
Halo Infinite made me fall in love with a multiplayer game
Source: Xbox Game Studios
Halo Infinite, a glorious return to form for one of the most legendary game franchises, has already amassed a sizeable community of excited players numbering in the hundreds of thousands. This accumulated fervor has occurred weeks before the Halo Infinite campaign is even available, centering solely on the strengths (and weaknesses) of the Halo Infinite multiplayer experience. My oft-proclaimed love for the Halo campaigns over the years has yet to be tested against Halo Infinite, but I didn’t expect the online portions of this ambitious title to hook me quite as Halo Infinite has.
I’m not shy about professing my aversion to online multiplayer games in general; being multiplayer-centric doesn’t immediately disqualify a game from joining my rotation of frequent plays, but it does make it considerably less likely that I’ll enjoy my time with it. Halo Infinite’s multiplayer has surprised me in a way I didn’t expect, and has made me fall in love with a multiplayer game.
First-class multiplayer
Halo Infinite
Epic for years to come
Halo Infinite is the latest chapter in the legendary Halo franchise, and in many ways is the quintessential title for Halo fans. Halo Infinite’s multiplayer is polished, crisp, and filled with fun and excitement at every turn. It also promises to evolve and grow for years to come.
A polished and action-packed multiplayer experience
Source: Xbox Game Studios
It’s not necessarily that I dislike all multiplayer games, as several in the past have managed to snag my attention (like Chivalry 2, for example), but those instances are few and far between. Halo Infinite, developed as a soft reboot of the Halo franchise by 343 Industries and Xbox Game Studios, has managed to usurp expectations to become a game I find myself genuinely eager to return to time after time, even without anyone else I know playing with me.
Unlike most first-person shooters, Halo Infinite throws everyone into the throes of war on equal footing.
Halo Infinite is a pretty traditional first-person multiplayer shooter on paper, but its execution delivers minute-to-minute gameplay that rarely fails to excite. In a similar vein to past Battlefield titles (and even Battlefield 2042 to a degree, despite its rough state at launch), Halo Infinite is decidedly “shareable,” with constant moments that make you feel like the super-powered Spartan soldier whose boots in which Halo Infinite places you. This remains true even if your FPS skills or experience with Halo titles is middling, since Halo Infinite places less of a focus on individual brilliance.
Ultimately, this is where Halo Infinite removes itself from the first-person shooter pack for me. While most other games in the genre have every player build out their abilities and loadout in isolation, Halo Infinite throws everyone into the throes of war on equal footing. Your personal identity is still maintained thanks to Halo Infinite’s customization systems, but your performance instead relies on teamwork, employing strategy in every encounter, and your ability to take advantage of Halo Infinite’s advanced, multi-layered sandbox environments to their utmost potential.
Source: Xbox Game Studios
Elsewhere, Halo Infinite simply delivers a premier first-person shooter experience. Movement and controls are tight and precise; weapons, vehicles, and equipment are (mostly) balanced and tuned to perfection; maps are visually stunning and well designed. All of this comes together to form a polished package, in stark comparison to other multiplayer games plagued with technical flaws, blatant imbalances, and more. When it comes to the core gameplay loop, there’s next to nothing to complain about in Halo Infinite. Unfortunately, that’s not true in every case.
Halo Infinite isn’t without its imperfections
Source: Xbox Game Studios
Even the game’s aforementioned tendency to promote teamwork suffers from tying its progression systems to challenges that often take players away from objectives in matches, something that still needs to be improved.
Even with these reasonable complaints being levied against Halo Infinite, however, it’s still a blast to return to time and time again. 343i has been transparent and communicative about collecting community feedback and working on improvements, and has already implemented several crucial changes to the game’s progression systems. Halo Infinite is also designed to grow over time, with new maps, content, and quality-of-life improvements slated for release after the game officially launches. In fact, 343i has committed to adding new multiplayer modes and playlists before the end of 2021.
These issues also don’t stop Halo Infinite from having sheer fun laced through every moment of gameplay, something that much more feature-complete or ambitious games miss completely. Halo Infinite is good enough right now that I’m more than happy to wait for improvements to come later; a product is only worth what it is right now, not what it promises to be in the future, and Halo Infinite is already a fantastic multiplayer title.
Looking forward to years of Halo Infinite
Source: Xbox Game Studios
Even without the campaign, Halo Infinite is ranking among the best games of the year.
Halo Infinite has been some of the most fun I’ve experienced in a game while playing with friends or family, and it continues to be enjoyable long after everyone else has already logged off. Knowing that Halo Infinite will only continue to evolve over time to live up to its ambitious name further deepens the love I have for this title. One of my other top games of 2021, Forza Horizon 5, is loved almost entirely for what it offers as a solo experience, and not for its often frustrating and imperfect online. I’ve yet to experience the Halo Infinite campaign (which may be equally excellent, according to our campaign review), but Halo Infinite is already ranking among the best Xbox games of the year solely on its merits as a multiplayer title.
In short: I’ve fallen in love with a multiplayer game thanks to Halo Infinite, due to its meticulously crafted moment-to-moment gameplay, the brilliant sandbox overlapping with well-designed game mechanics, and subtle touches to in-game systems that make it easy to communicate with your fellow players. Halo Infinite is far from perfect, but it’s already secured its place as one of my favorite games of 2021—and one of my top first-person shooters or multiplayer games of all time.
Halo Infinite’s multiplayer is already available to play across Xbox, PC, and the cloud as a free-to-play title. Its definitive campaign experience, also available through Xbox Game Pass, arrives on Dec. 8, 2021, and places players inside the helmet of the Master Chief for one more epic adventure.
Embark to Halo
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate
All your gaming needs, in one subscription
Is the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate the best value in all of gaming? It’s possible. Ultimate bundles your Xbox Live Gold subscription, an Xbox Game Pass subscription for both Xbox consoles and Windows PCs, and Xbox Cloud Gaming for on-the-go. Halo Infinite is included in Xbox Game Pass, including additional multiplayer perks for XGPU subscribers.
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