Halo Infinite Can’t Decide If It’s a Breakup Game or a Dad Game

With Halo Infinite, 343 Industries and Microsoft need the sixth main entry within the long-running shooter franchise to really feel like a smooth reboot of the collection, notably regarding the relationship between the Master Chief and his AI buddy Cortana. After her supposed loss of life on the finish of Halo 4, and Halo 5 setting her up as a digital dictator enlisting different AIs to rule over the cosmos had been choices reviled by fans, Infinite is in a bizarre spot. Does it need to skate by the occasions of Halo 5 and deal with a brand new journey, or does it need to handle its predecessor straight?

The reply is…form of each, however in a little bit of a bizarre approach. And it’s principally due to that central Halo relationship between Master Chief and Cortana.

Revealed previous to the sport’s launch, a big a part of Infinite’s story considerations Chief’s new AI buddy, the Weapon (voiced by longtime Halo vet Jen Taylor, who… effectively, voices Cortana). Created by the UNSC with the specific intention of capturing and deleting Cortana for her previous crimes in Halo 5, the Weapon’s simply as witty as her predecessor, however coded as significantly youthful and quippier. With her large eyed gawking at Forerunner structure and naïve nature, the dynamic between her and Chief seems like 343 taking a swing at making a Dad Game that AAA builders (notably ones from Sony, about dudes reckoning with kids and the useless girls of their lives) love dipping into occasionally. The writing absolutely embraces this because the Weapon cracks jokes about Chief’s stoic one-liners, and makes up names for a brand new kind of alien enemies encounted in Infinite known as the Endless. Sometimes, this new youthful spin works, equivalent to when she offers a pep speak to the annoyed Pilot in a approach that the Master Chief simply isn’t absolutely emotionally geared up to do. Other instances, it’s a really bare try at nostalgia for followers of the unique Halo on 343’s half, even because the charisma between Steve Downes’ Chief and Taylor’s A.I. handle to make it professional sufficient that you could be not thoughts the apparent bait.

How a lot of Halo Infinite’s narrative works with regard to those two will rely totally on how you’re feeling about Chief and Cortana’s relationship from the earlier video games. Reading their relationship as romantic in some trend has by no means been terribly troublesome, even when it’s only for a joke, and each this recreation and Halo 3 use cryptic visions to indicate how Chief is struggling to cope with his longtime companion now not being round, and far of Halo 4‘s story additionally noticed the Master Chief grapple with the opportunity of dropping Cortana eternally. When strolling by means of Forerunner constructions in Infinite Chief will often hear Cortana’s voice, making it clear she’ll eternally be on his thoughts due to the years they spent collectively. The Weapon, performing as each a facsimile of this girl he cares for and a reminder of what he may lose once more, disconcerts Chief. However, taciturn as he all the time is, he isn’t capable of correctly specific these fears or considerations past a handful of phrases more often than not.

Much as Infinite desires you to really feel such as you’re taking part in the unique recreation once more however on a brand new Xbox, it isn’t fully capable of shake off Halo 5‘s narrative baggage. When the sport straight addresses its predecessor, it will possibly’t assist however ping-pong between being a couple of man studying to be a mother or father and a man who can’t cease seeing his ex in his new companion. Since the Weapon is an entire copy of Cortana, but when the pair had by no means met prior to now, Chief is absolutely able to set off the failsafe that’ll delete her if he must. It goes even additional when flashbacks within the recreation reveal that Cortana’s quest for A.I. revolution within the climax of Halo 5 noticed her mechanical superweapons, the Guardians, destroy the homeworld of Infinite’s main villain, the Banished chief Atriox. However, as a result of his ex is now not round, Chief has to take the hits that had been initially meant for Cortana herself.

After the Weapon learns Chief is able to activate her failsafe at any second, she begins changing into passive aggressive. Valid as it’s for her to snipe at Chief and snitch in regards to the failsafe to the Pilot so he’ll take her aspect, the mission the place this all occurs actually exhibits how younger she’s supposed to be. When she blows up at Chief and asks him to belief her after she’s completed nothing however assist, the second doesn’t land as supposed as a result of it feels much less like a pure level of battle within the Chief and the Weapon’s relationship, and extra prefer it’s solely there as a result of that’s simply what recreation tales about single mother and father with youngsters eventually do . But when you’ve got the connection between Chief and Cortana in thoughts—as 343 invitations you to have in making the Weapon such a direct copy of her—these hostile interactions learn as weirder than the sport could have supposed. It’s a remixing of that symbiotic relationship from the previous, sure, however the romantic undertones of that relationship are additionally nonetheless form of there, regardless of Infinite doing its finest to not go down that route once more.

By Infinite’s conclusion, Chief and the Weapon (who’s determined to call herself, although we aren’t advised what) have discovered to belief one another, and the Chief himself is given some semblance of peace together with his former companion. Players finally uncover that Cortana truly seemingly perished for good in the course of the occasions between Halo 5 and Infinite, discovering a message she leaves for the Chief that serves as each an apology for her previous actions, and a passing of the torch when it comes to their partnership to the Weapon—with the hope that the 2 can be self-aware sufficient to forestall the circumstances that doomed Cortana in Halo 5 from taking place a second time. For as a lot as 343’s trilogy of video games has had no bother portray Chief and Cortana’s relationship as a tragic romance, no matter they may do with him and the Weapon now that that torch has been handed should discover some focus, so it doesn’t really feel like a wierd re-tread of what got here earlier than.

Halo Infinite is out now on Xbox and PC.

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