Halo Infinite Multiplayer Overview

Although we got a ton of content on the day of Xbox’s E3 showcase, we were really only just getting started. The next day, we got a nearly 13-minute ViDoc overview of Halo Infinite’s multiplayer. Although it didn’t answer every question, it did clarify multiple points and show us even more. So, without further ado, let’s dive in.

0:14

Although this clip lasts for a very short time, it shows a player running with the flag but being slightly outpaced by the player whose PoV we share. Even if sprinting is possible while holding the flag, it does seem to be slower than the normal walking speed. Additionally, the BR75 reticle here is much closer to the classic version than the one we saw in the Multiplayer Reveal trailer. John Junyszek has clarified that the reticles seen in these videos are not final and may change before launch, but this one is closer to the intended design than the one seen in the reveal trailer. Finally, since the flag carrier is a teammate, we can see a faint blue outline around their character, including the weapons and objective they are holding.

0:16

Here, we get a bit of a closer look at some of the HUD elements players can expect. As the Oddball carrier is killed, A Carrier Stopped notification appears in the center left, as well as “Killed ChildishTiger42”. The score earned for this action appears above the text and seems to indicate that kills are worth 100 points while the carrier stop was worth 25. Finally, the kill is registered in the killfeed on the far left, where we can see it beginning to appear. It seems like the killfeed matches that of Halo 5: Guardians, where friendlies are highlighted in blue and enemies in red. The player’s gamertag and weapon are marked by white text/icons. Kills are marked by the use of a weapon icon between the two gamertags. Also worth noting is the Disruptor pistol that is dropped by the ball carrier.

0:17

In this shot, we see a Spartan being blown up by a Needler. The Needler now has an ammo counter on the back of it, and counting the number of dots tells us the current magazine capacity is 18 needles. Additionally, although a little hard to see, the reticle for the Needler is now closer to the width originally seen in Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2. Again, this is subject to change.

0:22

Although this popup appears only briefly as the weapon is picked up immediately, we can see the new weapon pickup prompt. The weapon icon is now clearly shown above the description, which reads “Pick Up CQS48 Bulldog,” followed by a small symbol. Although not confirmed, this symbol appears to indicate the damage type of the weapon. This weapon would have the Kinetic damage type, so the symbol looks like a small bullet piercing through the air.

0:23

Here is the pickup prompt for the MK50 Sidekick, which is also a Kinetic weapon. We can more clearly see that the Kinetic damage icon is off-white in color, suggesting that the color will be an easy way to tell apart different damage types on the fly.

0:25

Here’s another weapon prompt from walking over a Pulse Carbine dropped by this player’s unlucky target. The damage type symbol for this weapon is two plasma bolts circling one another. The color is cyan and likely indicates a “blue plasma” damage type.

0:29

Although it may seem like the red outline on the Warthog indicates that enemies are driving it, it actually seems like it may be indicative of the doomsday mechanic kicking in for the vehicle.

0:35

Here, we can see the headshot indicator in the killfeed, which is a target following the weapon used to get the kill. Additionally, by checking the top right, we can see that teammates (outlined in blue) are visible through walls at any time thanks to the new outline system.

2:11

Here, we can see the MA40 AR also has the Kinetic damage type, as expected. However, there’s something else in this scene that we’ll see in just a short moment.

2:11 (cont.)

Interestingly, there is a prompt to pick up a Spike Grenade. This likely means there is a limit to how many grenade types a player can hold, although it is unclear what this limit is. In any case, we can see that the Spike Grenade is also a Kinetic damage-type weapon.

2:14

In this screenshot, we can see the player using a 1.40x zoom with the Needler, suggesting that SmartScope is returning from Halo 5: Guardians. However, it does not seem to offer any accuracy improvements over pure hip-fire. I’ll have more to say on this zoom a little later in this section, but for now, it doesn’t seem to be quite as much of a benefit as it was in the previous game.

