Halo Infinite (Zero Punctuation)

[@theescapist]

No new Zero Punctuation this week because Yahtzee is on break! But here's this week's Extra Punctuation we prepared a little early for you! Why I Never Did A Zero Punctuation Episode on Undertale - www.escapistmagazine.com/why-i-never-did-a-zero-punctuation-on-undertale-extra-punctuation/ - Watch it early on KZbin via KZbin memberships!

[@jonathanjollimore4794]

Looks funs I might pick this up

[@memeticgenetic5160]

Oh damn, Yahtzee gives his Undertale review after over 6 years!

[@vinnythewebsurfer]

Ah well then. Hope his week off goes well. Happy holidays

[@jmaxinglis]

Did you smoke a pile of weed before this review? This is the slowest I've ever heard you speak.

[@DVAcme]

"There are very few games that couldn't be improved by a grappling hook." Man after my own heart.

[@stormtempterf8058]

Surgeon Simulator.......no...no, Yahtzee is right, that'd definitely be improved with a grappleshot

[@Loldino897]

@@stormtempterf8058 Alien Isolation (Inb4 The alien gets one as well)

[@e2rqey]

tbh i couldn't think of a single one

[@e2rqey]

@@cibo889 Aurora 5X: Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate, Extend Grappling Hook

[@stormtempterf8058]

MINE IS THE GRAPPLE, THAT WILL SEIZE THE HEAVENS!

[@sunlitsonata6853]

"Why not go full Breath of the Wild?" Actually, that *WAS* the plan in early development. Where rather than progress through a series of levels, players would explore a giant landmass, completing missions in any order, as they did in Breath of the Wild, but due to development issues, they scrapped it and added in all the linear corridors. You can read about it in the Bloomberg article.

[@jiado6893]

I didn't think I'd someday see a Bloomberg recommendation underneath an Escapist Halo review.

[@MrShadowtruth]

answer! Covid! the development of Halo infinite was a mess and for what came out of it, it's a miracle that the game was as decent as it is.

[@KoishiVibin]

@@MrShadowtruth goddamnit

[@Bluemangrup]

@@MrShadowtruth Isn't that the plot of every Halo development cycle?

[@tom.447]

@@Bluemangrup yup

[@Billyisyourdad]

You really nailed Nick's look here. A true artist

[@theescapist]

Drew me like a Halo boy.

[@TheSibirianRaccoon]

@@theescapist hi Nick how long you've been a editor?

[@MrZdixo1]

Honestly, a kinder review than I was expecting

[@zakf2929]

Same guess he really was burnt out from gaming this year.

[@sleeplesshollow4216]

That last mission felt like it dragged on forever with the corridors I will say, even I was like jesus fck how many times am I going to walk down a corridor to have monkey man talk to me just to go up an elevator and do it all over again lol

[@username1660]

@@MB-fy8kk So you didn't like Infinite, I take it?

[@drumo2273]

@@MB-fy8kk I do believe he mentioned that the game would likely be worse for long-time fans. Most of his enjoyment likely comes from the fact that he isn't really invested in the story and thus took the game at face value. Plus grappling hook, everything is better with a grappling hook.

[@SarcyBoi41]

@@MB-fy8kk lmao imagine including Halo 4 on the list of good Halo games

[@alexfranz817]

The backstory to these games would make more sense if it wasn't rewritten every other game.

[@davispeterson1876]

I fuckin know, right?

[@nickelakon5369]

Wasnt rewritten every game until 343 got their hands on it.

[@FluffyBull]

What was the changes? Over the past month I completed every Halo game from Combat Evolved to Halo 5. The story got funky, but seemed consistent.

[@druffner]

The backstory hasn't really been changed since reach but they have issues with skipping a lot of time and events between games

[@JohnSmith-ch9sm]

Also, 100% agree 😀

[@SamuraiMensch]

Bastards hate humans is actually a quite accurate description of most enemies in the halo games

[@abloogywoogywoo]

I used to think that of XCOM, we all better enjoy Halo fast before they expand on the lore.

[@Aredel]

And the entire lore as well. Holy shit, EVERYONE hates the humans.

[@PsyrenXY]

And Destiny for that matter

[@Mlyrin]

@@Aredel humans hate the humans

[@UnifiedEntity]

Well.....the flood hates everyone.

[@boltman7000292]

“Launch them into the air like Team Rocket” may be my new favorite Yahtzee line

[@TheOneTrueAnthemis]

Mine is "Trying and failing to contain some sort of watermelon landslide"

[@theshuman100]

i can believe master chiefs legendary status if hes out there punching people paast the horizon hookshoting his way through the world in which laser guns exist

[@Roflstab]

it just sold me on infinite

[@kadosho02]

"we're blasting off again!!" *Twinkle*

[@masonasaro2118]

@@kadosho02 (in the distance) “wobufffet!”

[@sid-86]

I agree that the grappling hook needed a dedicated button, but on the harder difficulties the drop wall and scanner can be very useful. The dash was the only ability that I used once on 1 boss

[@johnnylofman]

I personally use all abilities constantly on legendary. The grapple is useful for traversing the open world but in fights I have more use for the drop wall and threat sensor. The max level thrusters are especially useful since you can dash to avoid projectiles and hide from enemies so you can get to safety. They make fighting hunters so much easier.

[@alexanderrobins7497]

The problem I have is you press a button to select the equipment, then another to activate it. It sucks and gets confusing mid-combat.

[@alexlyster3459]

The dash is SUPER useful once you have the invisibility upgrade

[@sid-86]

I did fully upgrade the dash. And maybe I just didn't give it the time. But I didn't really use it till the final phase of the Escharum fight. This was on legendary, I did a easy speed run and only used the grapple hook.

