Halo Infinite: a Q&A reveals new details on dynamic weather and more

Halo Infinite: a Q&A reveals new details on dynamic weather and more

Halo Infinite

343 Industries broadcast a new episode of Inside Infinite on YouTube tonight, the podcast dedicated to Halo Infinite where developers answer questions from players arriving on Twitter via the hashtag # Ask343.

episode was dedicated to the Sandbox aspects of Halo Infinite, in this case the focus was on Zeta Halo, the show saw the participation of Quinn DelHoyo (Lead Sandbox Designer), John Mulkey (Lead World Designer), Troy Mashburn (Gameplay Director) and Justin Dinges (Campaign Art Lead).

The developers answered, among other things, questions related to dynamic weather (confirmed the presence of fog and wind) and revealing that storms could come in the future (but not at launch), there was also talk of the presence of creatures visible only at night and other aspects such as settings, the design of the structures and much more. It is also reiterated that the equipment can be upgraded while there will be no upgrade system for weapons.

The team then reveals that the Zeta Halo ring will be fully rendered in 3D and there will be eclipses, the day / night cycle will also affect the cutscenes (however, it is not clear how). The campaign will allow a great freedom of approach, it will be possible to follow the story or dedicate oneself to secondary and more advanced quests, leaving the player the possibility to decide how to reach a certain objective.

343 has recently declared that Halo Infinite will be a spiritual reboot of the series, more details on the project are expected during the summer in view of the promotional campaign that will take us up to the launch of the game expected for next autumn on Windows PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X / S.






A ‘Halo Infinite’ Battle Royale Mode Makes Sense, And Isn’t ‘Trend Chasing’

Halo Infinite

343

This past week, Jack “Courage” Dunlop attracted the ire of a million Halo fans when he posted the following on Twitter, regarding Halo Infinite:


He followed up by saying that of course he expects Halo to have a robust, normal multiplayer mode at launch, and assumes that’s a given. But this would be a chance to introduce millions of avid, young BR players to Halo.


And while I may not agree with the phrasing that a lack of a Halo BR would be “one of the greatest gaming failures in history,” I do fundamentally think Courage is right here, and Halo Infinite launching without something akin to a BR would indeed be a huge missed opportunity.


There are just so many pieces in place already that it would be very strange if Halo passed up this chance. For years, Halo has had:

  • Large playercounts with Big Team Battles
  • Large maps to accommodate them (with Infinite having even larger potential maps with its more open world)
  • Lone wolf free-for-all as a main component of multiplayer
  • A focus on map-spanning vehicular combat from Warthogs to Ghosts to Banshees
  • Standardized weapons for a level playing field across combatants

    • Like, literally almost every piece is in place already, and no, it’s not a stretch of the imagination to imagine dropping into a large Halo Infinite map, gearing up with battle rifles and Spartan lasers, hopping in a Warthog to outrun some sort of collapsing security protocol forcefield, battling to be last man (or team) standing at the center.

    Halo Infinite

    343

    It’s not trend-chasing, it’s just a logical leap for the series given that yes it would be a way to engage new players with Halo, and it really sacrifices very little about the core Halo experience to do so. And what, are Microsoft and 343 supposed to look at the mammoth success of Call of Duty Warzone (which was, probably, more trending chasing-y) and go “nah, we’re good”?


    Yes, it’s true that Halo has been a leader in the shooter space since its inception rather than a follower, but I would not want pride to get in the way of implementing a mode that simply makes a ton of sense for the series, and too bad if it just so happens to be one popularized by games that are not Halo. Fortnite exists because it saw the success of PUBG. Warzone exists because it saw the success of Fortnite. Etc. And while yes, the BR market may be somewhat saturated by now, if anyone could break through at this point, it’s absolutely Halo.


    While 343 has not been shy talking about Halo Infinite after the year-long delay from last fall, we don’t have any indication something like this is coming. But it’s a long way to go until fall, and we’ll have to see if this is something that could still manifest before launch. Or after, really, given that Infinite is supposed to be the base on which a ton of future Halo content is built.


    Update: Forgot about this quote back in 2019 from a 343 dev when asked about a potential BR mode:


    'The only BR we're interested in is the Battle Rifle'


    Sigh.


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