How's This Game? This Is Stupidly Good Fun

Let’s assume for a moment that you haven’t seen, touched, played or even read about Halo. A baffling concept, yes, but let’s roll with it: this is an arena-style FPS in many ways, with power weapons littering the map that can turn a regular Spartan into a death-dealing douchebag. Movement is fast, the jump is bouncy, the grenades are a pleasure to toss, and the Warthogs are heaps of fun to drive. Despite looking like a tank that has been magically transformed into human form, Spartans are light on their feet, faster than the wind and pack more of a punch than Mike Tyson after he’s been told somebody ate the last slice of pizza. 343 Succeed on every level of making controlling a Spartan feel special, and that translates to every aspect of the gameplay, from movement to combat. Whether you prefer the more intimate 4v4 of Quick Play or Ranked, or like myself love the messier mayhem of 12v12 Big Team Battles, the very core gameplay that determines whether Halo: Infinite is fun is damn near flawless haven’t had this much fun in a multiplayer shooter in years, and the key to that, I think, is the time it takes to kill an enemy player. Games like Call of Duty focus on fast kills, making firefights a case of whoever shoots first wins. But in Halo, that time is much longer, giving gunfights a much more dynamic quality. If you get hit from behind you’ll be at a disadvantage, but you still have a big chance to turn the fight around through better accuracy, better movement or better use of the environment. This is why I dedicated hundreds of hours to Halo: Reach back in the day, and it feels great to be back in the fight. Of course, the longer time to kill does typically make any fight where you’re outnumbered a foregone conclusion, although epic saves are always possible. In something like Fortnite or Call of Duty, getting the jump on 2 players will often let you wipe out both, whereas in Halo unless you hit them from behind with a melee attack both parties are going to get involved in kicking your ass. Mind you, it’s a team game, so you really aren’t meant to be charging headlong into groups of foes without backup anyway. Not that the average online player seems to understand such complicated concepts such as math. One of the biggest tweaks to the formula comes in the form of the old MA40 Assault Rifle. Sure, it’s a Halo staple, but in the past you’d usually ditch it quicker than that one drunk friend who overshares whenever you hit the bar. This time around, it’s a far more capable weapon and is actually one of the better choices for close-range fights because it’ll melt a Spartan’s shield fast, letting you swap to the pistol for that decisive headshot. Suddenly you aren’t ditching the AR for a BR with a promise to BRB. The default Sidekick pistol is a bit of a beast too, and I’ve seen damn good players use it instead of the assault rifle. Twelve rounds doesn’t leave you much room to screw up, but if you have the accuracy of a cougar in a bar hunting down stupid young, then the pistol is lethal.