Close your eyes and open your ears…listen as Gregorian chants fill the once silent air, and after a long six years you can defiantly say… ”Halo is back.” This past weekend I and hundreds (if not thousands) of other Halo Insiders had the opportunity to test 343 Industries latest Technical Preview of their next title Halo Infinite. With it came many ups, downs, concerns, and hopes for the future of Halo and the solidifying relationship between its fans and the developers. In this analysis, I will guide you through the three days I had playing just a slice of Halo Infinite’s multiplayer.
(Just as a heads up, this article won’t talk about any aspects of the game that has been datamined or not revealed by 343i officially, so we won’t be talking about spoilers.)
“Halo is back!”
It’s no exaggeration to say that Halo 5: Guardians was a massive step away from traditional Halo, using a new set of spartan abilities that gave the player a sort of “super hero” set of skills that alters how the game is usually played. While many enjoyed these abilities, there was a large and vocal part of the community that wished for the return of the more classic gameplay. This informed 343i what the community wanted, and so they listened and Halo Infinite is the culmination of the feedback given.
Halo Infinite feels crisp, like an evolution of Bungie’s work on their previous titles brought up to date with modern gaming. While there is still work to be done, what 343i have brought to the table is astonishing; everything feels fine-tuned to be as smooth as possible. But we have to start somewhere, so let’s start with the movement.
It’s been a long and contentious debate within the Halo community regarding sprint, while a mechanic all too familiar to modern gaming, it’s place within Halo is seen by many to not fit. The specific arguments for or against it are vast so I won’t cover them here, but it seems that 343i have certainly solved a decades long argument. Sprint is not faster than simple walking, in fact you can reliably keep up to speed with another player sprinting. What 343i has done is to allow sprint to transition into a slide (not really new in modern gaming). You make think, “Well there’s no point to sprint” than if it’s not faster. But I can tell you that our primate brain still tells us that sprinting makes us feel faster, and you will sprint regardless if it is faster or not. It seems so simple to make sprint the same as walking but not one many considered would be a viable option.
As much work was put into solving the sprint debate once and for all as there was making every gun feel unique and distinct from one another. Not since Halo CE have I felt like there was such a distinct difference in every gun brought to the table. The fan favorite Assault Rifle feels better than ever, and the Battle Rifle (all hail the king) feels rejuvenated as well, but it’s the new weapons that have a lot to prove to old players. The first new gun you will find is the Sidekick, a pistol that reminisces back to Halo 2’s magnum. A small peashooter, but always a reliable choice. The same approval goes to the new Commando, a fully-automatic precision weapon that bucks like a horse. Despite what might be a rivalry between the Commando and the Battle Rifle, these two can live together fairly easily as they provide two different approaches to combat that will assuredly have fans of either. Time will tell if the other new and updated guns are greeted with as much enthusiasm, but if this is an indication of what 343i have in store for us I am very excited.
Equipment is making comeback as well, from its short time in Halo 3. There are more ways to use equipment now, and more types of them. The one that is seeing the most fun so far is the grappling hook (what modern game is complete without one?), allowing to swing across the map like Spider-Man! Or perhaps you want to push people off the map with the repulsor, maybe even launch yourself in the air to reach a higher spot? Pickups like invisibility and over shields are also equipment that you can use at any time. Don’t keep them for too long, because this equipment visually shows on your character, over shields and invisibility leaving a small yellow or blue trail wherever you go so people will know what you have on your character.
343i have also expanded on the weapons sandbox, once only dominated by kinetic weapon and plasma weapons has seen an overhaul. Alongside those two are now power weapons (shotguns, rockets, snipers, etc), and the new electric weapons (the name is not quite certain yet). Power weapons aren’t exactly new, but it is the electric weapons that are getting more talk as some can chain between targets and have functionality of disabling vehicles. An unfortunate casualty of this change is the Plasma Pistol no longer being able to disable vehicles (at the moment it is unsure if this a bug or not). To mitigate this, vehicles now have destructive parts, for example Warthogs can lose tires and Ghosts can lose side-booster making the vehicle harder to operate. If a vehicle takes too much damage it will enter a ‘doom state’ where the vehicle will soon explode but give the players some time to make a decision. “Do I use it till the end, or do I exit it and survive?” These choices are yours to make, and might be the decision to win or lose a match.
