To say Halo Infinite’s path so far has been winding would be an understatement. Originally planned as a launch title for the Xbox Series, it received a full-year delay after its initial reveal had a number of technical issues. It turned out a year wasn’t enough time to polish up the game, however. Though most of the technical problems were cleared up, Infinite lacked numerous expected features at launch. Halo fans are used to things like cooperative multiplayer and Forge, but these things were completely absent.
343 Industries doubled down on the game, though, and promised those features would be added later on. The game’s Slipspace Engine is meant to make updates easy to implement.
It’s now been a year and a half since Halo Infinite’s initial launch, and it seems 343 has kept its promise. The game now has Campaign Co-Op, Forge, a custom games browser, and just launched Season 3 of its narrative-supported and free-to-play multiplayer.
Jumping into Season 3 after taking a break from the game feels great. Coming back to Halo always feels like coming home: The crisp gun duels, the chaotic melding of on-foot and vehicular combat, the pristine sound design, and so many other aspects are so unique to Halo, and Infinite does these things as well as any other game in the franchise. And, at long last, it feels like a completed game.
Season 3 has so many fresh experiences to love. The new maps are excellent. In particular, I’m enamored with the new Big Team Battle map, Oasis. It brings some much-needed variety to the game’s color palette, and it plays as well as it looks. The first time I loaded up this map and jumped into a Warthog, I couldn’t help but have a huge grin on my face. That grin only got wider as I started mowing down the opposition and listening to the game announcer yelling out, “Killing Spree! Double Kill! Triple Kill!”
The new official maps aren’t the only new ones I got to play. Infinite now has a massive list of creator maps, all built in the wildly robust Forge mode. Some of these maps were brand new, while many were exceptional remakes of classic Halo maps. Longtime veterans of the series will be happy to see the return of The Pitt and Damnation, just to name a couple. It feels as great as ever picking up a sniper rifle on these maps and scoping down some enemy Spartans. Just make sure you’re not on the losing side of those duels.
Season 3 also has some new toys to play with, and this season’s weapon is a fresh take on a familiar favorite. Dubbed the M392 Bandit, it’s basically the DMR you know and love from Halo Reach, Halo 4, and Halo 5, albeit without the long-range scope. This weapon is as punchy and precise as you’d expect, and a worthy addition to the sandbox.
Also new to Season 3 is the Shroud Screen, a sort of holographic smoke screen that will block enemy sightlines but not grenades or bullets. I found my favorite way to utilize this new toy was when I had an Energy Sword. Simply throw the Shroud Screen on top of some enemies so they can’t see you coming, and charge right into it while hacking at anything that turns your reticle red. Easy Overkill.
Now that Halo Infinite finally feels like a complete game, it’s time to look forward a bit. Remember, this is supposed to be a 10-year game, and now that it seems to finally be on track, will 343 take the opportunity to shake things up and really try to hit us with something out of left field? Infinite now has the expected stuff, but it could use some of the unexpected.
Due to a leak, we already know the beloved Infection mode is coming back. Past games in the series also had unexpected modes, like Halo 3’s Firefight or Halo 5’s Warzone. I’d personally love to see these modes return in Infinite with some updated features and functionality. But much of the gaming world has a different mode on its collective mind: Battle Royale. Now that Infinite is a completed game, what’s stopping 343 from putting a dedicated BR mode into Halo Infinite?
Any of those modes would add more replayability to Halo Infinite, as well as giving players back the gameplay elements they’ve enjoyed in basically every other Halo game. Combining these experiences with consistent seasonal launches and a worthwhile battle pass could do wonders for the game.
And don’t forget, there are even whispers of Halo Infinite getting additional Campaign content down the road. A new race of aliens known as The Endless was introduced in Infinite’s Campaign, and fleshing these mysterious beings out in a story expansion would be reinvigorating for a huge group of Spartans who don’t care much for the competitive multiplayer side of the experience.
What happens next is still a bit of a mystery. Word on the street is that the Slipspace Engine that 343 spent all those years building is a bit of a nightmare to use, and the developer wants to try to switch the game over to Unreal Engine. If this is the case, it may be a while yet before we get any of these massive modes added.
But even if 343 isn’t able to add every little thing we want, we can at least be happy knowing that each time we launch the game from now on, it will have the content we’ve come to love and expect from the series. From here on, launching Halo Infinite will be a return to that game many of us have loved for 20 years. After all, there’s nothing else quite like Halo.
