343 Industries' Halo Infinite has officially brought Halo back into the gamer consciousness in a big way with its multiplayer and campaign. Many are claiming that not only is Halo Infinite the best Halo package since the days of Bungie but that its campaign is the best it has been in over a decade. That's quite an acheivement for 343 Industries, and now one of the co-creators of the original Halo has noticed and given his stamp of approval on Infinite's campaign.
Halo: Combat Evolved's co-creator Marcus Lehto took to Twitter recently to lay bare his praise for Halo Infinite's campaign saying that he is really enjoying his time back with Master Chief and that 343 Industries has managed to bring the magic back to Halo in a big way. Lehto then went on to post a picture of Infinite's Zeta Halo environment, admiring the view and what the team has done with architecture and the mountainous terrain. He found a spot on the map and claimed to his Twitter followers that he wouldn't mind building himself a small home nestled somewhere in there.
One user asked Lehto if Halo Infinite's more open world desgin of Zeta Halo was something that Lehto and his team wished they could have done back with Halo: Combat Evolved. Lehto responded with a resounding, "yes absolutely" as he says that the team's intent with the original Halo's first demo was to make the landscape open world. The closest the team ever got to that vision was of course, one of the most well-known Halo levels, The Silent Cartographer. This level would of course go on to influence 343 Industries' creative decisions on Halo Infinite's campaign.
Nowadays Marcus Lehto finds himself working on the Battlefield series as it was revealed back in October that he would be creating a new studio under the EA banner. This new studio, it was later discovered, would be focused exclusively on creating storytelling content for Battlefield. How exactly that kind of content will materialize is anyone's guess at this point.
Halo Infinite is currently enjoying rave reviews from critics and gamers alike, with gameplay that is keeping people coming back for more, especially in its suite of multiplayer modes. However its lead narrative designer just recently departed 343 Industries for new ventures so it will be interesting to see how the team handles new narrative content in Halo Infinite going forward.
Halo Infinite is available now for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.