[@nickdoyle86]

I tried to use dash, mostly on hunters, but it never seemed to actually cloak, 90% of the time they knew exactly where I was even though I was invisible.

[@drunkrdm]

so halo's story has gone around in a big circle... well can't fault the series name.

[@zenith2930]

You could say the cycle is endless

[@spartanx9293]

How the f*** was this comment six days ago

[@OwlWithATrowel]

@@spartanx9293 members watched it early

[@EroPantherH]

@@zenith2930 "Infinite" even.

[@zeldosan5138]

tbf, it's more like a spiral staircase because there's still escalation

[@kaikrassin8096]

Funny to see how much a simple grapple hook causes people to have fun with this game. Like that's a major talking point about this game.

[@atomic747]

I mean, what else is their to talk about in halo gameplay? other then, they decided to make their open world like far cry's but with mini bosses in it.

[@boarfaceswinejaw4516]

less patient gamers and all that jazz. its only a question of time before half life gets a grappling hook.

[@TrueGamer22887]

The campaign would be literally unplayable without it because of all the arbitrary roadblocks to slow progression

[@CrizzyEyes]

@@boarfaceswinejaw4516 Half-Life was getting grapple hook mods made by gamers all over in its first iteration, same as Quake. Nobody got less patient, the designers got less creative and dug through 25 years of history to figure out how to make their games fun.

[@LayerInfinity]

Sekiro: Halo dies twice

[@mattd.5254]

As someone who loves Halo, Halo Lore, and Halo Infinite: this is entirely accurate. (Also the precursors created the forerunners, not the other way around. Literally unwatchable)

[@nunya_bizniz]

2:30 he says optional stuff doesn't make weapons better. How dafuq did could he be so wrong? Horribly stupid and lazy review.

[@invincible98]

@@nunya_bizniz making number incrementally slightly higher does not make the core weapon function any different, therefore not much difference. Just making enemy die faster is not fun

[@nunya_bizniz]

@@invincible98 he said at 2:30 side stuff doesn't make weapons pew pew better. This is patently false. The weapon variants are in many cases much more powerful and perform differently than the base weapon The review is lazy and bad. No rationalizing will change how wrong he is at 2:30.

[@invincible98]

@@nunya_bizniz Taking account weapon limit, ammo distribution there is not much incentive to seek out rare weapon when grapplehook is constant and readily available, as such when yahtzee said about other three like the drop wall. Even when other weapon are powerful, why bother?

[@nunya_bizniz]

@@invincible98 he said side content doesn't make weapons better. He is wrong. That's my point and my point stands. Grappleshot has zero to do with this.

[@themisspultone]

I remember the original Halo had a comic stile review by a Jolly Jack, where the reason the chief was fighting the covenant was summed up with "Cuz I is a lizard"

[@lexslate2476]

I keep hoping that Master Chief will be revealed as a Master Chef at some point. Just cut to him in the kitchen, humming some classic tune from ancient times (relative to him, I'm thinking maybe some k-pop?) while chopping up vegetables for a really nice stew of which he will be eating a huge serving because dude's an augmented super-soldier and has some alarming calorie requirements.

[@wesleythomas7125]

"...Now, C A R E F U L L Y open the plasma grenade and add to the dry ingredients. Be sure to add a little well to the dry mix, or Papa no kis."

[@VitZ9]

How much was it, whatever you're on?

[@Tustin2121]

Now I want to write a story about an augmented super soldier and their normal significant other dealing with the every day issues that arise from one of them being a super soldier, like the insane calories needed or the super soldier feeling like they’re out of place in civilized society.

[@ArsonRaboot]

Who would win master chef or iron chef?

[@Ohmargod]

@@ArsonRaboot Scorpion from Mortal Kombat. He's got his own cooking show called "cooking with scorpion"

[@1337Lads]

By Yahtzee standards, this is a glowing review. Never thought I’d see/hear that for a Halo game!

[@hoeraufist]

That grapple hook is really, really fun.

[@n147258noah]

@@hoeraufist And super useful. I'd thought Titanfall had a great idea with it...and while Titanfall's is longer-ranged, Infinite's is almost a requirement. Only reason I beat Escharum and some others was because I grappled around the arena like a madman.

[@1337Lads]

@@n147258noah *intense flashbacks to Bassus*

[@Overmind5000]

@@n147258noah Same here. I did the same for the fight beforehand against his Elite Buddy who had his left arm, left set of mandibles, and probably the left hemisphere of his brain replaced with killer psycho robot parts. I just dropped that cloak sensor and immediately switched back to the grapple hook to yeet myself around.

[@DareDevil_00I]

@@1337Lads screw Bassus on legendary if you aren’t cheesing him

[@matesafranka6110]

Okay but can we just take a moment to admire Yahtzee's tenacity as the last person in 2021 to still use cathode ray tube TV's and monitors

[@lewisirwin5363]

Pity about the hat, though.

[@UnreasonableOpinions]

Apparently there's a large group of people who really do seek out old CRT monitors for games. Some do it for old games, noticing that old game graphics were designed for this technology and look worse without it, others are speedrunners or very competitive people who noticed that there is a small mathematical difference in response times for CRT. I'm unconvinced that the difference is palpable to the human brains but it makes them happy so they might as well enjoy it.

[@ButrzV2]

​@@UnreasonableOpinions if you plug in any older system to an led/lcd display, the pixel depth and clarity just makes you painfully aware of how few pixels are actually involved, therefore breaking immersion. CRT's have the benefit of blurryness....as ironic as it may seem.

