Halo Infinite players have recently been given their first taste of the core online multiplayer experience. Yet there's still a massive aspect of Halo Infinite's online multiplayer still absent, as the Forge remains in development. This past Technical Preview, available to Halo Insiders and their friends, introduced Capture the Flag, Total Control, and Slayer game modes. Yet the Forge will allow for significantly more complex game modes when it's launched. In fact, a recent leak shows just how complex these Halo Infinite Forge custom games can be.
The leaks show that Halo Infinite's Forge will allow incomparably more complexity for users' creations compared to even Halo 5, which provided a robust system for creating custom games. This added depth to the Forge custom game creation system stems from a new Node Graph menu feature that's entirely new to Halo Infinite. Forge users will be able to use this Node Graph to create complex scripts for their Halo Infinite Forge creations via a graphical interface.
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Using the Node Graph menu, players will be able to see all of the scripts they've created for their creation visually. Nodes can be created for a huge number of things in the Forge. At its most basic, there are nodes for objects, players, vehicles, and audio. At its most complex, there are nodes for triggerable events, math calculations, logic switches and gates, and shifting variables. And the Node Graph shows how these nodes connect so that players can see how their "programming" works via a web of these complex nodes.
To capture the gravity of this change, it's best to step back and look at Halo 5. Halo 5's Forge featured a way for players to write scripts, but each script had to be connected to an in-world object. That means creators had to remember all of their scripting on their own, as it was hidden within specific objects otherwise. Halo 5 Forge creators could still create incredibly complex game modes, but the Forge wasn't particularly helpful at presenting it. Imagine having to search through hundreds of objects looking for one line of a script accidentally performing the wrong behavior.
Exactly what the new Node Graph feature in Halo Infinite's Forge will enable creators to create remains to be seen. There's likely a range of new behaviors to be utilized within each type of node that otherwise weren't available in Halo 5. It'll be exciting to discover what creators come up with.
Unfortunately, it's going to be a while yet before creators are able to test out Halo Infinite's Forge for themselves. The Forge was previously delayed beyond Halo Infinite's launch, along with cooperative play in Halo Infinite's campaign. When it'll ultimately arrive remains to be seen, but 343 Industries hopefully won't make creators wait too long.
Halo Infinite releases December 8 on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.