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It's been 20 years since the Sergeant Major and Halo: Battle Evolved debut. During this time, the Halo series has grown into one of the most iconic legends in video games, and the Sergeant Major himself has become a symbol of Xbox and even console FPS. 343 After taking over Bungie's mantle, he has not been able to reach his original height. The two new works released later seem to deviate from the excellent design of the original work. Halo: Infinity is one such work that corrects the path of the series, and 343 describes it as a "spiritual reboot" of the series, not only re-examining the core design of the original Halo, but also finding ways to further develop these qualities.
Halo: Infinity makes it both similar and completely unlike Halo, bringing the series' traditional linear narrative and mission structure to a semi-open world. It retains the thrill of the series of battles while adding the magic of exploration. Halo: Infinity carries the legendary burden of the series while meeting the challenge with confidence.
Halo: Infinity opens with a rare form of the Sergeant Major — having lost the battle. The Star Alliance Mutiny Exile defeated UNSC and seized control of the Zeta Ring Belt, where UNSC Infinity jumped in space during the finale of Halo 5. In Halo: Infinity, the player's main goal is to regain control of the Zeta Ring Belt, find out what happened to Cortana, and stop the exile's evil plot. 343 Industries once said Halo Infinity was suitable for new players in the series to get started, but that wasn't entirely true. In fact, there are many plot lines hidden in this work (many of which are still from the spin-off work "Halo Wars 2"), and even Halo fans may not be able to figure it out for a while.
Accompanying the Sergeant Major on this adventure is a pilot — a UNSC survivor who survived the exile attack, and "weapons" — an AI that mimics What Cortana created with the aim of destroying the latter. Pilots and weapons are both molded characters, but they actually symbolize the player each. Pilots believe in the myth of the non-commissioned officer, and like us, we can't help but feel angry when we see the non-commissioned officer constantly repeating the previous path. And the weapon is not familiar with the sergeant major, always with suspicion and curiosity: who is he, and why should he rely on him to save all mankind? Depending on who you ask, the sergeant major has the dual identity of savior and demon. Pilots and weapons are like two-tiered prisms that help players zoom in on and parse the myth of the sergeant major in Halo: Infinity.
While Halo: Infinity still tells a linear story, the structure of the world allows players to explore it. Between main quests, players encounter a lot of activity — captured Marines waiting for rescue, radio towers to be destroyed, assassinating high-value targets, and so on— and the scenery in these places is great. (It's also a point that the Speakers of the Exile Tower play wild boar beasts' speeches about how bad humans are, which is particularly fun to listen to.) ）
One of the more repetitive side missions is to clear the front-line combat base, which is essentially a base for storing resources and collectibles. As mentioned in the previous preview, players are free to choose how they fight. Sometimes I choose to drive a Warthog fully loaded with Marines into the main entrance; on one occasion I use a sniper rifle found nearby recording logs to clear all enemies.
Halo isn't the first game series to include an open-world structure in a sequel — both Gears of War 5 and Uncharted 4 have adopted this design — but it was the most successful. 343 Industries has created a world in which Halo-style gunfights are naturally embedded, sometimes at intersections and sometimes in the woods. While testing the Wasp, I was also destroyed and dropped into the encirclement of a high-value target. In Halo, these battle scenes are commonplace and without any exaggeration.
However, the design of the open world poses a problem, and 343 Industries has left behind a key design in the previous Halo: replayable story missions. It's an important Halo experience for me — I just like to tweak the skull to create more explosions, add more challenges, and create unusual battles. I've replayed so many of my favorite Halo levels over the years that some levels I can beat even with my eyes closed. I suspect that one day I can do the same in Halo: Infinity.
There are places in Halo Infinity that can't be returned after completing a specific mission, and you can't go back and explore secrets. This is a bit of a shame because certain missions are really appealing to replay. A mission is set in the Exiles' training facility, which contains restored UNSC scenes, even human weapons and vehicles, and crumbling watchtowers next to the destroyed tanks. It feels like a perverted museum prepared by the Exiles to face the enemy. And this mission reflects the tone of the entire Halo series: a large sandbox full of potential.
This concept is critical, for example, Halo 2 of 2004 is not an open-world game. The structure of the game is very linear, often allowing the player to walk through long, narrow, dark corridors rather than outdoors where spaces are open. But the plot and design of this work makes it feel "grand", as if the player has traveled through the entire universe. The magic of this experience comes from bungie's complex and detailed worldview created under the technical constraints of the time. The magic of Halo: Infinity is to fully realize this concept of that year. I feel like I don't just have a whole loop to explore – there's actually a whole loop that I'm looking forward to how the experience will change when the collaboration model is added in the future.
While Halo Infinity's co-op campaign mode won't be available until next year, the game's free-to-play multiplayer mode opened a month ago when The Xbox 20th anniversary was celebrated. The launch of the multiplayer mode gives 343 time to make final fine-tuning before the game goes on sale. Once the beta test was launched, they had changed the liver of the pass in halo: infinity multiplayer mode.
Games such as Fortnite, Call of Duty: Warzone, and Intrepid Covenant dominate the market for multiplayer shooters, while Halo has taken its place in the modern shooter market with a free-to-play multiplayer mode. Aside from the minor turmoil in season pass xp, the overall multiplayer mode performs well. Even with the new release strategy, Halo Infinity's multiplayer gameplay has undoubtedly retained the essence of the series, which was exactly the same experience I had in Halo 3. The smaller maps keep the gameplay fast-paced and exciting, and the new grappling hooks add a new style of figure. It's a familiar and exciting multiplayer game with chaotic combat and precision marksmanship.
Unlike the Halo Infinity campaign, the multiplayer mode is really perfect for Moe New. A new "Academy" mode has been added to this game, where players can practice with the AI in various settings. The weapon drilling system is also a major feature, and it is completely unimaginable that other games do not have this mode. In the weapon-delves mini-game, I can train myself to kill as many targets as possible in a specific amount of time. This model doesn't have any risks, allowing me to test the use of every weapon without worry.
Halo: Infinity replaces the outfits and armor abilities from the previous game and adds new pickable equipment, the most powerful of which is the grappling hook. After using proficiency in the campaign, this equipment is simply inseparable from the multiplayer mode.
In a sense, grappling hooks are like the perfect microcosm of Halo: Infinity. This new prop feels like something from the original, but it changes the gameplay dramatically. Through the design tenet of Halo: Infinity and the classic characters in it, 343 Industries has created a work that can carry the legend of the series and has the ability to carry this legend into the future. To be able to greet "Halo" with excitement is a joy in itself.
Translated by 丨 IbaHs
Edit 丨 Tonkotsu Ramen
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