It’s instant interactivity – you squeeze the trigger and affect the world. FPS games are so popular because they’re immediate. That little pop you get when you down an alien, accompanied by the red hit marker the splat and crunch as you burst a grunt’s carapace the way enemies stumble when caught in the shockwave of an explosion, or how they drop to their knees when you shoot out a leg.
It doesn’t matter which weapon you’re using either – they’re all satisfying. And what guns they are: railguns that fire rays of light, disintegrating bodies and ricocheting off hard surfaces electric coil sniper rifles that fry heads and chain electricity through grouped up enemies stubby shotguns with tiny bayonets attached impossible lasers that tear through machinery and flesh – red hot death in neon pinks, greens and purples. You might have favorite guns, but it won’t be long before you’re forced to toss them aside just to live. Down a grunt with the last bullet in your clip and snatch their weapon from the floor to continue your assault. The two-weapon restriction is there for the same reason as Breath of the Wild’s weapon degradation, forcing to you adapt and survive as you chain together kills.
Its action is intentionally slowed down, allowing for a precision that isn’t possible in most shooters.
Take the floaty jump: it feels like you’re bouncing on the moon, but you’re able to do a full 360-degree rotation while suspended in the air, scanning the horizon for heads to pop. There’s intentionality to every aspect of the design. All single-player shooters are this at their core, but Halo has always offered options much wider than left versus right.Īfter years of identical military FPS games, the old-school feel of Halo is refreshing in 2021. Mechanically, it’s a question all first-person shooters ask: choose to go right and eat a grenade reload and go left to avoid the grenade. “If you knew how you were going to die, how would you live your life differently?” This is the question Master Chief’s estranged AI girlfriend asks at the beginning of Halo Infinite.