2:15

As in Halo 5: Guardians, your assists are marked in the killfeed by highlighting the background of your teammate’s kill in the killfeed. Additionally, earning an assist seems to award 50 points for a Kill Assist.

2:23

The multiplayer match intro is shown here. In this case, we are seeing the PoV of the blue Spartan on the left. The camera pans over the members of the team before zooming toward the blue Spartan’s helmet, smoothly transitioning to a first-person view as the match begins.

2:25

The full multiplayer HUD is briefly shown here. The radar is 20 m in radius, and callouts are located to the bottom right of the motion tracker. The scores are shown to either side of the timer in the bottom middle, and multiple indicators appear on the map, likely marking important weapon/equipment spawns or objective locations. The starting loadout in this gametype is the MA40 AR and the MK50 Sidekick.

2:33

The weapon pickup prompt for the VK78 Commando also indicates that it is a Kinetic-type weapon, which comes as no surprise. Most UNSC weapons likely fall into this category.

3:11

The Gravity Hammer is a much more effective power weapon than ever before with a much larger kill radius. However, it does have a longer swing time due to its high damage output.

3:15

The Energy Sword reticle is shown here, and it looks very similar to how it appeared in Halo 5: Guardians. The way it is held is closer to the Halo 2 version, however.

3:26

There’s a few things going on here. One, the player is using a zoom function with his MA40 AR, but it looks identical to the zoom function on the Needler. This suggests that there is a default 1.40x for all weapons that is only superseded by weapons with scopes, such as the VK78 Commando or the Skewer. Second, the player has a pick up prompt for the Repulsor, the equipment item that allows players to briefly deflect shots and other things in front of them. Third, although it cannot be easily seen in this screenshot, the targeted Spartan appears to be wielding the Disruptor, which seems to fire a single blue projectile after each trigger pull.

3:30

Although this screenshot does not show it well, this player uses the Repulsor equipment item while looking at the ground to launch themselves upward to the second level on the map, placing them to perfectly smash four opponents with the Gravity Hammer.

3:34

There’s a few more things to notice in this screenshot. First, the killfeed calls out that the player earned an Overkill. Second, a pick up prompt for the M9 Frag Grenade confirms that it is also a Kinetic damage type item. Finally, the lack of medals in this case should not be cause for concern. John Junyszek has also confirmed that medals are in Halo Infinite; they are simply not appearing in this build.

3:35

The Grappleshot can be used to fetch Active Camo or Overshield from a distance. As in Halo 5: Guardians, there is a short animation before the powerup applies to the player. However, here, the player doesn’t immediately jump into this animation. In fact, they hold onto the item for a short period before activating it.

3:36

“For this title, what we’re looking at, what we’re excited for, is you pick [Active Camo or Overshield] up, and you choose when to activate it. It goes into your inventory. If you haven’t used it, and someone kills you in multiplayer, you drop that overshield, and then they could take it.” - Quinn DelHoyo

Previously, when you picked up the Active Camo or Overshield, it automatically applied to you where you stood. However, Halo Infinite will lean into the equipment side of this and allow you to carry around the power up until you decide to use it or are killed, at which point anyone can pick it up off your body. This works even if they are in the animation to apply the power up.

3:39

After activating an Overshield, the shield presents itself as a yellow skin over the top of the Spartan.

3:49

Here, we can see an enemy Spartan taking damage from an exploding grenade. If we look closely around the reticle, sure enough, a hitmarker appears, meaning that grenade hitmarkers are, in fact, included

4:06

The Warthog in the center has lost its hood and its rear left tire, which appears to affect how well it can drive. The Ghost has lost its left wing, which may also affect its handling. There is a Spartan in the distance with a mounted Machine Gun turret, which is using a similar model to the Halo: Reach and Halo 4 variants.

4:21

Here, the doomsday mechanic has taken hold for the Warthog. The entire vehicle takes on a red outline as the engine catches fire, notifying the occupants that the vehicle is about to detonate after a few seconds or if it takes a little more damage.

