I really enjoyed the first five-ten hours but was pretty disappointed after that. Once you've screwed around in the open world for a few hours, the game really doesn't throw many new ideas at you. The last like 5 missions that are all linear were really boring and too many of the boss fights were bullet sponges.
It felt like if they came up with one or two more grapple-hook level tools, then polished a few more things, didn't repeat the same three environments the whole game, it would have been something really special. As it stands, it really falls short of what I thought it was trying to be. It's hard to finish the game and not feel like they were just trying to reach a minimal viable product.
The gameplay seems fine (the grappling hook is a better addition than the open world, which I'm still not convinced is the right direction), but narratively HALO has been adrift since HALO 3 concluded the central defining conflict of the series. What's left is trying to find a decent plot to justify what is essentially the same old HALO. The plot, to me, is mostly a failure.
The way Infinite is set up, I think it really needed better character writing, the likes of which frankly I don't think any of the HALO games were great at. Specifically, HALO infinite is a plot (or rather, a needless withholding of plot) that depends on strongly written, charismatic villains.
Instead, we get a bunch of interchangeable space gorillas doing pro-wrestling heel promos, and not even especially good ones. The HALO writers should also declare a formal moratorium on "The Thethethe" factions. The Banished, the Forerunners, the Flood, the Covenant, the Endless, etc. get a better name-scheme.
Whatever else there is to say about the HALO series' writing overall, you can say there was always a clear sense of what was happening, and what was at stake. Maybe it's because I skipped 5 and never played the HALO Wars games, but I honestly had no idea what the fuck was going on for the majority of the game.
I didn't understand who "The Banished" were or why we were fighting them, or why their leader was named after the horse from Neverending Story , or what the fuck had actually gotten us there, or what their actual goals with the ring were (obviously we assume they'll use it against humanity, but why? Give me some details, that's what makes me care!).
Then, at the ass end of the game, "Oh, yeah, here's the plot btw." And I'm like, "oh, that's actually not bad, it would have been nice to have played through the game knowing that. Would have provided useful framing, helped give me motivation for all the onscreen action as a player." But no, having an actual plot is effectively presented as the "twist" of the game. The hook to keep you playing for the entire rest of the game is "why is any of this bullshit happening?"