Halo Infinite is the beautiful story of 343 Industries. Free-to-play multiplayer continues its momentum with the arrival of a content-rich season 2 while a possible release date for the co-op campaign has been mentioned.
[Mise à jour le 25 avril 2022 à 11h16] Halo Infinite has finally presented us with its season 2! This period of new content is highly anticipated by the many players of the franchise’s first free-to-play. Yes, because beyond offering a paid solo experience (or available in the Xbox Game Pass), Halo Infinite has offered since its release last December a multiplayer mode that is completely free and accessible to all Xbox and PC players. Suffice to say that the game’s fan community is substantial, which brings us to the small event that was the announcement of season 2 of the game. We summarize all of the new content, new game modes and above all, Forge mode and co-op campaign news.
That was the big question surrounding the release of Halo Infinite last December: when will we be able to experience the game’s open-world co-op campaign? Indeed, the co-op single-player campaign has been at the heart of every Halo since Halo 2, an essential if not unavoidable element that we’re starting to miss a little bit in the vastness of the landscapes of the Zeta installation. However, the good news is that for the first time in 5 months, 343 Industries has mentioned the cooperation mode, announcing to deploy it around the end of August 2022.
Everything we wrote in the previous paragraph applies to Halo Forge mode. Absent at the launch of the game, this tool for creating and modifying environments and scenarios, present in the franchise since Halo 3, we miss a little bit. But once again good news: 343 Industries has assured that it wants to present the Forge mode to us at the same time as the cooperative mode, so we should discover it at the end of next August.
We told you about it in the introduction, Halo Infinite’s single-player mode seems to appeal as much as its popular multiplayer. With a score of nearly 86/100 on Metacritic (79 reviews) This new Xbox and PC exclusive seems to be rising to the level of press expectations. A rating that surpasses that of the previous chapter, Halo 5: Guardians (84/100) and equals that of the popular Halo 4. The adoption of an “open-world” style of play seems to be greatly appreciated, a model that greatly benefits from the “sandbox” spirit that has long characterized the franchise. The player is freer, the problems differ and their solutions too, creating a favorable universe for the epic saga of Spartan 117. At least this is the opinion of gamespotwhich gives it a very nice 90/100: “It turns out the franchise took a risk that was worth it because Halo Infinite is an amazing game. Admittedly, a few facets of the storyline have weaknesses, but that’s hardly disturbing in a game that seems to have the best single-player campaign in years, and shows us an excellent evolution of what Halo can become.” Same opinion on the side of JVC who offers him 16/20: “Certainly, in the collective unconscious, Halo has always been an FPS set in vast environments. But Infinite finally delivers a successful vision of what Master Chief can give within a universe that lives up to its reputation. In addition to bearing few traces of its tumultuous development, the game manages to make John-117 so fun to embody that it is difficult to let go of the pad once the campaign has begun.“
On the negative side, there is a lot of lightness in the writing. The gameplay sequences are a little less epic, a little less spectacular. This is the opinion of IGN France who rate it 80/100: “Master Chief is back for his fans, with great gameplay and solid multiplayer. Fans will appreciate the “good old days” side of the story, probably more than neophytes. They may also be frustrated that the ambitious storytelling stops when it should have started..” We also note the absence of the co-op campaign (which will be integrated into the game within 3 to 6 months), this is the case of gameblog which gives it 80/100: “The sensations are there, the music is there and so is the universe. And 343 manages to make the game feel familiar while adding some new and welcome features. Halo Infinite also appears to be Master Chief’s most intimate story to date. It’s just a shame that players now have to wait several months before they can play the co-op campaign, which is essential to the series.“
Moreover, for some, like Paul Tassi for Forbesthe single player mode lacked something: “I don’t need a huge Assassin’s Creed style map that takes 200 hours to complete, but I think I need more variety than what I’ve seen, and a better story with better characters.“The open world is all well and good, but it definitely takes away from the “epic” side of Halo. The action sequences are less scripted and therefore often less grandiose, and although Master Chief is presented at his best in Halo Infinite, the characters around him can sometimes seem cartoonish.
In summary Halo Infinite seems to offer us a campaign that meets the expectations of fans. Switching to an open-world game mode offers great possibilities of freedom to the player, possibilities enhanced by new welcome gadgets and features. The world is nonetheless no less familiar, and projects us into the very special atmosphere of the Halo games. If the player gains in freedom, however, he loses in spectacle, as the scenario sometimes lacks power. We also note the absence at the launch of the Forge mode and the co-op mode, the latter seeming so often essential to the campaigns of the franchise.
We were expecting a fairly demanding game in terms of the recommended PC specs and we weren’t disappointed. You will need to arm yourself with a fairly high-end configuration to enjoy the game in the best conditions. An RTX 2070 or a 5700 XT in the recommended graphics cards, it’s a bit surprising as these cards are not within the reach of all budgets. It must be said that Halo Infinite risks being the most ambitious opus of the franchise, with its open world campaign mode which necessarily implies a greater requirement for PCs. The multiplayer mode, on the other hand, should be accessible with slightly lower configurations than those shown below:
