It lies in a delicious rock-paper-scissors trade-off between weaponry, shielding, grenades and melee. And everyone is on an even playing field. Plasma weapons drain shields faster, bullets drop unshielded enemies. Melee can wipe out a shield or down an unshielded enemy but you are unlikely to get in two whacks without being taken down first. Grenades are advised as an opening salvo or a devastating full stop. Throw in a glut of exotic weapons and equipment; heat-seeking missiles, rebounding plasma balls, giant shockwave-creating hammers, grappling hooks and you have yourself a breadth of options to go about your business.
But even the ‘bog-standard’ starting weapons of an assault rifle and pistol are a satisfying double-team. Draining a shield takes almost exactly a full-clip of the assault rifle, and doing so before quickly switching to the pistol and headshotting your quarry is a thrill that is yet to get old.
The reason this works so well, and arguably better than in even the Halo games that went before it, is how well this is all visually communicated. Those shields are very obvious and when they are drained, they pop and the player is surrounded by crackling red energy instead, giving you the green light to finish them off with a few well-placed shots. Particularly handy when mopping up after a multi-way battle.
This all makes Halo Infinite not only a pleasure to play, but a game that is delightfully teachable. Often in shooters, including Halos before this I’d wager, you will get into a one-on-one, die in a split-second and yell “HOW?!” at the screen. There will always be a reason, but rarely are they this clear, giving you an idea of how to improve your tactics next time. Or at least it being obvious where you screwed up in those more tactical battles.