[@Luuklin]

​@@UnreasonableOpinions​I don't personally notice the difference, but I imagine that if you play the same character in the same fighting game for 10,000 hours you'll have enough muscle memory built up to want to keep the input delay the same.

[@FamilyTeamGaming]

Is still having a CRT seen as weird around here? I thought it was pretty standard to still have one if you're into retro gaming.

[@gaiusgrachus322]

FIFA would be great if you could hookshot the opposing striker's throat when they get in behind, though you might have to open a few thousand packs to get the good version.

[@VeraTheTabbynx]

nothing could make fifa even good

[@KigerStudios]

To be fair, the reason Halo's story hasn't gone anywhere in 20 years is that it's a halo, it's a giant circular ring, what did you expect?

[@spencereades]

Way to really drive the already obvious joke home, my dude.

[@blackrifle3742]

um ackchyually there are 7 halo rings in the time of the games but there where 12 rings in total. not to mention there are many forerunner and ancient human structures scattered around the galaxy. *tips fedora

[@infinitypilot]

Reality is an illusion, the universe is a hologram... AND TIME IS A FLAT FUCKING CIRCLE

[@tarikja]

@@spencereades the point is that with travelling on a ring, you will always end up where you have started from! Because it is circular, the start and end are at the same point! It is a ring! A ring is a giant circle!!1

[@LIONtib]

This was actually alluded to in the game in one of the Forerunner audio logs

[@ars273]

Ahhh yes, a Halo release, that time once or twice a decade that I invite Yahtzee in to piss all over the thing I love, agree with him, and then kindly ask him to leave so I can go back to snuggling with my favorite scifi comfort franchise.

[@joebarthram596]

I have never seen such a succinct summary of my feelings to a video ever.... Thank you good sir 😂

[@RoyalFusilier]

It's fascinating how Halo can be a source of comfort for so many (myself included), because they're almost always a story about fighting a losing war against impossible odds. The Chief gets some big wins every so often, but the Human-Covenant War writ large is one of the best long-form examinations of existential dread I've ever seen. Maybe that's why it's a comfort in turbulent times.

[@AmericanArchon]

I hope you are least wash the piss off first.

[@NathanCassidy721]

I will say his description of Bungie IP is pretty spot on. Not even a new company can take away the fact that an interesting backstory can’t compensate for a bland story.

[@AWanderingSwordsman]

Souls has been getting away with it pretty well.

[@Pie_Mastah]

@@AWanderingSwordsman That's because the story never really took any time off of it's gameplay. Leaving players who are interested make up the story along from it's detailed design.

[@CrizzyEyes]

The difference is that Bungie didn't try to get players invested in some kind of weird soap opera love story between a literally faceless space marine and an AI with a questionably nude avatar, which was bizarrely sexed up for a couple games and then un-sexed. Or create pointless and confounding animosity between the protagonist and 4 nobodies that suddenly showed up. They knew it wasn't special, the sole purpose of the story was a vehicle for the player to go to interesting places in the first 3 games. Hell, it's a rehash of their earlier shooter game trilogy, Marathon -- no one was under any illusions that the plot was good. 343 adds a lot of pointless distraction from the game and tries to blow up the plot.

[@mohammedsami6907]

Yeah i get the same problem with soulsborne games

[@THB192]

@@CrizzyEyes Honestly the plot and worldbuilding for halo is some pretty decent military sci-fi fare, if a bit generic in places. Well, it was when Bungie was in charge anyways. Dunno what the fuck they're doing with it now.

[@misc.cont.]

Absolutely astonished to find, after 10+ years, that you’re still doing these, they’re still incredibly high quality and your opinions still resonate so deeply with my own. Feel like I’ve just found a tenner in an old coat pocket but it’s somehow been earning interest this whole time!

[@RoboBreaker]

Gurgle gurgle slurp slurp

[@Wahlrusberg]

He's coming up on 15 years this summer! I still remember him reviewing stuff like very first Witcher game and Fallout 3 (admittedly probably two years or so after those reviews were actually released).

[@CmdrBrannick]

Apparently 343 were going to go full Breath of the Wild, but they had to reset development and what we got was made in about 2.5 years including the delay.

[@CalicoJackal]

Hopefully when we get all the DLC we might get something closer to the game we could've gotten.

[@CmdrBrannick]

@@CalicoJackal Here's hoping it was all put on the side for a later DLC or even game. Even Bungie cut stuff and added it to the next game so there is a chance.

[@lShadow426l]

That's 2 times they had to do that, Halo 5's original plot got scrapped a long with the entire original build when they wanted to remake the game on the proto-build of the slip space engine

[@BIGRED47]

I think what makes the grapple so much fun is that it isn't just a magnet to the wall you shoot it at you can also use it to swing around things

[@axis6333]

The funny thing is, if you're a long terms invested fan its actually better rather than worse. The legendary ending specifically does have a twist and the lore community is going nuts.

[@ButrzV2]

ahh, the Metroid route eh? good on em. I miss unlockables.

[@SilverPrince_]

It's not evsn Legendary anymore; I played on Heroic and still saw the twist ending, and it made me wonder what the hell was the point of any of what we did?

[@oberonvortigern4138]

Laziest legendary ending ever. It’s just the normal ending with dialogue added on. Could’ve added a whole scene showing off what they were talking about

[@tropitropitropo]

How???? It literally breaks everything that Halo 4 and 5 were going for. Not to mention that the "new" things the story tries to do are actually recycled story elements from previous game but done worse. The game does some real good stuff like the Weapon and Fernando though, but it asks you to forget everything that happened just because the game forced the Banished to be in the game and someone in the writing team REALLY wanted Cortana to become good again.

