Halo Infinite is a Hilarious Mess - Review [1/2]

The day of reckoning is upon us. Halo Infinite marks the culmination of 343's trilogy, and they've completely outdone themselves. To make a game so poor and so messy, so completely broken and unfinished. It's honestly a bit incredible. This is the punchline to a joke that started when 343 got their grubby hands on Halo, and it is hilarious...
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/ bunkerdweller
00:00 - Intro
04:40 - How we got here
21:40 - What I liked with the game
24:17 - Plot is a mess
36:45 - Characters are lame
42:33 - The 180
48:49 - Getting into the Campaign
49:29 - Combat is good
58:58 - Level Design is non-existent
1:03:38 - Graphics, Atmosphere, and World Design
1:09:48 - Performance is bad
1:13:00 - Open world Halo doesn't work
1:16:55 - Conclusion

[@Fagush]

Infinite campaign felt like a big prologue of something we will never see

[@PenguinDT]

So.. it is just like Halo 4 then.

[@yellowjacket8870]

@@PenguinDT everything happened off screen😂 even Cortana’s death, I knew right when they announced it would be open world we’d spend all of the missions in the same structures and no dynamic/interesting terrain- infinite is still missing 40% of infinite, the banished don’t even use their own guns

[@gwynlordofcynder6217]

because that's what it is with the 10 years plan we've should get story dlc,s regularly but with the way the studio is managed yeaaaaah this game is dead

[@MediQate]

@@gwynlordofcynder6217 Lies, they didn’t have any story content made.

[@WakeUpUniverse66]

Well put

[@DredCthulhu]

Still one of the funniest things I've ever heard in any media was in Infinite "You and I both know there is something worse than the Flood on this Ring." No, no there isn't.

[@Destroyer_V0]

yeaaah. Massive lore break, right there.

[@emperorfridgethedude]

"One single Flood spore can destroy a species." Tell me, 343, what could be worse than that?

[@Destroyer_V0]

@@emperorfridgethedude Considering they seem to have forgotten the flood exists in the mainline games, with the only reference being that one stasis card in halo infinite? They might truly believe that the endless are truly worse than the flood, since why would they bother researching the resolved threat of the halo universe? Short of theorized time travel or something, the endless are not a threat. And even if the endless do have time travel? I doubt 343 would be able to pull off a satisfying explanation for how it works, or use it well.

[@YeeBoiiLuhsLearning]

Nothing will ever be worse than the flood. I remember in a Halo CEA terminal 343 Guilty Spark was saying that if the Didact woke up that humanity would prefer to fight the Flood, stupidest shit I’ve ever heard. 343 on some 343 shit

[@Dargonhuman]

@@YeeBoiiLuhsLearning Weren't the Flood already supposed to be corrupted Forerunners in the new lore anyway?

[@Solid-guy]

I don't understand how no one brings up the blatant disregard for the Halo lore in this game. The flood is treated like they aren't as much of a threat as the Harbinger's race. The flood is why the Halo array was even made.

[@firedolphin7621]

Noo you dont get it the faction we didn't put any effort to tease or have any substance too is just crazy.. take our word for it..

[@piotr78]

It's also just bad story writing for games in general. I can't stand an enemy faction that's teased as super dangerous but doesn't show up in game. Don't tell me about it if you're not gonna use it. Better yet don't tell me at all, just show me!

[@abrahamjarque7001]

the endless are an issue BECAUSE of the flood. they're the only thing immune to the halo arrays, which a) is an insult to the egotistical forerunner and b) a huge risk to the entire contingency plan of the halos in that there would still be something alive for the flood to take over even after a full halo firing

[@kylek.3689]

​@@abrahamjarque7001Comments like this are why I wish dislikes still existed. Telling us why the Endless are a threat is awful, they need to show us why, they need to show us the Flood infecting an Endless, and show us that the Halo array doesn't work against them, instead of expositing it with endless dialogue.

[@paperclip6377]

​@@abrahamjarque7001forerunners are egotistical? Bro you never even see a forerunner in Halo.

[@windmonkey95]

343 is the most shameful pathetic company in video gaming. No company has ever been handed such an absolute slam dunk easy win money printing machine like being given the Halo franchise to continue after Halo 3, arguably the greatest multiplayer game of all time. The ENTIRE company is trash, it's not just the management, it's everyone, they all hate Halo, they all misunderstood what made Halo so successful and they all think their truly awful vision of Halo is better than what we all want. There's simply WAY too much wrong with the series for it to just be a management issue.

[@wut-se8hz]

Blizzard.

[@caramelldansen2204]

This truly is a reification moment.

[@DigitalApex]

Well, thankfully a lot of them lost their jobs. Lmao

[@lioneye101]

The 343 director is basically Microsoft's version of Disney's Kathleen Kennedy

[@Druid88]

Creative Assembly, Blizzard.

[@soundlesspeal]

I'm seriously baffled at the fact that 343i wanted their halo games to cater to a wider audience, yet they wrote the campaigns in a way that requires you to read a book to fully grasp what's going on and who the new random characters are

[@samlund8543]

Halo Infinite is worst of both worlds, unfortunately. Instead of all the answers to the questions created by the game being found in books or other outside media, now we don’t even get THAT much. It genuinely feels like even the main writers at 343 have no idea where this story is going to go now that they threw the old one out.

[@aureliannatuiscaesar421]

This is the modern era of multi-media franchising. While in previous eras the books and comics existed as supplmentary material and was not required reading material. Well that shifted someone where around 2012. Clearly this csme from a shitty marketing team idea. Which if you know anything about gaming and moster entertainment industrie the marketing team is fuck king. So it probably went likebthat "Make books required reading material so people will buy books to understsnd our game/movie. Thr profit goes up!" This works on paper the problem is most people dont care to actually fucking read, nor even know they exist.

[@Slender_Man_186]

And the thing is, Halo pretty much already catered to as large of an audience as possible for a single platform game, Halo 3 was the most played game on Xbox Live for 3 years straight.

[@ImTakingYouToFlavorTown]

They seem to want to throw away the old fan base for a new one, but they ended up with a splintered mess and the people who played CoD are still just going to play CoD.

[@Slender_Man_186]

@@ImTakingYouToFlavorTown exactly, the lowest common denominator who play games like CoD will likely just go back to CoD after a week or two.

[@holyluchadore]

An inexplicable reboot that carries on from the end of Halo 3 would actually be hilarious. Cortana wakes Chief up after finding the forerunner shield world and asks him what he dreamt about, he makes some funny tongue-in-cheek cliche comment about the 3 games. Old Halo continues.

[@Turambar117]

If i ever have the money to buy the rights to Halo, that's exactly what I would do

[@brup123]

Halo 1-3 was the perfect trilogy for Halo with a great ending. It's a shame Microsoft forced them to have the after-credits scene to hint at Halo 4, but it was clear Bungie wanted to end the story at the very end of Chief going into cryosleep - ending it where Halo 1 started. I don't think any studio, no matter how good, even Bungie (and in fact I'm convinced that's why they did a prequel instead of Halo 4) should try to make sequels to Halo 3 following the Chief. It should either be more prequels, or better yet a "What if?" style alternate-universe that follows the events of Halo 1-3 with improvements to the story and levels.

[@TheRealHaloLover]

That would have been so cool. 343 would need a sense of humility and wit to do that though

[@ImTakingYouToFlavorTown]

Unfortunately I just don't think people in the industry could accept a reboot. It is seen as bad form for others to talk poorly about other devs, so them outright scrapping a decade of garbage, no matter how bad, would lead to endless screeching and likely a lot of bad PR for Xbox.

[@danialyousaf6456]

@@ImTakingYouToFlavorTown well 343 deserves every bit of shit thrown their way so if some studio did take over halo in the future and rebooted the franchise after 3 then I doubt fans would complain. Dunno about PR but I don't think Microsoft cares about how people view them. They've had 343 working on halo for so long and have just stood by as those bastards ruined the franchise so it's clear they don't care about their image or even halo.

[@AzureRoxe]

Best part about the plot is that it just resolves core stuff off-screen. Remember Cortana going wild? Yeah.....she messes around with alien Harambe and then dies apparently. Alien Harambe? Yeah, he's dead too.......till the end of the game, where he's randomly revealed to be alive for no reason.

[@SarcasticPlotRecaps]

I've never played Halo Wars so I had no clue wtf was going on at the beginning or who the Banished even were. And Escherum/Atriox were so similar i didn't realize they were two separate characters lol in the final battle, i thought i was fighting the guy who threw me off the Infinity at the start, but turns out that was a completely different Brute yet acts and looks the same because reasons. So unnecessarily convoluted and confusing, and they are both Tartarus knock-offs anyway so god knows what they were thinking!!

[@anihilus2344]

I honestly didn't like that. Halo 4 was okay and 5 was a complete dumpster fire, yes, but if you're setting something up, no matter how stupid, FOLLOW THROUGH ON IT! Don't walk back those decisions! Do... SOMETHING with them! Also, the campaign breaks the rule of "Show, don't tell" pretty damn hard.

