✅ Subscribe: ua-cam.com/users/BenPlaysGames 🖱 Support the channel: www.patreon.com/ben_plays_games Pelican Down - a glimpse, I think, of what could have been...
This is going to sound ridiculous, but Chief and Echo’s speech at the end of this level made me rather emotional. I thought it was really fascinating and human of Chief to talk about his mistakes and it really struck a chord with me.
It’s really great to look at that moment in reflection with Halo 4’s ending where he barely identifies himself as human. It’s a great character growth that would’ve been so much better if Halo 5 had bothered to perform the transition instead of keeping Chief stagnant.
Yep, love that scene too, was the first part of the story where it felt like characters were given some depth beyond the surface level characterisation.
@@cosmictreason2242 nah its decent, core narrative and character development is pretty good. game itself feels great and ai slap but level design leaves little to no impression. its pretty good, and thats kinda it
@@cosmictreason2242 That’s not necessarily true. The game is still fun to play, even if it doesn’t hold up to the original bungie games. The gameplay and enemies really carry this game though. Nostalgia can make the experience better, but I don’t see how it can somehow blind people into liking it.
Agreed, perfect choice. Still feels a lot like a Halo mission but within an open world, and takes place in a section of the map that is very visually distinctive.
Personally I think Gbraakon is its best. Reminds me of Dawn from 4, long night of solace from reach, truth and reconciliation from ce and cairo station from 2. All my favourite levels from each respective game. Only one that might top dawn is requiem in 4 (yes I enjoy 4, I’m young so it was my introduction to the series when I was 7 in 2013)
I'm a big fan of Gbraakon too, to the point I think it might be the second best opening in the series behind only The Pillar Of Autumn. It takes the Halo tradition of starting on a ship being attacked and combines it with a solid mix of encounters and an awesome final set piece.
@@sandman8920ahahahaha. Yeah I would’ve loved to have played the bungie games at their peak but honestly 4 has a lot of memories for me. Similar to what I think others have with the original I used to make forge maps with friends, usually blowing shit up, we did splitscreen coop and splitscreen multiplayer, occasionally went online and got our asses handed to us. Would do a lot to go back to those days. Love replaying the original campaigns even now, got all the discs and use my old 360 for them, 4 just always hits me in the feels. Dawns opening followed by requiem’s reveal is incredible to me. Love 4s soundtrack.
@@BenPlaysGamesooh yeah how could I have forgotten the opening of ce and it’s ties to gbraakon. Instead of being invaded by aliens in pillar of autumn you’re the one doing the invading
Without a doubt, one of the best levels of Halo infinite, the possibility of approaching each anti-aircraft cannon is very vast, I think it is the level where the open world of Halo infinite is exploited to the fullest (also thanks to the limited and not too vast area, open just enough to allow a great variety of approaches), I also greatly appreciated the soundtrack (attacking the cannons with "gbrakkon escape" in the background is pure fire) and the narrative segments of this level especially the final cutscene (one of the best of infinite, if not the best). Ultimately an excellent level, surpassed in my opinion only by house of reckoning and silent auditorium (the latter contains the best forerunner design ever, the condemnation room and the whole complex is wonderful artistically speaking). A pity that the "sequence" level failed to recapture the fun and variety of pelican down.
@@sandman8920 That's right Spartan! Pelican down is an excellent example of how Halo must evolve, not huge empty open worlds without large set pieces, but rather large but not too large areas, capable of giving a great variety of approaches (using the sandbox in a creative way) and, at the same time, offering the epicness and variety offered by the best Halo levels like the covenant and the ark, Halo has always been at its best in these vast but not dispersive levels, the future of Halo lies in levels like these, not in the open world.
@@sandman8920 Yeah, open world and Halo don't get along very well, I understand that 343 wanted to give complete freedom to the players, but the open world of Halo infinite is empty and not very incisive, devoid of great set pieces and “Halo moments” . While I enjoyed the infinite campaign and the beauty of zeta Halo, I still feel that a more traditional campaign with pelican down styled levels would have been much better and I hope they follow the design philosophy of similar levels in the future (silent cartographer is also a good example).
The campaign was fantastic, but it felt like 1/3 or 1/2 of a full campaign that was drawn out. It feels as though, unlike the other two games, that the problem was with what wasn’t in it, rather than the actual content.
You've got it spot on and I totally agree - 4 and 5 are quite content-rich campaigns but I'm not a huge fan of the content, while Infinite needed more variety in both the side and main content.
@@zeus28frenzy Took me 5 seconds....They fell through the map and despawned. Thats how good I was on my legendary playthrough, I literally was such a threat that they just yeeted themselves out of existance. just trolling.
Legendary wasn't too hard, I played it many times on easy and normal before to learn the maps and gun spawns before I played legendary, and overall it was pretty easy, mainly since I knew where the rocket was. Myriad, while if you don't go in with a plan is extremely difficult, if you just just a Razorback full of marines with Arcane Sentinel Beams, and constantly draw fire from them since enemies will always prioritize you over Marines, the Marines can use the Arcance Sentinel Beams to blast the Hunters. It's when you don't have any power weapons and are stuck in close quarters with no support that it becomes difficult. Like that one pair in the room full of grenades. I had to use the jets, active camo, and the grapple a whole lot. TL;DR It's easy if you come in with a plan.
This is such a bittersweet mission for me personally. The premise of taking down massive AA batteries, the gameplay, and that emotional cutscene at the end with Chief and the pilot are all solid reasons for me to play over and over. But those gosh darn Brute brothers not getting a single cutscene for how much they were marketed still pisses me off. Hyperius having what looks like Locke's helmet on his shoulder, Tovarus fighting Chief in a TV commercial, the fact that they specialize in hunting Spartans gave them so much potential to be viable and interesting villains, all to be delegated to slightly more bullet spongy Brute Chieftain's. Tbh the entirety of the hand of Atriox got shafted for how little they were actually featured in the game. I think I would've preferred them being main villains over the whole Harbinger/Endless arc (if you can even call it that).
Hijacking Hyperious’ chopper and running him over with it right after was definitely a high point of my first, blind run. Pretty hilarious to take a boss out with one hit like that
I always viewed infinite's best mission as House Of Reckoning From the firefight like start on makeshift UNSC bases, to fighting Jega in a horror like environment and then Escharum while hearing the pilots torture, it's such a great mission, fills you with plenty of emotions and challenges
I'm interested to hear your thoughts on The Sequence in a future video, since I actually really enjoyed the mission. The spacing out of the beacons made the massive amount of exposition much easier to digest, rather than just giving a lore dump. I suppose if you just want to play through the campaign it can feel too long. When I played through it my first time (and when I played through on co-op) I spent my time accomplishing the open world challenges and only went after beacons when I was near them. I wasn't actively hunting them down so much as coming across them as I explored the ring.
Same! Sequence is probably my favorite mission in Infinite. I also played the game for the first time in Co-op, and it was awesome using a warthogs, Banshees, and the Scorpion to explore the open world and take out enemies. Plus Riven Gate is an awesome Banished outpost. Overall has to be one of my favorite missions from Infinite
Based on quite a few comments, I think The Sequence is a very divisive level. I really don't like it as it feels like the worst kind of busy work, covering huge distances to end up in Forerunner spires that are all copy and pasted. Plus it has that blooming Archaeological Findings 02 audio log which basically says "we thought the Flood were the worst thing imaginable but oh wait now there's something worse". Kills me haha.
@@BenPlaysGames Oh yeah I totally hate the way they framed the Xalanyn as being nebulously "worse than the Flood" without actually explaining how. If anything, my thought was just that their existence could lead to a Flood outbreak which couldn't be purged with the Halos, but I wouldn't consider that "worse". I feel like the idea of an imprisoned race trying to take revenge on the Forerunners (and their heirs, humanity) is a powerful enough idea on its own.
"We still have more of the sequence to unlock, Chief. Let's get going!" I stg, she was only annoying for me in that level, because anytime you're not spending ten minutes just driving straight to the other beacons, she's reminding you to do that, which makes it feel like she's nagging you more than any other point just because the sequence opens up the largest open area in the game.
