Don’t bring up graphics. Just don’t. It’s a demo, we don’t know how old it is, and demo’s aren’t meant to showcase graphics. If you want to talk about how 343 should have shown something other than this demo, also kindly take it elsewhere.
I want to discuss what the gameplay could mean for the game as a whole.
TACMAP tab in the paused menu
Clearly this reinforces the fact the ring is “open-world.” In quotations bc some parts are likely quest locked for later. This is also supported by the advert on Infinite’s official page, saying “A Ring to Explore. Explore the epic expanse of a Halo ring for the first time in the most ambitious Halo game ever made.” On the bottom of the menu you can also see the ability to set waypoints and view missions. And when a waypoint was hovered over there looked to be rewards and difficulty assigned to it. I’m also guessing that we’ll have different vehicle choices in the later parts of the campaign. Another curious thought is that open-world games also usually incorporate some kind of checkpoint hub like a new town or somewhere you can return to, a place to find “quest givers”. I wonder if something like that will appear here, since it seems you may be searching for survivors like in CE in the beginning parts of the game. So I think it’s also safe to assume these side-quests are likely linked to…
"UPGRADES" tab in the paused menu
I’m hoping it’s for Armor type upgrades, but it could also be for Skills or Weapons. I personally don’t want Weapons to be part of it because I struggle to understand how it would make sense to carry any upgrades forward after you drop a weapon during play. If it includes skills that could indicate temporarily locked areas or other things you can’t do until you’ve unlocked a skill in a tree, if that exists (not trying to speculate what would be on that tree). So I imagine side quests are directly linked to the ability to upgrade. I also hope that the side-quests expand the story and aren’t just time-wasters.
Grappling Hook
I really dig this mechanic, both in exploratory ability (yay verticality!) and uses in battle. I wonder what sets the limit of you pulling something to you or you launching to it? This is totally fresh and new for Halo and I’m excited to see how it’s used and to experiment with it. It also makes me wonder how 343 planned their map design in regards to it’s ability. (Imagine if you could explore the terrain like in Horizon Zero Dawn). Also, it seems to be a permanent attachment in campaign? Or maybe you have to acquire it. Either way, it had a charge so it can’t be spammed, that’s nice. But it looks like if you pick up equipment it overrides your hook slot so it’s one or the other I guess.
Equipment
Yay! Return of pick-up-able equipments! I loved this from Halo 3, it added a very unique dynamic in both campaign and multiplayer. And did you see the size of the deployable shield wall!? Looked like you could shoot through as well. I’m excited to see what others there are and different tricks you can use with them. So then thinking about the controller - RB is assigned to equipment/grapple, LB is frag rotation most likely but I don’t think I saw it pop on screen, RT is shoot, LT is grenade throw, sticks are likely Sprint and Zoom, and your standard assignments to A,B,X,Y. No duel wielding it seems. Be cool if the D-Pad could be used and have different equipment assigned to it.
Advanced Movement
Sprint confirmed for campaign at least. Clamber and slide were seen. Grappling hook is a whole new element. But it doesn’t look like Thrust was a thing and I don’t imagine that would be equipment unless it came with more than one use? It will be interesting to see how this and equipment is used in MP. If MCC and specialized playlists are any indication, I bet most camps will get what they want and just not play the lists with the things enabled “that ruin Halo”. There was rumor of wall running on the interwebs, but it wasn’t shown so I don’t think it can be discounted at the moment. But the movement in general was very Halo-like and I don’t see it being incorporated, not to mention you could likely grapple over to anywhere you’d be able to wall run.
Overall I’m extremely excited. It felt CE + 3 + 5 all wrapped in one glorious open sandbox to explore. Be even cooler if it kept the CE feel and we get us some Flood at some point. That’s really what I want, the rest is icing.