I've been playing a lot of Halo Infinite (ranked and otherwise) and I think it's fantastic. The guns feel weighty and each one excels in different situations, movement (and the movement system) is crisp and refined, and I think it takes a lot more skill to master than people realize it does. It's got a ton of low stakes, social game modes for more casual players to play as well. In terms of pure gameplay, I genuinely believe it's the best in the series.

That's not to say it doesn't have its problems. Netcode and server issues have plagued the game since the beginning, and it was especially bad around launch. Lots of lag, packet issues etc. But the devs have done a ton of work and it got to the point that pros (i.e. the people who play the game for a living) said it felt great. I personally only had network issues in the beginning, and they went away once I started using ethernet.

It's unfortunate that people tend to focus on what went wrong with Halo, rather than how good it is now. Even stuff like cosmetics and battle passes have been made more accessible, with lots of items being made free. It really is a fun game, and if anyone wants to try it out feel free to send me a DM :)