Halo Infinite

johnny_ultimate

Probably deserves its own thread at this stage!

I’ve been playing through the campaign - through the long opening and have spent around two hours in the open world. It’ll never be accused of originality: this is as much of a throwback sequel as you’ll find, even with the change to an open world and the (very welcome) addition of a grappling hook. But gotta say that old Halo combat flow sure does flow and it’s good to be back :)

It’s not a particularly inspired open world (liberate all the bases anyone?), but it does feel that bit more manageable and contained than the worst excesses of icon-mania (a crime recently seen in Forza Horizon 5). It’s all about the combat though, and well it’s Halo again and so far that’s more than compelling enough to have me itching to go back for some more. Picking up a crew in a Warthog before heading into a fight is not a new pleasure, but it definitely still hits.

A bit of an odd decision IMO to open with two long, blandly designed corridor shooter levels - the shooting’s rock solid, but a peculiar pacing decision. The story’s total nonsense, even by Halo standards. And the set pieces, other than a decent one where MC leaps across a collapsing alien ship, so far haven’t had any of the magic of Halo 3’s very best missions - perhaps an inevitable casualty of a more open structure. But it’s early yet, I’m having lots of fun, and it’s hard not to smile when that iconic theme kicks in before or during a fight.

Did I mention the grappling hook? It’s a really **** good grappling hook.

Stone Deaf 4evr

I thought that the intro cutscene where chief goes through the floating debris was fantastic, little details like how he shoves some debris out of the way forcefully, yet moves the corpse of a dead marine with surprising gentleness, it was well done.

I've only gotten as far as liberating the first FOB, but theres definitely an attempt to invoke combat evolved, which saw you starting on a similar maze like ship before finally getting to the ring. I think they were trying to maximise the impact that your first viewing of the ring would have.

I'm playing on heroic difficulty, and its manageable enough so far, as long as you don't charge in with total reckless abandon.

Mickeroo

Having great fun with it so far, though I am possibly regretting playing on legendary now that I've gotten to the open world part as it fairly limits how gung ho you can be.

The grapple hook is fantastic fun to use.

Kiith

Playing through the MCC at the moment before getting stuck into this, but hearing good things about it. Can't beat a good grappling hook in a game.

Multiplayer is very good, but unfortunately screwed up a bit with badly implemented systems.

johnny_ultimate

It was very rude of the developers when they asked me to unequip the grappling hook to use some boring sonar tool. I just want to grapple everything with reckless abandon!

Also anyone else on PC - the dynamic resolution scaler hidden within the FPS limiter is fantastic, really helps performance in my experience (although my CPU is a bit old hat these days).

Mickeroo

Yeah having used all the other gadgets at various stages in the multiplayer now I have no idea why you would use any of them over the grapplehook in single player.

_CreeD_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118299948#Comment_118299948

There's a good breakdown of DSR and some interesting behaviour with VSync enabled internally and externally here https://youtu.be/bCj2wEi80zA?t=239

I've played through the intro levels and just gotten to the start of the open world so far but plan on a proper session tonight and over the weekend. The grapple is great but I think they could have done more on the feel of it, right now you just float in a straight line, adding even a little more realistic physics and arcs with your weight would be an improvement imho but then Halo has always favoured beach-ball physics. Still it's good fun and really opens up some nice CQB options. There is something seriously wrong with the graphics engine though. Indoors I was getting 80-90FPS and outdoor 65-70 at 4K native which in itself should be fine, with GSync+VSync it should be really smooth but it's not. It feels off like it's really running at 60 or less without GSync. It reminds me of when I accidentally have my screen at 60Hz but a game uncapped and my FPS counter is showing way over what the screen is really trying to render. with GSync/VSync it won't tear but has an odd paradoxical almost stuttery look. Or more recently on Outriders when they updated their cut-scenes to uncap from 30hz it was obvious it was just padding frames and just looks wrong. I've seen a few similar posts on Reddit so I'm guessing that's exactly what it's doing, not really rendering beyond 60FPS and just padding frames above. I'll try it later locked to 60 and see if that improves anything.

Mickeroo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118300292#Comment_118300292

You can ark the grapple with your weight you just have to look away from where you shot it in the direction you want to go. There's youtube vids showing the stuff you can do with it I think (maybe that's not what you mean).

Stone Deaf 4evr

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HD0Le_-zeo

grapple tutorial.

B.A._Baracus

Enjoying it so far. But open world is a bit of an odd thing. Like the problem I have with open world these days is that so many games are just exactly that. So many will become clones of each other.

Does Halo really need to go open world?

dreamers75

This would be amazing in coop, open worls begs for it.

Mr Crispy

Have they given an ETA on when co-op will be ready?

cnocbui

I was going to put off getting this for a while, but you lot will have me driving to Smyths or Argos tomorrow - grrrrr.

dreamers75

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118302860#Comment_118302860

May 2022 :(

Im actually gonna leave it until then, its a fun game but I honestly think it will have stupid amounts of fun in coop.

When I unlocked the ability to call in a vehicle. halo + coop * vehicles = hur hur hur

Anyone else playing on the Series X and having trouble getting it to run at 60fps?

Mr Crispy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118303279#Comment_118303279

Yeah, I may wait til then myself...

SuperBowserWorld

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118303326#Comment_118303326

Just played a couple of hours of the campaign tonight on Series X. Thought it was 60 FPS smooth.

Oh, and my first Halo game, and free on Gamepass too.

I usually steer clear of FPS games, but this plays really well. The music is epic so far. It's a lot of fun. I like it. Still in the start, non open world part.

fael

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118303279#Comment_118303279

Could not agree more, can't wait for co-op...

brady12

only played a hour of the original halo on master chief collection and about 20mins of 5 but they didn't grab me straight away like gears straight off the bat . finished infinite campaign last night and just wow ! it's rare when i finish a sandbox / open world game that i want dive a back into word do random and side stuff but defo doing that tomorrow . this campaign has me sucked into whole halo world and its only now i get the hype and aura of the series . defo going start rest them all and now play through them!

cnocbui

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118431890#Comment_118431890

Halo 2 is where it's at. Still the best in the series for campaign, by a good margin. Playing 1 and 5 you missed out on 2 & 3. :-)

Retr0gamer

I'd actually say Halo 2 is a pile of poo, feels rush and just isn't a lot of fun. Halo 3 is the best of the series and I forgot how good it was until MCC. Halo Reach is a close second.

Kiith

Halo 3 and Reach are definitely the best of the games i've played, campaign wise. Played both in co-op years ago, and extremely good fun.

Replaying the MCC at the moment, and just about to finish the 1st game. Its very basic, but still enjoyable enough.

dreamers75

Played them all on PC in the last year and none of them have aged well.

Stone Deaf 4evr

we were only chatting about this at the weekend, and came to the consensus that ODST is actually the best one, as its a self contained story with a great cast and a unique way of telling the story. All the other ones, infinite included, suffer from needing to have played the one before / having to wait for the next one to continue or conclude the story.

poppysee

Played it for a week or two before it just died down.