Halo Infinite has received all sorts of praise since its solo campaign launched near the end of last year, and now the latest individual to praise it is the legendary American filmmaker (and composer), John Carpenter.
Known for movies like Halloween (1978), Escape from New York (1981), The Thing (1982), Starman (1984) and various other sci-fi, action and horror productions, the film veteran who is now in his 70s has taken to Twitter to praise 343's latest game release - stating how it's the "best of the Halo series":
"HALO INFINITE is a fun shooter. Immense beautiful production design. Best of the Halo series."
The official Halo account replied with the following response. We're sure Chief would be flattered, too.
"Thank you for dropping by Zeta Halo! We’re very glad you could join us."
Carpenter isn't the only one praising Master Chief's latest outing. One other notable figure to do this was the series' co-creator Marcus Lehto, who now works on EA's Battlefield series - noting how it "brings back the magic" of Halo.
How are you finding Halo Infinite a few months later? Leave a comment down below.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 24
I wholeheartedly agree. I've played through all mainline Halo games and the only one that's managed to stick in my mind all these years later is Halo Reach. Then Infinite came along and I was immediately impressed by it. The grappling hook is a game changer and having an open world to explore was super refreshing.
Naturally, if you compare Infinite to other franchises then it won't sound as impressive. But compared to all the previous entries in the Halo series, it truly is the best one so far.
Halo 3 is the best of the Halo series.
I think Infinite has the best game-play loop but as for the story and variety of environments, its a bit lacking compared to other games. That means its perhaps the most 'fun' game to play and the new abilities adds more variety to the combat, but could be better with its story and environments.
My top three favorites of the series are 2, 3, and then Infinite as far as campaign goes. As for MP though even in its early state I think Infinite is the best too. I really can't get enough I'm logging in to play at least a few days every week. 343 really knocked it out of the park in my opinion.
It's nice to read some love. The amount of hate that this game is getting for stupid reasons is incredible but I guess it's mainly Sony fanboys that haven't played it.
While I wouldn't say it's the best in the series, it's definitely 343's best effort, despite a few issues. I've always argued ODST to be secretly the best Halo game, but I should also caveat this by saying I'm not the biggest Halo fan.
@Medic_Alert I think the last battle had me relying heavily on swapping between the grappling hook & dash function like crazy! Very exciting final fight, reminded me a little of DOOM with the amount of action & different enemy types. I also like how the boss fights had plenty of great weapon options laying around like plasma cannons, cindershota and a whole bunch of mid-tier weapons so every fight had me mixing up my strategy on the fly (and I could refill ammo in most fights as well). I can see how the difficulty spikes in some areas for sure, but I am a glutton for that type of action as it did a good balance of making those encounters be right on the edge of fairness.
@Korgon loving the MP, I'm slowly winning over a friend of mine who hates Halo games with the Big Team Battle mode. Quick play can be a bit more competitive for newcomers from my POV, but think 343 did an excellent job with the different variety & play options. Truly something for most shooter fans!
@Medic_Alert I beat it on Heroic as well. SPOILERS
Yeah, I took out the jackals first since they spawn from two doors with the cindershot, worked on the elites with a rifle & then took down the big Brute chasing you last. Cindershotted then hammered the boss until she dropped. It reminded me of the Tartarus fight on Legendary in a way, but definitely wasn't easy!
Well from the 3-4 hours I've played I didn't enjoy it so if this is the best in the series so far then I know not to bother playing the rest.
For me personally the game just felt too arcadey like I'm playing a doom or a quake game and I don't enjoy those games that much either. Also the open world segment didn't wow me, for a game in production all that time and even had a delay and probably xbox's biggest franchise so should of had a mega budget the open world was just so dull, boring and tedious to explore, especially when compared to all other open world games.
I will compare it to another xbox main franchise game that I did really enjoy, forza horizon 5.
Compared to forza horizon 5 it looks like a game thats two generations old. Halo should be looking as beautiful and diverse as forza with the amount of budget it has. Maybe they should give the next halo to playground game's.
That's my rant over, and that's just my personal opinion so don't go on a mad one, if you enjoyed it then that's good
@UltimateOtaku91
It definitely isn’t one of the best. In fact it’s probably my LEAST favorite Halo now that my honeymoon phase with it is over. Extremely rushed, I don’t think the open world adds to the game like others do (no variety in environments, like4 different side missions that you do over and over, the story is super basic), and don’t even get me started on the game’s multiplayer, where it seems like the only part of which they put any effort into is the micro transaction store. The game is barebones and launched with less than any other Halo game I can remember besides Halo 1. Gameplay is good but everything surrounding it is a step back from previous Halo games, especially the Bungie ones.
Forza Horizon 5 is fantastic though
I’ve given this campaign a lot of stick on here overtime. But I have been thinking.
However what you play and get is really good
And very good fun to play and challenging on the right difficulty setting with good AI.
There just should have been more variety in environments, better graphics and weather effects.
I would want to see good expansions to the campaign and with improvements in the areas I mentioned above.
I think that sums the game up for me, so looking forward to more, but improvements environmentally and graphically.
That’s a good positive summary for me.
