So much of “Halo’s” appeal lies in these more abstract facets. A Paramount+ series is in the works and due to launch in 2022, but any cinematic or television adaptors have a challenge on their hands. Over its decades “Halo” has become so deeply wedded to interactive, environmental storytelling that attempts to turn it into a film have often sputtered. “Star Wars” but more militaristic in its mix of fantasy and sci-fi is the easy cultural comparison, as “Halo” turned the Xbox game consoles into a powerhouse and is as much a vital video game text as “Super Mario Bros.” The Microsoft-owned “Halo” franchise itself has for the past 20 years come to symbolize the modern video game shooter - less frantic than “Doom,” lacking the self-seriousness of “Call of Duty” and striving to balance complex storytelling with an over-reliance at times on space lore better left for 30 or so books that attempt to make sense of this universe. As an interactive text it is still primarily a celebration of shooting with a variety of space guns, but even as someone who doesn’t often gravitate to the so-called “shooter” genre, “Halo Infinite” exemplifies the category at its approachable best. Return to form, reboot - whatever descriptor one wants to use - “Halo Infinite” plays as a bit of a “Halo” greatest hits, merging the Master Chief narrative existentialism of the very fine “Halo 4" with the early games’ patient level design, silliness and sci-fi slickness. So far, every minute I’ve played of the “Halo Infinite” campaign takes flight. But when “Halo” embraces itself as sci-fi gobbledygook - wrapping a warm hug around its cheesy dialogue and reveling in the weirdness of its core storyline of one man’s relationships with artificially intelligent female holograms - it soars as pulpy, timeless, space opera fantasy. There are times “Halo” tries to be serious, though those moments are best left at the tip of an eye roll. The whole of “Halo Infinite” is somewhat ridiculous. It’s hard, after all, to put down a controller in frustration when, after watching the man-turned-war-machine Master Chief get slain by an unseen alien brute with a pulsating blue sword, a squealy voiced rodent-like-reptile creature yowls, “I got dibs on the helmet, guys!” We could also imagine that this could be linked to the leaked end-game cinematic from Halo Infinite's original Campaign, with The Chief potentially meeting up with other members of the UNSC.No one is as gleefully brain-dead going into battle as the creatures in the “Halo” franchise - and especially those in the campaign of “Halo Infinite,” a sort of reset for the massive sci-fi franchise after 2015’s bonanza of impenetrable intergalactic war threads that was “Halo 5: Guardians.” Without spoiling anything, the plot does revolve a lot around this particular topic, and it is important to note that the game's ending does offer a few possible entry-points for Endless-related storylines. It would, however, fit with the narrative to have the Story DLC centre around The Endless. Filing for a trade mark might not actually mean anything, though, as it could even be for potential future Multiplayer DLC. What this Story DLC would entail is as of yet unknown, but there are a few suggestions that it will have something to do with The Endless, and may even be called "Halo: The Endless", as Microsoft has recently filed for a trademark of the latter name. Nothing has been officially confirmed, but we think it is highly likely that Halo Infinite will get some kind of single-player story DLC down the road. So where is this big satisfying ending that we were waiting for? Well, we're afraid to admit that it may be coming in the form of post-launch single-player DLC. Halo Infinite was bid as a conclusion to the Reclaimer "Trilogy", but left us with many questions and very few answers. Ultimately, the game's strength is in its gameplay – where it absolutely excels – but not in its ability to weave a consistent and engaging narrative. The reality is that whilst Halo Infinite's Campaign was pretty fantastic, it was mired by inconsistent storytelling. The question on everyone's mind, then, is what can we expect from the future of Halo? How will Chief's story be continued? In fact, the ending to Halo Infinite (no spoilers, don't worry) was unbelievably open, and certainly not the conclusion we expected it to be. Halo Infinite brought an end to the story-arc established by Halo 4 all the way back in 2012, but by no means is the end of Master Chief's story. Is story DLC coming to Halo Infinite's single player? | © 343 Industries
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