[@zeldosan5138]

@@SilverPrince_ **SPOILER** The thing he's talking about only shows up in the legendary ending. It's not about Atriox being alive. I think we all expected that. The legendary ending adds dialogue to the scene, and it basically tells us that a mysterious and popular character from the lore is going to get involved in the near future. This character hasn't appeared in any of the games yet, but has been around since Bungie still made Halo. *DOUBLE SPOILER* It's Offensive Bias, lol

[@TheKrstff]

As much as I enjoyed it, Infinite felt like they took the plot of Halo 1 and did a find and replace. Bad aliens land on a halo, fight humans, aliens find worse aliens buried on ring.

[@Khaim.m]

Whatever happened to the Flood, anyways? They were kind of important to the plot up through 3, which coincidentally is when I checked out of the series. As best I can tell the story then became about a series of ever-more-ancient Token Ancient Race reveals and blah blah also we've always been at war with the Covenant forget all that stuff in 2/3 with Arby. Did I miss anything?

[@luminomancer5992]

to be fair I think that was their safest option for getting back original halo fans after 4-5. self admittedly I am not an original halo fan, but they sure did seem disappointed af at those games on the internet.

[@JJJBunney001]

@@Khaim.m nah they were pretty much killed off in 3. There's a DLC in halo wars 2 that has you fight them but lore wise it's nothing major

[@grotwurksmekshop6607]

While I agree with this, I think it is important to mention the amount of character development as a person and spartan that we get for the Master Chief. A lot of what was missing in Halo 1 was in the book The Flood and that gave a LOT of insight into the Master Chief. Now with Infinite we get a lot of that in game. A lot of moments where you can actually sympathize with the badass in armor.

[@darkphoenix2]

Except there's not nearly as much detail. Fever characters, fewer locations, fewer missions....

[@TheRollingStone11]

As a 26 year old, randomly stumbling into laura and eskimo, and finding articles written by you (Yahtzee) from back when I was six was a surreal experience. Kinda like stumbling back into Halo for the first time since 2014.

[@DrinkyBeery]

"why is humanity at war with the covenant" "Religion" There summed it up it even simpler.

[@RioZMC]

I've had people tell me it's so cool that Halo is trying out open world and I'm not having it. ODST did this and it was cool as hell and I hate that people forget about it. I loved that game and had tons of fun playing it with my friends. We could find weapon caches and all the audio logs and explore on our own time. Also the silenced weapons were wicked cool

[@TrueGamer22887]

ODST wasn’t really “open world” it had a hub world that was relatively small so they could masterfully craft it. It’s the same thing I have a problem with them saying infinite is inspired by the “open world” second level of CE. That level was open, but still crafted. Infinite is just bland copy pasted environments with enemy bases

[@HeliosDrive]

TBF, ODSTs "open world" was little more than a slightly less linear series of corridors broken up by the occasional landmark. Heck, both halves of the map are practically identical to each other, just mirrored down the middle.

[@CrizzyEyes]

ODST wasn't an open world, it just had a hub level.

[@blehmeh9889]

@@TrueGamer22887 When you think about it, all of Halo CE's levels are "Linear" in that there's only one path you have to take, but they were very big and offered multiple vehicles, weapons, enemies to fight, etc. The Silent Cartographer was the only true "Open World" level because you were on an island that, while it had specific objectives in specific places, you could circumnavigate the island to the point that you're never truly heading the wrong way, and circumnavigating and exploring the island could reward you with some powerful weapons and vehicles, although it could also mean more covenant to fight. ODST's hub is sort of like that, but as a bigger level, and with occasional covenant reinforcement drops as you go along to remind you that the city is still being actively invaded and is still under Covenant control.

[@alexanderrobins7497]

@@blehmeh9889 Don’t forget at the end of the level Halo, there were three groups of Marines you had to try to rescue in any order.

[@kiaorionmusic2520]

can't believe you're still doing these. i remember watching your videos over a decade go. your perseverance and commitment to content is unreal and awe inspiring. keep it up man. proud of you

[@andrewhawkins6754]

For a shooter, this sounds like Yahtzee approval

[@arraneeno]

@@cyanimation1605 yahtzee has said that the vehicle sandbox and enemy variety means Halo isn't spunkgargleweewee. However gameplay aside, upon getting the legendary ending I was just happy I read the books, anyone else just wouldn't get it

[@dirtytacos89]

“Guess what I never used , and never Fucking needed.” 😆

[@Hammer_Of_Olympia]

The point about the grapple hook is spot on

[@richphoenixpa]

Yahtzee: Bungie story lines are usually "bastards hate humans... kill all the bastards" Me playing Destiny 2: He's not wrong...

[@Mr_T_Badger]

I had kind of hoped Yahtzee would at least mention his previous pet peeve of not being able to find any ammo for the starting human weapons being solved by the occasional “refill your kinetic, meaning human, guns here” stations littered about the place like little recycling bins.

[@zigfaust]

Even though I've played every Halo all my brain remembers about the story is: Marathon Men made all the Starcraft Races and Doom Slayer and Raziel stopped the Protoss and Borg from taking over the univerves by destroying 20% of a Deathstar at least 3 times.

[@quetzalthegamer]

His description of using the grappling hook in combat makes me want to actually play this game.

