If multiplayer is an integral part of the Halo experience, Infinite's free-to-play is a separate entity that was also released in beta on November 15. We will therefore in this test focus on the single-player campaign, also eagerly awaited by fans. Our first contact of a few hours with the latter had captivated us, and we will see in the following lines if the magic always works over time. Welcome to Halo Zeta!
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See PriceRead ConclusionHalo Infinite
- One of the best gameplay in the franchise
- Classic but effective open world
- Scenario refocused on Master Chief
- Majestic AD and soundtrack
- Sawtooth technique
- Unoriginal secondary objectives
- A scenario that leaves you hungry
- L'absence de coop au lancement
Test carried out mainly on PC thanks to a Review Build provided by 343 Industries and Microsoft. The single-player campaignHalo Infinite will be released on December 8 on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Game Pass.
"I need a weapon"
Before setting our feet on a new Halo installation (it hadn't happened since Halo 3 in 2007!), a little reminder of the global history is in order for veterans and neophytes alike. Cortana, the petulant AI and best friend of Master Chief, found at the end of Halo 5 a cure for the creeping madness that gnawed at her in Halo 4 after she exceeded her life expectancy.
Strengthened by this renewed vigor and partly corrupted by the Parasites in Halo 2 and 3, she got it into her head that the Creations were the only ones worthy of wearing the Mantle of Responsibility. A concept invented by the Forerunners and attributed to the species best able to save the galaxy. To do this, she has joined forces with the powerful and mysterious Guardians to establish a tyrannical order over all species.
A few months later, what's left of humanity hatched a plan to stop Cortana. Master Chief and the UNSC Infinity ship were sent to Halo Zeta to design a Weapon capable of containing our best friend of yesteryear. But this facility was also coveted by another faction: the Outcasts. A rebel group of the Covenant, this one had other plans regarding this Forerunner installation like no other. A major conflict ensued, from which the crew of the UNSC Infinity and Master Chief emerged soundly beaten.
After sleeping in the sidereal void for several months, Master Chief is finally found by Echo 216, one of the rare survivors of the massacre. Following a heated discussion, Spartan-117 manages to convince his savior that the mission to find the Weapon, a new AI, is the only way to ensure Humanity a safe return home. Master Chief, accompanied by his two new friends, will therefore have the task of driving the Pariah forces out of Halo Zeta, discovering its mysteries, saving Humanity... and somewhere finding his own.
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With the story of Halo Infinite, 343 Industries refocuses the narrative around a Master Chief worn down by age, hardships and the loss of dear friends, and his new relationship with the Weapon and Echo 216. a nod to Combat Evolved, the episode that propelled the Halo franchise to the stars, and to Bungie's masterful sequels. Many passages have thus deeply touched us in our hearts of fans. We will leave you the pleasure of discovering all this on your side!
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Be aware, however, that if this new opus is a good gateway into the Halo universe, many references, sometimes cryptic, are made to the old opuses. So much so that newcomers might be left behind, and veterans left with more questions than answers. We can also deplore the notable absence of characters presented in Halo 4 and 5, whose fate remains a mystery.
One bullet won't be enough
After this historical reminder, it's time to focus on the second major part of any self-respecting Halo game: the gameplay. If Master Chief is tired in the cutscenes, the opposite is far from true keyboard / mouse or controller in hand! Borrowing as much from the flow of Bungie's opuses as from its own creations, 343 Industries offers us a beautiful alchemy of the two.
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Master Chief is thus more nimble than ever and navigates the battlefield with agility based on sprints, slides and other athletic feats. A mobility all the more transcended by gadgets coming to improve its powerful armor Mjolnir. Topping the list is the grappling hook, a marvel of versatility that on its own completely revolutionizes combat in the franchise. A real Swiss army knife which we can no longer do without and which will be regretted when we return nostalgically to the old opuses.
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In addition to the grappling hook, Master Chief will be able to add to his armor, by recovering them from fallen Spartan comrades, an improved shield, sonar, a portable wall and the famous thruster introduced in Halo 5. Each gadget can be improved via modules Spartans, the obtaining of which will be explained a little later. Still, the proper use of each gadget will be essential in order to triumph over the Pariah forces and fits admirably well into the sandbox gameplay so specific to the franchise.