[@tanodz7635]

​@@anihilus2344 , watch Halo 4 is worse than you remember.

[@anihilus2344]

@@tanodz7635 I have now done so. I still stand by my earlier statement of finishing what they started rather than trying to retcon everything in the final game of their supposed trilogy. I'd at least have SOME respect for them being consistent...

[@tanodz7635]

@@anihilus2344 , technically the trilogy is finished.

[@DabroodThompson]

I think the "twist" from ODST was that the engineers weren't really bad guys and that they had intelligence that could help humanity defeat the Covenant. It's actually a double twist because the twists in Halo games are usually negative (as in bad for humanity) but this one is positive.

[@nagger8216]

I actually love just how genuinely wholesome Virgil's story is in a time where the world is basically ending. It's lowkey a beautiful thing. And the last time we ever see him is lighting up Johnson's cigar for him before basically giving him a smile. Too bad that book "New Blood" or whatever the fuck shat all over that.

[@helljumper7101]

@nagger8216 also they actually had to retcon that he was still alive after that god awful kilo 5 trilogy straight up said that he died of being alone

[@TobeWilsonNetwork]

Nice catch, that really goes well with ODST’s more human connections

[@SpookeyGael]

I remember when Infinite's campaign came out and everyone was heaping praise on it as a "return to form" and I was just like "did we even play the same game?"

[@axle1717]

Yep. I played it for about 2 hours and after I saw the repetitive level designs and pretty new halo with good combat wore off I stopped playing

[@shred1894]

Mechanically, Halo Infinite's core gameplay is a return to form, but literally everything except the base gameplay was wrong.

[@vault1021]

@@shred1894 I don’t even care about the combat, I’m just here for 343’s downfall.

[@legalam]

The campaign is fun to play, the gameplay loop is really good. But the more you play the more you realise how empty and repetitive the game is. It would have been a blast in splitscreen but oh well

[@nickjcirillo]

I played it thinking man” i can’t wait to see cheif and arbiter reunite, also see how Locke and Halsey play into the story” after finishing infinite I felt like I played a reboot of Halo 1

[@aceambling7685]

The similarities between Disney Star Wars and 343 Halo are kind of insane. "Its like poetry, it rhymes"

[@aureliannatuiscaesar421]

Honestly applies for any brand being carried on past the orginal creators. Gears of War suffered the same issue. I would be suprised if Gears of War 6 tries to tie of triliogy while make up for a prior game.

[@codygreene9067]

@@aureliannatuiscaesar421 The way they butchered gears was truly despicable. Marvel quip humor, colorful and bubblegum looking characters and monsters, half assed attempt at forming some “chosen one” story. Gears is about roided COG soldiers murdering subterranean alien men. That’s it.

[@pierreo33]

@@codygreene9067 "Gears is about roided COG soldiers murdering subterranean alien men" yeah that and Dom's wife

[@PsychoMoFoGaming]

@@aureliannatuiscaesar421 every creation dies when its creator leaves. Its just a fact. Been saying this since CEA.

[@keithremedy]

@@codygreene9067 they ruined gears too? Oh man I guess maybe it’s not so bad that I haven’t owned a console since 2011. After watching this video it’s kind of crazy to me to think that i used to make a living off of playing this game. It kinda bums me out that everything is being ruined. They’re ruining movies, ruining games, ruining shows. Anything that is a beloved IP or franchise gets taken over and ruined

[@JCTheSniper15]

The fact that you can still play through Halo: CE and it holds up well is an incredible testament to what the Bungie folks were able to accomplish. They changed the world of gaming with a single title.

[@IronFreakV]

And 343/Microsoft never understood why people loved the series to begin with But we got Weapon at least, I like Weapon. She's cute and fun.

[@JCTheSniper15]

@@IronFreakV I don't mind her, but she's not Cortana.

[@smovex9]

And 343 wasn't able to keep up. Let alone imrove anything

[@JCTheSniper15]

@smovex9 yeah Halo 4 and 5 were not the right answer lol

[@SunTzu176]

@@IronFreakV I fucking despise her name is just "The Weapon" for the love of god, why didnt they name her Joyeuse.

[@kanden27]

I’m seriously convinced that 343 is trying to kill what’s left of the original trilogy Community. Believing that they can built it up in their own image. Emphasis on “trying.”

[@theholygamer969]

Then the layoffs occurred. How'd that work out for them?

[@Todesking69]

There’s an industry term for this and I can’t remember what it was but it’s kind of like planned obsolescence in reverse. It’s this mindset that they need to appeal to a new demographic, usually a younger one, and to do that they need to kill off the old fans who pose an obstruction to basically do whatever the fuck they want. With the halo series you can see 343 doing this by adding new features like sprinting and ADS with also massive lore changes. It’s the same shit Disney did with Star Wars. Big corporate entities are just not very kind to their IPs.

[@theholygamer969]

@@Todesking69 Scummy, to say the least.

[@tanodz7635]

​@@Todesking69 , adding sprint to Halo is like adding sprint to Counter Strike. How they didn't see it is beyond my imagination.

[@Todesking69]

@@tanodz7635 Right it doesn’t work for those games. It ruins the inertia of the gameplay. Also in CS, if you want to run a little faster by switching to your knife, you can be punished for it. it’s this weird convergent evolution in game design. They seem to think uniqueness and individuality are a bad thing.

[@pawbgles]

"Halo is already dead. I saw it die, like ten years ago" BASED, YES

[@Void_Wars]

That was hard to read

[@johndodo2062]

​@@Void_Wars not really

[@colonel1003]

Jesus fucking christ the modern internet fucking sucks

[@Void_Wars]

@@johndodo2062 it wasn’t physically hard to read, it just pains me to read it.

[@neimi_ramg]

Me too, I just do not understando how someone can be a loyal fan to acompany hahahha it is so dumb to me

[@343Films]

I just realized that Titanfall 2 is a masterclass in how to do the "spend each level working towards a new, taunting baddie before ultimately squaring off against him/her." Infinite tried this to little success, but if you want to see it done well, Titanfall 2 is for you

[@margotpreston]

Them mate, them. Just use them. It's less clunky and flows much better than having to type out him/her.

[@BunkerDweller]

Didn't even consider this, honestly, but damn you're absolutely right. I used Titanfall 2 mainly as an example of how to pull off good linear levels. But it's characters and simple plot, including the villains, were definitely pulled off good too. There's a lot I enjoy about that game. Might make a vid on it too, lol

[@Zebrahhh]

Titan Fall 2 is definitely a top tier shooter of all time. So many missed out on it, I feel.

[@waspoptic]

@@BunkerDweller Pls do, that game seriously doesn't get enough respect, everyone just chokes it up to "CoD with wallrunning" when little do they realise Titanfall is what caused CoD to add wallrunning.

[@bdute7890]

We needed titanfall 3 not some cheesy apex legends br

[@caramelldansen2204]

me at my daughter's wedding: baggy hoodie and tracksuit pants me at 343 Industry's funeral: fresh suit, bowtie, dress shoes

[@bluephoenix7565]

You've misunderstood the point of this meme, that would imply that you had great respect and admiration for 343 and were sad to see them go, and did not care about your daughter.

[@unsteadyresults4533]

My biggest gripe with this game's campaign is the lack of true Marine integration, they can't drive vehicles they can't sit on the sides of the scorpion, the don't contribute to the plot I feel like they were only put in Halo infinite because people complained about them not really being in Halo 5

[@KRDecade2009]

And it’s just marines. Where the hell are the ODST’s? Why is a core part of the unsc’s marines just missing when they’re always deployed with each other?

[@WordsMatter1982]

​@@KRDecade2009 you're right. But then you have to suspend logic for the entire game (and trilogy) to make sense. There are just marines, but no ODST, not one fellow Spartan.... just a terrible story.

[@dobl5266]

This games story reminds me of Rise of Skywalker. Pure corporate panic trying to roll back their story decisions

[@johnboko7110]

Halo 4 (Force Awakens) Halo 5 (Last Jedi) Halo Infinite (Rise of Skywalker)

[@sailaser01]

343 when they see criticism: *hides your tweets & blocks you or laughs at your video that's addressing an issue

[@MaxiemumKarnage]

"Oh you are experiencing a bug and posted about it on Waypoint to try and find help? Thread locked, account suspended, StackerBoi insulting you. Oh, and give us your money for cat ear helmet."

[@EvilPhoenix007]

@@MaxiemumKarnage KZbin deleted you long rant about how the mods locked the thread.

