Halo Infinite has made a bad habit of delaying content and having an inconsistent release schedule. The competitive multiplayer, which was released separately from the core game, was riddled with issues at launch. Once the full game eventually came out, it did not feature many game modes that have become staples of Halo.
343 Industries has been actively fixing many issues that players have had with its latest title, but it seems that the developer has been stringing along the release of both the Forge Mode and the co-op campaign. Halo Infinite has a solid campaign that many fans have thoroughly enjoyed, but it is missing a key feature that players have come to expect from Halo: cooperative play. Though co-op has been announced, and 343 Industries has been upfront with an expected release date in August, many are still concerned that this highly-anticipated game mode will suffer further delays.
What Makes Halo Co-op Great
The Halo franchise has had cooperative play as part of its main campaign since the very first game, Halo: Combat Evolved. Since the original title, every other iteration of Halo has featured a co-op campaign, with some even featuring unique cooperative modes such as Firefight and Spartan Ops. Players became accustomed to the idea of seamlessly playing through the entirety of each iconic campaign with a friend by their side. Since many players consider co-op as part of the core Halo experience, fans were rightly concerned when Halo Infinite’s campaign launched without the option of co-op. Unfortunately, this is not 343 Industries’ first blunder, as the developer also removed split-screen co-op from Halo 5.
This decision was likely made due to a combination of technical constraints and the fact that split-screen gameplay has become a dying trend; regardless, fans were up in arms about the absent feature. Considering Halo Infinite’s campaign is set in a semi-open world with plenty of new areas and features, players consider it to be ripe with gameplay opportunities that would be better shared with friends.
How 343 Industries Has Responded to Concerns
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The cooperative campaign for Halo Infinite was originally supposed to be delayed until only months after the initial release. However, the developer has since held back information about the game mode and announced a vague release date of August, which is almost a full year after the game launched.
Fortunately, there has been a glimmer of hope in the form of an announcement made from the official Halo Twitter account. There were not many details given, just that online co-op is still scheduled to release later in 2022. However, the tweet also stated that a test flight of the co-op campaign will be launching in July for members of the Halo Insider community, which would allow players to participate in a sort of beta for the co-op before it launches.
Though it is easy to get excited about new updates surrounding the co-op mode, 343 Industries has still been skittish about providing exact dates and details, which could be a concern for fans. Further, though the idea of a beta for online co-op is nice, it also means that if the beta fails or has any sort of issues post-launch, the full release will likely be delayed as well.
Halo Infinite has had a rocky first year, but it seems that 343 Industries is owning up to its shortcomings and making an active effort to fix ongoing issues while also continuing to add new content and give the fans what they desire. The recent announcements for both the co-op campaign and Forge are reassuring, but do not guarantee either will release when expected, so the developers will have to really step up in order to provide the Halo community with the content they have come to expect.
Halo Infinite is available now on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.