[@rhymenoceros3303]

Oh it's a ton of fun, you can get some really dynamic scenarios with it. And enemies will react to you using the grapple, like Elites will pull out energy swords if you do that to them too much. It is a blast and makes firefights very engaging. It also becomes a necessity on Legendary since enemies love to swarm over you, so you constantly need to reposition or grab a barrel to throw at the oncoming enemies or even use your upgraded grapple to briefly stun a charging Berserker so you can make your get away. It is really awesome.

[@deathsyth8888]

I can't wait for the inevitable spin off Halo series 'Master Chef: Cooking Evolved'.

[@botpenn4672]

finally, a halo game that won't alienate the filthy casuals

[@grilledchicken5301]

I’m fully of the belief that there is a gorilla under that suit. During a cutscene where weapon is being cyber attacked master chief brings out the rocket launcher I had equipped up against an empty room Like he was going to blast his way into cyberspace. I loved it

[@bi7630]

“Bastards hate humans. Kill all the bastards.” That can actually be a description for a whole lot of games lmfaoo

[@Dethmaster64]

Can’t wait for Halo Infinite 2 to be released in the future

[@mattday7337]

I believe it's called infinite because it's the platform for all halo content for the next decade or so

[@VilTheVillain]

What are the odds it's gonna be Halo Beyond?

[@TheArtist808]

Yes it feels like it needs a sequel, or mods or something

[@atomic747]

Funny..Infinite is a platform, so new content will be added for the next 10 years. Basically they're turning this into Destiny.

[@TrueMentorGuidingMoonlight]

@@VilTheVillain To infinity and beyond!

[@StrikeWarlock]

>Like mini fridges in hotel rooms You're kinda behind the times, Ben. I know 2 hotels that are charging guests for those these days ever since COVID Same applies to microwaves too and they brought back the parking fees.

[@andrewhickinbottom1051]

Damn - that Tonka bulldozer took me back. I had one of those as a kid!

[@makzou3153]

It's gotta go in a circle, because Bungie ended MC's story, made a couple more games to expand on the universe, then had no interest in making more. 343 wanted that sweet cash, which means they need to make more games, but had absolutely no idea what to do, which is why each game they've made has very much felt like they were just making it up as they went along.

[@Beriorn]

I only played Halo 2 on the PC over a decade ago, and this is what I remember of the plot of Halo: Humanity finds a big ring in space, and aliens don't like that so they declare space jyhad against humans. There's this place called Reach that got hit first and it really got messed up. It's up to our protagonist, the Master Chief, to fight the aliens. He wins, but in the aliens' second go at it where they hit Egypt we learn that the former leader of the alien army, Keith David, was demoted and instead of being executed he was turned into the alien Master Chief, which is some sort of religious position with a really short life span. They find another big ring in space, except there's an evil plant monster on board that the rings were initially used against. Obviously it didn't work, and now it's up to the Chief and Keith David to save the day.

[@highjumpstudios2384]

It's not a plant, it's a fungus. Or it's like a fungus.

[@bababanana20123]

I am more invested in the relationship between Halo and Shiny Corridors than I am Master Chief and Cortana

[@Heliyum]

Hearing Yahtzee talking about Master Chief's "dumptruck" had me chuckling.

[@Gentlemenpickleesq.]

I will admit it took real balls to kill Cortana orginally but they have done literally f@%k all with it....

[@Montesama314]

Grappling hooks was enough of an upgrade for me in Uncharted 4. Good to see it's true elsewhere.

[@heresjonny666]

The plot of halo is simple: Humans, and the covenant were made by superior aliens of the past or something. Covenant hate that humans were favoured. There was also a race of zombie fungus creatures that were sealed away at the expense of the superior aliens of the past. The superior aliens of the past also set up a bunch of super weapons in case the zombie race ever got out again, with the caveat that using these super weapons wipes out all complex life in the universe or something. There's also some weird glowy orange people but tbh they're just a stand in for the zombies, so just shoot the things.

[@EvilExcalibur]

"The plot is simple. Here's an essay condensing several centuries and multiple loose plotlines."

[@heresjonny666]

​@@EvilExcaliburJUST SHOOT THE THINGS.

[@nullplan01]

"20 years and we've gone bloody nowhere." Well, rings are an important symbol in Halo's mythology, so I guess it fits?

[@kukelhupf]

Joseph Staten joined so late into the development, and the first thing he did was give the devs more time. Based on that I figured he saw the dev cycle and thought: yeah this is Halo 2 all over again, I can work with this. We just need more time. Love Infinite, can't wait for story DLC.

[@3ofSpades]

The batman singularity is a great way to describe the way modern fps games are as of late.

[@Starfals]

"There are very few games that couldn't be improved by a grappling hook." No joke. After Assasins Creed Syndicate and well Just Cause. I was hooked... to that tool forever. Adding it to Halo feels right, altho its not as smooth as i wish it was.

[@meatkirbo]

There's just something so satisfying about launching yourself into the abyss with a string that makes the hook my favorite thing ever.

[@OrbitalfilmsAU]

honestly only the bungie games are canon because they're the only ones with competent writing.

[@xbox1445]

*du du du duun du du du duuuuuuuun* When I was playing I really thought Yahtzee would like the hookshot and how much this game is centered on its core gameplay loop, but how the story would at the best be non consecuential. So we are almost 50% there.

[@sinjinreed2091]

You can hear paper shifting at 2:58.

