if they could find a way to better incorporate those two elements because they do they do kind of feel a little bit odds at points that I'd like 343 to work on. But overall, I just think the central gameplay loop is just so much fun.
00:51:08
Speaker
And it really kind of builds on the strength of what Halo has been, I think since its inception in 2001. I've been a really strong shooter, and I think they just built on that really well, and the open world was such a fantastic addition. I had so much fun. As much like Problems is with the story and everything, I just had a lot of fun playing this game.
00:51:25
Speaker
I'm not sitting on the fence here, I totally agree with what you're saying there. The game itself is a lot of fun. One thing I will say, although I did love the, you know, being able to Spider-Man my way across the map and everything, one thing I felt that was quite confusing was, and again I get this is probably, you know, to encourage you to use other armor cores, because that's been kind of a staple since
00:51:51
Speaker
I wanna say Halo Reach. You know, you've got the different armour abilities, like in Reach you had, like, armour lock, the hologram and things. In Halo 4 you had them as well. Halo 5, I cannot remember for the life of me, I think you had them probably, but haha, you played Halo 5. For this, it's like, they have boss fights, which I, and connect me if I'm wrong, Adam, but I don't think we've really had many boss fights since, like... Well, no, we had some in Halo 4, didn't we? Halo 2 has one right at the end.
00:52:21
Speaker
Yeah I remember that one. Halo 3 technically has 343 go to spark. Yeah Halo 5 technically you fight like one of the guardians quite a few times it has that one boss fight there. Oh the warden. The warden sorry not the guardian. Yeah oh god yeah that was a slow
00:52:37
Speaker
The weird thing for this was they give you an expansive open world and then as soon as it gets to the boss fight it's like they push you into a cupboard with the boss fight and it's like yeah okay you get this tiny space where you can fight a guy with a gravity hammer and it's like did you pick up a gravity hammer? No? Tough luck kid. And it's like oh oh no please please let me out.
00:52:59
Speaker
let me know. For me, that was something I didn't appreciate having like, because towards the end of the game, you fight a, I think it's like a, it's an elite, isn't it? Like a black elite who's got like the red sword and everything. Yeah, which is a pain in the arse. It's just honestly such a chore to actually try and kill them. But, and I know there's threat centers, but they don't work as well. Get it off my back.
00:53:26
Speaker
In that particular level, they have this huge training facility, which I don't know if the training facility came before or after the fact that they blew up the UNSC. I actually don't know. I'm assuming it's after, but you have this huge environment where you can fight them.
00:53:44
Speaker
then they just lock you in a cupboard and they're literally like okay you've got to go toe to toe with this guy and it's like this is one of the worst boss fights ever next to the gravity hammer guy. I didn't mind the a-shiram fight I will say, I thought that was okay but yeah 90% of the time I just used the grapple and hook.
00:54:01
Speaker
and I did like the FOB bases. One thing I will say is sometimes it did feel a bit repetitive and it got annoying at some point so that I couldn't find you know where you were supposed to go in the bases if that makes sense. Some of them were you know it was clear oh you go through this door you go through that door but in other ones it's like you had to run all the way across and you're like really is this?
00:54:23
Speaker
I'm gonna get my steps up today. One thing I will say, just kind of one final point but going back to what you were saying about the environmental storytelling, I did appreciate the audio logs. Like as much as I'm kind of saying why weren't they telling us this or that, I did like how you could go into like caves and things and see like a blown up warthog or see like sleeping bags and like talk to or not talk but listen to audio logs of like scared marines and things and some of them like
00:54:53
Speaker
filming their last or rather recording the last goodbyes to the family. I thought that was really well done. Well admit, I got quite emotional. I was kind of like wow, this was actually quite powerful. It's just a shame that they didn't actually make the main villain.
00:55:08
Speaker
more blatant, because let's face it, the Banished have never been in a main Halo game other than Halo Wars 2, but if you hadn't seen them in Halo Wars 2, you would have no idea who they were. You would just think, oh it's the Covenant again, again that's more of a storytelling thing.
00:55:24
Speaker
Yeah, no, I did enjoy it, and I loved the fact that you could just... It's going back to what you were saying about things being really identifiable. You saw a ghost, you thought, oh, I'm having that, grab a hook. Nope. One thing I will say, the hunters, scary as hell. I don't think I've ever been so terrified in a Halo game. I was like, oh, no, because they actually run after you, and they have several short bursts. So you know what?
00:55:48
Speaker
fair game. I have to admit, although I kind of ranted on the storytelling, I feel like the gameplay is for the most part top-notch.
