The structure of the new campaign, at least so far, seems to be a blend of familiar Halo linearity and the open world concept. Don’t worry, the campaign is not purely just taking over outposts and such on the map. The missions are just that, actual missions, where you enter some sort of giatn ship or facility or what have you, and experience what I would call very traditional Halo campaign moments as you strategize your way through rooms of enemies, employing different tactics and weapons to do so. So far, it’s feeling like Normal mode may be a touch too easy, and Heroic would be better for me, the mildly okay shooter player.

If you like how Halo Infinite gunplay feels in the multiplayer, you will likely have similar thoughts about the campaign. The old guns feel great, the new guns feel great (I’m growing weirdly attached to the Mangler?). And probably above all else, you will soon find yourself addicted to Master Chief’s new grappling hook. He has to select it among other skills he will unlock as time goes on, but it’s hard to take it off. It offers crazy mobility for attacking and escaping, it can taser enemies to stun them for follow-up melees, it can grab weapons and explosive barrels to throw (barrels are probably one of your most effective new weapons, except if you get shot while holding one).

In the open world, if often feels like you’re better off simply zipping around with your grappling hook to objectives rather than getting in a Mongoose or Warthog, as roads are limited, and every rock or tree will stop you dead. There is a ton of verticality on the map, so the grappling hook is a must for traversal, at least until you unlock planes, whenever that may be.

Out in the open world, which you can explore between missions, there are a few types of objectives to complete that are fairly traditional for the genre. A HVT crosshair icon tells you about a powerful enemy lurking somewhere, and if you kill them and their support crew, you unlock a weapon variant back at your fast travel bases. There are also larger enemy facilities that have multiple objectives attached to them. I invaded one sprawling base that had me blow up power sources and sabotage repair bays as waves of reinforcements came in.

The small objectives are easier, but still kind of neat. You can rescue clusters of Marines under fire in a tiny mini encounter with a staged firefight you have to resolve. You can hunt for hidden or well-defended armor cores to unlock more abilities within your kit (reducing grappling hook cooldown time is a must). The goofiest “open world” thing I found were Grunt Propaganda Towers you can destroy, but there don’t appear to be a ton of them. The “reason” you do any of these as that they award Valor, and more Valor unlocks more weapon and vehicle options back at your fast travel hubs, from tanks to rocket launchers to additional Marine support NPCs who will charge into the fight with you (and are actually pretty strong).

In general, the world doesn’t seem overcrowded. It’s a lot of open space and does not overwhelm you with objectives, at least in this first zone here. It may be too empty for some, but others wanting a break from icon-littered Far Cry or Assassin’s Creed maps may appreciate that. It is fun to experience Master Chief in a new space like this, though we’ll see if it remains fun as time goes on, as there seems to be quite a lot of map to explore, and it’s unclear just how much the experience changes, or doesn’t.

It is too early to tell whether this will stack up to past entries, or at the very least surpass 343’s 4 and 5 campaigns. But I am engaged with the central mystery, and everything that’s been added here (the grappling hook, barrel throwing, an explorable map) seem like positive additions to the series. However, I can already see two things 1) this would be more fun in co-op and 2) implementing co-op is indeed a weird challenge, given how the game handle save states, activating them when you move into a certain region or kill a certain amount of enemies. The game will definitely miss this at launch, and the fact that it will not arrive until May is a massive bummer.

It's good to be back playing as Chief, and it seems like we’re probably on track for at least 343’s best campaign entry yet. But there are many more missions to run and map zones to explore, and I’ll have more thoughts as we get closer to launch here.

Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Subscribe to my free weekly content round-up newsletter, God Rolls.

Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and its audiobook, and The Earthborn Trilogy, also on audiobook.