Halo Infinite (Campaign)

Availability: Windows (Steam Deck YMMV), Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Halo has always taken many of its lore and story beats from the wider world of space-themed science fiction, and 2021’s Infinite campaign offers one of the most expansive, vista-rich, and free-roaming Master Chief experiences yet. Cast out on a fractured portion of one of the series’ infamous Halo installations, Infinite’s landscape is a broken, beautiful, and mysterious sci-fi world and a great first-person shooter experience that affords you freedom and room to explore.

Many might be quick to point out that Halo has had better campaigns in the past, and you should absolutely check those out if you’re interested; but the open world of Infinite is unique to this entry. The ability to take in the colossal space that surrounds you, scaling enormous heights with Installation 07’s other half stretching into an eternal loop above and around you, plunging into the depths of ancient structures from precursor civilizations, and allowing encounters with the Banished to happen rather organically in these spaces grants a level of scale that’ll serve as a nice appetizer for the even larger and more free-roaming Starfield experience we expect to be playing later this year. The added armor and equipment upgrades in Halo Infinite also provide a nice, though very simple, level of character progression to chase as well.

If you really want to get into the story of Halo Infinite, though, it might help to do some homework. Catch up on some summaries of the campaigns in Halo 5 and Halo Wars 2 to get a general sense of what’s going on. Where Halo goes in the future with its galaxy-spanning lore is anyone’s guess, but Infinite offers solid FPS gameplay set in an inspiring sci-fi world.