I think 343i is trying to go for a more classic style, but the keywords here are “trying” and “more”. There are some things that are definitely more classic inspired: the Elites, the Jackals, Master Chief’s armor, the Forerunner aesthetic (I actually disagree with OP about the Grunts). However, there are absolutely things that are holdovers from the art style that 343i has been advancing for the past few games: the Warthog, significant parts of the Grunt design, and some aspects of the Forerunner aesthetic. I don’t think they are fully trying to go for a classic style, but are more trying to compromise between their own style and the classic style.
However, the other keyword here was “trying”. I don’t think they have quite managed to understand what makes the classic art style. I think they’re going at too superficial level and consequently creating something that is a parody of the classic style. The paragraph OP quoted a section of continues with “This translates to a more vibrant palette, ‘cleaner’ models and objects with less ‘noise’, though it doesn’t mean less detail”. But the “cleanliness” displayed in the gameplay demo misses the point and is overdone, producing art that looks very sterile. I just wrote about this in another thread, so I’m just going to quote myself from there:
> 2533274825830455;1337:
> But in the Halo Infinite demo, the issue is that objects look too clean in the literal sense: they literally lack all kinds of scratches, dents, color variation, discoloration, mud, corrosion. They look like they came fresh off the factory line. But if you go back and actually look at the classic Halo art style, it’s not like this. Some of the Forerunner structures since Halo CE clearly show signs of water damage and corrosion. Weapons and vehicles are full of scratches. Everything in the classic art style is worn and dirty. The games often use this for great effect to make things like the Halo rings and Crow’s Nest look old. Classic Halo is aesthetically clean, but literally dirty. Halo Infinite tries to be clean in both ways, which isn’t faithful to the classic style.
The classic art style is dirty. It’s gritty (in the literal sense). Everything is covered in something that tells the player it has seen life and didn’t just pop into existence when the player loaded the level. This grit is a very important component of the classic art style without which everything will just look “plastic” or “toy-like” or whatever is your favorite derogatory of an appearance that looks too clean to be believable.
The other part of classic art that I feel like goes misunderstood in Halo Infinite is “simplicity” of the Forerunner designs. Because that’s one of the things Halo 5 got criticism for: “the Forerunner designs; they look too busy and complex. Classic Halo is monolithic with repeating patters and angles”. If you take that description to its extreme, endless grey repeating hexagons is exactly what you’re gonna get. But it again misses the nuance of how the classic style is described vs. what is actually happening. If you go play the final level of Halo 3, you’ll see how to actually give an interesting foundational structure for a Halo ring.
The art style of Halo Infinite is kind of what I was afraid would happen: something that fits a certain superficial description of the classic art style, but takes it too far, and misses many of the subtleties.
