I agree. Blame Marvel for every form of media having PG "quips" every 30 seconds, and for doing it during inappropriate moments. Edit: Tbh Im just tired of superhero movies. Dune was a breathe of fresh air but even that had to have 2 "obligatory quips" lol smh

I do not understand why every fucking game feels the need to be Open world, or a discount rpg. I used to love open world, but now it seems every game is trying to make a knock off far cry world, and I am sick of it. More Player choice is Not always better. Some games that fully commit to an open world can make it work, but most cant. I would rather play a linear indie walking simulator than 90% of the AAA open world titles. The best i will probably be a able to say about halo 5's story mode, if i ever play it, is that it will make me want to go play one of the older, better Halo games.

Game developers seriously need to stop giving Marvel so much writing credit.

One thing that I was worried about when I first heard about this game being semi open world, was that there'll probably be no levels where you assault some big building, bridge or whatever together with a squad and a few tanks. That was always the best part for me in the Halo games. As well as fighting through a bridge or gondola. Scarabs, or just fighting on moving platforms, was always special too. I think that Reach had one of the most unique levels, which was the one where you get jetpacks and jump between buildings with a squad. However I always liked CE the most: because of the grand levels where you feel small and insignificant, or tight levels where you're lost and alone, as well as those parts of some levels when you get together with the UNSC in epic big battles and just blow shit up. I don't think any other Halo -game quite nailed all those parts in the same game.

My biggest complaint so far is the lack of different biomes. No deserts, swamps, jungles, urban or snow areas but the same pine trees and forerunner structures. EDIT 1: I've finished the campaign. It's worse like Halo 4. The gunplay and grapple is great but damn, so many copy pasted levels and arenas. The boss fights aren't fun, the open world feels empty, marines are useless, you'll repeat the same task of retrieving energy cores to open doors or let Cortana onto a console and the Cortana/Chief banter gets very tiresome. The story is terrible up with the likes of The Last Jedi. EDIT 2: I'm glad I didn't spend money on this and Gamepass made me dodge a bullet there. I got Borderlands 3 and am having way more fun lmao EDIT 3: Playing God of War on pc and man, it's 100X more polished than Infinite. EDIT 4: Man Elden Ring is overhyped. The pc port is pure garbage with reused assets. Probably worth it for $2. EDIT 5: Fortnite's No Build Mode is fun. Way better optimisation than Infinite and Elden Stuttering EDIT 6: Man Diablo 2 Resurrected is so much better than Elden Stuttering

I feel we really lost something going openish world. Something about a episode/mission based campaign. Each can have such different feels, of environment, music, vehicles and combat. Infinite looks like one large mission.

Whoa there. The first Dying Light had a grappling hook as well.

I’m just glad the old armor is back. Hated the new power rangers like armor in other games.

Grappling hooks are everywhere. It took video games 17 years after half-life 2 to realize pulling objects and throwing them back at the enemies is fun

The lack of map variety was my main concern when they showed the game. Take for example Halo 3 which had jungles, deserts, snow fields, underground bases, forerunner areas, parasite ships and more, while in Infinite the only thing they showed was the open map and the forerunner levels. The way you described it also feels like there's gonna be a lack of set pieces. Halo 3 didn't just dump you into a level with enemies and told you to go to the other side, it constantly threw different set pieces for the levels to feel varied such as dropping you with marines that you could outfit with weapons or dropping different vehicles for you to chose, not to mention the scarab fights or the hornet sections. Hell even the driving portions were distinct to each other. Nothing they've shown about Infinite makes it seem it'll be as varied as 3.

100% agree on that annoying quick banter thing that's in every single production these days. It's not funny, it's never been funny, and goddammit, it never will be.

I Remember when a lot of Halo content creators where trying to decrypt the "tribal writtings" on the walls inside the caves and they were talking about the forunners experiments on humans with the flood, i suppose that idea was scrapped, otherwise it could have brought a true sense of mystery or investigation just like in H1 & H3 but could have been in a more story telling way. Update : Some people didn't read the comment it seems, i know it's part of the Lore, i'm talking about it being part of Infinite's campaign which it doesn't seem to be. Though there might be a reference to it from a marine about the banished digging something horrifying from the depths of the installation ?? Idk..

