Halo: Infinite A Nostalgic Breath of Fresh Air

 Halo: Infinite

A Nostalgic Breath of Fresh Air

Halo: Infinite was a refreshing nostalgic breath of fresh air. For many people this statement might seem contradictory, how can something be both nostalgic while also being a breath of fresh air? Isn't nostalgia just the effect of recycling the old and comfortable to fans of a franchise? On the surface, yes the is indeed all nostalgia is, however the ways in which halo: Infinite uses it's nostalgic elements blended with so many new and fresh ideas to the franchise shows how nostalgia can be an effective tool to create meaningful new experiences and by the end of this blog post I hope to convey to you what exactly I mean by this while also just giving my opinions on this game.

Story

I would like to discuss and give an overview of the story first as it will give good context for terminology and I do not want to give too many spoilers. Halo: Infinite takes place in the year 2561, making it effectively take place two years since the events of the last mainline entry "Halo 5: Guardians" and one year since the last overall entry spin-off "Halo Wars 2". Since the events of Halo Wars 2 the main enemy of that game The Banished have taken control of one of the seven Halo Rings, Zeta Halo, the ring was once under the control of the AI Cortana, an AI created by humans (the UNSC) Cortana has gone rampant and defected from the UNSC for her own cause. However, Cortana has gone missing and now the Banished control a Halo Ring, a weapon of mass destruction on galactic scale.

Background context out of the way, Infinite opens with a cutscene of The Banished raiding UNSC ship Infinity, the leader of The Banished, Atriox, fights the Master Chief, our playable character, and defeats him brutally, dropping him off the side of the ship. The game then cuts to six months later when a UNSC pilot, codenamed Echo-216, finds Chief floating in space just outside of the Ring. Bringing him into his small ship and awakening the Chief out of armor lockdown, he informs the Chief of the six months that have passed and the Banished's control of the ring. Chief hearing this like always jumps right into action, while Echo-216 simply wants to go home and is tired and defeated. This conflict of Echo wanting to go home and feeling depressed while Chief aspires to fix his mistakes and defeat Atriox is played on during the entire game and is done wonderfully, it gives the Chief many opportunities of humanization and emotional depth we have rarely gotten to see from the character, while doubling as a way to inspire Echo-216's character arc and inspire the player emotionally. Arriving on the ring Chief finds a copy of Cortana code named the weapon designed by the UNSC to defeat the true Cortana and learns that Atriox has gone missing, with War Chief Escherum assuming his role as leader and that they have aligned with a new ancient foe titled The Harbinger who wishes to awaken something unknown called "The Endless".

Setting up two new villains and an intriguing mystery of what has happened to fan favorite characters is a brilliantly effective way to reboot the franchise's story position after the mediocre release of Halo 5 without wiping any past history off the story. The game's dialogue writing is constantly compelling and provides much emotional depth to the characters and was very much what often kept me wanting to play the game.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Halo: Infinite at it's core is very similar to past games in the franchise, a first person shooter based games with rather explorable levels where the player can carry two weapons at a time, grenades, and deployable equipment, fighting a variety of enemy types and enemy ranks that increase in difficulty. However, where Infinite differs greatly from past games is in its level design.

Level design in Infinite is much much MUCH more open than past games, to the point where it is practically an open world game. Although it's world is not on as much of a scale as something like the Witcher, Elder Scrolls, or Far Cry series of games, it is still much more open and full of player freedom than any game in the past of the franchise. As players complete story missions that are much more enclosed and linear experiences more evocative of past halo games more of the open world will continue to open up. This creates an amazing level balance of enclosed structured level experiences and more open and free sandbox experiences within the open world. Aside from mission within this open world there are also Banished controlled outposts you can storm and take down, Forward Operating Bases (FOBs), high value targets that rank high within the Banished you can take down that act as mini bosses, groups of lost marines you can find and rescue, Banished Propaganda towers you can destroy, as well as tons of collectibles and easter eggs you can find and spartan cores scattered throughout the map to upgrade your equipment. Most of these activities earn you "Valor" points, which unlock you new weapons and vehicles the player can call in at FOBs to use freely at their liking.

The equipment sandbox has also been revamped from past halo games, in past games like Halo 3 you had deployable equipment that you would find on the battlefield and have one use, in Reach, 4, and 5, there were armor abilities you would find on the battlefield that can recharge from use to use but the player can only carry one at a time. While in Halo: Infinite the player is continually finding new equipment during the early game until you have all four, you start with the grappling hook which allows you to play with the physics and swing great distances almost like your spider-man, allowing for mastery of mobility. During the early missions you continue to unlock a sensor that scans the area exposing enemies, a dash thruster that lets you make a quick dodge in any direction, and a deployable cover that lets you throw down a shield for defense. All of these equipment can be upgraded and improved by finding Spartan Cores allowing for further sandbox tools and creative ways to use these equipment by the player.

While I do feel some of the elements of the gameplay sandbox were a bit undercooked such as the vehicles, I love all of the vehicles themselves especially the troop carrier Razorback and personal fighter plane the Wasp, however the handling of some vehicles is much too bouncy and causes the vehicles with ground wheels like the mongoose, warthog, or razorback to feel much too light and as if they don't have realistic gravity, although I do feel this could be addressed with a simple patch from 343 Industries. However despite this complaint, this is easily my favorite gameplay sandbox in the franchise of Halo, Zeta Halo is such a joy to explore, fight, and goof off on that I cannot wait to see how it expands in the future.