[@MaxiemumKarnage]

@@EvilPhoenix007 StackerBoi deleting my proof he was wrong for the 3rd time damn

[@EvilPhoenix007]

@@MaxiemumKarnage Don't worry I have the comment saved via screenshots and posted it in my Twitter

[@MaxiemumKarnage]

@@EvilPhoenix007 Well I don't use Twitter but epic

[@miyukinozomi]

this video is more replayable than the actual game, rewatched this at least 6 times; you did very well addressing the problems in Halo Infinite

[@frythechip7930]

yea, and that's really not hard to do either

[@thesamejackalsniperthatkil117]

Yet I only played the campaigns of 5 and infinite * o n c e *

[@mikeexits]

​@@frythechip7930No, but it sure is ironic

[@CoyoteKnight]

I love your rant about the Endless™ not being explained or why they are dangerous. I looked it up and apparently they have the ability to control time. This company is scrapping the bottom of the bottom of the barrel.

[@N0TYALC]

Time travel shenanigans are the last, desperate attempt of a dying franchise to spice things up. So it doesn’t surprise me.

[@tanodz7635]

That just makes more questions.

[@handrising3714]

@@N0TYALC 😭 even if repetitive i would have prefered seeing the flood for the last time, but they couldn't even do that cuz it would require effort

[@phanto6599]

I pray to god that they don’t pull an avengers-type time travel story out of their ass. I could think of SOOO many other ways why the endless would be a technical “bigger threat than the flood” whilst also keeping all the glory to the flood themselves.

[@Raska7]

32:25 Fun fact: The guy's not even a Marine, he's just a dude who stole a Pelican for some reason and ended up in this situation.

[@LordGlacier7]

He is just an engineer not even a marine why wouldn't he break down, he has no way to communicate with anyone besides Master Chief all he has is a video of his wife and Daughter instead of being with them he is stuck on a giant ring full of aliens that want to kill humans.

[@merlin4084]

He was a civilian contractor/engineer. When the Infinity was getting destroyed he took the pelican to escape. No idea how being an engineer makes you qualified to fly a pelican though, but maybe he had other flight experience or the Pelican is so easy to fly and mostly runs on autopilot? Doesn't matter in the end.

[@tuckerhiggins4336]

@@merlin4084 definitely not the worst plot hole 343i made

[@slothman9731]

@@merlin4084 I was and am expecting him to be an Innie who will betray the Chief and with cheesy plot: him sacrificing himself to redeem what he had done.

[@DisDatK9]

@Merlin as an engineer, i can confirm it really has no application lol. Other than maybe a higher than the average understanding of physics? But last time I checked I didn't learn to fly a helicopter. Maybe I just need to be faced with certain death and it's like some subconscious training we received.

[@GoofysBandit]

Imagine if in Combat Evolved you nuke the ring from orbit the moment you see it, board the covenant ships, kill the Arbiter and all three of the prophets on the same level, without the game ever explaining why other than "they're trying to unleash something bad, we have to stop them", and then the game ends. That's literally Infinite's campaign in a nutshell.

[@Eric_Nomad_Hixtone]

Well they've explained Banished in the Halo Wars 2 and thought it's enough lol

[@SarcasticPlotRecaps]

@@Eric_Nomad_Hixtone i never played Wars so i was totally lost from the very first cutscene lol like wtf is a banished and who are these randos? Never explained

[@Donnirononon]

Yeah that is how i felt after playing all halo games, the fuck is going on in this game. This and the walking distances. Not planning on finishing campaing as it sucks balls.

[@SarcasticPlotRecaps]

@@Donnirononon I thought they would learn their lesson given they pulled the exact same shit with Halo 5 and dropped us in with some Elite captain called Juls M'Dama who was then immediately killed off because reasons! And also gave no explanation in game how Buck became a Spartan or who the heck all the other characters were with Chief and Locke! They got roasted for that yet did it all again in Infinite so I now have no sympathy for them and they get what they deserve quite frankly.

[@theonefreeman3375]

Please keep going with these halo videos, you have no idea how cathartic it is to hear someone say exactly the things that I have been thinking about the franchise since 2012

[@SarcasticPlotRecaps]

I hope he does the Anniversary shitshow - like the pisspoor lighting in 343/Library totally NERFing the mood and tone and shitting all over Bungie's hard work.

[@oreroundpvp896]

Always thought the story for this game was AWFUL despite people heaping tonnes of praise on it. Like the Endless are the most hilarious thing to come out of 343i. *Introducing a random species supposedly more dangerous than the Flood* Me: 'Cool so how did they fare against the Forerunners and Flood? I mean we've never heard about them before' 343i: 'Well they actually lost to the Forerunners so badly that their entire species is kept in a sort of stasis' Me: 'So the Endless lost to the Forerunners and the Forerunners were driven to extinction by the flood?' 343i: 'Yeaah but the Endless are actually super OP I promise' Made me want to pull my hair out

[@nagger8216]

For real, every time someone mentions how """great""" the scene with Chief and the Pilot is when he starts crying, it makes me want to slap a bitch. It's the most generic, cliché, milquetoast writing possible and these idiots gobble it up like they haven't seen a fucking Pixar or Disney movie before. I honestly had to do a double take and make sure no one was entering the room to see me watching that cutscene from the pure embarrassment, felt like I was watching the Miraculous Adventures of Lady Bug or some shit

[@golork_meat_mangler]

I always felt like Halo Infinite's campaign was like, playing after you've completed the main quest in an RPG and you're just roaming the world doing the more boring side quests.

[@SarcasticPlotRecaps]

It's literally Busywork: The Video Game

[@jed23ify]

Halo campaign just works better with the older formula of semi open with exciting set pieces along the way.

[@Gil172]

This is exactly right 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@asdfghjkllkjhgfdsa8725]

​@@jed23ify open world halo could work just requires sophisticated and well implemented design that infinite in no way has.

[@SarcasticPlotRecaps]

@@jed23ify Exactly. Why break a non-broken formula??

[@mimictear6788]

I think the best analogy for what 343 did to Halo is what 343 did to the Shotgun. They messed with something that worked perfectly for the niche it was in to make it fit a niche it didn't belong in, making it less effective at what it's supposed to do, while also giving it a redesign that makes no sense and doesn't fit the established norms.

[@stormhought]

The point of the the shot gun in the og halo's was to combat the engery sword. In infinite, the gravity hammer was changed to combat the engery sword. The new shotgun is more a general use. But I may be kind of bias because I really like it.

[@devildolphin2102]

New Infinite Bulldog (Shotgun) and Sidekick (Pistol) suck design wise. They look straight copied from Titanfall or COD advanced Warfare. They tested the Shotgun and Magnum in the trash to chase the Modern Audience and they have rejected 343 with lowest player count ever

[@junioraltamontent.7582]

@@stormhought Maybe in Halo 2. In CE it was a close range powerhouse that still had some utility at midrange. There was no MP sword in the sandbox and almost no Sword Zealots by the time the player gets it in Campaign.

[@markwilson4686]

@@junioraltamontent.7582 CE shotgun was honestly the best. So satisfying to use that weapon in both campaign and mp.

[@George-iq3gf]

Meh i disagree, since 3 the shotgun has basically been a melee weapon only usable in point blanc range and almost always followed by a melee. Ive been hoping they go back to CE’s shotgun for a decade and they basically have now (bar the reload)

[@ploopploopplop3553]

One thing on the open world I think particulary shocked me was the absolute lack of feedback on the world. there is no difference imo between a fully conquered world and the begenning, it completely broke the immersion

[@BernardGarcon]

No one: Really, no one Mint Blitz: "GUYS, LOOK AT THIS NEW ARMOR SET FROM THE NEXT DLC! BEST HALO GAME EVER!"

[@jordanmason7127]

yeah its sad seeing people trying to hype up cosmetic updates

[@TruetoCaesar]

he's just trying to keep his dying channel afloat

[@Jeda_Tragumee]

​@@TruetoCaesar 😂

[@josepetersen7112]

Seriously though.

[@TheCrazeturk]

You’re the only one who actually touched on what is visually wrong with Halo Infinite. 343 simply can’t do lighting, vfx and material design

[@trabuco9]

To be fair this isn't exclusive to Halo, plenty of AAA games are like this due to lack of talent and time. Just botched lighting all around with bad dynamic lighting, grayscales everywhere instead of blacks and bad ambient occlusion. It's half the reason Ray Tracing is being pushed so hard.

[@anonymous7564]

The material design is actually done by an outside studio, Sperasoft. Contrarily, they and a few other studios typically do material and textures for numerous games. A large part to why it "looks off" isn't due to 343 nor that company, but trying to "obtain a specific art style" that otherwise is entirely dated. Although Sperasoft only did a few, numerous outsourced studios did others. Most of the "contracted studios" are responsible for the graphical presentation of the game, rather than 343. 343's internal team provided the art direction and art style.

[@anonymous7564]

@@trabuco9 Yes, this is correct. A large part is due to the modern gaming industry, as a whole, outsourcing to the same few development studios for texture work. Dynamic lighting will typically always be bad since most game engines do not render light appropriately; For Halo's, it's based after a 2001 engine which, even though updated, is still "outdated". Graphically speaking, this is typically a problem with non-ray traced games. A large shift toward ray tracing was to alleviate artistic design choices to render lighting and shadows, thus making it cheaper and faster. Alternatively, this is why software methods of "path tracing" have been trying to come about.

