At its E3 2021 livestream presentation, Xbox and 343 Industries finally lifted the veil of secrecy off of Halo: Infinite’s multiplayer. The studio confirmed the rumors that Halo: Infinite multiplayer will be free-to-play, will run at 120FPS, and showed off some of the gameplay experiences and modes that players can expect.
Given that fans had yet to see any Halo: Infinite multiplayer, it wasn’t surprising that 343 put such a focus on that side of the game. What was surprising, however, was what they didn’t show.
While the Halo: Infinite section of the Xbox Showcase did dedicate some time to the single player campaign, it did not feature any gameplay. Instead, fans saw a scene in which Master Chief meets a new female AI and learns that Cortana might still be “alive.” The scene was also precluded by a brief flyby over the Zeta Halo ring landscape, but from a distance where it was hard to pull out any detail.
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When 343 Industries announced that Halo: Infinite would be delayed until 2021, the studio did so under the pretense that it was going to make changes to the game based on fan feedback to the trailer debut. While the gameplay seemed to be pretty well received, the visuals were not. From textures on the environment to the design of some of the enemy characters, there were plenty of criticisms raised at Halo: Infinite and this delay would allow 343 to address them. The studio then went mostly dark on Halo Infinite.
Fast forward to the Xbox Showcase and most expected to see Halo: Infinite gameplay and see what 343 Industries changed or improved. There were a lot of different ways that the devs could have approached the second gameplay presentation - either by showcasing a new section or going back to the original one for comparison - but instead fans only got a distant camera flyby.
One of the main ways that 343 could show how it has taken feedback and improved Halo: Infinite would be in the Brute enemy design. In the original gameplay preview, one of the Brutes looked textureless and without a lot of detail. This Brute eventually came to be known as Craig and spawned a number of Halo memes following the reveal.
Obviously, 343 could just as easily take Craig out of the game a la Bungie’s “That Wizard Came from the Moon” edit, but it might be helpful to see Craig 2.0. If 343 addresses the Craig in the room and “he” looks better, then that would be a major win for the studio and a great way to illustrate the improvements made to the game’s visuals.
At some point, 343 Industries is going to need to show Halo fans what Infinite gameplay looks like but E3 was apparently not the right place. It’s possible that the developers are still working on the improvements to the engine and visuals and those were not ready for a public display just yet. Still, it would have been nice to get a hint as to what the delay led to.
Had the response to the demo not been negative, Halo: Infinite would have released last November, so there is a lot of extra time being used to make the game better. Now the question is just how much better does the game look.
Halo: Infinite releases holiday 2021 for Xbox One and Xbox Series consoles.