Halo Infinite has impressed fans and newcomers to the series alike with the quality of its open-world singleplayer, with many citing it as the best campaign in the entire franchise. That sentiment is certainly up for debate among the Halo community, however, as many have criticized the way that the story ignores most of the other plot threads that 343 Industries was working towards in its previous two Halo titles. While Master Chief isn't fighting against the Covenant anymore, the Banished make for a relatively good replacement in that they're essentially the same exact faction but with new leadership and some new weapons.

After finishing the game's campaign, however, it seems as if a lot of fans were hoping for a little bit more out of Halo Infinite in the enemies department. Most enemy species that make appearances throughout the 10-hour campaign have been seen before in the franchise, and those that were added, namely the Skimmers, didn't feel like they brought a whole lot to the overall game. Although it's far easier said than done, it seems like it might have been worth 343 Industries' time to add another faction of enemies for Chief to fight in Halo Infinite.

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Same Old Brutes, Elites, Grunts, and Jackals

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There's something truly unique about the Halo franchise's enemies that makes them extremely memorable. Plenty of science fiction games have the player fight aliens, however, Halo's are perhaps the most iconic in all of gaming. One good reason for this, among others, is because of how unique each species is and how much personality they all individually show. This means that players need to take different approaches for fighting each group, which varies up the strategies used in a satisfying way while also making it so that the games never feel too repetitive.

While the classic Halo villains are mostly all back for Infinite, there's not enough done to them to give them their own identity, with the game turning them simply into the same old enemies that players have been fighting against since 2001. That isn't to say that they're not still interesting and fun to engage with, but it does make a lot of Halo Infinite feel the same given how little changes there are to truly distinguish its enemies from those in other entries in the franchise.

Bringing New Enemies to Halo Infinite

Halo Infinite Boss Harbinger

As stated above, it's a lot easier to simply say "there should have been more new enemies in Halo" than it would be for 343 Industries to have added and balanced them into the actual game. That said, there just wasn't enough enemy variety to truly keep the encounters unique and fresh for Halo Infinite's entire playtime. The original Halo trilogy had the Flood, and 4 and 5 had the Prometheans who seemed like they might be featured again in Infinite, but never made an appearance. Given the fact that the Flood has been eliminated and that reception to the Prometheans was mixed, it would have made sense for 343 to introduce some new faction to the game, which the campaign seemed to be leading to with the unseen "Endless." However, a new faction never shows up.

This is a shame, as Infinite revolutionized Halo's gameplay with the grappleshot, so introducing new enemies that could either counter it or engage with it in a meaningful way would have added a lot to the overall experience and kept the Banished from overstaying their welcome. Given where the campaign leads in the end, it seems as if 343 Industries is interested in adding a new threat to humanity in future titles, but that doesn't do much good for the most recent release.

Halo Infinite is available now for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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