[@trabuco9]

@@anonymous7564 *"The material design is actually done by an outside studio, Sperasoft. Contrarily, they and a few other studios typically do material and textures for numerous games."* That explains so much Reminds me of Hollywood outsourcing all their trailers to the same production company.

[@redninja3056]

Dude everyone was saying how bad halo looked from the trailer are you retarded?

[@SchnitzelRada]

One of the most embarrassing aspects is that even when bungie were contractually forced to make 2 games odst and reach they still made games much better than anything 343 has made

[@unlimitedpower3157]

It's fun to note that armor abilities and Reach's canon-breaking story were developed under 343 collaborating with Bungie. The first huge tells that this development team had no idea what they were doing.

[@aceambling7685]

​@@unlimitedpower3157 Reach haters always say Reach "broke the lore" but you can't actually substantiate that claim.

[@Benthesniperof8]

​@@aceambling7685 Please note, this is a reply on a forum page from 2015 by a user named HUNTERxKILLER: "Reach broke canon in several ways. -Dr.Halsey knowing about the existence of Spartan-III soldiers before the events of Ghosts Of Onyx. I think the Halsey journal tried to cover for this one by saying she didn't know they were actual spartans, but her calling them spartans several times during the campaign contradicts this. -The Covenant's attack on Reach taking place over a period of weeks rather than in a single day. Isolated surface units and small scouting corvettes would be easy for ONI to hide and understandable in the lore, but the 27km long CS0-Class Supercarrier "Long Night Of Solace" being in orbit without the majority of UNSC forces aware of its existence, is just not reasonable. Neither is an additional fleet of covenant ships slipping in system on August 14th that also apparently go undetected by the majority of the UNSC Navy. -As stated in Halo: The Flood, the Pillar Of Autumn was not designed to go anywhere near an atmosphere, and was not capable of operating or landing within one. Bungie attempted to right this with the thruster jets applied to the shIp's underside as visible in the game's second to last level, but even if that story works it still leaves a big unanswerable hole in the POA's story. The ship had been fighting Covenant forces in orbit since the large fleet (314 ships if memory serves correct) slipped in system, and almost everything the ship did in that time is documented in the book. It had no time in the middle of this battle to stop fighting, land in atmosphere and then return to orbit. The master chief easter egg in the final level complicates this further, as apparently when the ship landed chief was already in cryo sleep, despite not entering it until they had slipped out of the system as detailed in the book. -The entire final plot of Halo: Reach is a retcon. According to the game, the reason Cortana was able to decipher the location of halo was because a piece of her (The piece delivered by Noble Team to Captain Keyes) contained the coordinates for the ring, and had been found in the ruins of the forerunner artifact beneath Reach. The book however, tells a very different story. According to the book, Cortana discovered the coordinates to Installation 04 through study of the artifact recovered by Blue Team in the Battle Of Sigma Octanus IV. She inputted the coordinates into the ship's nav in favor of a blind jump, and as far as the book told no one on the bridge including Captain Keyes knew it wasn't a blind jump Cortana was making. There are others such as Spartan-III commandos having access to MK.V Mjolnir before the Spartan-IIs, and the massive battle in and glassing of a major city (New Alexandria) apparently going unnoticed by the majority of the planet and military for days, but I think these have been explained in the lore post-bungie by way of 343i's data drops and other references." All of that was hunters, I myself will point out that reach the game retconned stuff to make the game itself more cool moment heavy. Retcons are breaking cannon. But at the same time it does establish a cannon of its own. It's just filled with more plot holes.

[@aceambling7685]

@@Benthesniperof8 the problem with saying these retcons "broke canon" is that none of those details are vital structural elements of the Halo canon, they are inconsequential details. They are not comparable to 343 retcons that actually broke canon like making the Forerunners an entirely separate alien species.

[@daBears06]

They also didn't want to make Halo 2 and 3, they thought Halo 1 was it and a one n' done think like marathon. So technically they were forced for 4 Halo games.

[@Nekros-t9e]

As a sane person I've never regarded the 343 series of games as canon. Especially when the company was made to puppet around the corpse of a franchise that was definitively ended by Bungie. Is it sad to see a franchise you love end? Of course it's bittersweet but its better to end on a high note than to perpetuate mediocrity.

[@Borgron]

Yeah, I’ve adopted this mindset as well after I finished Infinite. Helps with peace of mind.

[@galacticspike2842]

To me, there’s only four Halo games, 1, 2, 3, and Reach. Everything that 343 made is non-cannon fan-fiction.

[@TruetoCaesar]

its chief's nightmare as oxygen runs out

[@mauz791]

And ODST as a Halo 3 DLC 👍

[@frozarburst6350]

It amazes me that you're just about the only one who's reviewed Infinite and thought "This is a hilarious spiral". Everyone else was whining as if this was a completely new concept to them. Like they just found out someone they used to know died even though they've been dead for the past decade. And it's not even that folks aren't playing it. It's just the quality isn't there

[@-pressxtostart-]

Game after game, year after year. Still people just dont get it but are right there ready to preorder a product after a trailer is released of which its purpose is to make a consumer want to buy the product 🙃

[@Serocco]

Favyn hated Halo Infinite on release too

[@merlin4084]

Thing is, that's just one point of view and what one person thinks is franchise killing, others think "it could be better" For example, I overall liked Halo 4. The combat was a slog but I didn't find it as bad as many others. It wasn't until I watched the videos by The Act Man about Halo 4 that it dawned on my why so many hated it. The game was more geared towards my style of playstyle than what people expected. I was never the run and gun type player in any Halo game before that. I always preferred long ranged shooting before ever getting close. So in Halo 4 I didn't notice anything different in Campaign (I'm not a MP player). So my experience with the game was very positive. I loved the story in the game and thought it expanded on Chiefs character a lot and was looking forward to how he'd cope without Cortana. Then Halo 5 dropped and it broke me. I had no idea what was going on and it became the first Halo game I couldn't bring myself to replay the campaign in Legendary. The combat was crap, the story was worse and I can barely believe 343 dropped the ball so badly. Halo 5 was the mortal wound to the Halo franchise, to me. Halo 4, at worse was a decently made game that had a few gameplay design decisions that didn't sit well with the players. Something that could, and should have been, rectified in the next game. After all, it was 343s first full game. Halo 5 was the true killer to me. So while some say they saw the writing on the wall from the beginning, it's hard to believe someone when they say that, but its equally a bad take to gloat at others who didn't have this 'foresight' Like I said, Halo 4 was their first full game. Its natural to give them the benefit of the doubt and hope they fix it in the next game. No one could foresee how badly they'd mess up Halo 5. At least in Halo Infinite they tried to turn it around and give players what they asked for and id say they almost succeeded. It's just a pity they just couldn't sort out their internal problems.

[@SarcasticPlotRecaps]

@@merlin4084 if Halo 4 didnt have Prometheans and the Grunts still spoke English restoring the game's soul, I would give it 7.5/10. Cortana going rampant and Chief having to confront feelings of freindship even love for a companion was a really interesting story. But I cant stand Prometheans and Grunts no longer being funny or even speaking English just didnt feel like Halo at all and the game was DOA.

[@SarcasticPlotRecaps]

@@merlin4084 Didnt they ruin Anniversary also with the god awful lighting choice on 343/Library level etc? They failed from the start and never recovered.

[@HaloXboxedition]

You sir, have not only managed to name all the exact reasons why I hated Halo 4, but you did the same thing for Halo Infinite, and even introduced me to new things to hate about it. Thank you, and please, keep up the good work.

[@iseerashonal821]

Halo 4 campaign story was great. The multiplayer was mediocre tho

[@Spec_tisum]

@@iseerashonal821 All of halo 4 was dog shit.

[@iseerashonal821]

@@Spec_tisum Halo 5 was the opposite. Great multiplayer, mediocre campaign

[@BIGRob118]

@@iseerashonal821 Halo 4 story was shit

[@redninja3056]

Damn seems like you can't think for yourself

[@MicahRibbentrop]

This isn't 40k, i shouldn't have to read a novel to understand lore in a video game

[@jonathanpalmer228]

I still don’t accept the new forefunners are cannon because bungie confirmed that we are in fact forefinger

[@gingerknight4753]

That is not true like at all

[@jonathanpalmer228]

@@gingerknight4753 bro never played halo 3

[@nagger8216]

@@gingerknight4753 "My makers are my masters. I will lead them safely to the Ark." - Mendicant Bias when the Covenant found humans on Harvest.

[@gingerknight4753]

@@nagger8216 we dead ass fight one in halo 4 there was short films about them and Spark straight up in the first game talks about his former creators. There was ancient humans that were wiped by both the flood and forerunners. Humans were not the forerunners

[@aboxofissues1369]

That was only introduced in the 343 era of Halo, and is nothing but 1 big retcon ​@@gingerknight4753

[@Runaway_can]

The most emotional halo game was reach and they all kept fighting until the end. They didn't cry. They didn't whine. They kept fighting a losing battle because it was their mission.