I really think the structure of this mission is why ODST works so well, or New Alexandria that have an open map, but they'll inevitably pull you to the same objectives on a slightly smaller scale
For not completing the infinite campaign, playing this mission I was exhausted became by now the campaign had felt a bit like a slog when I was constantly exploring in my free time. As always though, great work!
Cheers Patrick! I think the game actually works better when ploughing through the story and ignoring a lot of the side content, it's all pointless open world busy work really.
The only downside to the fight is that it feels like there was less story buildup around it. All of the other Boss's were far more developed and were introduced better, but I agree the fight itself is solid.
This is a fair point I perhaps didn't consider as much as I should. Definitely agree with you that there could have been a little bit more story around them, maybe a scene or two pre or mid mission.
@David Meza umm first of all vehicles are death for the player against bosses. I will run them over and explode because of it. Second of all pelican down is a sectioned off area with no fobs correct? Do you even have access to a rockethog? Maybe you do I actually don't know But third, I beat them all on foot. My buddy brought a razor back full of sentinel beam marines and destroyed bassus but that doesn't mean fighting him alone with whatever weapons are in the room wasn't straight nonsense
It's interesting because that is the one criticism I have of Infinite, that it'd work far far better as a semi-open world game along the lines of how Crysis 1 or Bad Company 1 did it's levels rather than the open world we got. Pelican down definitely shows how that semi-open world idea where you're limited to a large open space but still have freedom how to approach things would have made for a great Halo game being able to use it's entire sandbox among varied terrain.
I truly believe it could have been improved massively even after launch with a robust schedule of single player content for a year or two. I thought the whole point was that new content could be bolted on the existing framework, new weapons, missions, short storyline, enemies etc, but nothing ever happened. Huge waste.
Ben, super cool job. I discover you yesterday, and it was such a blast! Deep critique, good pacing, and interesting ideas. F*** cause I have an exam and I can't see all your halo videos, anyway, you'r a more than a welcome voice in the gaming culture, can't wait to see your next works!!
HALO like Mass Effect is another franchise from my youth and teenage years I've watched die painfully and slowly. KOTOR at least died quickly, for the most part.
I really wanted Chief to say something along the lines of "I couldn't save my friend on our first mission against the covenant" and also "I couldn't save Reach." I feel like these would be nice fan service lines and would let us know that even back in the day, Chief still failed. Overall, I liked Pelican Down. I liked scavenging rockets from the wreckage to easily kill the bosses at the end. Exploring that little island was nice too.
@@BenPlaysGames eh the thought of him getting completely and utterly beaten down by some brute special forces when he was supposed to be equal to the chief is hilarious
Sooooo much wasted potential in this game! Especially once completed too and you’re just left with an empty world. This mission was one of the better ones to be fair with the amount of free choice you’re given to approach things - however the boss fight was so unbalanced on legendary and even heroic. Great video as always!
Cheers as always dude! I remember the boss fight being a lot harder the first couple of times I played it through (first on heroic, then on normal) but playing it again for this video, it wasn't so bad at all. It's the crazily large health pools that are the issue really, artificial difficulty to say the least.
@@BenPlaysGames i agree with both of you. The boss fights are only hard because you will empty every single mid to long range round you own into the boss' face, only to see it has 2/3 health left when you exhaust all of your ammo. Then you're salvaging random drops and facing down a 2/3 full health boss with a plasma pistol and plasma rifle and start hating the game.
Where as i feel halo infinite is 1 of the best campaigns of halo ever...my special shout goes to the music....through the trees to me is the most beautiful halo soundtrack.
I enjoy the soundtrack too. There are a few tracks I rank pretty highly, Gbraakon Escape being a particular favourite that I think is up there with the best in the series.
Idk why but i loved the ending boss fight even tho everyone else thinks otherwise the boss itself may not be that fun but the setting and the fighting the minions in that room was very fun. Good vid keep up the work
Not on legendary bro. That fight was a mess. 1 hit snipers with almost no cover mixed with flying enemies and hammer chieftains. Where is the game design? It's a straight gank fest, reminds me of the some worst sections of dark souls 2
I like hearing someone talk about the campaign with the respect it deserves, we've been talking about the troubles of the multiplayer for far too long.
I had a marine from earlier in the mission with me at the end of this level, this was pre-patch so the game wasn't in a great state. The marine totally ruined the end cutscene as he stood directly in the middle of the camera, with his junk entirely encapsulating the Pilots face. It definitely made the cutscene more difficult to take seriously as me and my partner were cackling with laughter.
Really good analysis of why the levels work so well, agree with everything. Except maybe one thing (which is not on the level itself): that Pelican Down demonstrates that open world can work in Halo. I couldnt’t disagree more strongly! Pelican Down does *not* take place in the open world, is is merely an level that is very large (which on a technical level might utilize open world tech to make those big areas work), but from a game design perspective it is simply a very large, but traditional Halo level. Couple that with the fact that you’re so down (hah!) The Sequence, which unlike Pelican Down *is* set in an open world we have a very good demonstration of why Halo does *not* work well in an open world setting. It shows that Halo works well with large open levels that a non-linear, but we‘ve know that since the beginning of the series, starting with the level that shares the franchise' name. Great video though! Thanks for making it. Looking forward to when you eventually discuss The Sequence.
Thank you Torb! I guess from my perspective, I don't think Halo really works in an open world setting without doing something like Pelican Down, where it's 'together but separate', so it still feels like a more traditional experience but isn't entirely disconnected and offers you more options. My hope prior to Infinite's release was that there would be some levels where you had to head to other areas of the ring in a pelican or similar, so that they could easily throw in more standard missions in closed off environments. The only thing we got close to that was Gbraakon before even landing on Zeta Halo and it's a shame, as that mission is excellent.
Infinite isn't an open world game though it just has huge levels which you have to complete linearly to progress. The term open world literally means open from the beginning you can go anywhere. Infinites levels are built on islands and a steady progression it's linear but that it's one cohesive map is what confuses people
@@cosmictreason2242 @Shogghoth Fair enough. I admittedly have very little experience with open world games, I just took those who (often critically) say that Infinite was just like Far Cry in it’s structure seriously. But I can modify my argument a bit: it’s open world quality-like aspects still works terribly, and it would be much better with traditional, separate but very large maps. Which I think Pelican Down pretty much is a good example of.
@@cosmictreason2242 Or ever. I highly doubt it’s even possible to create open worlds that have the richness of Halos dedicated levels. It’s just not economically feasible, with open world everything costs so much more without really giving you all that much in return.
@@BenPlaysGames open world halo could work but it would take real ingenuity and game design. It would require pushing the genre forward in ways. Infinites campaign is thrown together with duct tape.
Great video. I’m glad you compared thIs to The Sequence. That high from a great mission was immediately crushed by another hit 3 places to open this door. How many times have we done this in 343’s games?
Nice one Drew! I know right, however, a lot of people seem to really like The Sequence based on some of the comments I received. I personally find it to be template open world busy work but I need to go back and play it a few times just to reassure myself now haha.
I think one of my favorite moments from Halo infinite is when the weapon snaps her fingers and the entrance to a forerunner facility blows up behind her while she is still smiling. It’s just a hilarious moment in my opinion
I think the very first mission, and the first half of the second mission are the best. You actually feel alone while you face the entirety of the banished forces. The reason why I like the beginning is because you have no weapon in your ear, it's just chief alone on the banished ship and in the foundation of the ring. Nostalgic of Halo 3, sadly it doesn't last very long at all. Huge missed potential on really selling the banished as a force to be reckoned with.
@@BenPlaysGames honestly makes me think of “dawn” another mission I actually love. Even though I don’t love 343 and the games most of the time, I think that mission is the best first mission in the series
To this day i still say Halo Infinite was good back then for the campagin itself and still is. Of course the shortcomings of 343 is sad to see over the years, but that does NOT make a game worse automatically like so many claim it is now. The multiplayer i can agree on. It was neglected too much. The singleplayer though stays in my book as a "finally" good Halo game again.