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Of course, as Master Chief himself would say, we also need weapons. And on this point, 343 Industries did not disappoint either. The arsenal of weapons, grenades and vehicles is particularly extensive, and each brings its own personal touch so that nothing is redundant. Thanks to delightful sound design and excellent feel, battling in Halo Infinite has never been so satisfying. The world of Halo Infinite also gives pride of place to explosive coils, decorative objects to swing shamelessly in the face of our opponents. A small detail that illustrates very well the idea that Master Chief must often improvise with what comes to hand to get by. And the overall formula turns out to be devilishly effective!
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On the adversary side, like once again in Combat Evolved, we will mainly be confronted with the Outcasts and the protectors of the Halo Zeta installation. As in the old opuses, each type of enemy and extraterrestrial species has a unique behavior which further reinforces the immersion in the heat of the action. The artificial intelligence even managed to surprise us by bypassing us or looking for cover against our shots and grenades. It still happens that it has some failures, but we can generally salute the work of 343 Industries on this point, where other titles like Deathloop have been much less convincing.
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Having gone through the entire adventure on Heroic difficulty, the experience was particularly balanced for us between fun and moments of tension. Too bad, however, that cooperation is absent at launch to enjoy it with friends. A sacrifice no doubt necessary so that the game can arrive in time to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the franchise. Not expected for several months, the co-op may come too late for exploring Halo Zeta with friends to have any appeal.
A Halo cure and see
For its third opus and the 20th anniversary of the franchise, 343 Industries wanted to think big. If Halo is known for its semi-open levels that give pride of place to freedom, the new playground that is Halo Zeta sounds the death knell for linearity. We still feel here that the studio wanted to revive the magic of Combat Evolved in 2001, but with modernity.
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After a prologue that will put the veterans on familiar ground, we are brutally confronted with a rather impressive first panorama of all that Halo Zeta can offer us. Here we are released on this installation shrouded in mysteries, and it is up to us to explore it in complete freedom. Too bad, however, that its surface is only made up of wooded land sprinkled with Pariah infrastructure. We thus have the constant impression of traversing the same environment, where the old opuses offered us much more varied journeys.
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Still, this relatively large open world will not lack elements to occupy us. Besides the progression in the main story, it will indeed be up to Master Chief to take back Halo Zeta from the hands of the Outcasts. To do this, various points of interest are scattered on the map: bases to take over for our account, Pariah fortresses to dismantle, priority targets to defeat acting as mini-bosses, Marines to save, Spartan modules to recover to improve our gadgets. , cosmetic elements for multiplayer… the release of Halo Zeta will not be easy! However, we can blame unoriginal secondary objectives, which fortunately are not numerous enough to get tired of them.
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Pure and simple exploration will also reward us, among other Outcast patrols and ambushes, audio logs and Forerunner artifacts that will increase the lore of the game and Halo Zeta. By looking carefully, we can also come across the famous skulls, very well hidden, which will modify our gaming experience once activated.
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While it's possible to skip exploration entirely to focus on the story, it's important not to neglect these secondary goals. These indeed grant us powerful weapons, as well as points of bravery unlocking at each level weapons, vehicles and Marines to help us in the fight against the Pariahs.
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To recover all this, each liberated base will act as a fast travel point, on which we can order a vehicle and change our arsenal before setting out again to reconquer Halo Zeta.
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The whole adventure, with all the secondary objectives completed, took us about twenty hours on Heroic difficulty. A lifespan that is all in all very honorable for a single-player FPS, but which seemed a bit too short to us. Overall, the pace of the game is as methodical as Master Chief himself. After a scripted mission in a more compartmentalized environment, we will discover a new part of the open world that will lead us to the next mission. These will therefore be of more interest to fans of the fascinating history to which the franchise has accustomed us, and have the luxury of diversifying in a very beautiful way the poorer level-design on the surface of Halo Zeta.
It's beautiful Halo, but not by far
Ideal transition to evoke the graphic part of Halo Infinite, sharply criticized during a first presentation in the summer of 2020. If the additional one-year delay did the game a lot of good, it is clear that the visual aspect of the title remains in spite of everything in sawtooth. In particular, we can still deplore the natural settings of Halo Zeta that are not very pleasant to watch, or panoramas spoiled by a depth of field decked out with significant clipping.
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Fortunately, this is largely made up for by particularly enticing visual effects at certain times of the day/night cycle on the surface, as well as work on the other textures which commands respect. Master Chief's battle-worn armor and the weapons he wields are glaringly classy and realistic, unlike the overly "clean" look we saw a year ago. Special mention also to the missions in the various complexes housed in Halo Zeta, which are generally visually superb.