[@JJAB91]

I feel very similar feelings to this game as I did with Gears 5. With Gears 5 they tried this thing where it was gonna be big and open but it instead ended up feeling empty and lifeless. My favorite parts to Gears 5 were the first and final acts...the only parts of the game that were structured like traditional Gears games with linear missions and I feel much the same way with Halo Infinite. The idea of a big open world Halo is fun but as it is it leaves a lot wanting. I have spent countless hours dicking around and exploring the big levels of past Halos, The Silent Cartographer, The Ark, The Covenant etc. but these were me having the freedom to mess around in these open levels but within a well crafted and structured experience. The games still had barriers in place while with Infinite it just removes all those barriers and says "heres a sandbox go nuts" which is not something I am enjoying. If I wanted an open world like this there is a myriad of games I could go to for that but thats not what I go to Halo for. I go to Halo for structured but open combat with pacing separated by big moments of spectacle or war, none of that is here. This isn't helped by the world being very empty with little to do. You spent 95% of your time driving or grappling across the one biome(forest and ONLY forest) either rescuing marines or picking up collectables and thats about it. There is no dynamic parts to the world, no big war going on you get caught in the middle of, no strong enemies you're supposed to avoid etc. The world is populated only by the most common, box standard enemies. No conveys of enemy vehicles going from place to place, no scarabs to avoid or fight(you even go to a mining site and scarabs are excavation vehicles), no large battles between factions you can fight your way into, nothing. The game wants me to explore but it doesn't even give me a compass or a way to ping a distant location from in the game. There is many things just missing, weapons like the Spiker or Fuel Rod are not in the game so every brute has a mangler or rockets which gets old fast, marines can't ride on your tank for some reason so they just awkwardly trail behind you, you can't even kill your own marines which was always something you could at least dick around with. Even the linear sections I feel a lot is lacking. They're mostly just rooms filled with enemies one after another while in previous titles combat was always well paced and spaced between moments of quiet or atmosphere. The game wants you to explore but what is there to find? Skill Up said in his review that once you set foot in the open world you've seen all there is to see and I don't find myself disagreeing. This game has no big Halo moments, no set pieces or large battles. Its a neat open world game if a bit lackluster and empty but as a Halo game its missing everything I go to Halo for.

[@sneakillysneak2388]

Somehow its the most informative Halo review I've seen so far

[@kr1spness]

Oh god, I just realized.... what if BotW 2 brings back the hookshot? Imagine hooking anything with a paraglider in that open world, and suddenly I might fall in love again.

[@Skywreckdemon]

I think that's what they should have added as endgame gear instead of the Master Cycle. I like the Master Cycle but a hookshot would be way cooler.

[@OGNoNameNobody]

Wow. That 55 sec. segment on Master Chief's new *[HOOKSHOT]* upgrade is the most succinct review of _Halo Infinite_ I could have hoped for!

[@peterthanos2209]

Did Yahtzee realize you can swap back and forth between all the armor abilities with the press of a button? I always ended up using all of them as soon as the cool down came up because they’re all great. (Grapple hook is still inevitably the best of course.)

[@alexanderrobins7497]

I don’t like how you need to press a button to switch abilities, then another to use it. It sucks mid combat and I do not want a middle man mucking up what could be a seamless process.

[@shanez1215]

Yeah but it wasn't just mash a button to get to the one you want, it's "take your thumb off the movement stick, move it two county's over to push a button to switch to a certain one (and it was hard to remember in the heat of the moment which they corresponded to) and then press another button to use it. That last Chieftain was infuriating because you had to constantly run but had to take your thumb off the stick to switch. I'd like it more if you could hold the use equipment button to switch between them or use the right bumper or trigger to cycle through them.

[@mikedawolf95]

5:38 love that last line and ending credit gag that follows.

[@PhantomJavelin]

3:44 Shoutout to Halo Reach, which treated running as a gimmicky gadget instead of a core traversal mechanic. Good to know that Halo is consistent about these kinds of things.

[@thomasd6652]

I've been waiting a long time for a Yahtzee reference to Civ, 2022 is off to a good start.

[@thecrimsonchapperling4154]

I still think my largest issue with the games is the boss fights, they are just not fun and are usually bullet sponges

[@Red-S-267]

I only feel that with the last one. Most of them can be killed very quickly so I don’t think they can be called bullet sponges. Especially with how quick a headshot kills them.

[@Jactheitalian]

@@Red-S-267 depends on the difficulty. If it takes 8 minutes of endless warthog fire on an idle boss then ya that's sponge

[@Melvis-wc8sy]

I killed all of the non story bosses with a ghost.

[@balanced2482]

@@Melvis-wc8sy i just brought a razor back full of sentinel beam marines and they just melt everything (note: the sentinel beam's damage is balanced around the fact that its difficult for a human player to hit a moving target 100% of the time with the beam, however, marines never miss)

[@wearsjorge55]

Get yourself literally any weapon that isn't human, melt the shields of the boss, switch to human weapon and one shot headshot the boss. Its the classic noob combo made to feel like a boss mechanic.

[@stemike7956]

There are two phrases on the white bored of every Western and Japanese game developer studio. For the European and American studios it's "Open world" for the Japanese it's "Cooking mini-game"; that's why Metroid Prime 4 is taking forever! How do you make Metroids delicious?

[@Smellbringer]

What's weird is that Halo Infinite is sort of a deconstruction of what Yahtzee complained about in his review of COD Vanguard, about how you never get the feeling the main protag has any hope beyond fighting the war. Because that's literally the Master Chief's deal; he literally cannot imagine a life beyond his next fight, the next enemy to target. And Infinite kinda shows that it isn't healthy; the Chief is willing to (SPOILERS) delete the weapon, a person who considered him a friend, because that's what his orders were. (SPOILERS END) It's being around people who aren't in that military life, like the Weapon and the Pilot, that brings out the Chief's lingering humanity. It's kind of depressing to think about. (Also all the Chief's passwords relate to all the friends who died under his watch).