[@nagger8216]

The virgin melodramatic "It was my job to take care of you." "We were supposed to take care of each other. And we did." vs. the Chad "You want to know if we're losing?" "I know we're losing. I want to know if we've lost."

[@varietywiarrior]

@@nagger8216 "You don't have the firepower." "I have the mass. Carter out."

[@selphconscious]

.. game wise.. this is one of the few iconic moments in all of gaming period. . .

[@gaiusmarius7562]

Halo Reach was basically a sci-fi FPS game doing a tragedy. Everything in Reach is layered in this sense of hopelessness and dread. >Game starts with a destroyed Spartan helmet with a glassed planet in the background. >"Sir, it's the Covenant are on Reach... It's the Winter Contingency", "May God help us all." >Frigate uses MAC gun to take out Covenant spire, then the frigate gets destroyed by a Covenant Supercarrier. >Blow up said Covenant Supercarrier, "Slipspace rupture detected, Slipspace rupture detected, Slipspace rupture detected." >Defend evacuating civilians, they still get blown up and drown in the sea. >Actually manage to save some civilians in evacuating ships and regroup with your team at the end of the mission. Next mission opens with New Alexandria being burned to the ground. >That mission ends with the Covenant beginning to glass the planet. >'I know we're losing. I want to know if we've lost.' >Last level is you alone just trying to survive an endless horde of Covenant until you die It's honestly really great for a prequel, especially with how it ties in to the original trilogy with bringing Cortana to The Pillar of Autumn.

[@thecynicaloptimist1884]

I mean, you're comparing battle-hardened and mentally conditioned Spartans, the most elite soldiers in human history, to a terrified civilian with no military training.

[@YodaOnABender]

If 343 hadn’t done the bare minimum with infinite e.g. reverting to the old music & art style, then I doubt this game would’ve received so much praise despite being so mid

[@redninja3056]

Or people had fun with the gameplay that's also possible

[@YodaOnABender]

@@redninja3056 you can only play the same game so many times before you start getting bored of it having no new content

[@redninja3056]

@@YodaOnABender yeah but that's literally almost every game to exist no matter how much content it has

[@Largentina.]

​@@redninja3056 Is it though?

[@redninja3056]

@@Largentina. lol yes

[@UltimegaSeven]

I feel...empowered. Vindicated. Everything I thought about the newer Halos said in 1 video. Most of all being the environment design. A large amount of my Halo enjoyment was seeing the way the world was and how it was combined with the gameplay. Halo 3's first mission was in a jungle with rocks and water, making your way through a jungle that resisted the influences of war and needed both factions to play around it. You made it eventually to a man made structure that managed to make its human mark, but since your enemy occupied it, they had the advantage that you built them. It was difficulty baked into the art direction, and this translated to multiplayer maps. Maps like the Pit with layers of design and varied on different parts of the map. Or Guardian, a jungle overunning a temple of eld. When I play maps like Recharge and Behemoth in Infinite, you can tell, right from the start, that is was made with esports in mind rather then be a battlefield that organically fit into a Halo world. So they said if they make the whole WORLD an esports multiplayer map, then its organic cause its all uniform! And thats true, its all uniform, but it sure as hell isnt Halo. It hasnt been Halo for a long, long time...

[@giorgialadashvili4771]

Ironically, the multiplayer component being free also hurts this game, because now you have to shell out a full price for, at best an OK-ish campaign. The mismanagement is just astounding.

[@nagger8216]

Speaking of 343 laughing off issues and displaying complete contempt for their audience, never forget "Moochers of Reach"

[@GravityTrash]

Its also really fucking funny how the Halo Fanbase is taking in so much copium that they're not blaming the rest of the fanbase for the "harassment" If 343 just made a good fucking game then we wouldn't be in this mess. They're the ones with millions of dollars of funding ( *HALF A BILLION FOR INFINITE, MIND YOU* ), with Producers of the company _laughing off footage of bugs and blaming the player_ , its definitely not the fanbase's fault here

[@Liberty_or_Ded]

343 deserves the harassment, and the vitriol, and the spite they're getting. Do a bad job, act poorly to your customers, and rip them off? Expect backlash, and you don't get to bitch when it comes, because you're reaping what you've sewn.

[@ImTakingYouToFlavorTown]

Yeah, and then when you complain about the games you are instantly equated to the people who are sending death threats as if you can only blindly praise them or hate them. Halo is a product, it is being sold to people, when you are paying money for something you have the right to voice your opinion on that product, it isn't a gift.

[@etmon.]

i always wonder who's ass everyone is pulling out the $500 million from

[@johndodo2062]

​@i'm taking you to flavor town nobody sent death threats. Every single time a company gets shit they claim death threats and harassment. And also racism usually. They never ever show even one threat, not one. I don't believe it for a second

[@johndodo2062]

​​@@etmon. it was info that everyone had before launch. Then the game started tanking and suddenly everyone is denying that the budget was that high. It was probably more than that as Microsoft isn't capable of managing a taco bell let alone a gigantic triple a game

[@collintaylor3452]

Something that always nagged me about 343 that I didn’t realize until recently why it bothered me was the name. They were named after 343 guilty spark. The one that was on our side, then betrayed us tried to kill us, then was on our side again then betrayed us again. That is the first red flag. Where did halo go wrong, when the studio put in charge of it was named 343 before the first hire

[@nagger8216]

Yeah, it's honestly super weird how they didn't go for something like "117" Industries or some shit instead.

[@privas8751]

I’m surprised no one goes after them for the shit show that MCC was. Honestly I remember spending hours thinking it would be special only to be sitting in the lobby never connecting to a game.

[@aceambling7685]

People have largely decided to give them a pass because they finally managed to get all the mod tools out, so MCC at least gives us the option to have our fun classic Halo sandbox and ignore the 343 sh|tshow.

[@mikeexits]

​​​​​​​@@aceambling7685 Honestly for someone like me (context incoming, don't worry), I can't blame them because I'll personally take what I can get; Halo Infinite was the first Halo game I ever properly played because, as a kid and teen, my only gaming platforms were Playstation, Nintendo consoles, and PC/Steam. I had friends growing up who were obsessed with their Xbox360 and the Halo series but I only ever got to see the veneer, and from afar. Anyway, I played only Infinite's multi-player for a month or two. Un-installed and never went back, even though I had fun times it was getting stale and the problems were becoming too obvious to ignore. My brother later gifted me MCC on the Microsoft Store (which I never use lol) and oh man, the Bungie games (well, as close to their original form as I can possibly get on PC) are gold and I finally see what the hype around Halo was about. Although one complaint I can't let go of is that for CE and 2, the game defaults to the 343 graphics and there's no way to view the first cutscene of those games as it was in the original. If I'm wrong, someone please help me, I don't want to keep switching graphics styles after the first cutscene and have to download the original first cutscene from some website that hosts Halo cutscenes. Now after finally having experienced Bungie's Halo games (anniversary graphics turned off of course) it's nice to finally get it, to not be totally lost when people discuss Halo in general, and I feel right at home dunking on 343 whenever they do another anti-oopsie. I'm so glad I finally got to experience Halo, a shooter which was often compared and contrasted to one of my long-time favorite series, Half-Life. Now I see why people were debating whether Halo 2 or Half-Life 2 was a better game back in the day.

[@wut-se8hz]

To be fair that particular shit show wasn't there fault, it was Microsoft's just like with infinite.

[@DigitalApex]

Yeah. Nobody talks about how 343i and Microsoft just let MCC languish on the vine for half a decade before they decided to make it actually playable.

[@FreePieftw]

Dude you are the bomb! The amount of COPE I've been seeing In Halo pages and fan communities for the past decade has been absurd, and 2 (now 3) hour long destruction pieces on 343 is what I've been craving

[@obamajoker7166]

Inb4 next halo game is announced "IS THIS THE RETURN OF HALO???😱😱😱😱"

[@dillonstino5259]

dude fr, i always love seeing these types of videos on my feed, really shows how disappointed the community is

[@WonderMePartyStrip]

Hehe I always laugh when a see the cope in some of the Crowbcat's Halo videos 😂

[@John_shepard]

I gave up on halo since guardians. I remember being severely disappointed in the campaign as being an og xbox halo player as a kid and yet I remember fanboys still defending that dumpster fire

[@paperclip6377]

​@@obamajoker7166THE KING IS BACK!!! HALO 7 WILL SAVE GAMING!!! 🤩🤩🤩

[@ponchoskunk420]

Not gonna lie, thanks for bringing up Dersky’s reaction to the blood shot issue on MCC. He was on the most recent stream discussing MCC updates, but the way he publicly treated fans bringing up serious issues makes me not want to believe anything he says to the community.