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We can also salute the work of 343 Industries on the strictly majestic artistic direction of Halo Infinite, which pays a beautiful tribute to the gigantism and the halo (pun assumed) of mystery specific to this fascinating universe. And let's not even talk about the soundtrack, as discreet as it is sublime when it lets itself be heard. Some may stay long minutes on the launch menu, just to listen to the sumptuous theme. And only Halo can do that to us.
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Technical status report
Besides the visual aspect, what about the technique on Halo Infinite? We had the opportunity to thoroughly test a PC version specially developed in the forges of 343 Industries, as well as the Xbox Series X|S versions, in order to draw up a quick comparison.
A specially dedicated PC version that keeps its promises
Our PC test setup was equipped with an RTX 3070 Ti, a Ryzen 5 5600X, 32 GB of RAM and an M.2 NVMe SSD. We have thus observed on our muscular machine a rather clean optimization, despite a few hiccups. In Ultra/1p, we indeed encountered in the heat of the action framerate oscillations between 440 and 144 fps, with a few rare drops below this crucial threshold for good overall fluidity. We have also been confronted with a few rare bugs as annoying as they are hilarious, and three crashes over our twenty hours of play. We can also blame the absence of an exclusive full-screen mode.
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Flawless Xbox Series X|S versions
If Halo Infinite was to be the spearhead for the launch of the new generation of Xbox consoles, it was finally a year later that we were able to test the title on Series X and S. For happy owners of Dolby-compatible TVs Vision and whose panels can display 120 frames / sec, Halo Infinite will not disappoint you.
Indeed, on the Series X, the game offers two display modes: a quality mode (by default) aiming for a dynamic 4K resolution at 60 frames / sec, very stable despite the debauchery of explosions and enemies at the screen ; and a performance mode which aims for a dynamic 1440p resolution (but which in reality rarely exceeds 1080p) with an unlocked framerate which can go up to 120 frames/sec on compatible TVs. In fact, framerate fluctuations are unpleasant, and we clearly recommend the quality mode, finer and more stable.
On Series S, the quality mode aims for 1080p at 30fps, while the performance mode sacrifices resolution to reach 60fps. In any case, the differences between the Series X and S versions and their two modes will only have an impact on resolution and framerate. The level of detail, shadows, lights and view distance seem equivalent. To top it off, Halo Infinite benefits from a very powerful scaling and anti-aliasing solution, offering a very clean result for Master Chief's first steps on next-gen consoles.
Halo Infinite : l'avis de JVFR
We've been waiting for Halo Infinite with cautious anticipation, and overall we're thrilled with the trip! 343 Industries offers here a brilliant synthesis between the legacy bequeathed by Bungie and the personal touch that the studio has brought to this vast building.
By refocusing the story on Master Chief and his relationship with his two new companions, the game reconnects with fans and energizes the board with some of the best gameplay in the franchise. It will also be an excellent gateway for neophytes, although the story risks losing them along the way. Too bad the whole thing leaves a slight taste of unfinished, the fault of the absence of a co-op mode at launch, an open world and a jagged visual aspect, as well as a scenario that leaves us on our hunger.
Either way, 343 Industries is starting afresh here on a solid, healthy new foundation that's a great gift to Master Chief and the fans for the franchise's 20th anniversary. It remains to be seen how the Californian studio will tell us the rest: via extensions to the Halo Infinite campaign, or via a new opus.
Hopefully we won't have to wait another six years to find out, because we can't wait to find Master Chief, gun in hand! Rest and happy birthday, Spartan-117. We'll be sure to wake you up when we need you!
Halo Infinite8
With Halo Infinite, 343 Industries clearly signs its best performance. A real birthday present for the 20th anniversary of the franchise, this title offers a reconnection with the magic of Combat Evolved in a large format version. Open world, gameplay more intense than ever and history refocused on Master Chief, Halo Infinite lays the foundations of a new solid foundation, despite a slight taste of unfinished.Most
- One of the best gameplay in the franchise
- Classic but effective open world
- Scenario refocused on Master Chief
- Majestic AD and soundtrack
The lessers
- Sawtooth technique
- Unoriginal secondary objectives
- A scenario that leaves you hungry
- L'absence de coop au lancement
