The Halo Infinite test flight finally got players' hands on the game—including its fruit physics. A video showing the way they respond to gunfire has lead to many comments, now including those of Halo Infinite's Creative Director, Joseph Staten.
During the initial Halo Infinite test flight, many players took the opportunity to test many of the game's mechanics to see how far along the game has come and compare them to older titles. A particularly revealing video uploaded to Reddit compared the game's fruit physics to those of found in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019). Put simply, Infinite's fruit are a single object that explode all together when shot, whereas Call of Duty's fruit are rendered individually with their own physics. Although the video could be viewed as nitpicky, and the replies became full of sarcasm, it spawned a discussion about Infinite's quality and detail.
Following an interview with another Halo Infinite designer at IGN, Staten naturally had to comment on the ongoing fruit physics conversation, using the words of his colleague. In the interview, the designer notes, "We can improve the fruit physics, but that means we'll have to cut the Needler." Staten posted his thoughts to Twitter, joking, "Narrator: 'They did not improve the fruit physics,'" followed by, "#NeedlerForever." One of the many improvements found in Halo Infinite is the revamped Needler, that fans and critics have come to love, hence its reference here.
Fans have thankfully picked up on the joke, as evidenced in the replies. Like the comments found on the original Reddit upload, it seems like generally Halo fans are not too concerned about the fruit physics, using the hyperbolic "unplayable" and desires for more fruit on the maps, to further joke about the situation. This is totally a different issue from the other recent update, Halo Infinite not having assassinations at launch, where one is simply a cosmetic issue that hardly affects gameplay, and the other is the total absence of a possible player action, directly affecting gameplay.
With rumors that Halo Infinite could be dropping before November, and there likely being another test flight, it won't be much longer before more players can try out the game for themselves. The game has come a long way since its first gameplay reveal in 2020, whose critical reception caused the game's release to be delayed and Joseph Staten to join the project. Opinions of the game from the test flight indicate a promising title that both brings Halo forward while drawing heavily on the past, like with the Needler. If having basic fruit enabled the Needler to have its majestic return to glory, then that is more than fine.
Halo Infinite is set to launch in 2021 on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.