Hunter Encounters and Storytelling
00:55:57
Speaker
And do you think, kind of as a closing point, would you think there will be DLC for this game? Has there ever been DLC for another Halo? Other than ODST, haha. I don't. I think other than multiplayer maps, maybe?
00:56:11
Speaker
I don't think there has been. I would guess probably not. I don't know, because it kind of feels like, because you can go, basically once you finish the kind of main story, you can go back to the open world. It's very akin to most kind of open world games where it's like, oh, you can now go collect the rest of the audio logs. I don't know, like find your upgrade point, find those upgrade points. There's all the collectibles as well. You know, you can do it. It kind of feels like that. So my guess is no, but I might be wrong on that.
00:56:36
Speaker
Yeah, I'm just having a look just now at kind of past DLC, and it seems to be mainly to do with map packs and things like that. I mean, maybe there were some cosmetics, but it's mainly map packs. I have heard rumours about it, but I don't know if this is people being hopeful
00:56:55
Speaker
or this is something that was officially announced that they were going to do DLC maps or DLC stories. I hope that's the case, because I would love to see a lot more of this game. I would like to see them kind of explain if you know.
00:57:11
Speaker
I don't know if the Banished open up a coffee shop or something or where's Locke, where's um Team Osiris, where's this or that. I think they do technically explain where they are and everything but you know what I mean like an actual physical like proof of welfare that's what I'm saying it's like come on 343 let us know these characters are okay. Just give me more give me more about the grunts that's a live one I'm
00:57:33
Speaker
I'm absolutely in love with the Grunt lifestyle and everything, and their troubles and their woes. Just give me more of that. That's why I wanted my DLC. ALICE I have to admit, I don't know how you felt, but I got really angry when I was fighting against a group of enemies, and one of the grunts was like, oh, are you gonna cry? Because I killed all your friends. All those Spartans went down with trumps. I just saw a raid, and I was like, oh, you have made the biggest mistake of your life to
00:57:59
Speaker
It's sorry. There was one bit that cracked me a lot. I got killed when fighting a group of enemies and there was a grunt there and the grunt was just like, does this mean I get a pay rise and that just cracked me up more than anything? I think, you know, I've seen the game in a long time. That was hysterical. Ah, they're great. Between that and the propaganda terrors, they're so good. So yeah, just to kind of finish up, is there any kind of closing point you want to make about this game? I would just reiterate that I had an absolute blast with this game. I really enjoyed the campaign.
00:58:28
Speaker
Like, as much as the problems with the storytelling and its context and everything, I just had such fun with the gameplay. Basically, with very few exceptions, I totally agree with you on the gravity hammer fight with the brute. That can go to hell, because it's... It was the only thing in the game that I thought was broken and was just unfair. The game is challenging, but I always felt like it was, like, you know, if I died, I always felt like, well, I made a stupid decision there.
00:58:50
Speaker
I'm not quite good enough at it yet. So I didn't so much mind. That was the only bit where I was like, no, I feel like I'm getting cheated here. So I agree with you on that point, but I really loved this game. I had so much fun. I'm probably still going to jump back in to do some more stuff in the single player because I really enjoyed it. I love the world. I've had fun in the multiplayer. I will play a bit more of it. I don't know how long it'll keep my attention, but maybe I'll get more into it. But yeah, I really loved this game. I was so happy to see it. I felt like I kind of returned to form to Halo for me.
00:59:18
Speaker
And I think the first Halo game will always be my favourite, because it's the most important game to me in my gaming life. But outside of that, I think this is probably the best Halo game. If you take away my nostalgia for the original, I think Infinite is probably my next favourite Halo game. I just had so much fun with it.
00:59:37
Speaker
My favourite game of last year was the Forgotten City, but Halo Infinite comes in a definite second place. So I think, yeah, that's what I'd say. I really like this game.
Enjoyment and Expectations for Halo Infinite
00:59:45
Speaker
I have to admit, although again, I kind of ranted about the multiplayer and everything and the storytelling. While I do think this game has a lot of problems and leads to iron-out, I think it's a fun game. I'll just echo your opinion there, but I genuinely do think this is a really fun game.