It felt like it's own open world level, that's why it's a good level. Thats how all levels should have been with their own biome. They should have used the Metro Exodus formula.
@@BenPlaysGames btw this Halo Infinite level plays similar to Metro Exodus' open world levels. Thats why i think that formula would worked well more widely adapted to Infinite. Exodus has a mix of open and linear levels and feels better executed than Infinite.
I think one of the biggest problems with modern open world games is that they're just wide open spaces with what feels like a lot of copy pasted stuff and shit to do scattered through it to keep you from getting bored. There's a narrative reason for fallout new Vegas to have an open world, there isn't for a lot of other games.
I've always hated the style. It's just a way of padding out a game's runtime in the majority of cases and no one could convince me that Halo Infinite is any different. New Vegas is one of the best open world games ever created, the amount even small things can change depending on your choices is mind boggling to me.
As much as I enjoyed the campaign, I always find it difficult to remember certain points of the campaign. I think due to the limited biomes, everything sort of blends together. Pelican down however is a good one and there is always one moment that will stick in my head for a while: I was flying round in a pelican looking for a marked target that was positioned on this raised chunk of land and it reminded me of the floating rocks in avatar. Idk why but that moment felt so halo to me (even tho I said it reminded me of avatar)
Too many very similar missions makes everything hard to differentiate. One or two missions set entirely in big forerunner structures is fine, but I don't need a ton of them.
My main gripe with this type of mission in this world they have created is, I could easily be playing far cry here. But that goes for the whole open world side of the game I suppose. I remember fearing that this is what infinite would be like but hoped for the best.
I knew before launch it was going to be Far Cry style boring base clearing etc but then the previews from UA-camrs came out and they all said "don't worry, it doesn't feel like Far Cry at all". And then I got my hands on it and it was exactly like Far Cry...
You can also use one of the bosses vehicles which can found in forge. it's a really cool variant of the chopper. some of the sounds reminds me of transformers.
I enjoyed my time with Halo's Infinite campaign, but its structure means I'll likely never replay it... and I've replayed Halo CE and 3 fifteen+ times at this point lol.
I think you might be coming at some of the missions in the wrong way. The Sequence is sorta set up as a way to force the player to explore. The 4 objective points are scattered on all 4 corners of the large southern island which you likely won't come back to until after the game is done. It doesn't work well as a level, but it works as a tool to get the player to explore, something they could have avoided doing up until this point. It will increase the chance of the player finding spartan cores to upgrade abilities, to make the rest of the game more manageable.
@@BenPlaysGames infinites missions as a whole weren't to bad. Its was the open world and the repetitiveness that i didn't like. Still wasn't anything like CE-Reach though.
Glad you mentioned the sequence. By far the most annoying mission in Infinite. The beams are placed so far off of each other,the combat when you get there is good but the cutscenes are very underwhelming. Pelican down offers probably the best dialogue bits in the game(one of the few places I don't mind escharum's trash talking),open spaces when you can use the vehicles provided and freedom to approach every objective in whichever way you want. This mission,warship Gbraakon and the last 3(the road-house of reckoning-silent auditorium) carried the game for me.
Chronologically, they were ruined after Halo 3. Their entire arc of blind faith, betrayal, new alliances and redemption was excellent... And then they're just back again "because". Lazy writing, poorly handled direction and the new art style didn't do them any favors either
@@PineappleStickers I know. That’s what I mean, it’s sad. On legendary in ce and 2 they were a real challenge at times and so much fun to battle against.
@@PineappleStickers yh all tge way through i was thinking, "hey wait why am i fighting Elites again when we made a truce at ens of Halo 3???" Because reasons i guess.
Every time I play this level, I try to recreate the Craig scene from the 2020 demo. I once did an almost 1:1 but never reached that height again. Also can you do house of reckoning someday?
Will definitely do House of Reckoning at some point, been a few requests in the comments section. I'm not a huge meme person myself, but all the Craig stuff did crack me up. I also wasn't as down on the game as some people were based on that trailer, I actually thought it looked okay. God knows what we would have got through based on Infinite being middling with another year of development behind it.
I agree with your point about pelican down brings infinites best but I have to disagree with two of the points you made about infinite. 1.Infinite isn't an open world game it just has huge levels. Open worlds meaning literally means you can do everything in any order and your given the whole world to explore like Elden Ring. Infinite locks it's progression behind linear campaign missions you have to complete in that order once you do you can go to the next level. I think that alot of the perception around infinite has been tainted by Ubisofts terrible open worlds as infinite is still a linear halo game you can't complete any mission or visit any area without doing the prior one they just give you something that halo hasn't done which is side content or little combat encounters you can do for fun. It's a great way to take a break from the pacing of regular campaign missions and always fun. The second point is regards to the sequence which I call as paralleljng the CE level two betrayals the best. It's a wide open space sure but is structured the same as pelican down but the climax isn't a boss fight rather a hard encounter to enter the spire. This one is also a joy to replay since you can tackle them outta order and it contains the best two songs in the game the sequence and the chapel. This new streach also includes small banished bases to take out and you can't dispute that riven gate is placed to be a barrier to you entering the rest of the island so I consider it to be an optional but designed part of the mission.
I think 'open world' has become an umbrella term in the present to describe any game with a large environment which can be explored at players' leisure. I also disagree with the idea that Halo's side content is particularly good, I think it's incredibly lazy content we've seen a million times before in series' such as Far Cry and so many others. I was fine with Infinite having an open world if 343 did something new with it, but they didn't manage it at all. I can see where you're coming from regarding The Sequence too but again I'm not sure we see eye to eye. I like the encounters outside each spire well enough, but the rest is very 'copy and paste' and feels akin to the repetitive side content.
Infinites campaign is somehow the best campaign and most forgettable by 343. Really wish their was more of a presence from the marines. Would have been cool if the more checkpoints we clear, the bigger the unsc’s presence became in the actual story. Marines don’t appear in any cutscenes
I absolutely hated this level's bosses. The AA guns were no problem-I went West first and completely skipped the fight by Grapplehooking my way up to the open control room. The other two were difficult but manageable. The Spartan Killers, however, just annoyed me. Especially the jetpack guy. I killed him five times in a row using precise headshots with a BR and emptying my Commando into him, but then it was a race around the area trying to scrounge up ammo or other guns while being drowned in plasma and gunfire. And then he started jumping into the little room with the SPNKR and Hydra, so all my progress on his shield would disappear unless I chased him, and I spent a good ten attempts just getting into the new rhythm he was setting, not helped by him calling me a coward while running away from me. It took me forty minutes to finally beat those two. I never want to play that level again.
I just grappled the chopper and ran them over lol it was easy. Harbinger though was a nightmare for me even on fucking Normal mode!!! 1hr 20mins it took woth that fucking sprinting Chieftan added to the mix!!
Gbraakon is quality too, I had really high hopes for Infinite after that as it was a genuinely excellent start to the game. Unfortunately, that weren't exactly met!
Yea some other missions were good but it all just blended together, over all I like the infinite campaign though the covenant may be the most fun they've ever been to fight and if you treat it as a combat simulator you'll have a lot of fun
Eh disagree this shows the series can do well with an open world. If anything, this mission is arguably (I like the final three levels more) the best because it’s a closed off but still open “hub” mission. Halo can do well with big, open levels, but we already knew that. You like this area so much because they were able to limit the players’ options enough to craft something. You’re basically stuck on a small island. The Sequence is what a more genuinely open world experience looks like, and while I didn’t dislike it quite as much as you, it isn’t as well crafted for that reason.
Honestly I think the open world was the weakest aspect of the campaign. This section works pretty well, because it is similar to the 2nd level of CE, but I really would have rather had a more ironed out linear campaign.
It was unnecessary honestly. If they'd have done something different with the open world, fair enough, but when it's simply the same design style seen in Far Cry and a million other games, you have to ask yourself what the point was. Also, the comparison to Halo from Combat Evolved is an apt one I'd never thought of, good shout.
