Halo Infinite Speculation

So recently Microsoft studios finally flashed their proverbial boobs and let players ogle them for about 8 minutes. Being a self proclaimed gamer/journalist, I figured I'd give the two-cents no one asked for and offer some opinions you've already heard. No need to thank me, your money is enough.

So we start with a new uptight side character and a crash-landing on yet another Halo ring. I for one won't complain about this as long as....

WE STICK TO THE PLAN

The Halo 2 E3 reveal really cheesed me when it came to the realities of the actual game. Where I thought Halo 2 was to be an epic battle for the fate of earth, it turned into a campaign split between two characters and several locations. Halo 2 was a good game, but earth got left by the wayside. Halo CE on the other hand had us on the Installation 04 for 90% of the game, I thought this was excellent, after all, the artificial Halo ring had more than enough varied environments to keep me satisfied. My point being, lets keep Halo Infinite on Halo, or at least mainly in ONE location for the majority of the game.

Were once again tackling multiple objectives in a large gamescape, is this confirming 'open world' gameplay, or simply some big maps to traverse through the campaign? Either way, Chief finds himself driving around in a Warthog and engaging in scattered groups of former Covenant baddies. This is classic Halo gameplay, can't go wrong here. 

We need to talk about guns and our right to bear digital arms

I'm going to bitch about the Halo 2 E3 reveal once more. The gameplay shown in the E3 video clearly showed a semi-auto battle rifle with solid mid-range punching power. Halo 2 gave us the triple fartgun, though the Covenant carbine made up for the folley, I couldn't help but feel a little gypped that the real battle rifle didnt make it into the game. This was compounded by the fact that Halo Reach featured a single shot DMR rifle that would have made Halo 2 all the more enjoyable.

My full auto waifu

Infinites gameplay teaser gives me mixed feelings, the assault rifle and pistol look generic and dull, far from the ammo spewing MA5B and hard hitting M6D Magum we're supposed to be nostalgic for. The vk78 Commando looked really good, Brute Shotgun-Pistol seemed like a close range only affair, The other two Banished guns looked spammy and weird, though they cut through shields fine enough. The drum-fed shotgun looked so good that it's either in the process of being nerfed, or we just witnessed the first and last appearance of said shotgun in the entire game. Overall it looks like there's already a decent arsenal to pick from, and we surely haven't seen its entirety. If all else fails, you can do what's called a 'pro gamer move' and beat the aliens to death with melee attacks, so every gun does have some utility.

Gear up, Spartan

Speaking of utility, the latest iteration of Mjolnir armor adds Batmans utility belt to help hold up those 500lb spacepants. There's some nice shield action in the demo that confirms a Halo 3 style equipment system, granted, if you're anything like me you'll forget you even have any equipment other than your guns and 6 grenades. What's interesting here is that the sprint and grapple hook are constantly equipped, leaving the gear inventory for one-use items. Though the demo didn't show anything in the way of new equipment, it'd be a shame if it's just a rehash of Halo 3's pickups. I'd be surprised if there aren't a few new items to find amongst the smoking corpses. 

Now the grappling hook. Some people are going to hate this new tool, I'm torn between calling this a gimmick or a game changer. The wrong way to implement a grappling hook is to make it only work on certain surfaces and items, then rely on level designers to pigeon-hole players into using it. That being said, the grappling hook does work on both enemies and those exploding barrels first seen in Halo 2, So I'm going to Call it a positive, especially if you can use it to grab guns and quickswap them during combat, that would be insane.

Enemies

Combat isn't possible without a sci-fi cast of badguys to mangle. Shootables include Jackals, Grunts, Elites and Brutes. They all behave differently and have their combat roles, though Elites and brutes aren't supposed to co-operate because of space racism. Speaking of prejudice, I cannot stress enough how much I do not want to see any Promethean or Flood in the game. The mere thought of annoying overpowered robots and spammy flood forms give me gamer ptsd. The plot does involve the Created, Cortana's group of evil AI, so I can only hope robot mobs make a minimal appearance. 

Me after adding Infinite to my Steam wishlist

Release

You may have noticed by now that I didnt mention the graphics, well, they look fine IMO. Halo Infinite is slated for Xbox One/Project X along with a pc release, so future graphical upgrades maybe in the books for Series X owners, as a pc guy there's one huge thing that stands out for me...

It's releasing right onto Steam! Not even forcing my lazy ass to buy Halo Infinite on the Microsoft Store app, Microsoft Studios has already sold the game for me. This is during an age of Epic Store, Rockstar launchers, and Uplay nonsense. It really does make it an appealing entry to late 2020, assuming it isn't delayed.

Until next time, Stay frosty, Comrades!