Okay here's one I've been putting off for a while because I just don't really know how I'm supposed to approach it. For clarity's sake, I've never really been that much of a Halo fan and by that I mean I've never actually owned a single game from the main franchise, despite owning an Xbox. (I know, that's pretty much the height of hedonism.) That is not to say, however, that I've never played a Halo game, because I actually have completed a full playthrough of Halo Reach which I'll attest is actually a really solid and well made game. So then why haven't I rode that excitement to play the other games? I don't know, I don't have the money or time, okay? So the consequence of this is that I actually have no attachment to the beloved classic video game character of Master Chief or any of his journeys against the Covenant, or whoever it is he's fighting these days. I don't even really think of Noble Six all that much either. Neither of those characters quite hold that sense of gravitas that I think off when I consider a timeless game protagonist. Give me the Doom Slayer over these faceless nobodies anyday. (No offence to Halo fans, I'm sure John-117 is great once you get to know him.)
As such when the trailer first dropped for Halo infinite, or shall we say the teaser, all those years ago I could have yawned myself to sleep. What did we see? A dude wandering through the desert only to be overwhelmed by a sandstorm and turn out to be Master Chief. Great, that explained nothing, teased nothing and was ultimately nothing. (Way to waste a reveal.) Seems that the marketing team didn't learn from this nothing burger, however, because the next time we saw the title it was just a short cutscene of Master Chief being found in the midst of space by a junker and getting woken from some form of stasis. Seriously, that entire trailer was full of so much nothing-speak it made that final line from Halo 2 sound like the 'Tears in the Rain' soliloquy. ("I'm ending this fight!") So what's the solution? Now that Halo Infinite is actually within the grasp of gamers and they can start with an actual marketing campaign, how do the team correct the wrongs of the past two boring teasers which showed off nothing? Go the complete other direction of course! Show too much.
I typically try my hardest to catch these gaming events in their entirety, but when I cannot I don't really have the time to go back and watch the entire thing unless it's a conference I really care about. (I wouldn't miss a second of a CDPR showcase.) So I just pick and choose what I'm interested in without really investing myself in games I wouldn't poke a feces-covered stick with, which is to say that I didn't watch the raw Halo footage. And that might have something to do with the fact that the gameplay was just several minutes of wandering and shooting without anything really transcendent about this game to knock the socks firmly off. Fair enough, you might think, this was a game trailer made for fans to show them that this game is real afterall, it doesn't need to woo over someone who never really liked the games to begin with. Except, that wasn't how Microsoft billed it. For you see they made a big point about parading Infinite as the first unburdened showcase of 'The power of the Series X', basically throwing this game up against that supremely impressive and technologically stunning 'Ratchet and Clank' trailer. So how'd it end up faring? Well...
I'd be lying if I said that no one was excited by the gameplay that they saw. Fans had been edged on by this game for literal years now, so they went absolutely crazy for even the slightest glimmer of actual gameplay, but as for the rest of us; it was a nuke sized dud. The gameplay in question was just freeroam content showing off the brand new open world that Infinite was touting, but the act of exploring an Open world doesn't exactly make for the best trailer viewing unless that world is absolutely stunning like Cyberpunk's Night City or Metro Exodus' Russian Wastes. Without any real drive for the footage, setpeices to rally around, or substantial new gimmicks to showoff (no, the hookshot they stole for 'Ocarina of Time' doesn't count as 'new') it all made for a comparatively stale show compared against the chaotic action of 'Ratchet and Clanks' world hopping reveal footage. But those who were really invested found something further to gripe on.
Perhaps you've already seen the pictures doing the rounds, specifically the one of the Covenant brute's close up on his nonplussed face as he gets whacked in the face by a Spartan. This brute was dubbed Craig by the internet, and his low quality expression-less face has become the poster child of Halo Infinite whether the devs wanted that or not. (I'm going on a limb and assuming that they didn't. Wouldn't really make sense if they did.) It's a real kick in the nuts, I'll admit, for such an overly controlled marketing cycle to be completely derailed by one bad frame the second they decide to be more open, but it's indicative of a problem that ran throughout all the 'good' shots of this gameplay too; the game just doesn't look that good.
Let me be clear, I'm not just talking about a graphical perspective, although many have claimed that game doesn't shine in that regard either, I'm talking about pure creativity and exploring the unexplored. The footage we saw took place in the classic vista of the Halo ring, which was awe-inspiring back in the days of the original Halo but now seems somewhat sleepy and dull. It's lacks the dynamic range that I experienced throughout my playthrough of Reach, from the alien farmlands to the nightime raids. I'm sure the full game will be more exciting, it has to be, but perhaps if those more lively gameplay moments weren't ready to be shown than neither was this trailer. (But that's just my two cents.)
So what was the consequence of this wide spread disinterest for the new Halo? Well, much like one would expect, it was a bit of panic and, I'd imagine, some relief. This game was initially being propped up in the spot of becoming a launch title for the Series X, something to win over day-one consumers. Yet that's no longer the case as it's apparent the game won't be able to dazzle nearly as much as the company wants it to with that current schedule, thus the title has been pushed back giving 343 some room but leaving Microsoft in a bit of a pickle. What launch title do they have to replace it? The answer: seemingly nothing. I'm being serious, I can't find a single headliner that's going to land by this December and that is worrying. We all know that the worst times for a new console are those opening few weeks of no games, but the headliners are supposed to cushion that wasteland. Nintendo Switch broke that trend with arguably one of the best initial lineups of all time, but Microsoft look eager to pick up the slack with an impending disaster of a launch. 343 have really left them in the lurch this time, huh?
But at the end of the day, the state of the Series X launch it moot. I could care less what happens to the multibillionaire company's new hardware launch, and I'm sure that most people out there are similarly more invested in making sure that Master Chiefs' triumphant return is as good as it can be. (Especially after that widely criticised mess which was Halo 5 Guardians.) If the team need another 6 months to iron things out, then I say let them, what's the harm? Does this mean that Halo will become a game that I sign up to? No, but then I don't think anything would endear me to this FPS series short of a 10/10 must buy game, and I just don't think Halo has the steam to reach those heights anymore. For what it's worth, I didn't think Infinite's gameplay looked terrible, just boring, so perhaps there's hope for this game come launch. Whether the Internet which condemned it will ever come around to liking it, however, is another matter entirely...
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