Halo infinite has one of if not the most monotonous boring campaigns in all of halos history. Every mission was a literal copy and paste. Hopefully the next story 343 creates will have more depth to it
Has much hate halo infinite gets I can’t wait for the next campaign or dlc I just love halo and didn’t think infinite campaign was that bad definitely the best 343 campaign imo
Pelican down is mid. I just hate repetitive wild goose chases in video games, whether or not each objective is slightly altered than the last. I believe Warship Gbraakon is the best, it's such a refreshing mission
@@BenPlaysGames I definitely can see that, the scene where Chief departs from the pelican and infiltrates Gbraakon is in my top 5 Halo cutscenes. It actually feels like Halo despite it being made by 343, it gives me chills and goose bumps everytime the piano starts to play. The cutscene pairs well with the level's design and gives me so much hopium.
I can't stand him during early Infinite but once he, The Weapon and Master Chief become more of a proper trio, I think he works better. The incessant moaning early on is a lot though.
@@cosmictreason2242 Why does he want to go home so badly when he says his family is "gone" and it was implied he planned to kill himself at the start anyway? He should have been all in with chief from the beginning having nothing to live for anyway and go out with style etc. The whole character arc was nonsensical from the start.
The Sequence was very boring. It's supposed to be the last thing to do with the whole open world. And for some reason, The Weapon keeps annoying you to do the objective while you do other things around the open world.
Big Opinion here. Halo Infinite had the worst campaign by FAR of all the Halo games. It was half baked, lazily made and poorly written. I don’t remember a single mission and the “Open world” was an excuse to not develop levels
All of halo infinite is pretty underwhelming. The story after 3 has been pretty terrible and after I finally liked what they did with halo wars 2 they just kinda make the banished seem lame and do a very predictable fake out with Atriox. Better than 4 and 5 but way too safe to be compared to OG halo. Should’ve been much better with 5-6 years
@@cosmictreason2242 this is probably the best they could’ve done to patch up the story a bit. only problem for me is I don’t really wanna fight robots/prometheans like in h4 and 5. Sentinels are okay and were mainly used in bursts by bungie but the prometheans straight up just sucked. I still feel they just need to straight up reboot it after 3 but with a team that actually respects halo and isn’t trying to make a completely different game with the halo name. Also they need to drop that T rating. Obviously it’s not doing what they want it to do for the population.
@@cosmictreason2242 yeah forerunners should be ancient humans as bungie intended and I would be fine going to another galaxy with a different threat, it would just have to make sense for how they got there and how would the halos fit in? Chief would still be floating in space with that cliffhanger ending, unless they make it a spin-off to ensure they actually know how to make a halo game. maybe with Jerome or some other spartan or even the odsts as the leads. I’m also fine with reintroducing the banished as they were cool in halo wars 2, infinite didn’t really do much with them to make them seem threatening other than that intro. I don’t think prometheans would be with the flood unless they were taken over somehow for after H4.
@@cosmictreason2242 I mean that makes more sense than what we’ve been given. I kind of like that we never met the forerunner ancient humans but if we had to meet them that’d be how to go about it besides moving to a diff galaxy or something. That’s probably like 2-3 games worth of concepts. For the first game have the race to save Cortana while fighting off the newly introduced banished and have Cortana fixed maybe halfway through and end with either killing off a banished leader or cliffhanger to that pocket dimension idea. Better than darth didact and his Walmart deathstar. I feel like the flood needed a break after 3 but now it’s been like a decade since we’ve seen them besides Halo wars 2
I thought "Infinite" meant more content and the world getting bigger over time. No. Not at all. A decent game. A bit off for its lame WWE like boss stuff. But without a doubt a game ruined by its own developers by including a tank gun that allowed me to easily complete legendary and lose interest super quick.
I stopped playing the game immediately after this mission right here. The game just isn’t good at all. It’s actually pretty awful. You know a game is bad when I pay full price for it and then don’t even bother to finish the game
I had a good time with it but that was primarily down to the gameplay which I thought was generally excellent. I wouldn't rate it so highly in terms of story and level design, however, which are both equally important.
Echo 216 is one of the Halo infinite additions that over time I like more. It might be unpopular but after two decades I'm kind of tired of army dudes and most dialogue being military jargon. Its refreshing to have the Chief have to deal with someone a bit different. Game still has issues but its something I like.
What can’t you understand about “they get Cortana we all die” or kill target” or “this attack fleet is smaller than of reach” how is that military jargon
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Pelican Down - a glimpse, I think, of what could have been...
This is going to sound ridiculous, but Chief and Echo’s speech at the end of this level made me rather emotional.
I thought it was really fascinating and human of Chief to talk about his mistakes and it really struck a chord with me.
It’s really great to look at that moment in reflection with Halo 4’s ending where he barely identifies himself as human. It’s a great character growth that would’ve been so much better if Halo 5 had bothered to perform the transition instead of keeping Chief stagnant.
Yep, love that scene too, was the first part of the story where it felt like characters were given some depth beyond the surface level characterisation.
are you a baby?
The chief we know wouldn’t have had a mental breakdown like that 💔
@@cosmictreason2242 yeah it’s a bit silly
gonna go on a mad one here and guess that chief shoots some banished in a forest and then presses a terminal
b-b-b-BINGO!
* three terminals.
Halo Infinite's campaign is garbage
@@cosmictreason2242 nah its decent, core narrative and character development is pretty good. game itself feels great and ai slap but level design leaves little to no impression. its pretty good, and thats kinda it
@@cosmictreason2242 That’s not necessarily true. The game is still fun to play, even if it doesn’t hold up to the original bungie games. The gameplay and enemies really carry this game though. Nostalgia can make the experience better, but I don’t see how it can somehow blind people into liking it.
I think 343 made a good choice using this as their demo level. It really is a good slice of life for what Infinite offers.
Agreed, perfect choice. Still feels a lot like a Halo mission but within an open world, and takes place in a section of the map that is very visually distinctive.
@@cosmictreason2242 probably the only stage with enough time to be properly designed and fully developed
that was cool. well done 343
Personally I think Gbraakon is its best. Reminds me of Dawn from 4, long night of solace from reach, truth and reconciliation from ce and cairo station from 2. All my favourite levels from each respective game. Only one that might top dawn is requiem in 4 (yes I enjoy 4, I’m young so it was my introduction to the series when I was 7 in 2013)
Poor guy.
Gbraakon's ending is so much fun! It reminded me of how cool some parts of the Destiny 2 Red War campaign war. Maybe I just like red spaceships.......
I'm a big fan of Gbraakon too, to the point I think it might be the second best opening in the series behind only The Pillar Of Autumn. It takes the Halo tradition of starting on a ship being attacked and combines it with a solid mix of encounters and an awesome final set piece.
@@sandman8920ahahahaha. Yeah I would’ve loved to have played the bungie games at their peak but honestly 4 has a lot of memories for me. Similar to what I think others have with the original I used to make forge maps with friends, usually blowing shit up, we did splitscreen coop and splitscreen multiplayer, occasionally went online and got our asses handed to us. Would do a lot to go back to those days. Love replaying the original campaigns even now, got all the discs and use my old 360 for them, 4 just always hits me in the feels. Dawns opening followed by requiem’s reveal is incredible to me. Love 4s soundtrack.
@@BenPlaysGamesooh yeah how could I have forgotten the opening of ce and it’s ties to gbraakon. Instead of being invaded by aliens in pillar of autumn you’re the one doing the invading
Without a doubt, one of the best levels of Halo infinite, the possibility of approaching each anti-aircraft cannon is very vast, I think it is the level where the open world of Halo infinite is exploited to the fullest (also thanks to the limited and not too vast area, open just enough to allow a great variety of approaches), I also greatly appreciated the soundtrack (attacking the cannons with "gbrakkon escape" in the background is pure fire) and the narrative segments of this level especially the final cutscene (one of the best of infinite, if not the best). Ultimately an excellent level, surpassed in my opinion only by house of reckoning and silent auditorium (the latter contains the best forerunner design ever, the condemnation room and the whole complex is wonderful artistically speaking). A pity that the "sequence" level failed to recapture the fun and variety of pelican down.
