Last week, halo: infinity's campaign mode finally arrived, and after more than a dozen hours of first passing, I really felt a little speechless.
On the one hand, I can deeply feel the hard work and sweat of the developer 343 Industries, which can be called the "liver emperor", and the efforts to try to innovate; on the other hand, there are many problems of "repeated friction" above and below the passing line, and steam's once maintained "mostly positive" evaluation is an intuitive embodiment of the quality of the game. Overall, the current price of the game's small price of 300 yuan is slightly worthless for players who only want to experience a single-player campaign.
Why is that?
It takes about 10 hours to complete the main line, and only a part of the side line is tested when taking screenshots
Inheritance, fulfillment of dreams and innovation
One thing to say, there are certainly beautiful things in Halo: Infinity. In the few better impressions, the most obvious is really to create a real ring belt from the 1st generation 20 years ago to today's true ring belt, I believe that almost all "halo" old players have had this dream of swimming in the sci-fi giant man-made, technological progress to today, and finally can really drive the Wasp Heaven Ninbird flying.
The scenery in the game is unobstructed, until the end of the galaxy, the ring belt is not only the traces of war, the player can see the birds alarmed by the sound, as well as the small beasts on the ground who are hurriedly digging holes and drilling the ground, plus the remains of mysterious ancestors, at least in a variety of scene shaping, it is not too much to say that it is pleasing to the eye.
Series features, good... big...... A piece of land...
The view is really good and the art is really top. See the halo, it's worth it!
For the first time in the history of the series, an open world map was provided. In the world exploration, in order to offset the trouble of finding things in the huge space, players can use a space scanning ability with themselves as the center of the circle, and highlight all the interactive objects in the vicinity - such as friendly troops, vehicles, weapons, etc. - can be said to be the conscience system to save FPS visually impaired players, although it is not a new setting, but from then on, the "aura" will no longer be called "halo", right? Probably......
Another advantage of Halo: Infinity is the Spartan armor skills that help players explore — hook locks, thrusters, enemy sonar, and protective stands — that not only switch freely, but 343 also generously localizes the Halo worldview. For example, after the hook lock is upgraded, the enemy that can be hit can be paralyzed, and the high-level hook lock can release the medium and second degree of the table and the practical punching punch, under the blessing of the energy sword, it is really cool and handsome, Shimada Genji, can you do it?
Coupled with the "Halo" series has a variety of excellent traditions of climbing high and drilling holes to find things, the emergence of hook locks has greatly reduced the difficulty of players jumping, and the swing is really fun - especially in this hook, the vehicle can jump directly into it to start, and after the air is disabled, you can jump out of the cockpit to hook the enemy Demon Ji, take it for yourself, so the bullying and cool sergeant major you have to love.
Eat my Spartan Iron Fist!
The more prominent and joyful performance in the battle is probably the energy battery called the "Spartan Plate Brick". There are various color energy batteries everywhere in this game, with different properties such as combustion, bursting, and shotgund bullets. Like other handheld equipment attributes, it can also be grabbed by hook locks, allowing the new gameplay system to form beneficial crossovers. The energy battery is thrown much more effectively than any grenade in the game, so the first thing I almost do in every battle is to scan for "Spartan tablets" nearby and hold them in my hand... Sorry, it's so cool, next time it's dry.
I'm not looking for "slab bricks", or I'm rushing with "slab bricks"
For the FPS more core weapon part, whether it is the feel, visual effects, sound effects, etc., in general, they are all online, and various series of traditional weapons are basically in the optimal solution state, even good enough not to repeat it.
There are also many places in the plot that try to show tribute, or echo the first 3 works of Bungie Studio, such as many people who have worked hard to save the E419 that has worked hard to help us, and even the players have made mods that can make it survive, which shows the weight of E419's death in the minds of players. This time, "Halo: Infinity" deliberately let the pelican pilot E216 occupy a great role, even if it is a little official fandom, it can be regarded as a great satisfaction of the expectations of all UNSC veterans.
Tons of small problems
After trying to mention the above advantages, we should also face up to a large number of problems that affect the player's game mood. Some of these problems feel like rushed battles caused by tight time, some are obviously limited in design strength of 343, and some of them feel completely unlike the problems that will occur in 2021, and as a result, it appears, inexplicably. In the end, they are the overall pull down the experience, although not to the point of refund, or let people feel that it is not so cool to play.
For example, the above scanning function, the key road points displayed by scanning in story mode will disappear with the natural closure of other highlights. In a certain section of the main line of the traditional explosion of the great escape, due to the lack of reasonable line of sight guidance in the scene design, the automatic shutdown of the highlight prompt will lead to the complete inability to find the correct route, which seriously affects the fluency that should be refreshing here. To solve this problem, you can only scan repeatedly in the plot to get the path hints, which is really tiring.