[@MaxiemumKarnage]

HE STILL WORKS AT 343? Explains a lot

[@WonderMePartyStrip]

That dude needs to be fired.

[@diaperamess]

"we have to figure out how halo died and who the killer was" *shows bonnie ross* 😂

[@midgetydeath]

"You and I both know there is something worse than the Flood on this Ring." And that something is dangerous solely because they are immune to the Halo effect and therefore could make the Flood even harder to stop. Not the Endless themselves, but the Flood.

[@bottleflaskan802]

You are spamming

[@lukepoe1140]

There were only two biomes featured in this game: grassy plains with rocks and gray platforms. That's it. This is one of the most forgettable campaigns in the series, right alongside Halo 5. For an open world game, they could have given us large caves with dangerous creatures lurking inside, underwater tunnels, deserts with sandstorms, covenant bases inside active volcanos, areas with acid rain, plant life that can kill marines, snowy mountains with an avalanche scene, etc. And how about the lack of blood and gore? Remember shooting off the flood limbs in Halo: CE and whacking it out of grunts? They could have done so much more to appeal to Halo fans and casuals. Just look at Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and GTA 5. Those are open world games done right. Having split-screen in an open world first person shooter game like Halo with some of my ideas would have been a step in the right direction. 343i dropped the ball on this one big time.

[@user-73a]

Forgettable and Halo 5 are not in the same sentence, Halo finite had the huge spanking number of 2 biomes... the elite homeworld was featured in Halo 5, the first planet of Meridian being reclaimed after getting glassed, a giant research vessel for the introductory level as chief? Hold this L for even saying those two things were comparable dude

[@perrytran9504]

@@user-73a Halo 5 was unforgettable because it permanently fucked up the series' storyline thanks to Brian Reed and Frank O'Connor. It's actually kind of impressive how bad it managed to be despite putting in the effort to have multiple biomes.

[@user-73a]

@Perry Tran imagine halo infinite being worse and not having any good biomes, at least halo 4 and 5 didn't have kids on computers using literal aimbots. Impressive how they wanted this to be the worst ever Halo release, No co-op, forge, worse netcode than Halo 3!

[@asdfghjkllkjhgfdsa8725]

They had so many options. Open world halo could work but it requires much more sophisticated design

[@stop4738]

The crazy part about your section on the open world’s environment and atmosphere is that they actually nailed that aesthetic in the E3 18 trailer . You got grassy plains and classic forerunner beam towers and different environments like dessert and even animals . They even had marines with smokes and bases - which I thought was teasing grinding scattered marine bases. Such a shame that they could’ve made a open world Halo ring so amazing but butchered it so bad it’ll never happen again.

[@aceambling7685]

Fun Fact: that cinematic was entirely outsourced to another studio.

[@unknownwill4th549]

@@aceambling7685 damn really? Who

[@aceambling7685]

@@unknownwill4th549 can't remember exactly, Doktor Skipper says it somewhere in his "Halo Infinite is a Disaster" video.

[@bigroaststyrone8135]

@@aceambling7685 this whole fucking game was outsourced to other studios 😂😂😂

[@Assassin5671000]

@@unknownwill4th549 Check the credits at the end of the game there is like a ton of studios that worked on different aspects of the games it's not one whole studio and that was probably the major issue that led to it

[@npc1172]

Earlier halo may not have had much Melo drama but goddamn did it have real emotion. When chief finds Cortina after her being tortured by the grave mind that shit had some real emotion.

[@MadamLava094]

I'm glad you touched on the few unscripted bits of exploration in Infinite's campaign. The potential it had gleams so tantalizingly there, in such a lifeless infinitely repeating set of terrain and setpiece assets, sometimes you find a forerunner structure design that doesnt exist anywhere else, a weird door, the dry remains of a long-ago battle with NO obnoxious map marker or HUD. Seeing something actually UNIQUE when playing for the first time would INSTANTLY make me run over there as fast as I could. I saw the rotating 45 degree triple column shape from the Halo 2 map ascension in the distance and HAD to go there immediately. Unfortunately it doesnt rotate like in 2, but going there and being rewarded by a stealth zealot jumpscare ruled The moments where the open world operated on the modern Zelda approach of putting interesting things in the distance and then unspokenly saying "ok, go there and find out what happens" were where it shined.

[@warrantyV0IDED]

Remember HCE cortana? She was a piece of military hardware and she acted like it, with only a few moments of curiosity fueled musings. The weapon, also a smart-AI piece of military hardware, acts like a shortsighted child. Disbelief instantly unsuspended.

[@samlund8543]

Yeah I could understand a newly created military AI being more naive / inexperienced that the old Cortana, but Infinite took it way too far for my liking. If the multiplayer AIs are an indication, I think 343 is trying to make AIs going forward - say it with me - “more marketable for a wider audience”.

[@sparklestonebro]

Glad to see someone finally call out the Copium Hopium crowd and the KZbinrs at their head like Halofollower, sean, and the rest. The halo community would honestly be better without them, we need more people willing to be honest and blunt. Giving 343 a pass and a cookie everytime they take one step forward after 19 back has got us into this mess.

[@revan5293]

1000% agree we need more honesty and less fakeness. Give halo to a new studio

[@jchud13]

Dude 343 is working hard man

[@kilovwdude6457]

Remember when he was halo4follower

[@aceambling7685]

@Arthur Brown yeah it definitely could just be that those guys have terrible taste and zero standards.

[@redninja3056]

" if people like a game I don't, they're the ones being dishonest not me if you're more negative towards a game that makes you more honest even if you're criticisms don't make sense" there I fixed your dumb comment

[@matrixgrey58]

343 has shown that they cannot adapt to criticism in any way, they feel the best way to deal with criticism is to scrap what people disliked, which led to them killing cortana off screen and playing some BIG mystery on whether shes actually dead or not, what a waste of time and money

[@emperorbirb1]

I knew Halo was dead, but, because I was young, I didn't realize how dead it really was until a few years later. I guess going a few years of not playing Halo after 4 and seeing from a safe distance how 343 just fumbled 5 and MCC was sobering. What really tore me up the most, and I know many others have said it before, but the lore retcons just utterly gutted Halo harder than any Brute ever could. The only thing that makes me happy is that the Bungie games, even in MCC, completely de-rail 343's "lore", and yes to those who defend 343, the original games de-rail the 343 ones, C3 Sabretooth's hour long video proves it.

[@kiptaylor3567]

Finally, an honest take on the campaign. As you said, as well as i did a year ago. The only thing we ever really accomplished was killing the second guy in command of this specific outpost, and killing some alien we never knew anything about to begin with. Oh yeah and Cortana got factory reset and updated. GREAT USE OF 60$, especially in comparison to the free multiplayer. But hey we did get that cool shade of green unlocked because we bought the campaign.

[@HANGING_SILVER]

It tickles my sides that in an attempt to grab at some of the call of duty audience, 343 has alienated everyone from halo and now the player numbers are a fart of what they were during the bungie days.

[@patrickholt8782]

If there’s one thing I know about writers and artists, is that they hate standing on the shoulders of giants. Artists want to be bigger than those who come before it and faster .

[@ChegmeisterShorts]

If Halo had stayed “niche” which it never was anyway, it would’ve retained its fan base and would’ve been so much better than what it is today, sometimes trying to appeal to a larger audience loses your audience and gains nothing. It’s just plain old greed and lack of vision.

[@pubgman9537]

Your halo 4 review was a masterpiece. You said everything I hated so much about that game and it was awsome to see someone just completely nail it. Can’t wait to watch this one

[@JW0P]

Literally same

[@peterlawson8040]

You describe a game review as "masterpiece" that word has no meaning anymore, hey look at that dog turd it's a "masterpiece".

[@bosyogurtlight]

@@peterlawson8040 cry about it

[@logan_jp3]

@@peterlawson8040 so what do you say WOW YOUR REVIEW IS... GOOD

[@crickcrot]

Halo Infinite hasn't a real storyline it's just knocking down coconuts ie aliens endlessly.

[@GodChaos333]

As someone who left after Reach. I find this whole video so fascinating and sad. I left btw just cuz I was happy how reach ended and played other franchises as my friends moved on from halo. I feel like we all dodged a bullet missing out on halo 4, 5, and infinite.

[@KevinJDildonik]

High five. I'm literally quoted in the strategy guide for Halo: CE when it first came to PC. Last game I played was Reach. All the true fans quit ages ago.

[@tadpolegaming4510]

@@KevinJDildonik that's cool as fuck

[@brup123]

You definitely dodged a bullet. Halo 4-Infinite soured the franchise for me until I did a massive re-play of Halo 1-3's campaign which rekindled my love of Halo. If I hadn't done that I may have ditched Halo forever. I still play MCC multiplayer often, and it's amazing how well the multiplayer still holds up - it still to this day gives me some of the most enjoyment of any modern shooter. I haven't touched Infinite's multiplayer properly in almost a year.

