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EmeraldSource Since: Jan, 2021
#601: Dec 15th 2021 at 11:08:12 PM

Just finished it myself, highly agree. While I think there is some limitations in the setting to prevent it from being as interesting as Halo Reach, what has been done here is a perfect mirroring of the Bungie era sense of mystery and putting the controls of the story in the hands of the player, while also maintaining the more intimate and character driven narrative that 343 is interested in.

The Negatives (none are really a dealbreaker, as you will see most have a positive spin):

  • Graphical fidelity and consistency is an issue. The game has crashed a few times (even after some workarounds like disabling the hi-res texture packages), but it's usually after three hours of playing and not 15 minutes. At its best it can be quite breathtaking and the art direction surpasses the occasional rendering issues. Like, firing rockets at a phantom will cause it to catch on fire and its' explosion is blinding, but the aftermath is basically a puff of smoke and no debris.
  • The hologram transmissions and grandstanding from Escharum gets a little old. It is nice to have such a bombastic character as the primary villain, but "one new message every level you climb" is overdone.
  • As much as I enjoyed the massive Time Skip and In Medias Res approach to the narrative, it does feel like we just overlooked what was set up to be a truly widespread war. Thankfully it is not completely ignored in this game, but comes across like an extended epilogue while setting up something new.

The Positives:

  • The game environment is truly enormous and highly detailed. After reaching a new valley I had to stop and realize that we were in a battlecruiser boneyard. All around there is crashed Pelicans, junked warthogs and escape pods. You really get the feeling that a lot has happened in the past few months, and that's before the collectibles encouraging active exploration.
  • I can't praise it enough that feeling of walking around, seeing a Banished fortification and deciding to raid it all by yourself. The new movement and equipment gives you so many more options in how to approach your attack. Area design is top notch, allowing some really long distance sniping next to close quarters beatdowns. Many different levels I was thinking how insane they would be on Legendary Co-Op.
  • The campaign has a lot to accomplish to have open world environment, a fairly linear story and provide some resolution to the events of Halo 5, and pulls it off really well. It can be easy to be distracted by all the different options and pathways, but I never feel like I forgot what the original goals were supposed to be (there was one segment where you had to go to four different towers to bypass a security lock, these towers were SO far away I think it dragged that plot point too far).
  • Setting up bases and calling in support works so well in the Halo setting, even if a little more video-gamey than Halo normally tries to be, and this works so well playing as Master Chief because you get to be the hero rallying the scattered UNSC military behind you. I was initially questioning the value of the Razorback, then realized it holds five passenger marines, not three, and everyone with a sniper, rocket launcher and/or ravager makes for quite the mobile artillery platform doing strafing runs.

Comics are just words and pictures. You can do anything with words and pictures.
WillKeaton from Alberta, Canada Since: Jun, 2010
Readersprite The Very Model of a Modern Intellectual from Hell, Florida, USA Since: Sep, 2021 Relationship Status: Desperate
The Very Model of a Modern Intellectual
#603: Dec 16th 2021 at 10:07:35 AM

Anyone who watches those wanna sum up any interesting points? I’m under the impression that the production of Bungie-era Halo is pretty well-documented by now, so what “secrets” do we learn?

I like talking to friends about stories over food.
MajorTom Since: Dec, 2009
#604: Dec 26th 2021 at 8:23:05 PM

Those of you like me who have played the Infinite campaign...

How many Easter Eggs and nifty things have you found or noticed? Whether you've seen them or heard of them?

I've found...

