That Halo franchise is famous for its large open-air levels, but the series never did more than flirt with making a fully open world. Halo 3: ODST featured a semi-open hub region and let players go through the story missions in any order. However, unlike Halo Infinite, no one went into ODST expecting an open-world experience.
Strictly speaking, 343 never marketed Halo Infinite as open-world either, merely drawing inspiration from open-world games. Story missions still occur in linear levels, and the developer littered the map with numerous invisible walls. In fact, the game’s barriers can often show up at unexpected times, as a recent Reddit post showcases.
Reddit user therealoops recorded a segment of Halo Infinite gameplay and uploaded it to the Halo subreddit. It shows therealoops attempting to jump a gap in a Razorback full of Marines. It even shows the player reversing away from the edge, so they have space to build up speed. The vehicle nearly makes it to the other side and probably would have if it hadn’t struck an invisible barrier and lost all forward momentum. The poster later added that that specific gap is entirely crossable in a flying vehicle, but the barrier prevents ground vehicles from doing the same.
343 please remove these invisible barriers I want to do sick jumps from one part of the ring to another (sorry the capture has a weird noise) from halo
Other commenters reported attempting that precise jump, and it’s easy to see why. One side is at a significantly higher altitude than the other and even has a rocky outcrop resembling a ramp. The wall on the other side even has a perfectly vehicle-sized gap that’s practically begging for someone to try making the jump. Even Halo Infinite’s physics engine seems to agree the gap should be possible to jump, and one commenter reported getting close enough to attempt a hook shot. Unfortunately, however, they encountered the same invisible barrier preventing everyone else from crossing the gap. This is also far from the only invisible barrier sectioning off Halo Infinite’s world map.
Of course, 343 didn’t implement these barriers for no reason. They’re meant to prevent players from glitching their way into areas that the game isn’t ready for them to be in yet. However, one might hope the developers would remove the barriers once players unlock the area. The developer even did that indirectly, since Halo Infinite is perfectly fine with players flying over the same chasm.
Alternatively, the developers could have not included invisible walls at all. Merely removing the ramp-like rise, removing the gap in the wall, and widening the chasm would have served the same purpose without writing in an exception to the laws of physics. Or even better, 343 could have committed fully to making Halo Infinite an actual open-world game.
Halo Infinite is available now for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.