I just can't quit Halo Infinite
When a bad game is just too good 🔫
I just can’t quit Halo Infinite. In fact, since its release a little over three years ago, I’ve played it for 42 days in total. How? I don’t know — that’s more than a month of my life 😵.
Look, I know it’s a flawed game. And after spending the last few weeks playing a lot of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, the first Call of Duty I’ve truly dove into since Call of Duty 4 back in 2007, it’s baffling that Microsoft and 343 Industries released Halo Infinite in such a poor state. To put it in perspective, throughout the game’s first year, only a few new maps released and nearly all the seasonal cosmetics were unexciting.
The situation has improved drastically since then, with consistent, actually interesting cosmetic drops (at least until recently), new maps (though a lot of them are community-made in Forge), and more, but Halo Infinite’s live-service offerings still don’t come close to competing with shooter giants like Apex, Call of Duty, Fortnite, and more.
So why am I still playing the game? It’s pretty simple: as long as you don’t aim to pop 4-shots at an incredibly high level (and to be fair, all “Pro” video game players seem to do is complain — take a look at the current controversy surrounding the Call of Duty League (CDL) and silly gentleman’s agreements, for example), Halo Infinite remains the most mechanical sound FPS I’ve ever played.
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It’s the perfect modernization of the aging series' simple yet deceptively deep gameplay, and there’s a sizeable skill gap, too, especially now that the Battle Rifle (BR) has been replaced with the Bandit, a gun that takes a bit more skill to use effectively at long-range. It’s a quick game, but not so fast that I can’t tell what’s going on, and unlike Black Ops 6, the time to kill is reasonable. It’s the perfect “boomer shooter.”
I know I’ve complained a lot about Halo Infinite’s lack of compelling events and content. I genuinely think these are essential elements any live-service game needs to maintain a dedicated audience, which Halo Infinite severely lacks, even now.
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But me? I don’t really care. My mode of choice is a stripped-down, competitive, focused 4-vs-4 version of the Infinite’s multiplayer called “Ranked,” rather than the bombastic, large-scale war of “Big Team Battle.” Less balanced guns are removed from the mix like the Sword, but the battle for power weapons/items like the Rocket Launcher, the Sniper, Insibility, the Overshield, and more, is still the focus of combat, just like it always has been in Halo’s multiplayer. The map selection hones in on balanced play, and arenas like Streets, Recharge, and Live Fire have quickly become some of my favourites in the series’ history. It’s a familiar experience that never really changes that much, and I find that comforting.
I also get a kick out trying to rank up. It’s not the sole reason I prefer Ranked, but adding minor stakes to the mix has been a refreshing experience, especially since I’ve never really been into competitive gaming. I managed to hit Onyx, the highest Halo Infinite rank, once briefly, but since then, I’ve hovered at high Platinum to very low Diamond.
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If I had a consistent team of four to play with, I’d probably be a bit higher ranked — solo/duo queuing can be a drag when you often get paired with random teammates that don’t understand the basics of map control or even gametypes. Maybe don’t pick up the Oddball for that extra two seconds when the other team is already blasting away at you 🫡?
There’s also an intangible element to why I like Halo Infinite so much that I can’t entirely unpack. Maybe it’s nostalgia for the hours I spent playing Halo: Combat Evolved at in-person LAN parties in high school or the early days of Xbox Live with Halo 2 and Halo 3? I’m not sure. What I do know is that I really like the game and don’t care if it isn’t full of flashy new content every week.
Is it disappointing that Halo Infinite hasn’t lived up to the early hype and that the franchise has faded into irrelevancy again? As a long-time fan of the series, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t. I’d love for Halo to be as big as it was in the mid-2000s. Maybe recent rumors about the series coming to the Switch 2 and PlayStation 5 can help make that happen?
Even as the player pool rapidly dwindles and Battle Pass/Operation awards shift back to being incredibly boring (yay, another shoulder pad…), I’m still having fun with Halo Infinite. I just can’t pretend I don’t have a blast pretty much every time I boot it up because the common consensus amongst gamers on the internet is that the game sucks.