Halo Infinite game footage will be shown off at Microsoft’s Xbox Series X event in July, which promises a look at first-party games for the next-generation console.
Developer 343 Industries confirmed that the next title in one of the gaming world’s largest franchise will get a proper showcase at Microsoft's first-party livestream. "You may have seen people talking about this lightly before, but we're extremely excited to confirm that Halo Infinite will be one of many first-party titles included in the Xbox 20/20 event in July," the developer said on the Halo Waypoint blog.
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We had hoped Microsoft would show off Halo Infinite, which is slated to be an Xbox Series X launch game, at its May 7 event. Instead, that event was for third-party developers, with Microsoft Xbox Game Studios games getting held off for a couple of months.
While the May 7 event teased a few games we can expect to come to the Xbox Series X in the near future, we arguably didn’t see any heavy-hitting games outside of Assasin’s Creed Valhalla. So Microsoft’s plan to hold a handful of major game showcases, with the first in July, was likely well-received news for Halo fans.
So far we’ve seen two trailers for Halo Infinite. The first trailer from E3 2018 mostly showed off some environments, a few UNSC marines, a Halo ring, and shot of the Master Chief’s iconic green helmet. The second trailer a year later then showed off a scene in a Pelican dropship where a pilot finds Spartan 117 floating in space and tries to essentially reboot the super-soldier by plugging him into the dropship’s power supply.
Those trailers gave us a hint at what type of graphics we can expect the Xbox Series X to kick out. But there as no clue as to how the next Halo game might play.
The July event will supposedly give us a much better insight into Halo Infinite. So here’s what we’d like to see from the game that could spearhead the Xbox Series X launch.
Actual action
If 343 Industries gives us another trailer with no game footage, we’ll be pretty disappointed. Yes, we know the last trailer might have been an in-engine one, suggesting Halo Infinite will look like a proper next-generation game, but we now want to see how the game will actually play.
That means a proper look of the action through the eyes of Master Chief, or another player-controlled character. And that should consist of a glimpse of the environments we’ll be exploring as well as how we’ll be dispatching the game’s enemies.
Some story hints
We obviously don’t want too much in the way of plot details for Halo Infinite, as spoiler-free is the way to go. But some clue as to whether the game does directly follow on from the events of Halo 5, or if it’s only lightly linked, would be good.
It would be nice to get a clue at who the characters could be in the game beyond the Master Chief. And who the Spartan super-soldier might be expected to fight.
Big, open environments
Halo: Combat Evolved was known for its large open environments that allowed players to tackle combat scenarios from different approaches or go bombing around the sandy beaches and sea cliffs of The Silent Cartographer in the indestructible Warthog. But that hasn’t always been the case with other Halo games, with some feeling more constricted and linear than we’d have liked.
We hope Halo Infinite brings back the large environments, possibly with a slight open-world element; think levels and areas interconnecting in a Dark Souls-like fashion. This could inject an element of exploration into the game and help capture some of the wonder we felt playing the original Halo for the first time (caveat: we were a lot younger back then!)
Beyond Halo
Speaking of exploration, we’d like to see Halo Infinite take us to other locations beyond just a new Halo ring. We’ve got rather used to the Forerunner installations in the previous games, so some other locations could help ensure the next Halo feels fresh.
That being said, the Halo series has already taken us to Earth and the Elite’s homeworld of Sanghelios, so locations other than those would be great. There’s a lot of lore and backstory 343 Industries can tap into to build out the in-game locations of Halo Infinite, and we’re hoping that the game will let us boldly go where no Master Chief has gone before. The ability to travel between locations in a USNC space ship with some space combat sprinkled in would also be welcomed.
More multiplayer modes
Halo 2 catapulted the series into the gaming stratosphere as a defining multiplayer game thanks to the debut of Xbox Live. And since then the Halo games have always come with a strong multiplayer element and a suite of modes. So we’d like to see what 343 Industries plans to do with Halo Infinite’s multiplayer.
A battle royale mode is almost expected in all modern first-person multiplayer games. But one that takes place on the otherworldly Halo rings would help it stand out from the real-world environments of other battle royale modes in the likes of Call of Duty and Battlefield V. Halo’s combat and vehicles have always been an impressive part of the games, so that combined with a frenetic last-Spartan-standing large map battle is a rather tantalising prospect.
We have a good month and a bit to wait until 343 Industries shows what we can expect from Halo Infinite, as well as what first-party games Microsoft has in store for the Xbox Series X. But suffice to say we’re excited, especially with the PS5 expected to have a June 4 showcase that could push Microsoft into making sure its event a month after is even more impressive.
