A review is a critical appraisal of something. They're subjective, meaning that, no, I don't want to argue with you - my apologies if you were looking for a heated conversation that focuses more on actually verbally abusing each other, rather than the game or company itself. If you're looking for an experience like this though, let me recommend either Reddit or Twitter.

My reviews aren't meant as a means of saying you, the player, isn't having fun, nor am I trying to dishonor you or invalidate your opinion on a game you like - What I want is for the companies to treat you with the respect you deserve.

That being said, have a great read!

On the surface, Halo Infinite is a great game. If you played just a few matches in the Multiplayer gamemodes, or maybe even booted up the campaign to play for a few hours, then I would guarantee you that you'd have fun if you're into these types of games. Now, the deeper you go into the game and the more you play, THAT is when the bigger picture and the terrible, obvious flaws start to show, and that is when you will lose interest, and uninstall.

First off, let's address the elephant in the room; desync. The game as of right now, is not by any means "unplayable", not all the time anyway.. you will find yourself being annoyed from time to time due to the insanely obvious desync that there is in this game. Sometimes it feels like the servers are having a stroke, and you will eventually ask yourself if it's due to your connection, but I can tell you, IT IS NOT. The servers are all bad, and there are still A LOT of bugs.

That being said, there seems to be a running theme of releasing games half-finished, and patching them up at a later date, but I can tell you that this is not a viable strategy, ESPECIALLY if it's THIS dry of content.. We were promised all of the good old gamemodes from the previous installations, we were promised an incredibly in depth customization system, we were promised this and that, but NOTHING have been delivered; at the moment Halo Infinite feels like a shell of what Halo once was, and the developers aren't exactly doing anything about it. Instead of focusing on the very important topics of this game, they have instead used all of their resources on making the microtransaction store better, which, mind you, is also a dumpsterfire. THE ONLY GOOD about the store is that, well, it isn't pay to win.

Let me ask you, the player; if a company promises one thing, then another, and then another but fails to deliver on any of them, then what do the developers have left? If you've already released a game half finished, then promise to make it better, yet still continue to abuse your players by updating the store and promising everything will be okay, THAT single handedly is most likely the stupidest marketing method that I have ever witnessed. EVER.

But okay, let me give you the benefit of the doubt.. let's look past the incredible desync, the multiplayer gamemodes that are in a poor, poor state, the content drought, and that the customization system is nothing compared to what we were promised, then the campaign must be good, right? RIGHT???

Well... No.. the story itself is good, and the flow of combat for the game is generally the best that it's ever been. The combat is responsive, and the atmosphere of the story is there - the music is great, and at one time I near had a heart attack because the original Halo music kicked in at a GORGEOUS view, SADLY the game is overshadowed by the bad. There are glaringly obvious issues that need to be ironed out for me to actually be able to recommend spending $60 on the game, let me elaborate.

Firstly, THERE IS NO COOP EXPERIENCE. When I first saw the reveal and hype teasers for Halo Infinite, I was so excited to finally be able to relive some of the greatest moments that I had back on the Xbox 360, and maybe even bring a friend into the fight. I wanted to live through the nostalgia of going through an unexplored world with a friend, yet this is something that I sadly weren't able to do. Another feature that I will quickly mention is the option to go into fullscreen mode, instead of fullscreen-borderless; the input lag that you get because of this is too much. I hope that this basic feature will be "promised to be delivered", because then I'm certain that it'll arrive within the next 10 years, maybe.. unless they do like they've done so far, and forget what they've promised, only to work a little more on the microtransaction store!

Furthermore, let me ask you 343.. there has been a mission replay in every single Halo since CE... is it really that hard to have one in Halo Infinite too?? I know, I know.. it's "different" from the others, in the sense that it's open world, but I'm pretty certain that 2001, more efficient and in depth systems have been made, so that something like replaying a mission, even in an open world game, would be feasible, but maybe I'm wrong. I just think it's strange that you aren't able to recreate a feature that's literally 20 years old, but enough about that.

Even with the worst games comes some positives though! As mentioned before, the atmosphere is there, at least in the campaign, because you will be playing the same 6 maps in the multiplayer (since Big Team Battles is also broken), and the only mode that you will be playing in ranked is oddball, so if you enjoy flailing around with a skull getting frustrated because it's the buggiest mode of all time, then you will have a GREAT time!

But for real, the flow of combat is there. It feels smooth and immersive, that is, if you don't consider the input lag that is caused by the fullscreen borderless mode. Other than that though, the combat is good. It honestly feels like it could've been the greatest of all the Halo games, if only they had taken a little more time to work on it. The weapons are all pretty good, except the ones that are underpowered and handle like I-don't-even-know-what.

The only good thing I have to say about the game is that THANKFULLY, the daily challenges from the Battlepass and other events are viewable in game! Wait.. I was thinking about another game. SUCH A BASIC FEATURE.. but no, challenges are at the moment only viewable in the game menu, so if you're either VERY good at remembering what to aim for when you enter the game, or take a screenshot to be able to remember; if you aren't fulfilling any of these, then tough luck, you will have to wait till the match end to see how far you've made it, if at all - SOMETIMES the challenges don't even count your progress for some reason (from what I have experienced) so if you go on a killing spree and get 15 of those pistol headshots that you were told to get, then you're out of luck, because only 7 of them registrered, meaning you will have to play another game and get even more frustrated with the broken foundation of this pile of.. something.

I am NOT able to recommend this game by any means, as it's too fundamentally broken at the moment to be given ANY constructive criticism AT ALL. The highest it'll get is 2/10, because while there are a handful of systems that are doing alright, there are simply too much negativity shining through. They dropped the ball on this game, and it could've been so much better if they had used AT LEAST another year to really fletch things out a little more. I'm sad and disappointed, and even if all of this gets added, I still cannot support this company due to this HORRIBLE launch. We as the players must stand together, because game companies CANNOT get away with this lazy concept any longer. This is my final verdict for this game.

Everything in this review is my own opinion. If you are offended by anything that I have said then sit down, relax, and drink a glass of water - I want you to stay hydrated and healthy, I don't want you to spend hours of your life arguing with a person online, as that is the exact opposite of being healthy.

To you, the reader - have a wonderful day!