That’s all halo needs the feeling of open but not actually because it’s an action game not botw.
@@sandman8920 That's right Spartan! Pelican down is an excellent example of how Halo must evolve, not huge empty open worlds without large set pieces, but rather large but not too large areas, capable of giving a great variety of approaches (using the sandbox in a creative way) and, at the same time, offering the epicness and variety offered by the best Halo levels like the covenant and the ark, Halo has always been at its best in these vast but not dispersive levels, the future of Halo lies in levels like these, not in the open world.
Exactly. That’s why I don’t understand why they went down this route
@@sandman8920 Yeah, open world and Halo don't get along very well, I understand that 343 wanted to give complete freedom to the players, but the open world of Halo infinite is empty and not very incisive, devoid of great set pieces and “Halo moments” . While I enjoyed the infinite campaign and the beauty of zeta Halo, I still feel that a more traditional campaign with pelican down styled levels would have been much better and I hope they follow the design philosophy of similar levels in the future (silent cartographer is also a good example).
@@thelvadam8474 we need a good mix though as I love corridor type levels too.
The campaign was fantastic, but it felt like 1/3 or 1/2 of a full campaign that was drawn out.
It feels as though, unlike the other two games, that the problem was with what wasn’t in it, rather than the actual content.
You've got it spot on and I totally agree - 4 and 5 are quite content-rich campaigns but I'm not a huge fan of the content, while Infinite needed more variety in both the side and main content.
i was kinda disappointied there's a cruel lack of diversity in the environments and weaponry in infinite , why 343
@@cosmictreason2242 huh?
@@cosmictreason2242 what's your prob?
@@cosmictreason2242 it's you i ask, retard
Them two Hunters in this level on legendary are a real challenge. It took me like 20 minutes to kill both of them the first time I played it lol
Oh no. The two hunters in that small room near the end of the game is the hardest. Omg is that tricky!
I just throw endless explosive crates at them most of the time 😂
It took me 4 fucking hours
@@zeus28frenzy Took me 5 seconds....They fell through the map and despawned. Thats how good I was on my legendary playthrough, I literally was such a threat that they just yeeted themselves out of existance.
just trolling.
Legendary wasn't too hard, I played it many times on easy and normal before to learn the maps and gun spawns before I played legendary, and overall it was pretty easy, mainly since I knew where the rocket was.
Myriad, while if you don't go in with a plan is extremely difficult, if you just just a Razorback full of marines with Arcane Sentinel Beams, and constantly draw fire from them since enemies will always prioritize you over Marines, the Marines can use the Arcance Sentinel Beams to blast the Hunters.
It's when you don't have any power weapons and are stuck in close quarters with no support that it becomes difficult. Like that one pair in the room full of grenades. I had to use the jets, active camo, and the grapple a whole lot.
TL;DR
It's easy if you come in with a plan.
This is such a bittersweet mission for me personally. The premise of taking down massive AA batteries, the gameplay, and that emotional cutscene at the end with Chief and the pilot are all solid reasons for me to play over and over. But those gosh darn Brute brothers not getting a single cutscene for how much they were marketed still pisses me off. Hyperius having what looks like Locke's helmet on his shoulder, Tovarus fighting Chief in a TV commercial, the fact that they specialize in hunting Spartans gave them so much potential to be viable and interesting villains, all to be delegated to slightly more bullet spongy Brute Chieftain's. Tbh the entirety of the hand of Atriox got shafted for how little they were actually featured in the game. I think I would've preferred them being main villains over the whole Harbinger/Endless arc (if you can even call it that).
What commercial are you talking about
@@generose9083 ua-cam.com/video/pNfFRBfG6vM/v-deo.html
Hijacking Hyperious’ chopper and running him over with it right after was definitely a high point of my first, blind run. Pretty hilarious to take a boss out with one hit like that
I always viewed infinite's best mission as House Of Reckoning
From the firefight like start on makeshift UNSC bases, to fighting Jega in a horror like environment and then Escharum while hearing the pilots torture, it's such a great mission, fills you with plenty of emotions and challenges
It's another good one - particularly enjoy the Jega boss fight, it's one that really stood out along with the Hyperius/Tovarus battle earlier on.
@@BenPlaysGamesthose are the only three moments I remember in the entire game. The rest is just horrible rock graphics and dull grey and brown grass.
I'm interested to hear your thoughts on The Sequence in a future video, since I actually really enjoyed the mission. The spacing out of the beacons made the massive amount of exposition much easier to digest, rather than just giving a lore dump. I suppose if you just want to play through the campaign it can feel too long. When I played through it my first time (and when I played through on co-op) I spent my time accomplishing the open world challenges and only went after beacons when I was near them. I wasn't actively hunting them down so much as coming across them as I explored the ring.
Same! Sequence is probably my favorite mission in Infinite. I also played the game for the first time in Co-op, and it was awesome using a warthogs, Banshees, and the Scorpion to explore the open world and take out enemies. Plus Riven Gate is an awesome Banished outpost. Overall has to be one of my favorite missions from Infinite
I really like the gameplay on that mission, but I can see why it would get annoying on repeat playthroughs.
Based on quite a few comments, I think The Sequence is a very divisive level. I really don't like it as it feels like the worst kind of busy work, covering huge distances to end up in Forerunner spires that are all copy and pasted. Plus it has that blooming Archaeological Findings 02 audio log which basically says "we thought the Flood were the worst thing imaginable but oh wait now there's something worse". Kills me haha.
@@BenPlaysGames Oh yeah I totally hate the way they framed the Xalanyn as being nebulously "worse than the Flood" without actually explaining how. If anything, my thought was just that their existence could lead to a Flood outbreak which couldn't be purged with the Halos, but I wouldn't consider that "worse". I feel like the idea of an imprisoned race trying to take revenge on the Forerunners (and their heirs, humanity) is a powerful enough idea on its own.
"We still have more of the sequence to unlock, Chief. Let's get going!"
I stg, she was only annoying for me in that level, because anytime you're not spending ten minutes just driving straight to the other beacons, she's reminding you to do that, which makes it feel like she's nagging you more than any other point just because the sequence opens up the largest open area in the game.
I really think the structure of this mission is why ODST works so well, or New Alexandria that have an open map, but they'll inevitably pull you to the same objectives on a slightly smaller scale
This mission was a ton of fun.
Agreed!
For not completing the infinite campaign, playing this mission I was exhausted became by now the campaign had felt a bit like a slog when I was constantly exploring in my free time. As always though, great work!
Cheers Patrick! I think the game actually works better when ploughing through the story and ignoring a lot of the side content, it's all pointless open world busy work really.
@@BenPlaysGames I’ll keep that in mind I’m going to try to finish halo 5 and infinites campaign
The only downside to the fight is that it feels like there was less story buildup around it. All of the other Boss's were far more developed and were introduced better, but I agree the fight itself is solid.
This is a fair point I perhaps didn't consider as much as I should. Definitely agree with you that there could have been a little bit more story around them, maybe a scene or two pre or mid mission.
Play them on legendary. They are not solid In any way shape or form.
Regular enemies with increased health that one shot you with anything they use.
@David Meza umm first of all vehicles are death for the player against bosses. I will run them over and explode because of it.
Second of all pelican down is a sectioned off area with no fobs correct? Do you even have access to a rockethog? Maybe you do I actually don't know
But third, I beat them all on foot. My buddy brought a razor back full of sentinel beam marines and destroyed bassus but that doesn't mean fighting him alone with whatever weapons are in the room wasn't straight nonsense
It's interesting because that is the one criticism I have of Infinite, that it'd work far far better as a semi-open world game along the lines of how Crysis 1 or Bad Company 1 did it's levels rather than the open world we got. Pelican down definitely shows how that semi-open world idea where you're limited to a large open space but still have freedom how to approach things would have made for a great Halo game being able to use it's entire sandbox among varied terrain.
great video as always, always enjoy your thoughts on the levels
Cheers mate, much appreciated!
man this game had so much potential
I truly believe it could have been improved massively even after launch with a robust schedule of single player content for a year or two. I thought the whole point was that new content could be bolted on the existing framework, new weapons, missions, short storyline, enemies etc, but nothing ever happened. Huge waste.