“Not the biggest halo fan” Well at least you’re honest

Also old enough to remember the Halo 2 launch. Me, a brother, and a bunch of classmates (and our history teacher) all brought our XBoxes and TVs to a friends house to play an all night Halo 2 party. We hooked up so many TVs and systems that it caused the house to blackout for a few minutes.

The lack of diverse environments is lame. Halo CE in 2001 had varying biomes between most levels. Beach, forest, snow, canyons, swamp, and ffs inside a covenant ship. Triple A gaming is worse these days than ever before

Honestly at this point i just miss the days of having tightly crafted linear narratives with decent storylines. Kind of like what the Halo franchise built it's whole brand on. Feels like every game now has to be "open world" and it's definitely not always for the better.

Dude your comment about the marvel jokes in everything is something I have been preaching about for so god dang long. It’s infested literally every form of media. The pinnacle example of it is in the Star Wars movie that they made a yo mama joke in the first 5 mins of the film.

I can’t wait to try the campaign, that’s usually what I play fps games for these days since I suck ass at multiplayer

Your comment about it basically being Halo:CE is exactly why I love it. It was a return to form while being upgraded at same time. I’ve played through campaign and done about a fourth of the open world stuff and I’ve only had 4 different glitches in my 30ish hrs of play time on my Xbox one. I do agree that maybe it could’ve been improved but for me (a big Halo fan) it was even better than I expected after Halo 5

I came to my guy Gman because, while I love Halo and am excited for this one, I was skeptical of all of the major outlets praising the campaign so much. Thank you for keeping it real.

if they were going to pad out the game so much, they should have really had varying environments. even rage 2 had more diverse environmental design

10:04 They ruined the shotgun in Halo 2 also, IMO. It was a bit better in 3, but Halo CE always had the best shotgun of the original trilogy.

the massive performance loss in the open world probably has something to do with the way the engine handles AI. I read somewhere that Infinite's Slipspace engine can have all friendly and enemy AI and combat animations active all at once regardless if you can see them or not. So it seems they plan to have little skirmishes going on throughout the entire open world map in real-time which is nuts on a technical level.

It's sad that the levels are so samey. CE had some really unique levels every time. First you're on a tight spaceship, then big open hills, then a dark rocky landscape, then a weird purple alien spaceship, then a snowy place with a forerunner installation or something, then a tropical beach, then a dark misty swamp or something, and there's more but you get it. Very different locations every time.

The big reason why taking the Spartan Killer bosses on head-first won't work is because, according to 343 Industries, you're meant to use "strategies" and take out their shields, then you can engage them like normal enemies. I'll use the first boss as example(Boss Fight SPOILERS btw): Tremonious has a Jetpack, Ground Pound, Hydra Rocket Launcher and Shotgun. He is accompanied by two Jackals wielding Manglers. You fight him in an open arena area near an elevator with many pillars and two ground levels(Up and Downstairs). There are numerous throwable Fusion Coils (Explosive Barrels) to use against him. Kill the Jackals first as the Jackals will deal chip damage to assist him and engage you, to finish you off when you have low/no shields. Keep your distance from him to avoid his shotgun and melee. Use the grapple hook to evade his mobility and ground pound. Use the pillars as cover from his Rockets. There are plasma weapons to make faster work of his stronger shields and A Skewer(A power weapon that shoots a large lethal Spike at Enemies) and other Ballistic weapons to deal with his health, that will be lying around the arena e.g. The Manglers you can get from killing the Jackals. Using that now you'll be able to defeat him easily, these "techniques/strategies" become more mandatory on Higher Difficulties(Heroic, Legendary or LASO) as the bosses are more difficult. The difficulty of these bosses can be seen by another KZfaqr who goes by the name 'Forge Labs' that attempted the first Two Missions on Legendary during the Campaign Preview, given to him 3 Weeks Ago.

