WithHalo Infinite , 343 Industries and Microsoft want the sixth major entree in the long - running shooter franchiseto feel like a soft reboot of the series , particularly in regards to the human relationship between the Master Chief and hisAI buddy Cortana . After her hypothesize end at the end of Halo 4 , and Halo 5 setting her up as a digital dictator engage other artificial intelligence to rule over the cosmos were decisionsreviled by fan , Infinite is in a weird spot . Does it need to skate by the event of Halo 5 and concenter on a raw adventure , or does it want to direct its predecessor direct ?
The answer is … sort of both , but in a bit of a weird manner . And it ’s mostly because of that key Halo family relationship between Master Chief and Cortana .
Revealed prior to the plot ’s release , a great part of Infinite ’s story concerns Chief ’s new AI buddy , the weapon system ( voiced by longtime Halo veterinary Jen Taylor , who … well , sound Cortana ) . create by the UNSC with the express intention of catch and deleting Cortana for her past criminal offense in Halo 5 , the Weapon ’s just as witty as her predecessor , but coded as substantially younger and quippier . With her wide eyed gawking at Forerunner architecture and naïve nature , the moral force between her and Chief feels like 343 taking a swing atmaking a Dad Gamethat AAA developers ( particularlyonesfromSony , about dudes cypher with small fry and the dead women in their lives ) fuck sink into from time to time . The piece of writing in full encompass this as the weapon system cracks joke about Chief ’s stoic one - ocean liner , and make up names for a fresh type of foreign enemies encounted in Infinite called the Endless . Sometimes , this new youthful twist employment , such as when she gives a pep talk to the thwarted Pilot in a elbow room that the Master Chief just is n’t amply emotionally fit out to do . Other sentence , it ’s a really raw attempt at nostalgia for fans of the original Halo on 343 ’s part , even as the charisma between Steve Downes ’ Chief and Taylor ’s A.I. manage to make it legitimate enough that you may not take care the obvious lure .
Image: 343 Industries
How much of Halo Infinite ’s narrative works in regard to these two will depend entirely on how you feel about Chief and Cortana ’s relationship from the premature game . Reading their family relationship as wild-eyed in some manner has never been abominably difficult , even if it ’s just for a joke , and both this secret plan and Halo 3 use deep visions to show how Chief is struggling to deal with his longtime cooperator no longer being around , and much of Halo 4 ’s story also saw the Master Chief grappling iron with the theory of losing Cortana forever . When walk through Forerunner structures in Infinite Chief will on occasion pick up Cortana ’s voice , making it exculpated she ’ll incessantly be on his brain because of the year they spent together . The Weapon , dissemble as both a facsimile of this cleaning woman he care for and a reminder of what he could fall behind again , disconcerts Chief . However , taciturn as he always is , he is n’t able to by rights express those fears or concerns beyond a handful of words most of the time .
Much as Infinite wants you to feel like you ’re play the original secret plan again but on a novel Xbox , it is n’t completely able to shake off Halo 5 ’s tale luggage . When the game straight off addresses its predecessor , it ca n’t help but ping - pong between being about a guy learning to be a parent and a guy who ca n’t cease learn his ex-husband in his raw partner . Since the Weapon is a complete written matter of Cortana , but if the brace had never met before now , Chief is to the full ready to spark off the failsafe that ’ll delete her if he need to . It run even further when flashbacks in the game disclose that Cortana ’s quest for A.I. gyration in the culmination of Halo 5 saw her mechanically skillful superweapons , the Guardians , destroy the homeworld of Infinite ’s primary baddie , the Banished leader Atriox . However , because his ex-wife is no longer around , Chief has to take the hits that were originally intend for Cortana herself .
After the artillery learns Chief is ready to trip her failsafe at any moment , she starts becoming passive aggressive . Valid as it is for her to snipe at Chief and snitch about the failsafe to the Pilot so he ’ll take her side , the mission where this all materialise really picture how youthful she ’s intended to be . When she blows up at Chief and enquire him to trust her after she ’s done nothing but avail , the moment does n’t domain as intend because it feels less like a raw decimal point of conflict in the Chief and the artillery ’s relationship , and more like it ’s only there because that ’s just what game stories about exclusive parent with kidseventually do . But if you have the relationship between Chief and Cortana in mind — as 343 invite you to have in making the Weapon such a unmediated transcript of her — these unfriendly interactions record as weirder than the game may have intended . It ’s a remixing of that symbiotic human relationship from the past , yes , but the wild-eyed undertone of that relationship are also still sort of there , despite Infinite doing its best to not go down that route again .
Image: 343 Industries
By Infinite ’s closing , Chief and the arm ( who ’s decided to name herself , though we are n’t told what ) have learned to believe each other , and the Chief himself is sacrifice some illusion of peace with his former partner . musician at long last name that Cortana actually ostensibly perished for good during the events between Halo 5 and Infinite , strike a substance she leave for the Chief that serves as both an apology for her retiring action , and a passing of the blowtorch in terms of their partnership to the weapon system — with the hope that the two will be ego - mindful enough to prevent the circumstances that doomed Cortana in Halo 5 from happening a second metre . For as much as 343 ’s trilogy of games has had no hassle painting Chief and Cortana ’s kinship as a tragic romance , whatever they will do with him and the Weapon now that that great mullein has been passed will have to find some centering , so it does n’t feel like a strange re - tread of what came before .
Halo Infinite is out now on Xbox and PC .
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Image: 343 Industries
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