Ben, super cool job. I discover you yesterday, and it was such a blast! Deep critique, good pacing, and interesting ideas. F*** cause I have an exam and I can't see all your halo videos, anyway, you'r a more than a welcome voice in the gaming culture, can't wait to see your next works!!
Thanks so for checking them out jacopo mate, much appreciated - and good luck with your exam!
HALO like Mass Effect is another franchise from my youth and teenage years I've watched die painfully and slowly.
KOTOR at least died quickly, for the most part.
And yet I'm still quietly hopefully for the next KOTOR, those two games were both stunningly good.
@@BenPlaysGames KOTOR 1 @ 2 are still some of the greatest games I ever played.
The weapon saying thank you to the brute was adorable. I did enjoy how she was written.
I really wanted Chief to say something along the lines of "I couldn't save my friend on our first mission against the covenant" and also "I couldn't save Reach."
I feel like these would be nice fan service lines and would let us know that even back in the day, Chief still failed. Overall, I liked Pelican Down. I liked scavenging rockets from the wreckage to easily kill the bosses at the end. Exploring that little island was nice too.
The fact that one of the Spartan killers have locks helmet on them brings me joy
Ha! Apparently he's alive and kicking though.
@@BenPlaysGames eh the thought of him getting completely and utterly beaten down by some brute special forces when he was supposed to be equal to the chief is hilarious
Sooooo much wasted potential in this game! Especially once completed too and you’re just left with an empty world. This mission was one of the better ones to be fair with the amount of free choice you’re given to approach things - however the boss fight was so unbalanced on legendary and even heroic. Great video as always!
Cheers as always dude! I remember the boss fight being a lot harder the first couple of times I played it through (first on heroic, then on normal) but playing it again for this video, it wasn't so bad at all. It's the crazily large health pools that are the issue really, artificial difficulty to say the least.
@@BenPlaysGames i agree with both of you. The boss fights are only hard because you will empty every single mid to long range round you own into the boss' face, only to see it has 2/3 health left when you exhaust all of your ammo. Then you're salvaging random drops and facing down a 2/3 full health boss with a plasma pistol and plasma rifle and start hating the game.
@@BenPlaysGames the bosses are trash on legendary. Epitome of artificial difficulty.
i was kinda disappointied there's a cruel lack of diversity in the environments and weaponry in infinite , why 343
Where as i feel halo infinite is 1 of the best campaigns of halo ever...my special shout goes to the music....through the trees to me is the most beautiful halo soundtrack.
I was kinda disappointed with the music. For example the best music is a remix of bungie music.
I enjoy the soundtrack too. There are a few tracks I rank pretty highly, Gbraakon Escape being a particular favourite that I think is up there with the best in the series.
@@cosmictreason2242 to you thats your opinion :) and probably others to but its how i feel :)
Idk why but i loved the ending boss fight even tho everyone else thinks otherwise
the boss itself may not be that fun but the setting and the fighting the minions in that room was very fun.
Good vid keep up the work
Not on legendary bro.
That fight was a mess. 1 hit snipers with almost no cover mixed with flying enemies and hammer chieftains. Where is the game design? It's a straight gank fest, reminds me of the some worst sections of dark souls 2
Honestly, the first mission was my favorite mission. Real effort in putting me in a direction over an open world and telling me go here.
Gbraakon? I love it too, it's a really classy mission.
I like hearing someone talk about the campaign with the respect it deserves, we've been talking about the troubles of the multiplayer for far too long.
I had a marine from earlier in the mission with me at the end of this level, this was pre-patch so the game wasn't in a great state.
The marine totally ruined the end cutscene as he stood directly in the middle of the camera, with his junk entirely encapsulating the Pilots face.
It definitely made the cutscene more difficult to take seriously as me and my partner were cackling with laughter.
Do the house of reckoning
It's on the list!
Really good analysis of why the levels work so well, agree with everything.
Except maybe one thing (which is not on the level itself): that Pelican Down demonstrates that open world can work in Halo. I couldnt’t disagree more strongly! Pelican Down does *not* take place in the open world, is is merely an level that is very large (which on a technical level might utilize open world tech to make those big areas work), but from a game design perspective it is simply a very large, but traditional Halo level. Couple that with the fact that you’re so down (hah!) The Sequence, which unlike Pelican Down *is* set in an open world we have a very good demonstration of why Halo does *not* work well in an open world setting. It shows that Halo works well with large open levels that a non-linear, but we‘ve know that since the beginning of the series, starting with the level that shares the franchise' name.
Great video though! Thanks for making it. Looking forward to when you eventually discuss The Sequence.
Thank you Torb! I guess from my perspective, I don't think Halo really works in an open world setting without doing something like Pelican Down, where it's 'together but separate', so it still feels like a more traditional experience but isn't entirely disconnected and offers you more options. My hope prior to Infinite's release was that there would be some levels where you had to head to other areas of the ring in a pelican or similar, so that they could easily throw in more standard missions in closed off environments. The only thing we got close to that was Gbraakon before even landing on Zeta Halo and it's a shame, as that mission is excellent.
Infinite isn't an open world game though it just has huge levels which you have to complete linearly to progress. The term open world literally means open from the beginning you can go anywhere. Infinites levels are built on islands and a steady progression it's linear but that it's one cohesive map is what confuses people
@@cosmictreason2242 @Shogghoth Fair enough. I admittedly have very little experience with open world games, I just took those who (often critically) say that Infinite was just like Far Cry in it’s structure seriously.
But I can modify my argument a bit: it’s open world quality-like aspects still works terribly, and it would be much better with traditional, separate but very large maps. Which I think Pelican Down pretty much is a good example of.
@@cosmictreason2242 Or ever. I highly doubt it’s even possible to create open worlds that have the richness of Halos dedicated levels. It’s just not economically feasible, with open world everything costs so much more without really giving you all that much in return.
@@BenPlaysGames open world halo could work but it would take real ingenuity and game design. It would require pushing the genre forward in ways.
Infinites campaign is thrown together with duct tape.
Great video. I’m glad you compared thIs to The Sequence. That high from a great mission was immediately crushed by another hit 3 places to open this door. How many times have we done this in 343’s games?
Nice one Drew! I know right, however, a lot of people seem to really like The Sequence based on some of the comments I received. I personally find it to be template open world busy work but I need to go back and play it a few times just to reassure myself now haha.
I love the halo infinite campaign
I think one of my favorite moments from Halo infinite is when the weapon snaps her fingers and the entrance to a forerunner facility blows up behind her while she is still smiling. It’s just a hilarious moment in my opinion
I believe the mission is excavation or excavation site
I think the very first mission, and the first half of the second mission are the best. You actually feel alone while you face the entirety of the banished forces. The reason why I like the beginning is because you have no weapon in your ear, it's just chief alone on the banished ship and in the foundation of the ring. Nostalgic of Halo 3, sadly it doesn't last very long at all. Huge missed potential on really selling the banished as a force to be reckoned with.
I would say my favorite from the game was the beginning mission, Warship Gabraken
Another excellent mission, one of the best openings in the series!
@@BenPlaysGames honestly makes me think of “dawn” another mission I actually love. Even though I don’t love 343 and the games most of the time, I think that mission is the best first mission in the series
To this day i still say Halo Infinite was good back then for the campagin itself and still is. Of course the shortcomings of 343 is sad to see over the years, but that does NOT make a game worse automatically like so many claim it is now.
The multiplayer i can agree on. It was neglected too much. The singleplayer though stays in my book as a "finally" good Halo game again.
It felt like it's own open world level, that's why it's a good level. Thats how all levels should have been with their own biome. They should have used the Metro Exodus formula.
I still need to get round to playing Metro Exodus, think I own it on 2 or 3 platforms at this point! Is it worth it?
@@BenPlaysGames are you really asking? OBVIOUSLY.
@@BenPlaysGames btw this Halo Infinite level plays similar to Metro Exodus' open world levels. Thats why i think that formula would worked well more widely adapted to Infinite.
