Halo Infinite Devs Confirm New Multiplayer And Campaign Details
Although some of us doubt we'll ever get to see Halo Infinite, 343 Industries is on the assault and rolling out the welcome wagon for its (hopefully) imminent arrival. As the long-awaited sequel to Halo 5: Guardians, Halo Infinite has been hit by an extra-long wait considering it was supposed to launch alongside the Xbox Series X/S last November. With players still twiddling their controllers, at least 343 is trying to keep us engaged with new details about the game's campaign and multiplayer.
A pretty disastrous Xbox Games Showcase led to critiques the game looked like it belonged back with Halo 5 in 2015 and also birthed the now-iconic Craig the Brute meme. Those as the top admitted things weren't looking great, so went back to the drawing board and promised to deliver a souped-up Halo Infinite sometime in 2021. With the likes of the Call of Duty games proving single and multiplayer can work had in hand, fans are demanding to know more about how Infinite will work this into the next-gen Halo title.
What's going on with the Halo Infinite multiplayer?
To cash in on the growing anticipation of Halo Inifinite's eventual release, 343 released an #Ask343 video on March 12. Community Manager John Junyszek was on hand to answer all your burning questions and was joined by a number of high-profile devs, ranging from Lead World Designer to Gameplay Director. During the 40-minute video, Junyszek and the team went through a whole host of different topics, however, a multiplayer tease was arguably the biggest.
Discussing how multiplayer will fit into the story, Lead Sandbox Designer Quinn DelHoyo explained, "This is a Master Chief story and a Spartan story, especially a multiplayer. We want to make sure that we focus on how Spartans battle against each other, and that it feels fair and it's competitive, it's balanced". He went on to confirm that while they "love" Elites, it's very much a Spartan story, and that for now, you'll only be able to play as them.
In terms of what else you can expect from multiplayer, DelHoyo answered a fan question on whether holding multiple pieces of equipment will be confined to the main campaign. He explained, "For the base multiplayer experience, you need to be able to find and scavenge the equipment that you find, and you can only hold it one at a time". He continued, "You use it and it's gone, and you need to find another one".
It might become a gripe of multiplayer, but DelHoyo added, "[We] are putting plans in place to allow players to customise the game via custom game options like Halo's legacy, where you can be able to hold multiple equipment in the multiplayer custom game that you're creating". Despite saying this is the "current plan", he admitted, "We'll see if we can make that happen ".
What else do we know about Halo Infinite?
The deep dive gave away a tonne of details about what else you can expect fresh out of the Halo Infinite box. Gameplay Director Troy Mashburn confirmed open world will NOT be a feature of the main story. Explaining why this won't be the case, Mashburn told fans “When you talk about open world or semi-open world, there’s a lot of preconceived ideas of what that means. Are you going to be out there gathering leather, crafting, and those sorts of things? That’s not what we’re about".
When pressed on what stops players from jumping ahead from the main storyline, Lead World Designer John Mulkey shed some light on this when he told fans "There's a lot of choice that you get to make about how you want to engage in things". Expanding on what you'll get to decide as the player, he added there'll be freedom through "what you want to go do and what stories you want to pursue at any given time". It all comes back to an "anchor element", which Mulkey said means "a player can't really cut ahead on the main golden path storyline".
Despite Halo Infinite not being an open-world in a traditional sense, there will be plenty of varying landscapes to explore. Away from the main Pacific North West biome, there are a number of sub-biomes, as well as "swampy wetlands" and "war-torn" Deadlands. All of this sounds like an expansive world to explore, that will be helped by a dynamic day/night and weather system. Importantly, 343 is really upping the ante in terms of making sure Infinite is really a next-gen outing.
News about the game's multiplayer comes just after Jack "CouRage" Dunlop emplored devs to add a battle royale mode to Halo Infinite. Although the panel shied away from this topic, it will be very interesting to see if Halo Infinite wants a slice of the pie that Call of Duty: Warzone and Fortnite are hogging. Either way, the dev team has us suitably pumped for whenever Halo Infinite and its multiplayer parachutes into our lives.
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