Playing Halo Infinite is like a dream come true, many of my worries are settled as I felt (like many others) that the direction taken with Halo 5: Guardians was incorrect. But not all of the decisions taken by 343i have resonated well with myself and the community at large.
Roses are Red...
Whenever you play a game of team slayer in Halo 3 you are always given a side, red team or blue team. In Halo Infinite there are red and blue teams, or yellow, orange, green…unfortunately red vs blue is gone and is now replaced with an outline system. In previous Halo titles, every team would override the players color and choose from the list of predetermined colors in game (red, blue, yellow, green, etc). Like in Overwatch, the new outline system will not override the players chosen color but outline them in a color of your choice (default blue for friendly team, and red for enemy team).
Similarly instead of choosing from a list of colors to suit your spartan, you now get to choose an armor coating. These are much more unique than before, giving you the option to make your spartan look like a Gundam or perhaps have black armor with a red arm. These are preset options that cannot be changed, and will more than likely be monetized. To show off the new customization as well as update the old red vs blue team colors to be more accessible to visually impaired players, the outline system was created. This has not been received as well as the gameplay however.
While a good alternative, some fear that these choices are only made in favor for microtransactions. Others say that the outline system is either insufficient or just disruptive, as some colors are harder to see or that the system is too distracting in the middle of a gun fight. Whatever the argument, the outline system has not seen universal agreement within the Halo community, myself included.
Let’s get to some positives for now, because there are certainly plenty. Halo Infinite is beautiful. I played on an original Xbox One (which is eight years old now) and it ran Halo almost perfectly. If you’ve checked social media, you might have seen a lot of people talking about the graphics of the game, and that is no lie. There was so much detail and love put into this game, from the way your spartan stoically stands in the customization menu dubbed the ‘armor hall’ to the smallest wear and tear on all the guns in game, Halo Infinite is choc-full of hand-crafted worlds and equipment.
Personally, one of my favorites to just admire is the map Bazaar. Set in the city of New Mombasa (which you may remember from Halo: ODST), the map is full of life such as the chickens running around the market, or the rats in the dark corners of the map, the space elevator under construction off in the distance, and if you listen closely, you may hear the distinct sound of the old rocket launcher homing signal coming from one of the antennae.
Heavenly Harmonics
There is a quote from former Bungie sound designer Marty O’Donnell that really speaks to me about the importance of sound design in video games. At the Game Developers Conference of 2002 Marty O’Donnell said “If sounds it real, music makes you feel.” Years later, that sentiment rings true as the sounds that come from this game are truly phenomenal.
It’s not just the little touches, like the aforementioned homing signal in Bazaar, but also how weapons fill the air in the middle of battle. The sound of a Battle Rifle will ring across the entire map so clearly, echoing more and more the further you are away. There was a lot of care put into understanding the game solely by hearing across the game modes available to us. Unfortunately, the old “Flag Taken. Flag Dropped. Flag Taken.” loop won’t be returning for Halo Infinite but 343i have replaced with a blaring siren indicating it has been taken. For slayer and strongholds, a distinct sound would play halfway through the match, specifically when a team has reached the 50% mark in the scoreboard. This unmistakable sound tells all players when to hoof it, because either victory or defeat is imminent.
While sound is an important aspect of game design, there is arguably nothing more iconic in Halo than its music. In 343i’s previous titles, music was another of the pain points the community had given to the developers, noting a lack of cohesion between O’Donnell’s original score and their work. While not exclusively bad, the music didn’t feel like something you’d hear while playing Halo. It seems they listened because I could sit back, and listen to the main menu music for hours if I wasn’t already trying to experience what 343i had made for the technical preview. Like the gameplay, the soundtrack also feels like an evolution of the Bungie era soundtrack, bringing back that mysterious yet epic sound that defined Halo CE. With remixed tracks such as ‘A Walk in the Woods’ (now named ‘Through the Tree’s’), it is apparent that 343i have taken much inspiration from Bungie’s work and made their own twists. Music is a strong part of Halo’s identity, and I’m glad to say that 343i have nailed it.
Eye’s Up Spartan
I wanted to make a section all about the miscellaneous additions to Halo Infinite that either didn’t deserve their own section or didn’t quite fit into others, so this will be all about the smaller things I missed. First, we should talk about customization.