  1. The artillery strike at Outpost Tremonius.
  2. Several character plushes scattered across the open world. I've seen three so far but heard there's more.
  3. The Halo Infinite arcade game cabinet!
  4. Some of the walls in Banished bases can be broken as opposed to simply using the gates or grappling over them.
  5. Cross country grappling and running Le Parkour style is actually faster than most vehicles.
  6. The environmental storytelling is on a level not seen since Halo 2 at least, maybe even all the way back to Halo CE. So many things just lying around from corpses to ruins and remains of old battlefields and more that just screams tons of shit went down.
  7. Anybody notice that after the Command Spire level, there's actually an increase in overworld geometry beyond the playable area that shows the real-time effects of the Reformation?
  8. Some of the bodies of water in the open world segments have shorelines that imply either the ring's environment systems are malfunctioning and causing a drought or that the water is draining off the edge and not being recycled into the Halo ecosystem. Or both. Meaning the apparent Matter Replicator nature of the Spires in rebuilding the ring has that much more work for itself.
  9. The Craig stuff. Nuff said. It exists. In both a rare taunt if you get killed going "Who's Craig now?", the shrine of Craig as a concert on top of The Tower, and the Propaganda Tower Grunt going "We have a Craig out there?" in one of his messages.
  10. The dynamic lighting of the day/night cycle actually accordingly and appropriately lights the entire visible ring as it goes. In a couple of places you can see the Sun or effects of it below the entire ring during night phases.
  11. And finally, Banished equipment is apparently made of much sterner stuffs than the Covenant ever did even for the same vehicles! (Most of the time, the Phantoms are actually very frail compared to previous.) Hit a Ghost with a rocket launcher in previous games and it usually just gets reduced to wreckage, here the Ghost barely gets more than a dent. Incredibly Durable Enemies is very much in play when fighting vehicles.

EmeraldSource Since: Jan, 2021
#605: Dec 26th 2021 at 8:57:12 PM

I'm progressively doing a Legendary run, and it is almost mandatory to search for all available upgrades along the way.

  • If you get a decent vantage point you can see a crashed Guardian on the south-southwest horizon. Hard to tell at first, but the back spines are fairly distinctive.
  • In getting the Catch Skull on the far northwest island, it is surrounded by a pair of red hunters. Higher health, better aim, more aggressive and more protective armor. No campaign actions or notable bases are on this island but is available once you reach the open world so they can be the first hunters you encounter. Need some heavy ordinance in order to take them down, unless you are really quick with the grappleshot.
  • Regular infantry is hard to really tell, but against bosses the kinetic vs plasma dichotomy is much more noticeable. I went into the Chak Lok fight with a plasma carbine and a bulldog, the carbine was surprisingly good at striping his shields before unloading with the shotgun into his heath. On legendary it took maybe 10 bursts to clear his shields. Which may sound like a lot, but to beat him on Heroic required throwing at least that many shock coils at him. Knowing better what to expect I was able to beat him in about three tries on Legendary rather than about ten tries on Heroic.

Comics are just words and pictures. You can do anything with words and pictures.
manhandled Since: Feb, 2012
#606: Dec 27th 2021 at 12:21:46 PM

I think there should be a DLC where you fight a live Guardian and beat it, and somehow make it fun to beat, Doylistically so fans can get sweet revenge on the story beats that they stood for.

WillKeaton from Alberta, Canada Since: Jun, 2010
#607: Dec 27th 2021 at 3:56:05 PM

I've played the all of the Bungie games, but haven't touched any of the 343 games. I recall hearing that Halo 4 ends with the defeat of the main antagonist, a Forerunner and wraps up all its plot threads. Does Halo 5 end on a cliffhanger? Does Halo Infinite? Are all the main plot threads wrapped up by the time Infinite ends?

EmeraldSource Since: Jan, 2021
#608: Dec 27th 2021 at 4:48:48 PM

Halo 4 ends with Cortana dying in a Heroic Sacrifice to defeat the Big Bad Forerunner, the Didact (she transferred her rampancy into the Didacts ship to compromise its defenses, letting Master Chief defeat the Didact and detonate a nuke, but he was unable to retrieve Cortana directly). While the campaign was largely closed off, Spartan Ops was a multiplayer campaign that continues some less clearly resolved plotlines from the main campaign regarding the shield world Requiem, which at the end is destroyed and Halsey taken captive by the Covenant Remnant leader.

Halo 5 it is discovered Cortana survived because she had connected to a galaxy spanning Forerunner network, which leads to her becoming a megalomaniac with the newfound power at her control. It ends on a major cliffhanger as Master Chief was not able to convince Cortana to stand down, as she instigates an AI rebellion throughout human settlements and uses Forerunner war machines called Guardians to overpower entire systems in an instance.