01:00:03
Speaker
it is a game that I honestly like maybe I'm just getting cynical on the old age but I haven't had fun in a game like this for a good while and the fact that it kind of brought me in and it honestly just felt like the old games again which I know I know like I've been complaining saying all the
01:00:21
Speaker
banished or just the covenant 2.0, which they are, I mean come on, but at the same time it just felt nice to be able to like zip along Zeta Halo and just have so much fun with the game. I really do hope that they do have like DLC campaigns for this game. I don't think it's been officially announced, so again I think this is just people on like Reddit or you know
01:00:44
Speaker
else we are saying that this is going to be the case but I mean I hope it's the case. If it is the case, fantastic, cannot wait for more Halo Infinite. And if you haven't checked out this game and you have Game Pass, honestly I mean it's free anyway but I would recommend it because I think this is probably the most polished Halo game out the series so far because the other ones as I said although I've got issues with 343, the one thing I can say is their gameplay is usually on point
01:01:11
Speaker
like I never feel as if I'm kind of like moaning about a kind of archaic not game structure but you know like controls or things like that so yeah 10 out of 10 for the gameplay and for the fun aspect I do agree with what you said about the brute with the gravity hammer he can go to hell he sucks don't bring him back
01:01:30
Speaker
Yeah, the Spartan killers can go to hell. Can I just say this just as one final point? The Spartan killers kept going on saying, oh, we killed Spartans, you know. They killed Spartan fours. Not the same. That's all I just want to say about that. Actually, sorry, one thing before we do finish up, there's actually one character or two characters we haven't
Character Development in Halo Infinite
01:01:50
Speaker
touched on. That, of course, being the pilot and the weapon. Well, what did you think about them?
01:01:56
Speaker
I really, really liked Weapon. I thought she was a really good addition and I liked the kind of back and forth she had with the Chief and it did remind me of that kind of original pairing between Master Chief and Cortana, but I thought it had a nice kind of little new spin to it. So I really liked Weapon. I kind of enjoyed finding more out about
01:02:12
Speaker
her like you know purpose and creation and everything the pilot I really couldn't care less about to be perfectly honest like I get like why he's there it's trying to be it's like a more kind of like human perspective but I'm here for the chief man like I'm not here to listen to some ordinary like Joe wine about like oh I want to go home this is chief chief's gonna take down the banish that's what I care about I don't really care about this guy it's problems everything so he didn't he just fell flat to me honestly but I really liked weapons
01:02:42
Speaker
And how did you feel about the Chief? Just getting to jumping on that point. How did you feel about the Chief's, like, development? This game reminded me why Master Chief is still one of my favourite video game characters. They get him perfectly here because for most of the game he doesn't say sentences of more than four words.
01:02:58
Speaker
It's for the use of the Max, which is exactly what it should be for the Chief. I felt he comes across as such a badass in this and I love it. But they also do give him a bit more characterisation, a bit more personality, and you do see a bit more of his kind of human side, which I really liked. I really did like what it did with the Chief.
01:03:15
Speaker
I think it was a positive step in 343's side to kind of humanise him a little bit. I have heard people who don't like that kind of move, you know, they think that she should be again just this robotic Joe who's just like bebop.
01:03:31
Speaker
I've got no emotions and things and I get that because he's like a child who's been kidnapped, he's been turned into a super soldier and everything, but the way they're kind of, you know, given that introspective of, you know, like developing his character and how he feels and how he feels guilty about Cortana, I really, really like that. I like how protective he was of the weapon and everything and how he even gave a wee pep talk to the pilot and was like, oh, we're only human, we can bounce back and everything.
01:04:00
Speaker
It's like, you'd go chief, you've developed a lot. And then of course you get space monsters like shooting at you and you're like, okay, that moment's ruined. But you know, it is worth it though. I thought it was really well done as well. And yeah, as I said, if you haven't played this game, go check it out. It's free on Game Pass. You won't regret it. I say that as many people have downloaded it and regretted it probably, but you know what? Their opinion doesn't matter here.
01:04:25
Speaker
Chatsanami is not liable for any opinions on the show and with that note, as always Adam, thank you so much for joining me today and most importantly, thank you so much for kicking off the new year with a very near and dear franchise. It's a great way to start and it's nice to kind of, nice to like retread some old, well obviously it's a new game but nice for us to retread some old ground looking back to our first episode so yeah it was a pleasure.
01:04:49
Speaker
for all you listeners out there. If you think this was the last year we're going to hear about Halo, I have got a very nice surprise. So this month, as you might have seen on our social media, we are indeed going to be focusing on Halo this month. We are going to be focusing on the anime. We're going to be focusing on some very fun trivia, which I know you've been looking forward to. And yeah, just general retrospectives. We're just going to be looking at Halo as a whole. And yeah, I'm really looking forward to
01:05:17
Speaker
and I know you've said you're excited as well. I can't wait, I can't wait for the journey. The great journey to begin, as the Covenant would say. Well, I've just got one thing to say to you Adam now. Were you blinded by it? The Majesty! The Majesty of this episode! When you listened to it for the first time. I will be blinded by it. And as we go and try to activate the Halo Rings, stay safe, stay awesome, and most importantly, stay hydrated.