I was holding my phone waiting for the Xbox conference to start, and when it did I was excited to see if the fabled Halo 6 would be revealed to the world, and where it would go. Then right after the conference room appears, a trailer starts. My mind goes to this has to be a promo for the conference itself but I soon figure out it is for a game, but I thought to myself “This definitely isn’t Halo”, I, however, continued to watch it and soon started hearing or seeing things that were very familiar to Halo, but I still wasn’t sure. Then I see the Marines, I, of course, am very excited at this point and the camera pulls back and reveals Master Chief’s helmet and the Halo 3 piano dings, then the soundtrack hits with a Warthog driving on a vista and the Halo 3 soundtrack blares as Halo: Infinite is revealed. This was a crazy reveal that had subtle clues to what it was leading up to, and to say the least, I loved it. Many people have theories about what Halo: Infinite is, is it open-world, linear, or something else? Well, I am here to hopefully give you all some insight into what I took away from the trailer and what I think they are doing with the next installment.
Linear, yet open
For those worrying about this Halo game being “open-world”, I would say quell your fears. I do not think this is an open-world game, but rather a linear game with large maps that allow for open-ended exploration and situation handling, like Halo 3’s Silent Cartographer but a little less linear whilst keeping you on a path of course. Maps will be larger than they have ever been before in both Campaign and Multiplayer, I am not theorizing a Battle Royale mode for multiplayer, whilst still including the smaller more linear maps we all love to play.
Bringing the classic feel back
This is an obvious one, this Halo game will be going back to the old art style we all know and love whilst still including a few things from the newer Halo 4 and 5 art style as well, note the Halo 5 BR in the trailer same with the Halo 5 Warthog being used. Whether or not they will include liked armor designs from the other games that the fanbase liked, well I believe they will but they will keep it more classic for the majority of the game in terms of armor design. Alongside this reintroduction of the classic Halo we all know and love, I believe they will be bringing back the classic gameplay as well, but making it play more smooth than it ever has before. They may add things to make this game different in terms of gameplay but this will not be anything major in terms of affecting the movement of your characters like Halo 4’s Sprint or Halo 5’s Spartan Abilities, I believe this will be more towards the realm of Halo 3’s equipment drops or power-ups in terms that it is different but it welds with the gameplay very well.
Forge
Of course, Forge is making a return to form and I believe this will be the most advanced Forge yet. I believe it will have potentially thousands of objects that will span different factions, terrain, weapons, AI teammates or enemies, and so much more. Halo 5’s forge is a terrific tool but it will have to be so much better in Halo Infinite if it wasn’t it just wouldn’t make sense why. There will be a collection of big and smaller Forge canvases that will allow us to forge in multiple terrains and areas. Everything from Halo 5’s forge will most likely return, minus some of the toys, but they will all be refined in terms of materials you can set certain objects to, like wood or concrete, to putting grime or other additives to your blocks or walls etcetera, etcetera.
Warzone
I think Warzone will return in a more refined, dynamic and fun form shipping with multiple maps. Warzone will still be a huge gamemode that will be objective based like the old one, but highly refined and made to be replayable for years to come.
I need a weapon…
So I believe this Halo game will have a very expansive arsenal, but not in the terms of REQ weapons or even weapon variants with different attachments. Though I think variants will return I do not think they will dominate the weapon economy as they do in Halo 5, I think Halo Infinite will have a wide array of weapons from new and previous Halo games, which I believe they alluded to in Halo 5 with the addition of multiple classic Halo weaponry.
A good story to tie things up
The game will no doubt have a good story that appeals to the inner Halo fan inside of all of us, and I believe it will take place on Installation 07 which is a ring that has a lot of the same features as the ring shown off in the teaser. I could speculate on what the story will be but I simply don’t have much information to go off of rather than the UNSC seems to have been hiding on this ring or have crash landed Halo CE style, and are currently doing some sort of operation to save Humanity from the Created threat. Master Chief will have an AI companion but I do not think this will be Cortana, but rather Mendicant Bias. Bias’ core is on Installation 07 and we know from Halo 3’s terminals he wants to atone for his sins which in many ways he did, but I believe he will be inclined to help Master Chief reclaim the Mantle for Humanity and stop Cortana and the Warden Eternal once and for all. This will no doubt tie up the trilogy, and potentially Master Chief’s story, but considering how fans love the Chief and don’t want him to go any time soon this may be the closing of one chapter.
Ending Thought
Overall I am excited and even though this is all theory I can only hope I hit on some accurate projections here. I could speculate more, but I think this is a rough but very logical outline of what the game will be like and what it will deliver. Of course, I want to hear other’s theories on what this game will be about or what it will be doing in terms of modes and gameplay. See you all in the next post.
> “Men, we led those dumb bugs out to the middle of nowhere to keep ‘em from gettin’ their filthy claws on Earth. But, we stumbled onto somethin’ they’re so hot for, that they’re scramblin’ over each other to get it. Well, I don’t care if it’s God’s own anti-son-of-a–Yoink- machine, or a giant hula hoop, we’re not gonna let 'em have it! What we will let 'em have is a belly full of lead, and a pool of their own blood to drown in! Am I right, Marines?”
> ~ Sergeant Major Avery Johnson