Game of the Year – Halo Infinite
Tom: I’d never been a big Halo guy because I’m a PC snob and it was alright, but I didn’t get the big deal. Infinite made ME the guy that wouldn’t shut up about Halo when I was playing Halo, when I was planning to play Halo, and whether I could be playing Halo right now. The multiplayer was sublime, but I didn’t expect the single player campaign to basically be Shadow of Halo or one of the Batman games, where I as the Master Chief would sneak up on a bunch of bad guys, wait for them to talk shit, then jump out like SURPRISE, BITCH. The story was good, too, but truthfully I enjoyed grabbing a vehicle from one of the vehicle pads (always pausing to watch a Marine get owned when it dropped out of the sky of course) and just tooling around running over people or waiting for them to run their mouth then appearing like an angry god. In multiplayer, I am always the guy that grabs whatever vehicle he can and spends most of the match driving around honking the horn. Usually I am listening to War’s hit “Low Rider” when I do this and I do not apologize to you or anyone.
Diego: I’m sure we all went into this with extremely low expectations. 343 hasn’t had the greatest track record since they took over the franchise from Bungie what with the shoddy release of the Master Chief Collection, Halo 4, Halo 5, and finally that unimpressive E3 showing for Infinite. It was a demo so badly received they delayed the game, and thank god they did. I don’t know what dark magic they did between then and now, but they finally realized what makes Halo work and knocked it out of the ballpark with Halo Infinite. Released a month early, I was (and still am) absolutely hooked to the multiplayer and it’s been genuinely nice to see a developer openly addressing community concerns as they’ve been doing and fixing them (for the most part). The campaign was the hardest sell though, with the idea of an open world Halo being a very dangerous idea as it’s genius in context but could be very easily fumbled. 343 nailed it with the tight, focused map design that didn’t overwhelm you with unnecessary activities (take note Ubisoft) with a story that actually kept me interested and engaged throughout. The Chief is probably at his best in this game, with some of his most humanizing moments ever, and I loved the Weapon and Esparza. Genuinely can’t wait to see where the series goes after this.
Austin: Halo: Combat Evolved was the game that showed me what first person shooters could be on consoles. More than just the unbalanced, wonky N64 split-screen experiences. A shooter that controls well on consoles. After Bungie handed things off to 343 things never really clicked, and all of the lead up, delays and poor pre-release showings for Halo Infinite didn’t give me much confidence. When the multiplayer launched early, I couldn’t get enough of it. Never really caring much for battlepasses, or engaging in them with other games I wasn’t really paying attention to its shortcomings. With the just perfect blending of shooting, movement and feel I was too busy enjoying myself and the moment-to-moment of actually playing the game. Engaging with the multiplayer didn’t fully prepare me for the sandbox that is present in the campaign. It’s nothing wholly unique on it’s own, but combining streamlined openworld tropes (not a lot of filler, a mostly useful, and engaging list of activities to check off) with more traditionally structured Halo levels had me wanting to engage in every aspect of the game. The lack of co-op campaign at launch wouldn’t have been a big deal for me in previous Halo games, as I like to enjoy the story stuff alone and then go back into things with friends months later, but the sandbox and world of Infinite has me more excited than ever to push the system to its limits with friends. Not a lot of games in the last couple of years have been enough to pull me away from my busy schedule, but with Halo Infinite I find myself cutting out four hours of sleep multiple nights a week, to play with friends, engage with challenges and continue my quest to tick off everything in the campaign. Halo is finally back and I am ready to cut out more sleep each time more content is added.
