Halo Infinite Review – Spider-Chief? Master-Man?

Multiplayer

By the time this review goes live, Halo Infinite’s multiplayer will have been publicly available for three weeks in what’s being called an ‘early access’ period. This is what I’m basing my review of Infinite’s multiplayer, and it should be noted here that future ‘Seasons’ in the game may address some of my initial concerns.

For the first time in the series’ history, multiplayer is completely free-to-play, regardless of whether you’ve purchased the campaign or not. This allows more people than ever to hop into the chaotic, arena shooter multiplayer than ever before, and should hopefully ensure that the serves remain well populated for years to come, even in a highly competitive multiplayer landscape as we’re in today.

From the get-go, Infinite’s multiplayer feels very traditionally ‘Halo.’ It’s put away the game mode gimmicks and class load-outs of its previous two entries and instead focused on an enthralling mix of exceptional map design, a well-balanced arsenal of weapons and vehicles, and fan-favorite game modes to keep players grinding out those wins.

At the time of writing, there are 10 maps in Infinite’s multiplayer, though some of these are only available in Big Team Battle (BTB) which pits teams of 12 against one another, as opposed to the more tactical 4v4 skirmishes you’ll get in Arena.

This does feel a little light, particularly if you’re a fan of BTB as there are only three maps available in this mode. More maps should follow in the coming months and years in line with new ‘Seasons,’ though no official announcement on when a new map or two will first arrive in Halo Infinite.

Fortunately, the maps on offer here are excellent. The smaller ‘Arena’ maps adopt a familiar three-lane approach, forcing players into engaging the enemy both in close-quarters combat or at range with a sniper or rifle. There are suitable amounts of cover worked into the design of the maps, too, which forces snipers to be clever about their sightlines, and gives those who like to go in all-guns-blazing a chance of weaving their way closer to their enemies.

The larger BTB maps are the sandboxes for all-out-chaos. Enemies and teammates will duke it out in Banshees in the skies above, while Warthogs and Ghosts splatter unsuspecting opponents. Skewer (think sniper with a giant spear as ammo) shots hurtle through the air, pinning the corpses of their targets to walls and floors, and frantic melee matches can be seen in every direction you look around the map. These feel far grander in scale, as you’d expect, while still managing to force engagement between the two teams.

Snipers will still find ample hidden spots to set up camp, while runners will soon learn the best paths to make their way to the middle of the conflict without being picked off. Power weapon spawn points offer up invaluable rewards for those that reign victorious from the duels that play out over them. It’s classic, chaotic Halo.

Outside of the chaos of BTB, there’s also the Quick Play and Ranked Play options. These are both 4v4 modes, and see you playing modes such as Slayer, Oddball, Strongholds and Capture the Flag (CTF). It’s here where one of my chief complaints with Infinite’s multiplayer lies.

There simply aren’t enough game modes or playlists available right now. Particularly notable is the lack of fan-favorite game modes like Team SWAT, Lone Wolves, and Griffball. Compounding the game mode woes further are the lack of playlists, or the ability to toggle which modes you’d like to matchmake for. Right now, you can simply search for either Quick Play or Ranked Play, but you can’t choose which modes you want to play.

This is less an issue in Ranked Play but is particularly frustrating in Quick Play, where a majority of the time you’ll be paired up with strangers who have no intention of playing the objective despite playing a game mode like Oddball or Capture the Flag, forcing you to endure a game you’ll inevitably lose. It resulted in me growing frustrated and fatigued with the multiplayer in some of my sessions more so than I expected and is one of the issues with Infinite’s multiplayer I’d like to see rectified as soon as possible.

Of course, nowadays, having excellent multiplayer gameplay isn’t enough if you don’t have a compelling progression system, and this is another area where Halo Infinite’s stumbled in its ‘early access’ period. Mirroring many of the competition, Infinite has adopted a Battle Pass system for players to track their progression. Completing challenges earns XP which levels up your Battle Pass, earning various cosmetics along the way.