What is particularly strange is that 343 is not without a precedent for success. In the escape passage of "Halo 4" 9 years ago, whether it is the visual cue of the scene or the hint of the road point, it is very in place, so how did you make this strange design now? Can only guess whether the level design ability has declined, or because the development cycle is too tight? There is a sign that at the end of the plot, no matter how to see how to have a final escape scene, the actual process cleverly "avoided" this piece - it is really a textbook example of the climax forced to mute, and I really felt uncomfortable at the time.
Who am I? Where am I? How did I get here?
In addition, the "Halo" series features "Stupid Marines" this time even more stupid. While it is true that there are some good improvements, it is clear that the level of AI has been affected by the design of open levels. The most ridiculous thing is that the player summons the vehicle in the base, and the marines who brush out by default will approach the player according to the following logic, and the route passes through the airborne area of the vehicle, at this time, they will determine that there is a nearby vehicle passing, and immediately make a lying motionless dodge behavior. Then, because the vehicle is airborne, it will hurt if it is smashed...
In his hatred of the Marines, 343 proved himself to be an iron fan of the Bungie trilogy, but the problem didn't stop there. The Marines Pathfinder AI does not react to the player's horn and will only stay super slow close to the player's vehicle, and it is not known whether this is official ridicule or not. In the same way, because of the open world design, the bridge section that used to let the AI drive and cool the machine gun can no longer be found.
Notice the brother lying in the circle on the left, alas...
Since Halo: Infinity almost copied the "zombie siege" style "large open playground" design, to add interest, special events and collections, such as small bosses with special names, were placed on the map. In the taskbar, they all have their own copywriting stories, and when they are defeated, they can get some kind of modified weapon that they are good at.
Does that sound good? Until I was speeding once, before I could see the blood bar, the name or even the race, I directly killed a leader who claimed to be the leader of the many elites of the hand-bladed UNSC. What about the atmosphere of the foreshadowing? What about epic? Although it can be understood that 343 certainly can't make each boss have its own characteristics, this kind of small boss design that is not much different from the miscellaneous soldiers is really straightforward, that is, pure drag game time. In Zombie Siege 3, I actively go to the map to find some valuable weapon drawings, and in this game, how can I improve my enthusiasm?
How did someone who claimed to have killed 3 hellish paratroopers die in a simple car accident? ----------------------------------
There are also problems with these so-called modified weapons that follow the petty bosses. Although some of them do focus on enhancements, such as cartridge capacity, damage and the like, some of them just disassemble the classic design of the previous game and raise the threshold of acquisition. For example, the bazooka, which used to come with tracking, actually used to be tracked as a mission reward in Halo: Infinity.
Of course, this tracking version can track the creeps, barely counting a progress, but this set of small boss-related design chains summed up, or people feel redundant. In the actual game, I completed the plot before driving the beloved Wasp and yawning with almost the same boring, repetitive playing style to eliminate 90% of the small bosses. I really don't want to be hard compared, but the sense of accomplishment and challenge of killing small bosses is far less interesting than saving survivors in the similar core of "Zombie Siege 3" - especially after "Halo: Infinity" destroys the bosses and can't be repaid, I think diversity can't be done.
There is also a question of whether it is an aesthetic difference: "electronic wife" has a face that can be called "weird". She always maintains a "skin smile meat does not smile" expression, and there is a little strange crooked mouth, the plot often makes me feel awkward - you know, 4 generations, 343 has only created Cortana, which most players think is the most beautiful in the series! So again, the question, how did 343 make the details like this?
Based on this, I can even understand why the ghost-faced beast big face live broadcast can appear in the promotion of "Halo: Infinity" before - maybe the creator or the main beauty has some special habits? Are they ghostface enthusiasts? It feels like Halo: Infinity is particularly fond of depicting the mouth of a coarse earth-wrapped orc inside and out, in fact, in the plot, players will also enjoy the ghost-faced beast's breath blowing face many times - although "Halo" can't make the whole galaxy listen to the little girl singing, but don't come to this.
The screenshots can't be moved, so the reflection is not very good, and I actually tried to find an angle that looks OK
In terms of level design, 343 can be called an ordinary ancestral ability, which has been the case since the 4th generation, and by the time of Halo: Infinity, this defect has been magnified because of the change of form. In summary, it is mainly reflected in three aspects: repetition, discrete and contradiction.
Repetition is easy to understand, even if you don't mention the collection branch that repeatedly rescues the Marines, there are at least 3 times the same "blow up those pillars" in the main line, and there are no less than 3 pillars to be blown up each time, and the environment they are in and the enemies the player faces are basically the same.