Just finished the game on Legendary...I feel like you have to had played the halo wars and read the comics etc to know what's going on....because from halo 5 to this is pretty confusing.....but still I enjoyed it well enough and the actual gameplay is great
Story wise Halo 4 is my favourite
@UltimateOtaku91 The game is far from a tech showcase and 343 definitely dropped balls. But the one thing the game does have going for it is absolutely solid polished gameplay.
But, yeah, it's arcadey. Like Doom. And quake. And obviously Destiny which is literally Halo as looter shooter by the same people. Which is the whole point of it. That's what makes it well regarded, there aren't many games like that left, and fewer still that actually get it right and modernized. It's a shooter from 2000.... The gunplay it's an updated version of what people expect from that series. Yeah if you don't like classic arcadey shooters, you wont find much to like in the series. Or doom. Or for that matter Returnal which is even more arcade than Halo (in a good way.)
@Phostachio 100% agree with you
Halo 2 - best story, halo 3 - best gaming memories, halo 1 - most game changing and for its time the biggest leap forward in gameplay and first person storytelling.
But I agree Halo Infinite might have risen to the top for me when it comes to gameplay and just enjoyment while playing.
For the campaign at least I couldn't disagree more, but it's always subjective and everyone has their own opinion.
The most important thing - the moment to moment gunplay - was brilliant, as was the movement via the grapple.
But everything else fell a little flat for me from graphics, to plot, to characters (Escharum was the worst B-movie villain), cut n paste quests, etc. The new music, which I was really looking forward to, as Gareth Coker of Ori fame was onboard, was basically forgettable.
Additionally the open world was empty with no diversity, you had basically seen it all once you first opened the doors onto Zeta Halo, there was little incentive to explore. This made going open world the wrong choice imo. It detracted from the Halo loop rather than being additive.
Lastly, and most importantly, there were so few great Halo moments that I will remember like taking down a scarab tank (or three) or boarding a covenant ship on a rescue mission, so little was memorable and a month later it's mostly forgettable.
Ultimately the core gameplay is there, I think it's a great platform to build upon, but I get the impression the rest of it was a bit cobbled together.
@Medic_Alert 100% agree. That last boss was completely unbalanced on Heroic. being sniped while being hunted down by a bullet sponge with a gravity hammer was not fun. Had to cheese it in the end. Even googled solutions afterwards to see what I had done wrong and people were bascially saying that's the best way to do it. That is bad game design.
It wasn't the only time. Other bosses bitted you in a tiny space with bullet sponges with gravity hammers or hunters. Not a thrill just tedious and a relief when you finally get lucky or cobble together a cheesy strategy to win. It's more a sense of relief than accomplishment.
It's the first Halo I haven't immediately replayed on Legendary.
@Medic_Alert Shield made no/little difference. Mine was fully upgraded it still sucked. As did several other bosses being locked in little rooms with guys with gravity hammers or hunters with AOE launchers.
But i'm not 100% convinced Halo has always done bosses badly. I just think the 'bosses' were things more epic set pieces like the 2 scarab tanks in Halo 3. (See the video below for one strategy). It's epic! It felt like you were in the middle of a warzone with banshee's overhead and other tanks and marines with rocket launchers. Where were the brilliant and memorable moments like this in Infinite?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkJKgUZOokA
@Medic_Alert And don't get me started on dodgy checkpointing, several times got stuck in an almost no escape scenario and like the Avengers or Edge of Tomorrow had to live, die, repeat to find the one timeline where I could survive and escape almost certain death. It did on one occasion eventually knock me back to an earlier checkpoint after many tries, but by that point I was frustrated by the game.
ALL things considered I did enjoy the game, just not anywhere near as much as I hoped. To me it was both good/ok but also pretty disappointing sadly. I suspect i'm in the minority here, that's fine.
EDIT: SkillUp's tepid review was the closest to my experience.
@Medic_Alert Glad you, and most others, enjoyed it so much!
You are right on the 1v1 bosses. Always been a weaker element.
Completely missed the 2 warring factions element in Infinite. The team rescue bits were the closest but felt like a small afterthought by comparison, and a large backwards step. Lets not forget the parts of earlier Halo's where it became 3 warring factions/everyone against the Flood. Infinite didn't have any of that magic for me and replaced it with, by comparison, dull Far Cry style outposts.
I dearly hope they will iterate heavily upon what they made here, so much that made previous Halo's great was missing for me. The core gunplay and movement was fabulous and a very solid foundation, but everything else was not quite there imho.
As the dust has settled on Infinite, I sort of agree with John Carpenter here. From start to finish, I really loved Infinite. I did a refresher on all the campaigns just before Infinite, and the series has a lot of stunning moments, but gameplay-wise, the game just feels so right, even if there’s some story beats in other games that exceed Infinite’s, Infinite just barely edges out 3 for me.
Now, multiplayer-wise, as great as the gameplay is, it doesn’t overshadow the fact that Infinite unfortunately come close to the peaks that Halo 3 had with its maps. I’d say Halo 3 still edges out Infinite as an overall mp game.
I only play the campaigns so judging based off that, I wouldn't say no. 1 but top 3 for sure.
1. Reach
2. Halo 3
3. Infinite
I was not impressed with Infinite. I finished it after almost waking away from it. I think all the other games are better. I’d replay 4 and 5 before I replay Infinite again. My favorite in the series are ODST and Reach and Combat Evolved.
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