You can't see it under the helmet but Master Chief *also* has the goofy smile

Halo fans literally screamed for more of the original CE/2/3 feel due to the big departure 343 took with 4 and 5. I agree, it's not a solution except to give the most vocal part of the fanbase more service. I would have rather seen a evolution of the series instead of a throwback. And no varied biomes is disappointing. The original had great diversity in it's levels. They took the Halo mission from CE and stretched it into an 8 hour game, seems like....yes, that was one of the best missions of CE because of the open nature of it, but it didn't have the pull to last 8 hours and the CE designers knew that, and moved on about the point when you get tired of rescuing marines. Infinite's designers apparently, didn't. They had an extra year to get this thing right and all they apparently did was tighten up some, but not all, of the graphics. For how it looks and how reflections/shadows/lighting works in the game, it's not justifying taxing the latest cards when you can run Halo2 Anniversary or CE Anniversary with dynamic lighting, shadows, etc without nearly as much GFX overhead. I may still buy and play this but it sure as hell won't be on launch day. Like the Master Chief Collection, I will wait for a sale and buy it at least 50% off the MSRP.

So basically I should just keep replaying all the Halo games on the 360.

The lack of surprise and tacky script is putting me off... Haven't 343 played the original trilogy? There's so many memorable moments in those games I still play them weekly to relive them

Currently playing the original Halo trilogy. They're all mostly just moving from arena to arena to arena. It served the series well at the time because I can see how it treaded new ground in combat evolved, but not much beyond that.

17:05 In all fairness, as a long time Halo fan, I can tell you that that is exactly what most of core fan base wanted, specially after the bloated mess that were the last two games. I’d be really interested in hearing your opinions on 5, maybe experiencing it might give you a better idea on why 343i decided to play it extra safe with Infinite

I'm not a halo fan either so this was perfect to get a sense of how just an FPS fan will feel about the game.

Honestly so far my biggest complain is the lack of environments. Your complaints are the things I’m just okay with, so thanks for the review broski.

So they turned the Halo Franchise into a Free To Play multiplayer game. They focused more on the FTP multiplayer, and the actual Campaign that costs actual money and is the core of the series has been ignored and given a gimicky grappling hook.

i just miss the days of having tightly crafted linear narratives with decent storylines.

03:26 God damn true, this annoys me to no end. I hope this trend of constant banter and/or sarcastic remarks ends soon enough. Nothing feels sincere and honest this way.

That Cortana quip about the environment being the same has to be the most tone deaf comment in the Halo series. Just because you are self aware about the environment being boring doesn't make the level any less tedious.

An unbiased, no rose-tinted glasses opinion is what good reviews are made of. I appreciate keeping the art style and gameplay to the old Halo games, but it was pulled off in such a way that it feels flat and lifeless. I too am also weary of the constant quips.

This is the most critical review I've seen for the game so far. Whilst I don't agree with all of your points, I think they are mostly fair. For me, the biggest issue is that Infinite had the potential to be so much more than what we've been given. I still think I'll have fun, but it's surprising how little we've come since the first game. I'm hoping that either DLC or a sequel will give us a big improvement.

Saying that the equipment is "recycled" from multiplayer is such an odd take. Like, it wasn't in MP first and then added *last minute* to SP. Would you also say the BR is "recycled from MP"?

Gman: "why tf does this lame shit feel like a shooter from 2001?" also Gman: "fuck yeah this is like 1996-98 all over again!"

DAMN! After waiting 6 years for Halo Infinite....feels like it needs another 2 years at most of develop time. But then again I'm not surprised since 343 had Lead Directors leaving the project left and right for like 3 years or so. Anyway still gonna play it for being an...casual Halo fan on December 8 through Xbox Game Pass.

Hahahaha I love the timing of the ads. Ad ends and the video resumes. "You piece of shiiiit!" Not sure if you planned that or not but it was hilarious

The first boost of the dash doesn't lose momentum on the air, you can do crazy shit with it. Mastering changing from dash to grapple is amazing. Also the shield wall give you enough time to get those critical hit you need on important targets. Also the grappling shot have a starting time before it pull you which let you vulnerable, so when in a pinch is better to use the dash.