[@c3wichman]

When i saw the grapple/hookshot in HALO game-play, I immediately thought of the "Arkham Singularity" first mentioned in Shadow of Mordor, where all games copy Batman's grapple gun from the Arkham games

[@EmperorSeth]

Honestly, open world on a Halo sounds like it could be brilliant. Imagine flying up enough that you end up on the other side of the world? Getting high enough to see the mountains bend? Maybe messing around with how gravity works like it's the largest level of Mario Galaxy and not just a slightly unusual skybox?

[@tarekmoneimsaid]

except, as Yahtzee said, it's *old* open world mechanics, which means invisible walls everywhere.

[@HeliosDrive]

@@tarekmoneimsaid TBF, the only true invisible walls you're liable to encounter are death barriers cordoning off the ceiling, death pits and map borders.

[@luminomancer5992]

as much as it sounds good in theory, I feel like it wouldnt be cool when actually executed. its like the whole idea of having an entire planet be openworld, sure its big, and you can fly around it alot, but the only way to actually fill it up with anything remotely interesting would be having procedural stuff all around the place with tiny bits of hand crafted stuff put in. hell closest to that would be daggerfall which was actually pretty cool as a sort of infinite dungeon crawler, and the set pieces were pretty impressive but it still struggled at making the openworld meaningful. and that had all the advantages of RPG mechanics giving you all sorts of ways to interact with that world.

[@vinnythewebsurfer]

I adore the usage of Ferroro Roche chocolates as stand in for tokens.

[@confluxfighter]

"Infinite" is such a common subtitle that I literally forgot this was a new game. Since most of the Halo games just go for numbers, I was like "didn't Yahtzee already do this one?" before remembering that that was ODST. Yeah, I know they aren't very similar but I'm not a Halo fan anymore. Stopped after my college years and the last one I played was 3.

[@Kaarl_Mills]

You haven't missed much

[@nicholasashton768]

Odst was shit

[@Endless_Jaguar]

Zombie IP. Ain't dead, but it ain't alive and well either.

[@FerretWarlord1]

As an HVAC tech, this videos sure ended on a weird note.

[@ZergrushEddie]

"20 years? What is Yahtzee talking about. Halo first came out on the Xbox i-, ohhh, so this is what getting old is like..." Jeez, Halo is older than Super Mario Bros was when Halo was first released...

[@Spazzboy911]

Worst part of the game he didn't mention: *THE ENTIRE INTERESTING STORY HAPPENED RIGHT BEFORE THE GAME STARTS. WHAT. THE HELL!!!* Chief looses a battle to Atriox Cortana destroys planets Cortana angers Atriox and he vows revenge Cortana self-sacrifices to destroy part of Halo Ring Zeta, which is pointless because it's self-repairing Halsey creates a copy of Cortana, somehow OK NOW START THE GAME

[@Shakes-Off-Fear]

Incidentally, “Slow dancing with the air-conditioner” is the name of my new Industrial Folk album.

[@gokusondbz]

Been Waiting For This

[@phatdog]

I find it kinda funny that we're in in this futuristic suit thats capable of energy shields, enhanced everything and can survive space. Not only that but it has internal thrusters as well a jetpack support option but as soon as infinite introduces a primitive very short range grapple shot we all go crazy lmao

[@ryancosly8510]

Not gonna lie, I'm disappointed the air conditioner has a bow rather then a beard. would have kept the narrative consistent.

[@grimkahn3775]

Pfp shows a person of culture.

[@rtenrreiro]

"I asked Nick the Escapist editor and professional Halo liking person to summarize it for me..." Instantly says something false. I love it.

[@GabedalfTheWhite]

Yahtzee hit that *"HUSSY"* about as hard as Grimoire Weiss

[@khrisbreezy3628]

This one was kinder than I expected. Grapple hook is absolutely the ONLY thing you needed, it's not per se an open world game but a Halo game playing with open world and thus it doesn't need to break new ground in the open world territory, and the zany fun you can have in the open world when you get creative is on par with zany BotW fun, and that's why I love playing Halo Infinite. It's everything it needed to be: fun. And thats all I wanted!

[@PineappleStickers]

0:50 is exactly how Halo did itself in. It was way more interesting when it was just The Covenant and The Flood (and the Flood were just an Alien Parasite, as far as we knew). The "Lore" now, along with its expanded universe and books and never ending tie ins have made a massive mess

[@zeldosan5138]

The Forerunners have been around since Halo 1 though, they built the ring. With the lore concerned, I agree that a lot of it is overwritten, and that they made some questionable decisions, but *the Flood is unironically the best concept for a zombie-style infection I have ever seen in a video game.* I would be SO sad to see them regress to "just an alien parasite". Like bro, headcrabs are cool, but have you ever met the Flood? TLDR about the Flood even though nobody asked for one: The Flood are the corrupted remnants of an ancient race of eldritch gods that brought life to the galaxy billions of years ago. *The Flood is unified under one singlular group consciousness,* localized in a gigantic entity called a Gravemind. But here's the catch. *After someone is infected by the Flood, the Gravemind probes their brain for knowledge and learns everything they know. As the Flood infects more people, it compiles more information. Every new host makes it smarter.* To retain access to this information, infected hosts are kept alive and conscious, unable to control their bodies, but still awake and in constant agony-- not unlike a headcrab zombie. But the Gravemind's collective accumulation of knowledge makes the Flood SO much more dangerous than a normal zombie infection, especially if it manages to infect a military general or something and learn their strategies. Keep in mind, they wouldn't just gain that general's knowledge-- our faction would also LOSE it. It would also then knows more about how our military operates, and in what ways it may be weak or exploitable. *The Flood was trying to form a Gravemind around Captain Keyes in Halo 1 for that reason,* which is why he's suspended by stinky goopy flesh when you find him later in the game. Also, because of its origin, *a completed Gravemind is innately aware of some manner of ancient eldritch knowledge, which allows it to warp the fabric of reality with its mind. It can also use this knowledge to infect Artificial Intelligence. Once an AI learns the ancient eldritch truth, its mind breaks and it defects from its original faction to ally with the Flood.* I believe it can also control machinery. That's one of the big reasons why the Forerunners are dead as heck, despite being SUUUPER advanced. Those madlads siphoned energy from newly-created alternate universes just to power their cities, and the Flood still slapped their shit. Well, I said TLDR, but that was pretty long, huh? Well, it's either this or the wiki, so my comment is still comparatively a million times shorter lmao.