Customization is a very big appeal to players, being able to make your spartan however you want is frankly awesome. We talked a little about it earlier with the coating system, but this idea of take and give extends to more parts to Halo Infinite. Armor cores are the newest topic within the community, essentially these are the base elements of an armor and determine what pieces can go on your spartan. There has been a lot of talk within the community about this, and it’s quite mixed. What you can customize is: the helmet (variants included), visor color, additional chest armor, knee pads, gloves, and extra cosmetic equipment that strap onto your forearm and leg. There is more, however, as you can change your body type, give your spartan prosthetics, and your AI options.
AI (Artificial Intelligence) is a big part of Halo lore, and finally in Halo Infinite you can have your own. AI provide information on the battlefield, telling you when heavy weapon spawn, cheering you own at the beginning of matches, and making you feel cooler whenever you landed a kill. AI are very handy and always try to assist you whenever they can. During the technical I chose BUTLR, a very organized AI akin to…well a butler. You can choose from a handful of AI that best suit your personality, and they will be with you the entire time. At any time during a match, you can scan your environment and see all weapon spawn points around you. A very handy tool. In objective game modes like stronghold, your AI will occupy the zones marker and keep an eye out for you.
The newest addition to Halo Infinite is The Academy, a new tutorial area for new and old players alike to get accustomed to the game. Ran in-game by Spartan Laurette Agryna, she will be your coach and multiplayer advisor. The Academy is not complete in the technical preview, but what we do have are the weapon drills. These are challenges to test your skills with specific weapons, you have 30 seconds to kill bots as fast as possible and earn a rating of three stars. Each weapon drill has three challenge types, an easy, medium, and hard difficulty. Each difficulty makes the bots harder to hit, making them more unpredictable as they try to avoid your shots. You can also bring bots into a local multiplayer match on any of the maps available. Customize your weapon load out, bot behavior and difficulty, and team balance to get a hang of the maps or just play a quick pickup game.
Have you played Apex Legends and just wanted to ping something for other players to see? Well Halo Infinite is bringing a simple ping system, click a button and a ping will make a small map marker on all players huds. This should allow for better communication between all players, especially those without mics.
Like all modern games, Halo Infinite has a battle pass, and this one is unique. Battle passes in Halo Infinite work like other games, get XP to unlock tiers and get rewards. All tiers will require the same amount of XP to earn, in the technical preview it was 500 but might change at launch. However, unlike other battle passes, yours will never expire. If you buy a battle pass it will never go away, and you can complete it at your own pace. Which is good because the way to earn XP is somewhat different as well. You don’t get XP at the end of matches like other games, you must complete challenges to earn XP. Challenges can be as easy as ‘Play X matches’ or as difficult as ‘Get X kills with X weapons’. In the technical preview there weren’t very many challenges available, so it felt incredibly slow to earn XP. Match this with a XP booster that only last 30 minutes of real time (starting when you activate it and doesn’t stop in between rounds), many within the community have less than stellar feelings about the new XP grind. In the Technical Preview, it felt like there was not enough challenges to work towards to increase my XP, for hours on end I would make little to no process. I was glad to actually play the game, and enjoyed myself a lot but the lack of fast progress made it feel like a chore. I have no qualms doing challenges to gain XP, but it has to be significantly faster than what I experienced in the Technical Preview.
Finally, along with battle passes are limited time events, or LTE’s. The first LTE for Halo Infinite is the Yoroi armor set, a stylish samurai inspired armor set available for players to obtain multiple times.
First Impressions
Ever since developer 343 Industries was handed the mantle of the Halo IP it has long felt like they have been working in the shadow of the franchises former owner, Bungie. To this day, many of what makes Halo Infinite resonate with fans comes from what Bungie did decades ago, so I feel for the team making this game that they may never 100% live up to expectations that have been set upon them. But they’re trying and working hard for our approval. I may have grievances with some of the choices that were made, either because of monetization, or the new sandbox, or for a number of reasons but I feel that they won’t truly affect how most players feel about the game moving forward. In fact, I am still very confident in what 343i is doing with this game and I’m sure it will be the Halo that brings the franchise to new heights. I’m giddy to get back into Halo Infinite this weekend with Big Team Battle, it’s a feeling I’ve long since forgot how it felt to truly be excited for a game that was a large part of my childhood and shaped what I loved about video games.
Jonathan Sanchez
Article Team