I knew there had to be some catches to the Infinite campaign hype. And sure enough, Gman found every single one, and nailed them with his beloved 50/50 mix of articulation and crushing humor.

so i guess far cry halo now has taken inspiration from square enix's avengers too with the boring dungeon level designs

No joke, Halo 4's Cortana didn't even need full blown pre-rendered cutscenes, hell, I don't remember there being ANY pre-rendered cutscenes, AND YET she looked a thousand times better than "not cortana". She emoted better by a long shot, I mean shit, the ending to Halo 4 is one of the few reason why I remember that game, that and it's still one of the prettiest games of that generation and still holds up today on my aging Halo Reach 360. I can seriously tell that the animation/mocap quality for the characters in cutscenes just isn't as good as Halo Reach, 4, or fuck, even 5.

3:51 oh come on. those tracks "endless" & "echoes of orion" in halo infinite are pretty good. plus all the multiplayer menu & pvp loading screen music (the post rock tracks) are all amazing.

So legitimate question, when it comes to the missions and level design. How is this so different from something like Doom Eternal? Kill demons in an arena, gain a weapon, move onto next arena, complete onjective, kill in an arena etc. This sounds like every Halo game, and most praised modern shooters. What do people expect from a Halo game? You mentioned "It feels like playing a 2001 game in 2021" Isn't that exactly what Doom was? I'm confused in all these reviews as to what people want. You said it feels and plays like a Halo game, isn't that the point? Love the content mate, thank you!

Digital Foundry: Analytical and precise reviews 👨‍🔬🔬 Gmanlives: Raw and unfiltered reviews 🥜🍻🤘

There's an explanation why The Weapon is so similar to Cortana. According to lore, both AIs were modeled after brains taken from clones of one female scientist (the brain gets destroyed in the process, ouch). Although to know this, one has to find and read lore snippets from Halo Reach, so it would be nice if devs would actually explain this in game.

Im a big Halo fan and this review kinda confirmed my fears of Halo going openworld. Halos combat was never designt to be cramed into a big repetiv openworld loop. The Games mostly stick to small tactical encounters and even when you occasionly get to enjoy a sandbox style section with vehicles they made sure it was over before you got sick of them. The best levels of Halo had you constanly moving forward, switching weapons and encountering different enemie formations. Just looking at the footage this seems like another boring openworld shooter, just about 10 years behind the competion. And the fact that we aint getting coop until mid 2022 kinda kills my hype to ever touch this game.

I disagree that this game feels old - to me the core mechanics feel completely modernized and in terms of the feel of the guns, the movement, the enemy and the sound design, combat in this feels 20 x better than most of the other FPS games on the market, and WAY better than the old games. I just played through the entire MCC recently and the core gameplay in this is a HUGE upgrade. There's a bunch of valid criticisms about the structure, mission variety and story relative to those classic games, but in terms of moment to moment gameplay I think this is a wonderful step up

While the campaign has nothing super impressive or industry changing, that feeling of it being made with 2007 game design principals (apart from the open world aspect which ironically is probably the worst part of the campaign) is a fresh change of pace from what everyone else in the AAA industry is doing. It just took what worked back in the day and refined it for today’s age which is fine for me at least

>I'm not the biggest Halo fan >The last one I played on launch was Halo 2 You are a true Halo fan

I had a blast with the game. I agree that it’s highly repetitive but it short enough not to get boring (like the Ubisoft’s open world games). Plus the gameplay itself is so fun, that even after finishing the fight and all the side missions I found myself roaming the lands of the ring just to get some extra minutes with it. BTW in my opinion all the abilities are useful and fun (even if kind a basic) but you need to force yourself to use and get used to then. Especially on the higher difficulties the cloak in a max out boost and stronger shield are a godsend. I’ve used the grapple hook and sensor constantly. And shield and boost more and more into the game. And swapping between these 4 simple abilities makes this sandbox gameplay much more fun. Very diverse. It’s not a perfect game, has many issues, that’s for sure. But in the whole I reaaly had loads of fun with the campaign. Cheers!

343 really seem to struggle when deciding how to handle the single player. We haven't had a good halo campaign since Reach.

No one ever really could do it quite like Bungee, sad to hear... didn't think this would be a game I'd skip especially with a steam version day and date but here we are :(

“Our biggest halo” It’s basically halo 1. Mission halo. LOL

Would be nice to see a Alien Rage remake, CI could make a great game if they invested a bit money.