[@Doginawall]

I I am done with halo and that makes me sad because I grow up with it

[@galloviking4766]

Reach boomers unite. My brother had me play Halo 4 with him on release so he could get legendary achievements, and I hated every part of it. The orange cyborgs (can't be arsed to remember their name) were horribly unbalanced (Cluster bomb rocket launcher? One shot bouncing shotgun?) and annoying (Immortal knight things? Mofo healing drone you can never kill on time?). We defeated the final boss with that bootleg CoD QTE. We laughed it off and didn't play Halo ever again.

[@JoeBoney]

I really like the style you approach when critiquing Halo. You aren't focusing entirely on the negatives while sharing your personal favorites but at the same time not pulling any punches. I loved the video

[@tribacioustee2846]

You have hundreds of thousands of views, thousands of likes, a resounding chorus of appreciation in the comments section, and I still don't think it's enough. Thanks for all these Halo videos, it's been very cathartic. They help me understand what I loved about Bungie Halo and couldn't stick to about 343 Halo

[@BrokenCircle1]

Wow that Dersky thing...I didn't know about that. What an absolute piece of work. How does 343 allow people like this to work for them?

[@nagger8216]

343 is filled with these kind of people. The battle pass for all the armor from Reach was originally called "Moochers of Reach" before they quickly changed it lol I'm not kidding

[@BrokenCircle1]

@@nagger8216 Was it really? I have never heard that before.

[@nagger8216]

@@BrokenCircle1 Yeah for some reason not a lot of people talk or know about it, just Google it and you'll see what I mean

[@BrokenCircle1]

@@nagger8216 I looked it up. Oh my god I hate this company.

[@nagger8216]

@@BrokenCircle1 Same. I used to have some sympathy for 343, but after seeing how much of a bunch of pretentious, smug douches they are I can't wait for the day Microsoft finally sends these clowns back to McDonald's. There was also that time they had a gamer moment and used the word 'bonobo', a type of ape, in the name of a cosmetic released for Juneteenth lmao. Make of that what you will

[@onewanderingbee]

Halo Infinite didn't just need more development time, it needed ANY competent development time at all.

[@brolaire4117]

Remember when they said it would be supported for a decade and be a flagship title, and next to nothing has changed except it now being the minimum of a game you’d expect at release.

[@117johnpar]

The fact most people deflect from even going indepth on the campaign in reviews and just focusing on the multiplayer with the focus being "its gonna get better over time" says a lot of the actual state and what the near unanimous praise it got on launch actually meant. Its not the "Halos good now" that everyone so quickly jumped to labeling it as. And we will see the exact same thing play out in 8 years when Halo endless void releases.

[@SavingSoulsMinistries]

Good retrospective bro. It’s crazy how fast the last year went by. I think infinite was the first “modern halo” I played when I got my new gaming PC after years of only having a 360. I was so devastated with the state of multiplayer when I played it at the beginning. Figured the writing is on the wall, Uninstalled and never reinstalled. About a month after I tried infinite, I got MCC during a steam sale and have put 500+ hours into it from March 2022! It’s all a damn shame bro, Halo is more than just a game for me, I can still feel glimpses of excitement playing like I did when I was a wee lad playing split screen halo 2 with my step bro. The original trilogy + reach signifies a time in my life where I was naturally high on life , I would dream of Halo 3 multiplayer strategies trying to emulate my favorite pros like walshy and ghandi. I remember going over my best friends house and we would play a hundred multiplayer games over the course of a weekend. Don’t get me started on those nights with a full squad sweating to get our 50’s in team slayer, But we had so many game played that it would take like 10 games to level up. Life has been very strange for me since Halo 4 came out, Nothing has been the same. I knew right away when halo 4 came out that halo as we knew it was dead forever. That game kick started my life long battle with depression man. Everything about the trilogy was pure magic, Perhaps I was under a spell of demonic sorcery , Who cares. I love Halo with all my Heart. I get glimpses of what life used to be like on weekends where we get a few guys together and only search for Halo 2 BTB. At least we even have a MCC that acts as a central hub for my childhood love. This video kind of hurt my heart and made me reflect on some things. There will never be a game as magical as the bungie Halo’s

[@ST0PM0SS]

What I never understood is how the banished planned on activating the ring once it was rebuilt, none of them are human

[@nagger8216]

A bigger question is why, the Covenant wanted to activate them because they were religious extremists that massively misunderstood what they are. What do the Banished hope to gain at all by doing this? You can't alter the range of them and use them on one planet like it's the Death Star, it's going to wipe out 1/7 of the galaxy, and then the others are going to fire and wipe out all life in the galaxy. Are the Banished suicidal or just stupid?

[@ST0PM0SS]

@Brimstone even in their own messed up retcon, humans have the mantel of responsibility, so only humans can still operate the halos lol 343 is not good at story writing

[@Arander92]

Forerunners being aliens is the ONLY thing 343 stuck to that I actually liked. I HATE the idea of Forerunners being humans, it’s so lazy to me. Besides, didn’t Bungie decide against this in Halo 3’s production and Frank O Conner just went with it in Halo 4?

[@samlund8543]

@@Arander92 On that last point, *Frank O’Connor* decided against the old lore when he and his community team made the terminals for Halo 3 (likely written at the last minute I might add) and then just went with his own work when he became franchise director for 343. There’s a reason that “reveal” is only mentioned in the terminals (and the corresponding IRIS marketing campaign, also directed by O’Connor’s team) and nowhere else in Bungie canon after Halo 3, and is in fact actively hinted *against* by all the characters in the main H3 story. As for the former point… eh, I guess I can understand that position, but to me, having a simple, straightforward twist that humanity are the direct descendants of the “gods” that the Covenant worship (whom they’ve been massacring) is just a much more impactful reveal.

[@Arander92]

@@samlund8543 If anyone ever gets around to doing that partial reboot idea that’s getting thrown around by fans, I think a nice compromise could be just having the Forerunners be related to humans in some way. Keep the idea of the Precursors and maybe humanity is some long lost “sibling” of the Forerunners. They discover us on Earth and are so thrilled that they designate us as Reclaimers. That way, for all intents and purposes, we are the NEW Forerunners, but still separate species. I think that’s a nice compromise, cause just making them human robs them of a great deal of their mystique and intrigue imo.

[@ouchiegiverjr]

People coping for the game again, I swear these idiots will say anything is “WORF playin” if it helps stroke their ego

[@patrickholt8782]

It’s worse than the destruction of the Halo brand. It’s the destruction of Xbox.

[@ryanelliott71698]

The comparisons between this halo trilogy and the Star Wars sequel trilogy. You got the first film/ game that people kinda like and think wasn’t that bad. You got the second film/ game that’s hot garbage and everyone hates it. Then you got the final film/ game where the writers just say screw it and just reboot the story so it makes even less sense and feels like it doesn’t have any connection to the last two films/ games

[@LethalByChoice]

Flawless video. I genuinely don't get why people are so shocked that 343 doesn't care and how Infinite failed. Guys, they never cared. They wanted to change Halo into something it never was, a COD copy. Halo died with Bungie. Period.

[@LethalByChoice]

@Ya Mum Yes, because 343 doesn't understand why the original guns worked, and now they wanted to shoehorn in brand new types of weapons and new gun designs rather than sticking with what worked for several years. It just goes to show they don't like the original Halo games, they never did, they hated the original games.

[@ipodclassic91]

You sir just gained a subscriber, because you managed to put into words how I feel about Halo Infinite when I couldn't even find the words to describe how I felt. I've played EVERY SINGLE HALO GAME & finished every single campaign, but with Infinite, (started with H4 as well as H5) its literally the first H.I.N.O (halo in name only) game I didn't bother completing the main campaign; its weird because I knew I was playing A halo game...but the diehard fan deep down could tell something just wasn't right & so I shelved Infinite bc to a true Halo fan it doesn't feel like Halo to me

[@evanthesquirrel]

My least favorite part of MCC is a 5 way tie between having default remake graphics, forcing online play, having a terrible unlock system, the fact that they include halo 4, and an unreadable achievement panel. But mostly, they plastered their name all over Bungie's work. Fuck 343.

[@gamingwithdummies3960]

This video is spot on. Finally someone really going into depth on how ugly the world is and devoid of anything fun.

[@SarcasticPlotRecaps]

the worst part for me was how it totally disincentivises vehicle travel by putting random jagged rocks every 5 feet so your car either gets completely flipped or totally blocked from going anywhere meaningful. Forcing you to have to abanadon the vehicle and/or marines and zipline over the rocks on foot. WHY??? It's just so basic. If you have an open world, let people drive around to explore it rather than spend hours walking or having to grapple everywhere ffs. So frustrating.

[@gamingwithdummies3960]

@@SarcasticPlotRecaps yea, trying to get around in a scorpion in campaign is an absolute chore.

[@zevlovef]

funny how no one mentions the sloppy movements of dropships like phantoms etc. i mean wtf, they move like they were linked to a edgy rail or something. look at the phantoms in h1, they moved smoothly af

[@thedeekabides]

Spirits, but yeah.