It’s a tried and tested system, except for the fact that 343 Industries, has restricted the XP that levels up your Battle Pass just to these challenges. This has been tweaked slightly in the past week or two, with players now earning XP for each game they play — 300 XP for their first game each day, dropping by 50 XP per game thereafter, until game seven and onwards where 50 XP is earned — alongside any other challenges they complete, such as getting 15 kills with the BR or saving an ally from across the map with a long-range shot.

From my time playing Infinite since, this has resulted in Battle Pass progression feeling far less grindy and more rewarding, but it still requires a fairly significant time commitment to reach Tier 100, which I always find a little fickle given you’ve already ‘paid’ for the premium Battle Pass.

A multiplayer shooter can only be as good as its arsenal of weapons, though, and thankfully Infinite retains some fan-favorites to balance out a number of dud additions and frankly questionable changes to existing classics like the shotgun and Pulse Carbine.

The BR remains a headshot hunter’s best friend with tight accuracy and hefty stopping power, while the Sniper and Skewer are quite possibly the most satisfying weapons to use in the game, period. Then there are the duds, the Plasma Pistol still doesn’t feel like a viable option, while changes to how ‘punchy’ the shotgun feels in the multiplayer result in a wall weapon don’t feel as powerful or effective as it really should.

The final pillar of Halo Infinite’s multiplayer comes in its new ‘Events.’ The first of these was the Fractures: Tenrai event which saw the ‘Fiesta’ game mode make its way into the rotation, taking the rules of Slayer and throwing in random weapons and abilities each time you die and respawn. Fiesta-specific challenges were added onto our list, and completing these unlocked more cosmetics and rewards off an event-specific Battle Pass, the main attraction here being some fancy Yoroi samura-inspired armor.

In principle, these events have all the right components to make for a compelling reason to return to Halo Infinite each season, but the way it’s been executed in this first instance was a little disappointing. Completing the event-specific Battle Pass requires players to grind out almost all of the event challenges in each of its four different weeks it’ll be live throughout the current Season. That again requires a massive time commitment, given these event-specific challenges are mixed into your standard weekly challenge list and so aren’t all active immediately.

Again, this is something that 343 Industries can alter for future events, and would go a long way in resolving current feedback on the multiplayer.

Halo Infinite’s multiplayer feels familiar. It’s got the same core components that made me fall in love with Halo 3’s multiplayer all those years ago, spending hundreds of hours in both public matchmaking and custom games lobbies with friends. Its maps, while limited in quantity, are of exceptional quality, and the arsenal of weapons provides enough fan-favorites and impressive new additions to balance out the duds. Seriously, what happened to the shotgun and carbine?

With 343 Industries pledging to support the game through various seasons with new cosmetic items and maps, Infinite’s multiplayer has everything it needs to become an Xbox Live staple once more, just as long as 343 Industries irons out some of these ‘early access’ kinks.

Halo Infinite is a strong package, offering exceptional story missions in a campaign with an underutilized open-world, and compelling, chaotic multiplayer. Its campaign offers yet another unmissable adventure with the Master Chief, giving us a glimpse at a more emotional man inside the armor. The world of Zeta Halo is a solid foundation for the series’ open-world format, but its side content is basic and there’s not a massive amount of it, leaving it feeling a little bit of an afterthought, despite how well the narrative fits the design.

It’s a step forward for the series but does nothing groundbreaking in terms of industry standards. Fortunately, the combat gameplay remains some of the most enjoyable in games right now. The lack of co-op campaign at launch is a little disappointing, but the promise of its release in 2022 will give players all the more reason to reclaim Zeta Halo from the Banished all over again.

For now, the classic Halo multiplayer offering will be more than enough to keep them playing for months on end, even if the game modes and maps offering needs some refinement, ideally sooner rather than later. This is the evolution the series needed and provides a promising foundation for the future of the series.