After playing Halo Infinite off and on since release, I’ve finally beaten the campaign. Have to say, after being away from Halo since Halo 4, I really enjoyed the latest entry. Not going to say it really revolutionized the series, but I did have fun.

First and foremost, it felt like old school Halo. Had the usual spread of weapons with some newer ones added, at least new to me. Familiar enemies from across the series. Most important, we are back on a Halo ring, but with a new element. An open world exploration of a decent section of the Halo ring’s surface. While I’m of the opinion that not every game needs to be open world, they did a good job of making it work. I never felt like I was wasting time travelling between locations; and they did a great job making it fun.

Across the map, there are evenly spread-out FOB’s (Forward Operating Bases) that you can capture. Once captured, they gave you a quick travel point, four weapon lockers, and a vehicle drop point. I didn’t find myself quick travelling to much, but it came in handy for quick traverse between further locations. However, I used the heck out of the vehicle drop point. You only start off with the quad at first, but as you play, you collect Valor points. As you collect these Valor points, you continue to unlock new vehicles you can request, eventually unlocking the classic Scorpion tank and the WASP from Halo 5. Both make traversing and clearing the Halo surface fast and fun. Scorpion tank for clearing out bases and taking care of heavily armored enemies; and the WASP for reaching high places or just getting around faster. Not ashamed to admit I used to the Scorpion a few times to take out some of the High Value Targets. Perfect for taking out Hunters. If you don’t want to use a vehicle, there is also the grappling hook that you can use to Spider-Man your way around, which is extremely fun.

The rest of the game takes place in facilities on the Halo ring that are all linear gameplay more akin to the previous Halo titles. A nice break from the open world of the surface. This is also where you get more of the story content, which makes sense since the facilities were where your major objectives tended to be. The open world is more of the break between objectives and getting between them.

My only complaint, and I admit that it has mostly to do with my preferred playstyle of sniping enemies, I really did not enjoy the fights with bosses who use melee weapons. The fact that they relentlessly run you down, basically means you will be spending all your time running away from them with no chance to take cover. Bosses with ranged attacks weren’t exactly pushovers either, but I can at least find cover where I can turtle for a few seconds. Stop for a few seconds with a melee boss, they are right on top of you smashing your face in. Melee attacks aren’t slow. The grappling hook and dash can help; but not when I’m too far away to grapple in that split second or I dash into an obstacle by mistake. Eventually found a great weapon combo that made short work of melee bosses. I just didn’t have any fun with those fights.

All in all, I did have fun with it. If you are a Halo fan, I think it is worth playing through. New to Halo, it’s a good entry, but you may be lost in the lore. I’m thinking it will still be fun, but they make enough references to previous games, especially Halo 5, it can be confusing to follow the story. Either way, I’m looking forward to the next entry in the Halo series.