Halo Infinite - Season 2: Lone Wolves

It's one thing for fans to think there's been questionable support for Halo Infinite, but in this specific case, even 343 Industries recently admitted they weren't happy with the outcome. After an unreasonably long drought, Season 2: Lone Wolves has finally been released, and I've spent two days playing as much as possible.

The most important addition is undoubtedly the two new maps, Catalyst and Breaker, the latter of which is particularly interesting as it represents the game's first Big Team Battle map. Added to this are new game modes, namely the return of King of the Hill, the battle royale-inspired Last Spartan Standing and Land Grab (which is not yet up and running, however).

For my part, I've been playing Last Spartan Standing the most, where you compete against twelve other players on a continuously shrinking level, having five lives each. By playing well, you gain points that can quickly be exchanged for better weapons, making it harder for those who sit and wait to compete in the final stages. In theory at least, as the standard gun in Halo is a powerful tool that goes a long, long way. Therefore, it feels like some balancing would be needed, as the cowardly method is paying off a little too well right now. The battles currently only take place on the Breaker map, which, while it's set to change, makes me lose interest after a while. A little more variety is needed to make this something people want to play all the way through to the next season in November.

King of the Hill hardly needs any further introduction, but it's all about controlling areas. If you're playing ranked, they go in a certain order, which makes it imperative to keep track of the movement of those areas, while unranked matches make the area move around in a random order. King of the Hill has been one of the most fun and adrenaline pumping game modes in the Halo series and is no exception here. There are incredibly intense firefights in places that often tend to be somewhat undeveloped territory in other modes. While it's hard to gloat too much about the return of an old classic, King of the Hill is a welcome addition to Infinite, but most of us have played this before.

The two new maps are good. Breaker looks like a huge desert space junkyard, and vaguely brings to mind Rey's introduction on Jakku in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. There's a lot of space junk that bears clear traces of battles, as well as a predominantly brown colour scheme. I like the map, but it's probably never going to be a memorable classic. Catalyst, on the other hand, is more exciting and invites tighter battles in an old Forerunner bunker with very good chokepoints for battles.

Other than that, of course, there's a lot of new cosmetic stuff to be had, and you can continue playing even with your Battle Pass from last season (which doesn't run concurrently with the new one) if there's something you haven't yet unlocked. Personally, I don't find this bit super exciting (especially in combination with the crappy Armor Core system), but I know others think looks are important.

But what about Forge? And the co-op in the campaign? That's also on the way, coming in season two but not until the fall. Thus, I haven't been able to test this out, and that unfortunately contributes to the feeling that season two is pretty lean. Granted, the maps are large and elaborate, and the new game modes are fun, but frankly, there's just not enough. This is not enough and my grade has to stay mediocre.