[@hostile_prof]

Here me out, what if Halo 4, 5, and infinite are faulty simulations being run by Cortana aboard the Forward Unto Dawn while Chief is in cryo?

[@Borgron]

A terrible retcon for even more terrible games. I like it.

[@BiriBiri925]

Bungie was able to make Halo a good game, despite Microsoft. Look at the development history of these games, look at how Microsoft constantly tried to interfere with the development, how they set crazy deadlines, hell, how they forced Bungie to make cutscenes for Halo 1 like 2 weeks before the game's release. Halo has become a good franchise DESPITE Microsoft, I have said it and I will say it again. Microsoft ruins everything it touches, it's the worst corporation there is.

[@dillonstino5259]

we need a new studio to do a full reboot, completely scrap halo 4, 5 and infinite and make a whole new halo 4

[@N0TYALC]

Oh god why? Haven’t you wasted enough money on zombie Halo? Just accept that it’s a dead franchise and move on.

[@dudeshift0]

Halo just needs to be rebooted to Chief waking up from cryo after the end of Halo 3. Forget any 343 plot line, start the story fresh from where bungie left it, and to be able to let new fans to Halo be able to play the Master Chief Collection (minus Halo 4) as there is no need to remake those games for a reboot.

[@Rexini_Kobalt]

if people want cod, they'll buy cod. if they want battlefield, they'll buy battlefield. if they want halo, they'll buy halo. i dont know why all these buisness execs havnt figured this out yet... all of these games killed themselves via over-gentrification, its hilarious. i dont wanna go to my favorite burger place, that i go to all the time for a burger, and then walk in to find out they're under new management, and all the burgers are actually hotdogs now, but they're still called burgers and served with all the other burger ingredients. same with my favorite chicken place, or favorite chinese place... yall get the idea 😂

[@timmyireland1]

343 have failed the Halo fanbase, and the legacy of Halo

[@firebornliger]

"If you're looking at the ground, you can shoot anyone else looking at the ground..." I... HOW? How does anything get programmed that badly? I can't even begin to understand how that could happen in the code. It's that simpsons scene of homer pouring cereal and milk and it catching on fire.

[@Lauren-si1fc]

Honestly the Harbinger being an enemy has always irked me. She actually didn't hate humanity until Master Chief started butting into her plans, she allies with the Banished mainly because she sympathizes with what happened to them with Cortana doing genocide and everything Her plans were merely to free her race from the false imprisonment of the forerunners after they went to them for help. Like I'm sorry but she's supposed to be the enemy here? She even tells this to Master Chief at the end of the game but they straight up don't listen and proceed to kill her

[@nagger8216]

Harbinger: We are not enemies Chief: And I took that personally

[@MaxiemumKarnage]

* Chief listening to Reclaimer way too loud in his helmet * "Huh?"

[@wastelandlegocheem]

I don't even know what she wants, and i sat through the cutsenes in 2 playthroughs.

[@as7river]

Much like 343i fails to listen to the fans that have the power to make this franchise a success again. They're nothing if not good with analogy.

[@aceambling7685]

Could have been tragic if anyone actually gave a shit about the harbinger lol

[@haydensmith2991]

I just finished halo 3 and it made me sad to think about what comes next

[@tetermc]

You're in luck because you still have ODST and Reach! Lol

[@paperclip6377]

Same. I just beat Halo 3 like a month ago and it made me hate 343i so much more.

[@matem1649]

@@paperclip6377 I dare you to rewrite halo4

[@paperclip6377]

@@matem1649 sad thing is it would most definitely be better

[@matem1649]

@@paperclip6377 you should rewrite in a google doc or something and show it to me

[@CloudyNebula]

Man, finally someone addressed thoroughly in a video those nasty hexagon pillars. They have been bothering me for two years now (since the og presentation) but somehow they seem to escape most of the criticism, and I think they completely destroy the open world's visual desing. They are not only ugly, they are *boring* as hell, and they litter the scenery like it was the only prop asset they had under their belt.

[@ZacharyDietze]

(Meanwhile, in heaven) Master Chief: "Was my franchise good?" Conker: "No… *I heard you were among the best.* Now come on soldier. We’re expecting Crash, Spyro, and Doom Slayer to arrive soon."

[@Largentina.]

Why would the Doom Slayer be there? You didn't like Eternal?

[@knightwolf1363]

I was a late bloomer to Halo was always a Cod fanboy but I soon left that garbage side and wanted to expand my gaming reach and played the originals loving them of course and I was going to buy Halo infinite just for the fact it’s been a while and nobody’s said anything on the campaign but your video singlehanded stopped me from buying this game thank you

[@josesosa3337]

I m a cod player mostly as well and my plan was to play the halo campaigns if the online was bad. I've had my gaming disappointments, but at least i'm not a halo fan.

[@Largentina.]

"I wanted to expand my gaming reach." Goes from a military FPS to a sci-fi FPS. Wow, you really expanded your horizons there.

[@WonderMePartyStrip]

You can always get the cracked game and try.

[@bennettfender9927]

@@Largentina. I mean Halo is about as different of a game as you can get from COD gameplay wise while still remaining an FPS with a 2 weapon limit and alt buttons for melee and grenades.

[@jodysin7]

I truly believe that 343 will be the death of xbox. The campaign is fun but incomplete and when fans tell Microsoft that your game is dead and you beleive them and stop all work on campaign, than its over.

[@wymanrtaylor]

Gen Z Cortana sucks

[@tanodz7635]

👍

[@Evolution-Is-A-Blatant-Lie]

She is written like a millennial, from a millennial. 90% of all these garbage stories in these game nowadays are made by college graduate millennials.

[@AstroLoops69]

343 is looking at the pre-Reach events of Halo, what could be a “Clone Wars” of the Halo universe, and goin “nah man, mister cheef”

[@-pressxtostart-]

"Yknow what halo 1 also had?" The excuse of being the first game in a brand new IP, to complain about repetitive forerunner hallways is feedback they would take and improve upon with future entries. 343i has multiple games and years of experience to not follow the same mistakes that the first EVER halo game made, and yet their 3rd effort, into a 6th mainline game still shows they do not understand how boring and uninspiring the repetivive forerunner hallways are

[@junioraltamontent.7582]

Also Halo 1 had those cold flat textures, but the structures at large actually had pretty varying designs and purpose. I can't think of a single 343runner building that has any real function like the Silent Cartographer, Control Room, Library etc had, beyond just maguffin arenas.

[@-pressxtostart-]

@Ya Mum i didnt give an excuse for a game being buggy at all

[@rcm926]

Thanks to the Season 4 update the whole story mode is now completely inaccessible for a bunch of PC players for unknown reasons because the campaign launch menu consistently crashes during loading, 343 literally has no fix other than to play it on a different PC and hope that one doesn't also have the same problem.

[@richardanthony5020]

We all knew halo was dead, we were just hoping it was going through a long respawn cycle.

[@coco_rthritis6462]

What saddens me the most is that 343 has had genuinely good ideas that they just squandered. I wanted Buck to become a spartan so bad, ODST is tied with Halo 2 (how original) as my favorite Halo game. I loved that he got to become one, but it just had to be 343 to do it.

[@SarcasticPlotRecaps]

they didnt even explain why or how he became one, which sounds like a pretty big deal! Instead, he's just...there.

[@aceambling7685]

Why was him being an ODST not good enough for you? What is this juvenile mindset? 343 making Buck a Spartan was some of the stupidest fanfiction tier sh|t they had done up to that point, which is really saying something. The whole concept of the Spartan 4s completely cheapened the mystique of the Spartan Program, turning it into a basic @ss Special Forces unit.

[@axle1717]

The campaign does not get enough hate.

[@bruhSaintJohn]

The only thing I really hate about the campaign is an abhorrent optimization of the open world. When you get the same low framerate on the normal graphics, and literally game from 1996 graphics (using config, everything is disabled, super low resolution, no textures, just solid colors) - you know you really screwed up. I just decided to check how much extra framerate I can squeeze out of this game, if I turn down the graphics to the lowest possible value. And the result was shocking 0.

[@JamesOsyris]

@@bruhSaintJohn Driving was also usually the slowest and most confusing way to get anywhere. Grappling over mountains always felt easier.

[@randomrandomnesss2188]

Been saying it since release while all the mainstream halo guys (Act man, HiddenXperia, etc.) had 343’s cock down their throats and lied to everyone saying it was great.

[@Nichrysalis]

Wait Halo Infinite's campaign is not a Far Cry spinoff? I couldn't tell.

[@spartan_a1176]

I was saying the same thing, like there was nothing special about it and it felt underwhelming tbh

[@ninjadolphin01]

People defending infinite by saying that cee also had corridors is true, it's also the worst part about CE why would you want a whole game of that

[@BobLazier-zk8gi]

343 could have just made 4-6 about humans and covenant teaming up against the flood more of a horror based game.. would of been better anyway.