I beat the game on Legendary and I definitely felt as if it was somewhat of a "teaser" of what's to come. I enjoyed the game a lot but I can understand that story and gameplay elements are better in other Halo titles.

Dash move with invis was essential for me to beat the hunters guarding the skull on north island. Only way to get behind them with the weapons I had. Small area and they tracked me on grapple too quickly

This is basically like one halo level stretched to 10 hours. The variety in levels is a huge turn off honestly.

I think it is important to remember that this guy said that in Halo CE he didn't like that Elites rolled away from grenades and that the A.I was smart

“Not the biggest Halo fan.” And I took that personally.

The iconic Gman shiiiiit quip never gets old. Keep up the good work Gman love the videos!

The legendary gman!!! Great review as always I'm just excited to play Infinite for the grapple shot lol.

The lack of environmental variety is a massive turn-off for me - knowing that it's an open world game means knowing that the game is not going to take you anywhere particularly surprising or interesting, because it can't. Compare this to Halo 2, which I'm currently playing through on the MCC with a friend - you start on a space station. You go outside the space station for a bit of low-gravity muffled space combat, to the backdrop of a massive fleet battle. You watch the Master Chef fling a space pickle at a giant spaceship to blow it up... before the game drops you in the middle of a war-torn sci-fi Mombasa, in which you rapidly progress from a maze of alleys to a Warthog rampage along a motorway, before jumping into a tank crossing a giant suspension bridge, before leaping into the back of a giant robot beetle, before the game decides it has lingered in one place too long and propels you to the other side of the galaxy. Infinite? From the moment you set eyes upon the new game world, you've basically seen the entire texture palette and environment set.

@18:52 a 2001 game would have more interesting level design than this, (i.e Return to Castle Wolfenstein or even Halo CE's "The Silent Cartographer" map).

I really thought after Doom Eternal that Halo Infinite would have borrowed a a few more bullet points from that game since, even if it's "open world", is still a corridor shooter at it's heart. Gameplay wise, I think I'll stick with the former.

Wanna feel really old? Remember when Halo 1 was announced and the footage we were shown was on the "new" pentium III with 500 mHz? Well I do...

My worst fear has come true. This is marvel tier capeshit story telling. Could see it from a mile away. Halobros its over

Have to disagree on the evade being useless. It's incredibly useful for moving during the grappleshot cooldown, and hotswapping between the two really improves mobility. Also, that cloaking upgrade saved my ass so many times. You can use it to avoid death since enemies won't be able to hit you unless you're super close, and even grapple away while cloaked. It may not last very long, but most situations it's just enough to get you to a safe spot to regen your shields. The boss battles become a bit easier as well since you can change direction multiple times and much more quickly than grappling alone.

I mean, as he said, he isn’t the biggest Halo fan and I respect that. I feel Infinite was made more for an existing fan base of players, then again, I do agree that the lack of diversity in level design is disappointing because Halo 3 and Reach had some amazing vistas to look at. And at the end of the day, I’m not the biggest fan either, but perhaps it will still catch that magic with me like in Halo 3. Kind of like me having to learn to love Devil May Cry, which now I do. Or me needing to get into the Souls games. If I don’t feel it with a certain game though, I’ll bounce off. If that’s what he ended up doing, that’s him. I’m at least grateful for an honest, unbiased overall look at the game from a non-fanboy perspective.

343, the new Halo Killer

I can only imagine how the horrendously late co-op addition would bring the drab map layouts to attention. As much as i suck at pvp it would seem like the mp would keep my interest over the campaign if they adjust experience progression and add content such as weapons, modes, more maps.

This game having 2001 feel is a good thing for Halo fans

I too just miss the days of having tightly crafted linear narratives with decent storyline

2 days until Infinite and you released a video about Halo. First the 25th anniversary for Return to Castle Wolfenstein and now this? Count me in!

KZfaq removing the dislike button really turned this place into twitter

The first Dying Light also had a grappling hook about halfwayish through the game, I thought it was dumb at first but changed things up a bit and refreshed it for me. I’m glad I didn’t have in the beginning though, the beginning would’ve been too easy

Can't help but feel like this game has no surprises gameplay wise at all.

