Yesterday Microsoft finally unveiled footage of the 343 Industries' highly anticipated follow-up to Halo 5: Guardians, Halo Infinite. Upon its release in 2015, Halo 5 left a bad impression on a lot of fans with a very controversial single-player campaign and a multiplayer mode that didn't truly thrive until a year or two after the game's release. While fans had very high expectations going into the gameplay reveal of Halo Infinite, coming 2 years after the game's initial announcement at E3 2018 as a spiritual reboot of the entire franchise, going back to a lot of the visual and gameplay styles of the original Halo: Combat Evolved from 2001.
While most fans seem welcoming to series innovations such as the introduction of a fully explorable, open-world Halo Array, a first for the series, as well as a grappling hook, some fans were disappointed by the visuals of the upcoming Xbox Series X launch title, which to some lacked the detail expected from a next-generation title. The gameplay demo also featured some noticeable texture and detail pop-in, which is surprising considering the Xbox Series X's SSD, which can stream visual assets faster than any other console Microsoft has ever released. Many have also pointed to a particular screenshot of a brute Master Chief encounters during the presentation as a particular character model that lacks detail, however this frame is taken while the model is in the middle of an animation.
Fans may not have to worry about Halo Infinite's visuals too much though, as while 343 Industires have recently stated that the demo was running on a PC with specs "representative of the experience that players will have on Xbox Series X," Funhaus and ex-IGN journalist Alanah Pearce has released a video detailing some of the information she learned while speaking with a member of 343 Industries in which she states "This is in progress, they did say it’s an early build."According to Pearce, the demonstration of Halo Infinite's gameplay from the Xbox Series X Games Showcase does not represent the current build of Halo Infinite that 343 Industries is working on.
Given the 4-5 months until Halo Infinite's "Holiday 2020" launch, 343 Industries is likely in the polishing stages of Infinite's development, where it is tackling the optimization of the game on consoles and PC. It is also worth noting that this is the first game to utilize 343's brand new Slipspace engine, meaning the team is also likely still optimizing its performance in accordance to the game. Halo Infinite also marks both 343 and the Halo franchise's first step into open-world gameplay, which means much of the design philosophy behind Halo's campaign, and its visuals, will be changed heading into this new title.
Halo Infinite will release on PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X in "Holiday 2020".