I don’t even realize the legendary
Halo 3 map is part of the rotation until I queue up for a game and see shots of its evergreen trees, its ankle-deep water, and its hulking, futuristic structures as the match loads up. Dazed, I walk out onto the angled ramp on one end of the massive, sunlit valley and am hit with a violent wave of nostalgia, followed immediately by the cockpit of a Banshee. Boom, splattered.
What follows is a match that’s the best
Halo Infinite has ever felt thanks to a mix of its rock-solid gunplay and the near-faultless layout of a classic
Halo 3 map. New weapons like the Commando are perfect for the size and scope of Valhalla, allowing me to pick off players camping in a faraway Forerunner structure while still serving a purpose when one of them drops out of the sky and onto my head.
Sure, there have been sprawling open maps with enclosed spaces dotting the terrain and vehicles just waiting to be ridden since the game launched. And sure, the weapons and movement mechanics, which expertly balance older
Halo physics with more modern FPS expectations, have always been great. Maybe this is all one big exercise in the power of nostalgia, and I’m only this gassed about
Halo Infinite because it gave me a little
Rat’s Nest as a treat.
But maybe, just maybe,
Halo Infinite has always been this good. It just needed a familiar conduit, a recognizable face, to remind you of that.