4:26

There’s a lot going on in this scene, but the most important detail is the Razorback, the Warthog-like vehicle in the front middle. There are four occupants in this vehicle: a driver, a flag carrier in the passenger seat, and two more passengers in the back.

4:28

“The back has this multi-storage compartment that you can put a lot of stuff into, so if you want to put detached turrets, power weapons, Fusion Coils, objectives.” - Brian Berryhill

The Razorback is the ultimate team support vehicle. Not only can you ferry a bunch of players from one place to the next, you can also move almost anything in the sandbox, even objectives. It will be interesting to see how this mechanic works in game, given it’s historically been impossible to drop a weapon without picking up another.

4:57

As in the Campaign demo from July 2020, players can use the Grappleshot to pull themselves toward other players. Additionally, we can see two Spike Grenades hovering over their spawn on the left. The grenades are highlighted with blue outlines to make them stand out better. Also, notice the wooden basket of fruits on the right.

4:58

The wooden basket from before has been completely destroyed, so there will be some level of destructible items in multiplayer. Additionally, one of the items dropped by the enemy player is a strangely-shaped equipment item, seen just above the MA40 AR.

4:59

Based on the pickup prompt shown here, it seems like the equipment item in the previous screenshot is, in fact, the Threat Sensor.

5:14

We can more clearly see the Machine Gun turret design for Halo Infinite in this screenshot, showing that it still comes in mounted form until the player chooses to dismount it.

5:25

Our first look at the Banished Wraith in Halo Infinite can be seen here. The gunner seat also has more protection than before, with a shield that is active while there is an occupant in the seat.

5:43

The weapon pods in BTB fall from the sky and are marked by green lights at the top of the pod.

6:06

When a player captures a flag, Jeff Steitzer will announce it. It also earns the player 300 points and creates a message near the top of the screen. Notice that the symbol on this flag is a bird, while we’ve seen a snake on the flags in earlier screenshots. These symbols have been used to differentiate Red and Blue teams since Halo: Combat Evolved, so even though the Red and Blue team designations are disappearing, the symbology is not.

6:07

“Personal AI is really a reflection and information for the players. So if a player grabs a flag, your Personal AI is going to tell you to get that thing back to base and give you some moment-to-moment updates.” - Patrick Wren

The new, customizable Personal AI won’t be announcing the gametype and medals, but they will be giving tactical information in much the same way that the Spartan chatter in Halo 5: Guardians did. So, actions such as picking up or dropping the flag will trigger a line from the Personal AI.

6:08

This Personal AI is called Butler, and he has a formal, masculine voice. We don’t get to hear much from him, but he is another option players will have for their Personal AI. Note that this appears to be part of the in-game menu to select one’s Personal AI.

6:22

When a teammate picks up the enemy flag, an alarm sounds and the Personal AI notifies the player that their team has acquired the flag.

6:33

After selecting a Personal AI, a short animation plays where the player’s Spartan removes an AI chip from the console and inserts it into their armor.

6:37

A prompt appears to explain how Personal AIs work. Both appearance and personality can be changed in the “Armor Hall.” It seems like appearance and personality are tied together, but this is not guaranteed to be the case.

6:46

Some of the armor customization is shown here. In addition to being able to change the Armor Coating and Assault Rifle Coating, there are options for the Helmet, Helmet Gear, Visor, Right and Left Shoulder, Gloves, Chest, Kneepads, and Armor Core. It isn’t entirely clear what is meant by Armor Core, but it seems to be a set of default armor options that can be customized in different ways. The background colors for each option seem to indicate the item’s “rarity.” Here, it is important to clarify that this is not how likely it is to earn an item through random means but rather a measure of how difficult to obtain or desirable an item may be. The gray background would pertain to Common items, while the blue and purple backgrounds indicate Rare and Ultra Rare items, respectively.

6:51

Here are some more customization choices, this time for the Soldier Spartan.

6:53