Halo Infinite starts shortly after Cortana is neutralized, with the events as to how is further explained throughout the campaign. The Banished are Covenant deserters who have taken advantage of the chaos from Cortana's war to assert their new role in the galaxy, and currently dominant the overall landscape of the Zeta Halo. But there is something else hidden by the Forerunners on that Halo that is being stirred up, explicitly NOT the Flood but something comparable in threat. As well, the Time Skip means there is still A LOT that is unanswered about what happened during Cortana's war and the whereabouts of other characters. Nothing affirmative has been said about a DLC expansion, but the name Halo Infinite and statements that they are looking to make this have a long lifespan implies any story continuation will be within this game.

Comics are just words and pictures. You can do anything with words and pictures.
EmeraldSource Since: Jan, 2021
#609: Dec 29th 2021 at 4:22:53 PM

Brilliant post campaign Easter eggs, makes me not want to destroy all propaganda towers just to experience it myself.

Comics are just words and pictures. You can do anything with words and pictures.
MajorTom Since: Dec, 2009
#610: Dec 29th 2021 at 9:43:03 PM

The propaganda towers have some absolutely hilarious lines.

Also is it me or is the mission “The Road” a likely candidate for Best Level Ever?

Tuckerscreator (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Drift compatible
#611: Jan 13th 2022 at 7:14:00 PM

The end of an era. The online servers for Xbox 360 Halo games have been shut off.

Edited by Tuckerscreator on Jan 13th 2022 at 7:14:28 AM

RedSavant Since: Jan, 2001
#612: Jan 13th 2022 at 8:01:35 PM

[up][up]I felt like "The Road" was Infinite's attempt to do what previous Halo games did routinely - large, progressive "cinematic" setpieces that allow a number of ways to approach the problem (i.e., baddies). I was excited to finally get into a big smash-up that didn't feel procedurally generated, but it was so short I was left very disappointed.

It's been fun.
UmbrellasWereAwesome Former Dear Leader of East Whonosistan from The Republic of Whonosistan Since: Jan, 2015 Relationship Status: 700 wives and 300 concubines
Former Dear Leader of East Whonosistan
#613: Jan 27th 2022 at 10:52:42 PM

It was already officially confirmed at least a month ago, but here's some more direct confirmation that the upcoming TV show is indeed set in an alternate continuity separate from the games and the rest of the expanded universe.

Edited by UmbrellasWereAwesome on Jan 27th 2022 at 11:53:05 PM

World Whosball Champion 1945-1991
ArthurEld Since: May, 2014
#614: Jan 27th 2022 at 11:58:29 PM

That's a neat way to do it, and probably for the best.

I'm assuming Kai, Riz, and Vannak will all be with John in this Silver Team. I wonder if they'll be a mixed unit with some Spartan-II Is.

Tuckerscreator (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Drift compatible
#615: Jan 28th 2022 at 1:09:47 AM

The canon Halo timeline is very oddly structured since many of the game’s most iconic elements don’t show up until near the end of the war. Master Chief and Cortana only work together for two months, the Spartans don’t get energy shields until the last year of the year, and basically all the battles from 27 years are losses for humanity until suddenly they get three wins that decide everything. So it makes a lot of sense they would do something streamlined and self-contained rather than stick to lore from a 20 year-old book written in six weeks.

ArthurEld Since: May, 2014
#616: Jan 28th 2022 at 2:37:12 AM

The specific bit that gets brought up in that interview that's different-humanity discovering Installation 04 by accident, has been retconned in the original canon anyway.

I also wonder how the show will handle the Innies. Probably show them in flashbacks of John (and the rest of Silver Team, maybe) as I doubt they'll play a large part in the present day action.

RedSavant Since: Jan, 2001
#617: Jan 28th 2022 at 2:49:33 AM

I do think it would do the series a disservice to ignore or retcon the pretty important fact that the Spartan-Is and IIs were originally created to crush a human colonial rebellion, and it was really only luck that they happened to be building super-soldiers when first contact happened.

Edited by RedSavant on Jan 28th 2022 at 2:49:42 AM

It's been fun.
slimcoder The Head of the Hydra Since: May, 2013
The Head of the Hydra
#618: Jan 28th 2022 at 3:00:21 AM

Pretty crazy to think about the origins of the Spartans.

They were originally created they take on normal humans. Man that would have been overkill.