Art Design

This section is where we will truly begin to discuss the heavy nostalgia elements 343 utilized. Although I would argue the story uses nostalgia too in many character moments, flashbacks, callbacks in dialogue I did not want to discuss those much due to spoilers. 343 Industries was very smart with their design of this game when utilizing nostalgia to hone in on the artistic elements that defines the visual sights and audio sounds of a Halo game while progressing the gameplay and level design in a bold new direction for the franchise. An excellent example of blending the old with the new.

The visual art direction is something 343 has struggled with since they took over the franchise from bungie in the 2010's with Halo 4, starting with Halo 4 and continuing into Halo 5 343 Industries completely changed the artistic aesthetic of Halo, what was once a very vibrant and colorful Science-Fiction universe now had much more muted and washed out colors, iconic enemy and armor designs were swapped out for ones that looked much more generic sci-fi like it came from a random CGI heavy movie and not a series full of beloved iconic designs. Although I am not one of the ones who outright hates this art style like many halo fans, I do agree it was a massive step down for the franchise's identity and personality and I did much prefer the art style of the original trilogy made by bungie and the additions made to that in Reach, Bungie's last game in the series.

However, for Halo Infinite 343 shook things up yet again and blended the the art styles, going for a mix of old and new with heavy inspirations from Halo Reach, Infinite looks like it is the logical next artistic step for the franchise that fans wanted with Halo 4. Enemy and armor designs are back to the classics with new touches in details that have never been noticed before. The Banished sport a very heavy dark red aesthetic while old halo enemies from the Covenant sported a lot of blues and purples, this simple color change goes a far way to shake up their visual variety and show them as the much more aggressive and brutish enemy they are in comparison.

One of my favorite parts of the art design is the forerunner structures and technology, Forerunners are an ancient species that are the ones who have built the halo rings, by the time of the games they are long extinct but their creations are left behind. In the original games they always had a very mysterious and ancient style to their buildings, although made of holograms and metal it looked old and forgotten about for generations, while in Halo 4 and 5 there was a lot more lighting and details placed on buildings, and while it looked good as its own aesthetic it did not look like the forerunner architecture fans have come to love the designs of. Halo: Infinite brings the forerunner structures back to the more ancient, cold, and massive structures of the old games while incorporating some of the newer details on smaller pieces of the structures such as computer interfaces and elevators. 

The visual aesthetic of Halo: Infinite is one of its key components that 343 got right and in my opinion is a testament to how far of lengths 343 is willing to go to listen to fan criticism and outcry, the Halo community has debated the art style since 343 took over and I feel with Infinite they finally accomplished their mission of creating their own identity for the franchise while embracing and respecting the history Bungie had left behind when they went to pursue new endeavors.

Music and Audio Design

The music and Audio is another key component to Halo's identity that 343 had always struggled to uphold in my opinion. Although the soundtracks of Halo 4 and 5 were very good musical scores on their own rights just like the art designs, I feel they did not live up to the legacy and the style of a Halo game, of course I want them to impart their own vision on the franchise but too far of a departure begins to feel out of place, Halo 4 and 5 went for much more electronic style beats with some incorporation of the vocal choirs that are associated with the franchise, abandoning the live instrumental almost orchestral design of the previous games in the franchise.

However, yet again with Halo: Infinite 343 managed to do a wonderful job of blending the old with the new, incorporating both the electronic style beats and the orchestral scores the fans have come to love and appreciate, creating a new sound for the franchise that is incredibly iconic and unique to Infinite.

When the player is journeying through the depths of a Banished outpost the percussion and drum beats become much more aggressive and heavy, when journeying within a forerunner crypt the electronic sounds of 4 and 5 begin to kick in lightly along with the blending of vocal choirs and mystical sounding strings to emphasis the ancient mysterious feeling that had become synonymous with forerunner structures in the franchise, when the player loads up to a FOB or UNSC based building or outpost the soundtrack becomes much more reminiscent of the the classic styling with live instruments playing much more uplifting and inspirational sounding songs to invigorate the player to continue their fight against the Banished. One of my favorite touches to the audio was secret tracks, when reaching certain mountain peaks and views within the open world the game will trigger a music cue, usually the original main theme or one of the iconic songs of the past remixed to pair with the visual of the breathtaking view of the game world on screen. Curtis Schweitzer, Gareth Coker, Joel Corelitz, and Rock band "This Will Destroy You" aiding for some tracks as well all lived up to the legacy of Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori's original master pieces on the original soundtracks, a mission which they openly have admitted in interviews was their goal, they all succeeded.

The Audio design itself is also genius, there is not as much to say as there was for music but the ambient audio heard around the ring, the sounds made from weaponry and vehicles, the sounds enemy's make when showing aggression towards you, the quotes and quips the marines throw out at the enemy while fighting alongside you, the insults the enemy throws at you, and the excellent blending of iconic sound effects such as the ping sound from ODST or the player respawn sound effect from Halo 3's multiplayer or the classic shield recharge sound from the original trilogy, all of this services to remind the player of the legacy of this franchise while invoking new feelings of intrigue.

Final Thoughts

To conclude this extremely lengthy blog post is hard and tricky, I have discussed so many attributes many I like and some I do not, but to sum it up in one brief concluding passage would be to say that Halo: Infinite is fantastic and everyone at 343 Industries should be proud of their hard work, are their issues? yes, are there glitches? yes, does the multiplayer have a variety of issues not mentioned here? yes. This blog post was to discuss the campaign single player portion of this game. I do have my grievances with the multiplayer as many others do however I still think it is one of the best overall packages from any first person shooter game in years, not just from the Halo franchise, and the possibility of where this game can expand to has me beyond excited for all of the possibilities to come.