Summary
- Criticism of Halo Infinite's structure has prompted 343 Industries to reconsider its approach for future entries.
- Halo Infinite changed the traditional release structure, leading to disappointment among fans and missing key features.
- The separation of multiplayer and campaign releases for the next Halo game could help improve content quality.
For the longest time, the general release structure for the Halo franchise remained pretty much the same. Every few years, a new Halo game would drop, offering the complete package of a substantial single-player campaign and multiplayer mode. As Bungie grew more ambitious, this Halo release structure would start to gain a few more additions, ranging from the underrated Theater mode to the beloved Forge mode and, eventually, the wave-based Firefight mode. This structure worked flawlessly for years, with even 343 Industries' Halo 4 and Halo 5 following suit. But then, Halo Infinite came along.
Not quite the black sheep of the franchise but still a definite disappointment for fans, Halo Infinite changed the series' decades-old release structure for the worse. And if the next Halo entry followed the same approach, it would only be shooting itself in the foot.
All Halo Infinite Cut Content Explained
Halo Infinite's development was notoriously difficult, leading to some major elements of the game being completely cut just before its 2021 release.
The Next Halo Game Shouldn't Follow in Infinite's Live-Service Footsteps
Halo Infinite's Structure Hasn't Worked Too Well
When Halo Infinite originally released, it did so in two separate waves. The first part of Halo Infinite to release was its multiplayer component, which launched in November 2021. Initially, this was met with a lot of praise and excitement from fans, with the multiplayer component being completely free-to-play and providing the perfect demo of what fans could expect gameplay-wise in Halo Infinite's then-upcoming campaign, which released just a month later. However, the issues started to creep in when both Halo components joined together.
Though both Halo Infinite's campaign and multiplayer were praised by critics and fans upon their initial release, it didn't take long before people started to realize that both components were missing some pretty integral features - features that had been a staple of the franchise since its very beginning. On the campaign side, co-op was completely absent at launch, and the game's story felt rushed and its open-world felt half-baked. On the multiplayer side of things, Halo Infinite had a severe lack of modes and maps on launch, including beloved additional modes such as Forge and Firefight.
343 Industries has spent over two years trying to fix both Halo Infinite's multiplayer and campaign components simultaneously. This has felt like an absolute slog for Halo fans, and undoubtedly, it's felt even worse for the developers behind the scenes trying desperately to fix large swathes of the game as quickly as possible. It's clear that Halo Infinite's structure could have been refined, and that's a lesson 343 needs to take into its next entry.
The Next Halo Might Benefit From Fully Separate Multiplayer and Campaign Releases
Potentially, the next Halo game might be better off separating its multiplayer and campaign components entirely. While this might sound like blasphemy at first for long-time Halo fans, it could actually be much better for the franchise in the long run if 343 intends to continue using a live-service approach for Halo's multiplayer. Hopefully, separating the two components would allow 343 to focus on each one at separate intervals, with a team dedicated to working solely on live-service content for the multiplayer, and a separate team dedicated to producing new campaign content.
The Call of Duty franchise has adopted a similar approach to this, with Call of Duty: Warzone being its own separate entity from the yearly Call of Duty entry.
This approach might even pave the way for more Halo campaign content than ever before. If 343 had a designated team working on single-player content, then the next Halo could actually act as a sort of anthology series, delivering smaller-scale 5-hour campaigns focusing on different areas of the Halo universe. The campaign always used to be the biggest draw for Halo, and it would be satisfying to see it return in such a substantial way.
Halo Infinite
- Released
- December 8, 2021
WHERE TO PLAY
When all hope is lost and humanity’s fate hangs in the balance, the Master Chief is ready to confront the most ruthless foe he’s ever faced. Step inside the armor of humanity’s greatest hero to experience an epic open-world adventure and explore the massive scale of the Halo ring.
With Network Campaign Co-Op and Mission Replay, you can relive your favorite moments, rediscover collectibles and explore the wonders of Zeta Halo on your own or with up to three other fireteam members.
Experience Halo’s celebrated multiplayer reimagined and free-to-play! With over 70 maps in matchmaking, billions of customization configurations, and countless community Forge creations to experience, Halo Infinite is the franchise’s most expansive multiplayer offering to date.
Enjoy an unprecedented variety of gameplay experiences, ranging from fast-paced intense ranked modes to whimsical mayhem in Custom Games, or even co-operative coordination in the wave-based survival mode Firefight: King of the Hill. Assemble your Fireteam and conquer every mode – Halo offers endless opportunities for teamwork, strategy, and unforgettable victories.
- ESRB
- T for Teen: Blood, Mild Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
- 343 Industries
- Publisher(s)
- Xbox Game Studios
- Engine
- Slipspace
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer
- Franchise
- Halo
- Platform(s)
- PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- Genre(s)
- First-Person Shooter
- How Long To Beat
- 12 Hours
- File Size Xbox Series
- 90 GB (November 2023)
- Metascore
- 87
- Platforms That Support Crossplay
- PC, Xbox One & Xbox Series X|S