[@finn4019]

Torn between "the twist is more emotional if you're invested in Halo" and "but that's exactly what a fan in denial would say"

[@SBJ_Tube]

Completing open world stuff actually DOES make your guns pew pew better since the assassination missions unlock weapon variants that are flatly better and finding Spartan cores lets you improve your equipment.

[@MrQwertysystem]

Sure, but the game never really tells you what rhe variants actually do except for the human variants and if you use them you're at the mercy of ammo boxes since you can't replenish their ammo via picking up the normal versions.

[@PinkieBen]

Yeah that's my one complaint with his review. Getting those better weapons and loading Marines with them is crazy fun

[@SBJ_Tube]

@@MrQwertysystem It does, but not in a very intuitive way. You have to look at the database rather than just pressing an info button while highlighting the weapon at a FOB (I agree the latter would have been better).

[@nunya_bizniz]

2:30 How could he have played through the game and missed weapon variants. Really bad and lazy review. Guy needs to delete this and try again. Embarrassing.

[@certifiedicecreamtruckmoment]

YES he brought back the old subnautica term "mars bar in the glove compartment"

[@lennysummers6672]

I'm suprised he's even doing this game

[@Mobius1AC]

I actually switch pretty often between the hook and the scanner. I usually pop a scanner or two before a fight and then use the grapple once the party starts

[@brooklyn560]

Yahtzee was most def playing on easy if he beat it with just the grapple hook lmao

[@Starcraft5477]

I love your comedic style Yahtzee. Been a fan since 2009, keep up the good work!

[@FireFox64000000]

So what you're saying is this is exactly the Halo I'm wanting to get plus hookshot

[@fetusdeletus9266]

If you ask me this was the series maturing, halo 1, 2, 3, ODST, reach and halo wars being its joyous childhood where it wasn’t afraid to try new things in the name of fun but then it hit it’s regrettable teenage years with 4-5 where it dabbled in more adult themes (especially Cortana har har) and completely redesigned itself but now it’s grown into the broken adult everyone becomes eventually where it’ll try a new thing or two but isn’t nearly as daring as it was during its childhood or as different as it was during its teenage years.

[@Dovoline3]

"Master Chief gets a fucking Hookshot and I fucking love it" Jep, that about sums up my opinion on the game as well. That's also all you really need to say about it, the grapple is just so good. The only real thing I'll say about the review is I think it's wrong to not use the dodge thrusters, but with how clunky switching them up is I can understand it. Because the thing about the dodge thrusters is that you can combo them *with* the grappling hook so that you can get *even more movement*. Especially against the Hunters, the big blue guys with the orange weak spots, using the grapple to get speed and then the dodge thruster at the last moment to get behind them for easy shots at the back is super satisfying.

[@ximbabwe0228]

Your halo friend starting with the forerunners is like someone explaining lord of the rings starting with the Balrog

[@Migeista]

Alright I'll be back for the last minute of this review once I finish Infinite

[@nicholassmile5800]

Grappleshot is the greatest addition. Masterchief becomes nimble, and inventive.

[@Tyler-gg6xt]

I kind of hope he does security breach next. I would like to see an outsiders perspective.

[@777SilverPhoenix777]

Doubtful he is afraid of mascot characters, remember? He said it in the original FNAF review he did years ago. Though he may admittedly like this one much better as he can be proactive and not just sit there waiting for the jump scare. assuming his PC can run it without crashing or soft locking.

[@Tyler-gg6xt]

@@777SilverPhoenix777 all true

[@Wandergirl108]

If he reviewed it, he'd just talk about how fucking buggy and broken it is and what a deplorable state it came out in. I like FNaF, don't get me wrong, but FNaF: SB came out in a state that shouldn't have cleared beta testing. My personal indie pick for Yahtzee to review was Inscryption, an actually well-made game, but apparently he didn't like that…so we're all miserable here.

[@KamiKaZantA]

To think that the "I've fallen and I can't get up!" thing from that Best of the Worst episode would become a lowkey thing is pretty astonishing.

[@Priception]

Well actually the Precursors created the Forerunners. Not the other way around.

[@atomic747]

I like it better when it was just humans vs covenant. things were simple.

[@botpenn4672]

@@atomic747 the forerunners were part of halo lore since day 1, chill out

[@nunya_bizniz]

@@atomic747 I guess you haven't played halo because it was never just covenant vs human.

[@atomic747]

@@nunya_bizniz Uh i played all of them. Except for the side games. Dont make assumptions.

[@nunya_bizniz]

@@atomic747 so tell me, when was it just covenant vs humans.

[@ChristopherCubbage]

The plot really does go in circles if you haven't finished it yet, and the spoiler about the ending doesn't even feel like a spoiler