TL;DR – I discovered why so many people love the Halo series by exploring the custom content with friends.

Disclosure – I paid for the Game Pass that obtained this game.

Halo Infinite Review –

When I was growing up, my family had a PC, so I did not grow up with the console classics that so many of my friends had. I had heard of Halo. You can’t live in the video game space without knowing who Master Chief is. I listened to the musical score at performances and understood why people worldwide break into that hum on command. I had watched the previous games streamed on Twitch, and I even watched the Halo TV series. However, no matter what I  did, I only felt like an observer, like an academic who never does fieldwork. But all of that changed one day.

I had dipped in when Halo Infinite first came out of PC. It was on Game Pass, so there was not a significant financial barrier for me to drop into. A lot of it did feel like the shooters that I was familiar with. Come capture that flag, kill as many enemies as possible, find that sniper, or keep on the point. I was running around mantling up ledges, jumping over crevices that could lead to your death, and finding the gun set-up that works for you. While there were some of these more familiar elements to grab onto. However, my head or the keyboard/mouse controller did not click with the grenade, gun, and melee combo. Add some jump crouches and odd slides, and I fell away until earlier this year.

During 2023, many friends wanted more people to play the game, and I thought it had been enough time to jump back in and give it another go. Working with a group of people dramatically changed the game rather than going into it alone. There was a passion there that was infectious. How can you not get hyped when you hear the entire history of this map and how it has changed through all the iterations? My gameplay became better, not great, but better. I know how to catch a flag, and if you get me on a machine gun on the back of a vehicle, I am deadly. However, it still felt like a wall was between me and some of the other players. However, getting stomped by one of the best players in New Zealand probably didn’t help there.

But then, one day, my eyes were opened when someone in chat said, “Let’s play some Spicy Sumo Bowl”. I had no context to what was happening or why people were excited, but I soon found out as my warthog dropped on the precipice of a funnel. Soon, you were racing around the side of the funnel, trying not to crash into other cars, trying not to get rammed off the edge, all while the horn shrinks more and more. This was my first experience with Halo’s Forge experience.     

My understanding of Halo Forge was that it was an assist collection that creators had used to create new maps, re-create old maps, and bring them into the future. It is this, but it is also so much more. People have made all-new game modes, fundamentally changing the game bar for the fact that you are always Master Chief … I have been advised that you are actually a Spartan. This change opened my eyes to everything that Halo can do, and it might have even helped me play the base game better.

I can’t begin to tell you how fun it is with Goose Hell to drive around a ring, dodging through obstacles where any mistake leads to destruction, all while someone is on a platform firing rockets at you. It is a mode where your fellow competitors can be just as dangerous as those welding the missiles. There is an odd comradery that happens as rockets rain down on you. Or maybe you will hide from the Infected until you die, become infected, and need to hunt down your former teammates. That moment when you find a perfect hiding spot until you are the last Spartan remaining and everyone can see you on the map.

I have seen experimental modes that recreate a form of Dungeons and Dragons where you get to pick your class, and then everyone starts role-playing their different roles. Run through a gauntlet like you are a contestant in some sort of Duck Shoot, or that time when they recreated the Squid Game. I have blasted down hallways that change as you go through each door, bounced down ramps, taking out anyone in my way, and wait, is that Minecraft? Not every mode works, but each brings something memorable.

It has come to the point wherever time we play, we always end with Beer Pong. Flinging warthogs at cups off a ramp, trying to take them all out before the other team finishes theirs. You work together as a team until two people go for the same cup, or when you bounce off one of your friends to get one of the odd ones, or when you get stuck on the edge and everyone is yelling at you and not helping you out by ramming you into one of the cups. It is the perfect mix of teamwork, skill, and shenanigans.

In the end, you must give the base game the credit it deserves. It is one of the lynchpins of video game and might have one of the industry’s most recognisable visual and musical iconographies. But it is also giving the world building blocks for fun and chaos. It is a world of shenanigans, and I will always enjoy my time there and the friends who helped me discover this world.   

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you played Halo Infinite?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 

Credits – All images were created by the staff of Halo Infinite
Head of Creative – Joseph Staten
Head of Design – Jerry Hook
Story – Dan Chosich, Paul Crocker, Jeff Easterling & Aaron Linde
Art Direction – Nicolas Bouvier
Audio Director – Sotaro Tojima
Character Director – Stephen Dyck
Voice Acting – Steve Downs, Jen Taylor, Nicolas Roye, Bruce Thomas, Darin de Paul, Ike Amadi, Debra Wilson, Noshir Dalal, Brian Sommer, Chris Swindle, Fred Tatasciore, Keith Szarabajka, Imari Williams, Sarah Elmaleh & Ray Chase
Developer – 343 Industries
Publisher – Xbox Game Studios