343 Industries has had an interesting run with the Halo franchise. The developer has struggled to win over fans with its two original entries into the series, which some have criticized for both gameplay and plot reasons. And while 343 Industries has attempted to take Halo in its own direction, Bungie is still influencing the design of the Halo franchise, even a decade after moving on.
There are immediate parallels between Destiny 2 and Halo Infinite that 343 Industries won't be able to shake. Fundamentally, Bungie's DNA is still very much a part of Halo, and with Destiny being a testament to Bungie's years of creating sci-fi shooters, the games are destined to feel similar to each other in tone and core mechanics, the difference being that Bungie freed itself from the slowed-down approach Halo fans expect when the studio moved on to its new franchise.
Because of that, it consistently feels like 343 Industries is chasing Destiny's success with new Halo entries, and Infinite is no exception. Rather, Infinite is the culmination of that influence, introducing live service elements to the game in an attempt to make Halo Infinite last for 10 years. That isn't necessarily a bad thing – despite its flaws, Destiny is an experience unmatched by other games like it. Introducing another sci-fi shooter with live service elements to the mix may be enough to force both games to constantly improve.
Where Halo Infinite might begin to struggle is if the connections to Bungie begin to resemble imitation more than influence. To please fans, Halo Infinite needs, to some degree, to resemble the product of its competitor. After all, what the majority of fans are seeking with Halo Infinite is a modernized version of Bungie's Halo in tone and narrative, with fresh gameplay mechanics for a tighter experience. Destiny is that turned up to 11.
Just look at the host of alien baddies that players have to fight in Destiny. Most resemble a faction from Halo in its own way, the Hive being the Flood, the Vex being Prometheans, the Fallen being Elites, and the Cabal resembling Brutes. Tonally, the enemies could be swapped in and out with little effect. The difference is that, with some exceptions, Destiny has more enemies on screen, and they're able to be dispatched far faster, with much quicker movement than Halo allows for.
But this is another area where Bungie seems to be influencing Halo's design. Sprint is no longer a new feature for the franchise, as it's been around since Reach, but Halo Infinite's new grappling hook could radically change how the game's movement works, making it as fast, if not faster, than Destiny's.
What remains to be seen is how Halo Infinite will handle an evolving narrative, if it will at all, though it does seem likely given 343's goals. Halo Infinite seems to be a semi-open world game, with players able to backtrack, and apparently being given some freedom while choosing which objectives to tackle. That formula is essentially diet Destiny, which doesn't feature a proper open world, but a number of zones players can explore freely with objectives scattered around. Halo Infinite's co-op may resemble that structure when all is said and done.
It seems as though even Bungie's financial modeled has shaped how Halo Infinite will be handled by 343 Industries. Halo Infinite multiplayer is free, and while it's becoming an increasingly common practice to offer up a portion of a game for players without charge, Destiny 2's free-to-play content structure testing the waters for live service games hardly seems to be a coincidence. If it bolsters the player base, it makes sense that 343 Industries would want to give it a try. Multiplayer games live and die based on their player count, and there will undoubtedly be ways for free players to spend money in the game.
With Halo Infinite presumably launching in a few months, players will soon know just how influential Bungie's design philosophy has been on the project, and that will likely be evidence of how influential the studio will be moving forward.