I really like the scaled back and down to earth approach (relatively speaking).
I didn't expect at all for them to focus so much on some regular ass dude, that was out of left field. I've seen other people say the whole family aspect of his didn't hit for them, and honestly it fell flat for me too... at first.
When the timeskip happened I was actually surprised, him being out in space seemingly for a while. That made the family aspect click for me despite still not caring about his family. Simply because of his apparently simple role in relation to the Chief. Whether or not he's actually a real character, and not a nameless NPC remains to be seen, but the narrative potential for Chief to this random guy is pretty immense.
The Chief on the other hand is more of the same, sans armor. I like this more broad version of the skinnier "classic" suit he had in the OG trilogy. Gives me Gears vibes which I like a lot, but there's not much else to say about it. Also, on Waypoint they describe the story as "Chief's story" and that it's supposed to be a good starting point for new players. I really hope his character development is similar to the Halo 4 Chief way rather than the "traditional" and EASY way, please and thank you.
Anyway, with that out of the way we now head onto corporate bull**** prominent in 343's Halo thus far. I walked in with extremely low expectations, and came out generally approving of Halo: Infinite. But not much else. Actually, I'm only left with telltale signs already.
First being the title. Halo: Infinite. It's dumb. Not sorry, because you can't one-up that to me. That's the kind of title you have for a freaking MMO or game with no forseeable sequel, at least within the majority of a decade. If this is a scaled-back Halo yet still called Halo: Infinite, then that's poor decision making. It's just bad vibes to me, here's to hoping the story really calls for it.
Second, the nostalgia bait for a game releasing simultaneous with a new console. Halo CE can be forgiven because Xbox was new, and CE is one of the greats. But if Infinite is bad or mediocre, then they knew full well. Kinda like how they knew when they sent the severely nostalgic MCC out to die to sell Xboxes in 2014 after having sold everyone their broken promises at E3. You can call it "traditional" or "classic" art style all you want, but that's only a crutch for a supposed inability to make something new that's iconic and worth caring about, which I refuse to believe is impossible with all their millions. Thankfully, the rhinos, scenery, and focus on some Hispanic guy are good signs to me.
Which leads me to my final point. The benefit of the doubt. I gave it for Halo 4. And MCC. Then Halo 5 happened. It might seem like the end of the world happened for a stupid game, but imagine what happened to Star Wars fans when The Phantom Menace happened.
I'm honestly though at a point where I just don't care as much as I used to. I know better. Call me when it's good, otherwise I'm just waiting still saying "Told you so" while enjoying better content somewhere else. Not like they need me since I'm clearly not the target audience, and I only seem to be critical of everything they do. But it's because I care.
And I certainly care that they finally decided to bring Halo to PC in a big way, MCC for PC. If only we knew when it's freaking releasing...? Why didn't they do it at E3...? Another stupid 343 or Microsoft decision...?
Still hyped for it though, the pizza does NOT lie.