So over the past day or so we have learned that Halo Infinite is being treated more like a platform/service than a standalone title, owing in part to its open world, Destiny like nature. This has me concerned because by its very nature this open world design means developers don’t spend time crafting tailored, individual levels with individual sandbox elements. For example, think about the Halo 3 level The Covenant being placed in Halo Infinite, and the fact its open world means you can travel in and out of that “mission zone.” The level wouldn’t feel the same, would it? And Halo 5’s missions are some of the least memorable missions in the franchise, despite being super linear.
343’s track record when it comes to character development is… not great. Halo 4 was a good story that fit in the Halo universe. It payed respect to Halo’s past, certainly with Cortana’s death which was a beautiful sendoff. Then, we got T for Teen Halo 5 which brought her back for no reason.
This is the same way I felt about the Infinite trailer, specifically the pilot. I had the impression that the pilot would reflect the player’s emotions playing as Chief, being excited and ready to “kick some a**”, spurring Chief on and helping rally the UNSC forces on the ring, just like in Combat Evolved.
Instead he was the opposite in the demo to how he was in the trailer? Like not even a little bit opposite, the exact opposite. The way he disrespected Master Chief Petty Officer 117 was just wrong, I don’t care how frustrated he is. The way he doubted the ability to take on the Banished (who look like Mega Bloks btw). I don’t get why the trailer and the demo were mirror opposites of each other?
So combine the track record of mediocre level design, placed in an open world game they have had no experience in creating as a studio (in terms of actually creating previous open world games), combined with a poor track record on character development after Halo 4. Now consider the fact that this game is supposedly going to be the next 10 years of Halo, and that we should forget about Halo 7 for now. Steve Downes is getting old, Chief himself lore-wise is getting old. Unless the Librarian’s enhancements somehow preserve Chief for longer and 343 get a new voice actor for Chief over the next 10 years it looks like we will be saying goodbye to Chief this decade.
I am very worried about his character death this decade and given the circumstances and track record I am not comfortable with 343 Industries handling this. Of course they can declare things “not-canon” should the backlash be big enough, or go back in time and make games about earlier periods in the game’s history (Reach as a prequel, Halo 3 ODST being set before Halo 3 etc.) but overall this would not be a good look. Star Wars fans still debate Star Wars Legends vs Canon to this day - it dominates their discourse.
I am expecting it to happen but I am almost certain it won’t be good, especially given what we have seen from Infinite in terms of the demo.