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."
Tuckerscreator (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Drift compatible
#619: Jan 28th 2022 at 8:43:16 AM

Halo Reach’s data pads edits the Spartans’ origins a bit. The Assembly (a cabal of A.I.s working in secret) manipulated ONI into pushing forward supersoldier programs, in hopes of preparing humanity for the possibility of alien invasion.

Some people don’t like another faction having a hand in the Spartans but I do; it acknowledges in a meta sense how the Insurrection was an excuse for the soldiers. The goal was always Spartans versus the Covenant, and Chief being made just before the invasion came was no coincidence. And it doesn’t take away culpability from Halsey and ONI since they still started this intending to punish rebellion. But I don’t think anything in the 343 era has acknowledged the Assembly since. So they probably won’t be in the show.

What appears to be the Rubble was glimpsed in the teaser trailer so I presume the Insurrection will play a significant role.

EmeraldSource Since: Jan, 2021
#620: Jan 28th 2022 at 7:29:57 PM

I know a number of people were upset with the story direction in Halo 4 and 5, but I see it as just following the themes that were well entrenched into the franchise. Cortana's rampancy was a big question leading into Halo 3, which didn't really answer anything, and her turn as villain was hinted at in Combat Evolved and even the earliest "Cortana Letters." So while it doesn't acknowledge the Assembly directly, it isn't exactly going against what was already established.

Holy crap, I just realized that The Weapon being created as a clone of a rogue AI in order to counter them is the basically same thing that happened with Mendicant Bias and Offensive Bias. This makes the Offensive Bias name drop in the Legendary ending even more interesting.

Comics are just words and pictures. You can do anything with words and pictures.
Tuckerscreator (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Drift compatible
#621: Jan 28th 2022 at 10:02:55 PM

I don’t really like the Created, but the Assembly I find interesting because they go in a very different direction. Rather than securing their existence by dominating humanity, they seek to make humanity prosper because they realize that for practical reasons they need humans to make more A.I.s. No AI lives long enough for an authoritarian takeover to last long, especially with the threat of more advanced hostile aliens out there, so they settle for a symbiotic relationship. It’s a unique twist on the typical cabal story, that the shadowy conspiracy exists but it’s working to advance the world instead of causing all its problems.

Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#622: Jan 29th 2022 at 3:37:55 AM

[up][up]I don't think it's really true to say the plot line of Halo 5 was strongly connected with entrenched themes of the franchise. You're right that Cortana's rampancy was set up for quite a while but the series has always had a strongly positive AI-Human relationship, including a robot rebellion is in direct contradiction with that.

For the worse IMO.

A game dealing with Cortana's rampancy isn't too far from existing precedent, but the Created as a whole very much were.

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
EmeraldSource Since: Jan, 2021
#623: Jan 29th 2022 at 9:11:17 AM

The Created did have their own thematic issues, which was compounded by the general narrative problems of Halo 5. But Cortana still had the attitude of "this is for your own good in the long run" that comes with most Zeroth Law Rebellion stories. Between Guilty Spark and the underlying possibility that Cortana was compromised by the Gravemind, the question is largely how much do you hint at something before actually going through with it, because the abstract threat is often more interesting than the immediate danger.

While the Didact was not the most original villain, he served the purpose the story needed. The biggest problem with Halo 5 came down to making the entire enemy threat indistinct, we don't know what exactly we are chasing and how that will stop it. By the end it's revealed that the danger is Cortana becoming a villain (established character), she is in control of Forerunner weapons (alien war machines) and she has convinced numerous human AI's to assist in this conflict (basically sleeper agents at home). Because it took the entire game to make that reveal, foreshadowing or not the game content felt like a lot of wasted space.

Comics are just words and pictures. You can do anything with words and pictures.
Tuckerscreator (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Drift compatible
#624: Jan 30th 2022 at 1:49:24 PM

HaaH WaaW

Looks pretty cool and not cheap on the FX. Though Cortana looks so weird when she’s not completely blue…

slimcoder The Head of the Hydra Since: May, 2013
The Head of the Hydra
#625: Jan 30th 2022 at 2:09:58 PM

Cortana and Chief's voice are gonna take some getting used too.

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."

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