Exodus has a mix of open and linear levels and feels better executed than Infinite.
Personally I like the house of reckoning because the 2 boss fights are so good
I think one of the biggest problems with modern open world games is that they're just wide open spaces with what feels like a lot of copy pasted stuff and shit to do scattered through it to keep you from getting bored. There's a narrative reason for fallout new Vegas to have an open world, there isn't for a lot of other games.
I've always hated the style. It's just a way of padding out a game's runtime in the majority of cases and no one could convince me that Halo Infinite is any different. New Vegas is one of the best open world games ever created, the amount even small things can change depending on your choices is mind boggling to me.
@@BenPlaysGames it takes a lot of attention to detail most devs aren't given the time to flesh out.
I'm examining youtube's best halo content creator
Always appreciate the support dude, all good with you?
@@BenPlaysGames Great, yourself?
As much as I enjoyed the campaign, I always find it difficult to remember certain points of the campaign. I think due to the limited biomes, everything sort of blends together. Pelican down however is a good one and there is always one moment that will stick in my head for a while: I was flying round in a pelican looking for a marked target that was positioned on this raised chunk of land and it reminded me of the floating rocks in avatar. Idk why but that moment felt so halo to me (even tho I said it reminded me of avatar)
Not being able to replay the campaign levels doesnt help trying to remember which parts were which.
You can now - if you load into a game and go to the map, you can choose to start any mission with your current loadout.
Too many very similar missions makes everything hard to differentiate. One or two missions set entirely in big forerunner structures is fine, but I don't need a ton of them.
My main gripe with this type of mission in this world they have created is, I could easily be playing far cry here. But that goes for the whole open world side of the game I suppose. I remember fearing that this is what infinite would be like but hoped for the best.
I knew before launch it was going to be Far Cry style boring base clearing etc but then the previews from UA-camrs came out and they all said "don't worry, it doesn't feel like Far Cry at all". And then I got my hands on it and it was exactly like Far Cry...
@@BenPlaysGames yeah those same UA-camrs that have abandoned the game. Even though they said it was amazing 🤩 🤯🤦♂️
Ah yes, the Ghost beats everything mission
You can also use one of the bosses vehicles which can found in forge. it's a really cool variant of the chopper. some of the sounds reminds me of transformers.
I enjoyed my time with Halo's Infinite campaign, but its structure means I'll likely never replay it... and I've replayed Halo CE and 3 fifteen+ times at this point lol.
I think you might be coming at some of the missions in the wrong way.
The Sequence is sorta set up as a way to force the player to explore. The 4 objective points are scattered on all 4 corners of the large southern island which you likely won't come back to until after the game is done. It doesn't work well as a level, but it works as a tool to get the player to explore, something they could have avoided doing up until this point. It will increase the chance of the player finding spartan cores to upgrade abilities, to make the rest of the game more manageable.
I agree this is a good mission.
Great minds and all that!
@@BenPlaysGames infinites missions as a whole weren't to bad. Its was the open world and the repetitiveness that i didn't like. Still wasn't anything like CE-Reach though.
Glad you mentioned the sequence. By far the most annoying mission in Infinite. The beams are placed so far off of each other,the combat when you get there is good but the cutscenes are very underwhelming. Pelican down offers probably the best dialogue bits in the game(one of the few places I don't mind escharum's trash talking),open spaces when you can use the vehicles provided and freedom to approach every objective in whichever way you want. This mission,warship Gbraakon and the last 3(the road-house of reckoning-silent auditorium) carried the game for me.
Can you make a video on elites? How they have basically been ruined. They just aren’t a threat anymore but they used to be terrifying and cunning.
Chronologically, they were ruined after Halo 3. Their entire arc of blind faith, betrayal, new alliances and redemption was excellent... And then they're just back again "because". Lazy writing, poorly handled direction and the new art style didn't do them any favors either
@@PineappleStickers I know. That’s what I mean, it’s sad. On legendary in ce and 2 they were a real challenge at times and so much fun to battle against.
@@PineappleStickers yh all tge way through i was thinking, "hey wait why am i fighting Elites again when we made a truce at ens of Halo 3???" Because reasons i guess.
Every time I play this level, I try to recreate the Craig scene from the 2020 demo. I once did an almost 1:1 but never reached that height again. Also can you do house of reckoning someday?
Will definitely do House of Reckoning at some point, been a few requests in the comments section. I'm not a huge meme person myself, but all the Craig stuff did crack me up. I also wasn't as down on the game as some people were based on that trailer, I actually thought it looked okay. God knows what we would have got through based on Infinite being middling with another year of development behind it.
@@BenPlaysGames pretty nice! lmao and i did love craig, the graphics did look a little wonky but i thought they were fine
@@cosmictreason2242 i mean let's be real anything's craig compared to blur's cinematics
@@cosmictreason2242 hell yeah
I did enjoy this mission but I prefer the inside missions. I love tight corridors all action shooting. Probably why I prefer halo 1&2 to 3.
I agree with your point about pelican down brings infinites best but I have to disagree with two of the points you made about infinite.
1.Infinite isn't an open world game it just has huge levels. Open worlds meaning literally means you can do everything in any order and your given the whole world to explore like Elden Ring. Infinite locks it's progression behind linear campaign missions you have to complete in that order once you do you can go to the next level. I think that alot of the perception around infinite has been tainted by Ubisofts terrible open worlds as infinite is still a linear halo game you can't complete any mission or visit any area without doing the prior one they just give you something that halo hasn't done which is side content or little combat encounters you can do for fun. It's a great way to take a break from the pacing of regular campaign missions and always fun. The second point is regards to the sequence which I call as paralleljng the CE level two betrayals the best. It's a wide open space sure but is structured the same as pelican down but the climax isn't a boss fight rather a hard encounter to enter the spire. This one is also a joy to replay since you can tackle them outta order and it contains the best two songs in the game the sequence and the chapel. This new streach also includes small banished bases to take out and you can't dispute that riven gate is placed to be a barrier to you entering the rest of the island so I consider it to be an optional but designed part of the mission.
I think 'open world' has become an umbrella term in the present to describe any game with a large environment which can be explored at players' leisure. I also disagree with the idea that Halo's side content is particularly good, I think it's incredibly lazy content we've seen a million times before in series' such as Far Cry and so many others. I was fine with Infinite having an open world if 343 did something new with it, but they didn't manage it at all. I can see where you're coming from regarding The Sequence too but again I'm not sure we see eye to eye. I like the encounters outside each spire well enough, but the rest is very 'copy and paste' and feels akin to the repetitive side content.
Infinites campaign is somehow the best campaign and most forgettable by 343. Really wish their was more of a presence from the marines. Would have been cool if the more checkpoints we clear, the bigger the unsc’s presence became in the actual story. Marines don’t appear in any cutscenes
I recognize you from multiplayer
Ah nice, hello! I've actually taken a bit of a break as the network issues were getting to me but will definitely be back on it again soon.
Hope you're having a happy new year ben!! 😘🥳
Really good thanks Blake mate, yourself?
@@BenPlaysGames so far so good!!! Stopped using nicotine for my new years resolution, and haven't cracked yet 😎
Lol I'm only committing to finishing February though 😅
I absolutely hated this level's bosses. The AA guns were no problem-I went West first and completely skipped the fight by Grapplehooking my way up to the open control room. The other two were difficult but manageable.
The Spartan Killers, however, just annoyed me. Especially the jetpack guy. I killed him five times in a row using precise headshots with a BR and emptying my Commando into him, but then it was a race around the area trying to scrounge up ammo or other guns while being drowned in plasma and gunfire.
And then he started jumping into the little room with the SPNKR and Hydra, so all my progress on his shield would disappear unless I chased him, and I spent a good ten attempts just getting into the new rhythm he was setting, not helped by him calling me a coward while running away from me.
It took me forty minutes to finally beat those two. I never want to play that level again.
I just grappled the chopper and ran them over lol it was easy. Harbinger though was a nightmare for me even on fucking Normal mode!!! 1hr 20mins it took woth that fucking sprinting Chieftan added to the mix!!
