The excitement for Halo Infinite keeps building as its December 8 release date draws ever closer and, thanks to the recent look at the game's campaign, fans are feeling more confident in it than ever. Up until the recent overview, Infinite's campaign has been something of a mystery, as 343 Industries hadn't really said much about it following the infamous Summer 2020 showcase of the game. Now that fans have had a proper look, however, it's clear that the studio is taking Halo in a new direction with its more open-ended levels that many have compared to the likes of the Far Cry series.
Because there's been so much talk about Halo Infinite's campaign as of late, many fans have been wondering about how long it will end up being. While there isn't any official confirmation on what fans can expect, taking a look at Halo's past campaign lengths can potentially help inform expectations when paired with all of the information about it that's been made public so far. However, fans should remember to take the unconfirmed information below with a grain of salt, as it's purely speculation based on previous Halo campaigns.
The Average Length of Halo Games
The Halo series has some beloved campaigns, but they aren't necessarily known for being lengthy. Here's a complete breakdown of the time it takes to finish the campaigns of all of the mainline Halo games:
- Halo: Combat Evolved: 10 hours
- Halo 2: 9 hours
- Halo 3: 8 hours
- Halo 4: 7.5 hours
- Halo 5: Guardians: 8 hours
The average campaign length is 8.5 hours when using the information above from HowLongToBeat.com. This means that fans can likely expect all future Halo games to have at least 8.5 hours of content included in their campaigns. Based on what's been shown of Halo Infinite, however, it seems likely that fans will get more than that out of its campaign.
Halo Infinite's Possible Length
Halo Infinite looks like it's taking a different approach to level design than the earlier entries in the series. When it was first revealed, many fans thought that it was an open-world game; 343 Industries has since confirmed that it isn't, but that it's taking a lot of the more open-ended ideas from classic Halo levels like The Silent Cartographer and applying them to make open sandbox levels. Because of the open-ended design, it seems like Halo Infinite could have a much longer campaign than its more linear counterparts.
Based on the campaign overview, there seem to be at least four different levels included in the game, but there's likely to be more with the final release. In one section of the video, the player opens a map and reveals just how big the section they're in is. There was a lot included in the brief look at the map, but it seems like Halo Infinite is adopting a more outpost-based formula like in Far Cry or Fallout. If that sort of open-ended structure makes up a majority of Halo Infinite's campaign, then it might be hard to get an exact read on its length, because players will approach each outpost differently and have different desires to explore the levels.
It seems likely, however, that because of the open-ended nature of Halo Infinite's level design, that it could take players at least 15 to 20 hours to complete the campaign when looking at the main story lengths of other similarly open-ended shooters alongside the rest of the Halo series. Infinite has set itself up to be the longest game in the series because of how much content can be packed into its giant levels waiting for players to explore every inch. The campaign seems a lot less linear than past entries, which might breathe new life into the franchise, but it's also a risky move since the straightforward nature of older Halo stories was a major selling point. Regardless, fans may want to expect a longer singleplayer offering this time around.
Halo Infinite launches on December 8 for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.