Halo Infinite is a brilliant game. Honestly, against the odds, I feel that 343 has delivered one of the best first-person shooters of the last decade. It's a release that far exceeds the studio's previous work on Halo 4 and 5 in terms of design and in nailing the 'combat sandbox' experience. Worries I had about the transition to an open world have been assuaged and despite the seemingly difficult development period, I simply love the game. Is it perfect? Certainly not. There are numerous tech issues to address and fundamentally, I'm not sure this is the game that was originally envisaged based on reviewing early marketing assets. Regardless though, you've got to play it.
Let's tackle the thorny issue of the open world first. The gradual shift in the games business away from linear design to wide-open play areas crammed with busy work and filler content is becoming a real issue - franchise titles like Far Cry and Assassin's Creed exhibit these issues at their worst. Thankfully, Halo Infinite's approach to level design works brilliantly, just as the preview build suggested, taking the foundational building blocks of Halo 1's second mission and expanding it into something far larger in scope. It works and it retains much of what makes Halo special while introducing a level of freedom that feels like a natural extension. Think OG Crisis rather than latter-day Far Cry and hopefully you'll get some idea of what I mean.