It’s amaIng how polar opposite Halo Infinite is to Doom Eternal. Both featuring long-time green astronauts with a word implying never-ending in their titles, yet Doom Eternal was a massive evolution for its series while Infinite was just run of the mill.

After Doom Eternal this almost looks and feels like a retro title.

Damn cortana was dummy thicc in halo 4 its just crazy to see the replacement

everything about the campaign was so half baked. At least 4 and 5 knew what they wanted to be from the start, even if some people didn't like the direction.

Guess this is not the DOOM of Halo fans looking for :( It's sad when most of AAA open-world games are so empty. But people are really excited about open world games, so that's exactly what they're going for I guess.

Great review! Seems like one of the few impartial takes on the game.

This shit ain't a Halo game. It's a 343 game and it's average again.

The lack of environment variety is my biggest issue I mean really no rust like in halo 2 no swamp no desert not snow just the same pine trees. The game looks like farcry 5 in the outdoor sections and the indoor is to reflective, I honestly don’t know what to think, and they constantly say the ring is “DECAYING” sure doesn’t look like it in halo 2 you had rust on the structures, they should have taken notes from that do something like in the multiplayer map water works just give stuff actual decay, even little details like the more rough areas leaking water like how mines do in real life that would add a sense of atmosphere which this game lacks deeply. The original halo had this sense of mystery and a unknowing feeling and little bit of horror and a ALIEN feel with a look of trying to imitate a natural world which was a great feeling this game feels lacking in that. What do you guys think this game is missing I’d like to know

I dont really like open world part to this game as all tasks are repetitive, go rescue stranded marines, kill a important enemy, take over a base that all it seems to be

So, I'm definitely a Halo fanboy, but I've been a bit disillusioned since 4 came out. I'm talking reading books and graphic novels level fanboy. However, I don't think anything that Gman said seemed unfair, and a few of them (like marvel humor) are things that I've seen and been concerned about. The only part where I think he was wrong was that previous Halo games didn't have verticality. Especially in Halo Reach, there was plenty of verticality and it really felt like a disadvantage not having the high ground. The idea of having the semi open world to run around in was done in ODST. But the mainline games were known for having memorable and awesome set pieces and it pains me to see it DEvolve into crap instead of evolve... heh.

It's the same as with Gears of War, they're like "we have this series, gameplay has barely changed since the first one, what do? Add Open World!!" Wanna see both series do some Doom/Wolfenstein-style reimagining.

11:09 ...Oh my god. This is my biggest complaint with Skyrim, with the cliffy mountainous parts being obvious gates to force encounter chokepoints and stall progression out, this combo'd with how the game forces you to go to the ass ends of the map constantly. It's annoying that this way of elongating playtime is still very much a thing.

That performance drop when entering the open world, holy fuck. It bloody tanked my 6900 XT and that card is supposed to be one of the most powerful graphics cards out there. Yet I was still barely getting 30 fps when everything is set on high. lmao

I am of the firm belief that 343 couldn't make a game as good as Bungie did (and they had a lot of their problems) if their life depended on it.

Master Chief's story was finished. 4, 5, and Infinite weren't necessary.

The lack of environments and set pieces is the worst part of all this, just look at the campaigns of CE, 2, 3 and reach, no desert no snow, no flood, no covenant ship, no underground base, no jungle, no big set piece fights, no multi layered fights with just chaos elites brutes floods fighting, no cities, no interesting boss fights like in 2, no scarabs, even Odst had more variety it's unreal how dull this is, halo is beyond dead and buried

the abilities are actually very useful for speedrunning there were some parts I just skipped because I had to redo them because I had to restart the mission for various reasons but once everything is upgraded it becomes very useful for replayability. Also there is a skull on the 11th or 12th mission where you have to not kill any sentinels, and on legendary if you're gonna run past these guys you definitely need the thruster to be maxed so you can camo and speed through the whole sentinel section

THANKS , finally someone mentions the performance in their review . Mp performance was sh*t but i was wondering if they fixed it for the campaign....Thanks for the review G