Discrete is mainly reflected in the relationship between creative points. There are not many interesting ideas in the gameplay, but there is no logical chain and lack of effective integration with other systems. For example, some enemy positions can find specially designed sniper points nearby, and the system will also put a sniper there for the player, which at first glance looks like a classic sniper level? But Halo: Infinity's AI design allows you to automatically be exposed as soon as you fire a gun, and this sniper point will be immediately covered by enemy fire, becoming meaningless. It's hard not to miss the days when The Distant Star took cover from night and carried 40 sniper bullets...
Designed, but not fully designed
After more discrete problems, the superposition becomes a "contradiction", and the hardest hit area is the boss battles in the plot mode. For example, a boss battle deliberately let the player in an extremely narrow space with a thick-blooded enemy who is good at close combat, the incident is sudden, and the enemy is close, it is too late to change the second gun, the scene basically does not provide any suitable heavy weapons, the enemy runs faster than you - this is a very typical "stupid difficulty" design, often seen in various fan games, in the "Only Wolf" has been listed for two years now, see this kind of boss in this masterpiece, it is quite speechless.
Even compared with Halo: Infinity itself, another boss battle in the game is quite clear, in order to let players learn how to use the enemy function of the teaching battle, it is still a bit of a design flavor. You can fight without using the Enemy Ability, but it will be somewhat difficult, and it will be easier to fight according to the official prompts. So, this battle, whether it's for learning skills or relying on its own commotion, has a certain technical content, barely in place - and then, the other one can't maintain the passing line.
The little black room is intimately in contact with the heavily armored armpit ghost face beast, not really, really not...
There are also many small problems, such as brushing out and suddenly disappearing enemies in situ, touching weapons that will fall into the ground, and even flashing back, which boils down to a long sigh. After lowering the viewing threshold many times, I even felt that it was natural that 343 could not do the arrogance of the 3rd generation war scarab.
Conclusions and outlook
Series players are well aware that 343 cannot have the level of genius of Bungie, it is a normal and ordinary strength, even if Microsoft can support nearly unlimited funds, 343 does not provide corresponding unlimited ideas. Yes, this is really the real problem that money can't solve, and perhaps this is the greatest educational significance that Halo: Infinity has to offer us.
In fact, in the plot, it can be vaguely felt, whether consciously or unconsciously, 343 has largely substituted himself into the role of E216 - he is not a Spartan warrior, but just a mortal who is accidentally involved in the legend of the great god, encouraged by the sergeant major symbolizing Bungie, although cursing and grinning, but also working hard, gritting his teeth to follow the sergeant chief to help him move forward.
From this point of view, the quality of Halo: Infinite is no matter how embarrassing, the whole process of the game can still feel that 343 is doing its best in all aspects, the Staff list after the level is spectacular enough to be scrolled up to 26 minutes, plus a lot of interesting small details in the game, the effort of this part is still worth affirming.
He always had the feeling of 343 voice endorsement, such as "finally done OTZ"
The Easter egg found somewhere in the game is also one of the emotional evidence of 343, and it is a model of more than enough love but insufficient strength
Due to various limitations, the current "Halo: Infinity" campaign mode does not even appear a moving starship, compared to the previous game in the series of "shabby" is not enough to describe, but considering that this game is supposed to be "updated for 10 years", and it is obvious that the story framework is also like the logic of the popular service-oriented online game and mobile game, then the future quarterly or year-by-year event-driven update should still be expected, maybe the reconstruction of Endless, Spartan farming is possible. After all, next door, "Final Fantasy XIV" has gone to the moon to open Gundam, and "Ark of Tomorrow" has just experienced a half-anniversary cramming cake celebration, and the hope given to players in this form is still sufficient - of course, there is also a pre-question, how much money do players have to charge when updating the chapter?
Hard to compare, in addition to the blessing of the "halo" IP image, the utilitarian point is that "Halo: Infinity" is now far less than "Zombie Siege 3" in all aspects, and the plot mode of "Zombie Siege 3" can not only be selected, but also multi-person fun, the computer version also comes with 4 free DLC, "Halo: Infinite" also needs to refuel.
In short, if it is not a "halo" die-hard, then the current campaign mode is indeed not worth buying at full price, although the advantages are very prominent, but the strange disadvantages are also huge, this article has been deleted a lot for word count considerations. The single-player mode of Halo: Infinite is also obviously partly to the multiplayer mode diversion, and the process can unlock the appearance of many multiplayer modes, which is really useless for pure single-player players. If you're not in such a hurry, you can wait for a more complete version.