Fans have been waiting patiently for the launch of Halo Infinite after its delay into 2021 late last year. While the delay is by all accounts a good thing, as it gave 343 Industries the time the studio needed to make sure the game can meet the high standards set for it, it has also meant much more waiting for Halo fans. Luckily, this weekend's technical preview was able to whet appetites and give a look into what fans can expect from the next entry in the Halo franchise.
Despite being relatively bare in terms of playable content, the Halo Infinite technical preview was the best thing that could happen to the game before its release. Plenty of fans were trepidatious after the game was slapped with a year-long delay, so they wanted to be able to play it and decide for themselves if it would be worth it in the end. As most who signed up for the Xbox Insider app can attest, Halo Infinite is shaping up to be something special.
Revamping Halo's Core Gameplay Loop
Although it was received well by critics, the fan reception to Halo 5: Guardians was somewhat mixed. Some fans didn't like the direction that the story took, but others took issue with the way that the game actually played. It goes without saying that long-running franchises should adapt their gameplay over the course of each title, but Halo 5 took it a little too far. The game and its multiplayer felt much faster when compared to older titles, which isn't a bad thing, but it seemed to discredit the skills that Halo fans have spent years honing.
The Halo Infinite tech preview seems to be scaling things back in a way that feels more faithful to its older counterparts while also innovating in terms of what's possible with its mechanics. Halo 5 felt like 343 Industries was trying to chase some of the success seen by other major FPS franchises like Call of Duty and Battlefield by including faster movement, lowering the overall time-to-kill, and emphasizing aiming down the sights of the weapons. While those features are definitely present in Halo Infinite, they feel like they're being put to use in service of the core Halo mechanics as opposed to being added simply because that's what's popular in other shooter series.
Halo Infinite's Bot Flights
Perhaps one of the strongest features of the Halo Infinite technical preview was 343's strategic use of bots. Instead of having players battle it out amongst themselves in traditional game modes, the opposition in each match was made up entirely of non-player bots which opened the door for fans to experiment with the game's mechanics. Instead of having to worry about going up against players who have been honing their Halo skills since 2001, fans were able to try things out because they felt more comfortable knowing that they weren't about to get one-shotted from across the map. That is, until the ODST and Spartan bots showed up.
The other part of the genius surrounding Halo Infinite's bots is that there were three levels of difficulty to them: regular, ODST, and Spartans, each more tenacious than the last. By having different levels of play on display, 343 Industries was able to give its players a sample of what the game might be like when playing both casual and hardcore opponents. While even the most intelligent bot might not be able to be a perfect stand-in for a human player, it still gave fans the chance to see what the game might be like when played at different levels, cementing the idea that Halo Infinite will be widely accessible to all players with all levels of experience.
Halo Infinite is set to launch in Holiday 2021 on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.