After each reveal, Chris Lee has published an article with more information surrounding what we saw and the design philosophies behind it. This reveal is no different, and there are a few more interesting details mentioned in the document. Let’s take a look!
“Our campaign demo takes place several hours into the story of Halo Infinite”
While the Discover Hope trailer took place right at the beginning of Halo Infinite, this demo is already well into the Campaign. The Chief and the Pilot have clearly been working together for a while, so it’s no surprise that the Pilot is frustrated at the Chief’s continued push to complete his mission.
“We’re introduced to a new Brute War Chief, Escharum”
The leader Brute at the end of the demo is named Escharum, and he is a War Chief in the Banished. Clearly, he’s seen some fighting in his day, but he wants a challenge, and the Chief is the toughest opponent he’ll ever find.
“From the beginning, our vision for Halo Infinite’s “spiritual reboot” was to create a story and experience that’s inviting to new players and welcomes them to fall in love with Halo the same way many of us did years ago without any prior knowledge required.”
For players who have never played Halo before, Halo Infinite will still be understandable on its own. There is no prior knowledge, no books or games, required to enjoy Halo Infinite.
“Meanwhile, longtime fans will also pick up with the continuation of the events of Halo 5: Guardians and be rewarded with new mysteries to unravel.”
Although Halo Infinite will be accessible for new players, it will not drop the existing unresolved plot lines from Halo 5: Guardians. This game will still tie in to the larger universe, and it does not retcon anything presented by either Halo 4 or Halo 5: Guardians.
“The scale of the environment accessible to players is several times larger than that of the last two Halo games combined with opportunities to discover hidden rewards and assault Banished fortifications in brand new ways.”
Not only will Halo Infinite’s play-spaces be gigantic, they will encourage exploration and invite the player to experiment with the sandbox in a variety of ways.
“The ‘Grappleshot’ opens up new traversal options while also providing new ways to engage enemies.”
The grappling hook that we saw in the demo is officially called the Grappleshot, and it is part of the new sandbox items that will be added in Halo Infinite.
“And yes, these new additions to the sandbox will also carry over to multiplayer, however they’ll function a bit differently as equipment items that can be picked up on the map.”
The Drop Wall and Grappleshot will appear in Halo Infinite’s multiplayer as well as the Campaign, but instead of rechargeable armor abilities, these items will be limited-use map pickups, very similar to Halo 3’s equipment.
“we will be running campaign at 60FPS with up to 4K resolution”
Halo Infinite’s Campaign will operate at a stable 60 FPS, and the resolution offered can go up to 4K at the highest.
“We are also designing Halo Infinite to grow and evolve over time so we can continue to deliver experiences to our players well beyond launch.”
Halo Infinite will be well-supported after launch as players and fans continue to enjoy the game. It will be more like a platform on which future stories can be told and future content can be released.
“Halo Infinite will be available on Windows 10, Xbox Game Pass for PC (Beta), and Steam in addition to the Xbox Series X and Xbox One family of devices.”
PC players rejoice! Not only will Halo Infinite be available through the Windows 10 Microsoft Store, it will be part of Xbox Game Pass for PC and Steam!
“The team is still working and assessing options for broader hands-on opportunities before launch and we'll share an update when we can, but this process doesn’t stop with launch. In fact, in many ways, feedback and community flighting will be even more important after launch as we partner together to continually evolve and update the game into the future.”
Unfortunately, while 343 Industries had originally planned to support a large public flighting program, the global pandemic and the unique challenges brought by working from home have severely impacted their plans. While they are still looking for ways to publicly flight the game prior to its release in Holiday 2020, they have been privately flighting the game to confidential groups of community members. Furthermore, they will have flights for new game content after the game launches so that they can evaluate and test new additions to Halo Infinite.
Summary
In this article, we got a few more details around the Halo Infinite project and what we can expect going forward.
The Campaign demo takes place several hours into the game’s Campaign.
The leader Brute from the demo is a War Chief named Escharum.
Halo Infinite will not require prior knowledge of Halo to understand it, but it will continue from the events in Halo 5: Guardians.
The play-spaces in the Campaign are gigantic in comparison to previous Halo titles.
The grappling hook ability is called the Grappleshot.
The Drop Wall and Grappleshot will appear in Halo Infinite’s multiplayer as map pickups, similar to Halo 3’s equipment.
The Campaign will run at 60 FPS with resolutions up to 4K.
Halo Infinite will be more of a platform with development on future stories and content continuing well beyond the game’s launch.
Halo Infinite will release on Steam, as well as on the Xbox family, the Microsoft Store, and through Xbox Game Pass for PC.
The flighting plans originally discussed in 2018 have been heavily impacted by COVID-19, and it is uncertain whether any public flights will occur prior to launch. Update: Flighting will occur prior to launch.
Private, confidential flighting has been occurring for some time, however.
Public flighting will also occur after the game’s launch to test and validate new features and content.