@@nixonagnewreviews7206 you're not running shit over on legendary. Vehicles = death for the player
Agreed this is definitely the best level especially once you unlock the bandanna 💀
Did we see Atriox actually die?
Nope.
I agree.
I still don't get how ships that look like frigates were reduced to smoldering carcasses yet a pelican took 2 hit and looked fine.
They had a lot bigger mass, probably fell from a much higher and probably took more shots
Honestly I liked infinites campaign a lot.
After careful consideration, the pilot reminds me of everything I don't like about MCU characters
Personally warship gbraakon was my favorite but that's just because halo shouldn't really be open world
Gbraakon is quality too, I had really high hopes for Infinite after that as it was a genuinely excellent start to the game. Unfortunately, that weren't exactly met!
Yea some other missions were good but it all just blended together, over all I like the infinite campaign though the covenant may be the most fun they've ever been to fight and if you treat it as a combat simulator you'll have a lot of fun
It’s two sixteen and z e ta halo
Eh disagree this shows the series can do well with an open world. If anything, this mission is arguably (I like the final three levels more) the best because it’s a closed off but still open “hub” mission.
Halo can do well with big, open levels, but we already knew that. You like this area so much because they were able to limit the players’ options enough to craft something. You’re basically stuck on a small island. The Sequence is what a more genuinely open world experience looks like, and while I didn’t dislike it quite as much as you, it isn’t as well crafted for that reason.
The missions have namessssssss?
Honestly I think the open world was the weakest aspect of the campaign. This section works pretty well, because it is similar to the 2nd level of CE, but I really would have rather had a more ironed out linear campaign.
It was unnecessary honestly. If they'd have done something different with the open world, fair enough, but when it's simply the same design style seen in Far Cry and a million other games, you have to ask yourself what the point was. Also, the comparison to Halo from Combat Evolved is an apt one I'd never thought of, good shout.
Halo infinite has one of if not the most monotonous boring campaigns in all of halos history. Every mission was a literal copy and paste. Hopefully the next story 343 creates will have more depth to it
Hopefully 343 won't get a second chance
Has much hate halo infinite gets I can’t wait for the next campaign or dlc I just love halo and didn’t think infinite campaign was that bad definitely the best 343 campaign imo
That narration felt like a lot of exposition to put lipstick on a pig.
Hopefully the lipstick was a nice shade at least 😂
I think the best mission in infinite is The Pillar or Autumn
When does that happen
Halo Infinite had levels?
I always skip Escherum’s scenes he says the same think in 50 different ways.
The sequence could have almost worked; if you only had to do two spires
Pelican down is mid. I just hate repetitive wild goose chases in video games, whether or not each objective is slightly altered than the last.
I believe Warship Gbraakon is the best, it's such a refreshing mission
Warship Gbraakon is top notch too. It might be blasphemy to some, but I'd possibly rank it the second best opening mission in the series.
@@BenPlaysGames I definitely can see that, the scene where Chief departs from the pelican and infiltrates Gbraakon is in my top 5 Halo cutscenes. It actually feels like Halo despite it being made by 343, it gives me chills and goose bumps everytime the piano starts to play. The cutscene pairs well with the level's design and gives me so much hopium.
Best mission of Halo as an ubisoft game. Not saying a whole lot tbh.
I hated the Pilot.
I can't stand him during early Infinite but once he, The Weapon and Master Chief become more of a proper trio, I think he works better. The incessant moaning early on is a lot though.
Me too he was a pointless whingebag.
@@cosmictreason2242 Why does he want to go home so badly when he says his family is "gone" and it was implied he planned to kill himself at the start anyway? He should have been all in with chief from the beginning having nothing to live for anyway and go out with style etc. The whole character arc was nonsensical from the start.
Real Halo fans never spent a dollar on Halo Infinite
The Sequence was very boring. It's supposed to be the last thing to do with the whole open world. And for some reason, The Weapon keeps annoying you to do the objective while you do other things around the open world.
Too much talking in this game too. I loved Escharum at the start but by the end I really wanted him to just shut up 😂
He's so wheezy and everything takes ten sentences when it could take two haha.
Cos everytime he said the same cliche thing and the camera angles were all the same. Act Man did a video on this and shows you why its so monotonous.
The level is far too short to be considered a proper Halo level.
Big Opinion here. Halo Infinite had the worst campaign by FAR of all the Halo games. It was half baked, lazily made and poorly written. I don’t remember a single mission and the “Open world” was an excuse to not develop levels
Pelican down was so annoying on legendary
this level is so bad really bad dialog it is defeat 3 towers and then the worst boss fight are you real????
All of halo infinite is pretty underwhelming. The story after 3 has been pretty terrible and after I finally liked what they did with halo wars 2 they just kinda make the banished seem lame and do a very predictable fake out with Atriox. Better than 4 and 5 but way too safe to be compared to OG halo. Should’ve been much better with 5-6 years
@@cosmictreason2242 this is probably the best they could’ve done to patch up the story a bit. only problem for me is I don’t really wanna fight robots/prometheans like in h4 and 5. Sentinels are okay and were mainly used in bursts by bungie but the prometheans straight up just sucked. I still feel they just need to straight up reboot it after 3 but with a team that actually respects halo and isn’t trying to make a completely different game with the halo name. Also they need to drop that T rating. Obviously it’s not doing what they want it to do for the population.
@@cosmictreason2242 yeah forerunners should be ancient humans as bungie intended and I would be fine going to another galaxy with a different threat, it would just have to make sense for how they got there and how would the halos fit in? Chief would still be floating in space with that cliffhanger ending, unless they make it a spin-off to ensure they actually know how to make a halo game. maybe with Jerome or some other spartan or even the odsts as the leads. I’m also fine with reintroducing the banished as they were cool in halo wars 2, infinite didn’t really do much with them to make them seem threatening other than that intro. I don’t think prometheans would be with the flood unless they were taken over somehow for after H4.
@@cosmictreason2242 I mean that makes more sense than what we’ve been given. I kind of like that we never met the forerunner ancient humans but if we had to meet them that’d be how to go about it besides moving to a diff galaxy or something. That’s probably like 2-3 games worth of concepts. For the first game have the race to save Cortana while fighting off the newly introduced banished and have Cortana fixed maybe halfway through and end with either killing off a banished leader or cliffhanger to that pocket dimension idea. Better than darth didact and his Walmart deathstar. I feel like the flood needed a break after 3 but now it’s been like a decade since we’ve seen them besides Halo wars 2
Personally, this was probably my least favourite part of infinite.
I thought "Infinite" meant more content and the world getting bigger over time.
No.
Not at all.
A decent game. A bit off for its lame WWE like boss stuff. But without a doubt a game ruined by its own developers by including a tank gun that allowed me to easily complete legendary and lose interest super quick.
if a level need explaing isnt a very good one, like a joke
Damn dude, in that case the rest of my videos probably aren't for you!
This mission was terrible. A repetitive bland chore just like the rest of the game. Halo infinites campaign was mid
Adjudicant Resolution
I stopped playing the game immediately after this mission right here. The game just isn’t good at all. It’s actually pretty awful. You know a game is bad when I pay full price for it and then don’t even bother to finish the game
i had to force myself to finish this game (and I love halo)
Hmm it’s really not that bad! It’s a lot better than 5.
I had a good time with it but that was primarily down to the gameplay which I thought was generally excellent. I wouldn't rate it so highly in terms of story and level design, however, which are both equally important.
@@sandman8920 But that's not saying much, that's like saying the shit you took last night was better than the shit you took the day before.
@@Guranga93 I know 🤷🏻♂️
this was not the best level.
Echo 216 is one of the Halo infinite additions that over time I like more. It might be unpopular but after two decades I'm kind of tired of army dudes and most dialogue being military jargon. Its refreshing to have the Chief have to deal with someone a bit different. Game still has issues but its something I like.
What can’t you understand about “they get Cortana we all die” or kill target” or “this attack fleet is smaller than of reach” how is that military jargon