The Canonicity Conundrum

Games Halo Infinite
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I will be talking about a big problem within Halo 4 and 5 multiplayer and what I hope will not be in Halo Infinite: Canon.

Now, the MP of a game being canon isn’t necessarily bad. It was really cool in COD Black Ops Cold War to play as some of my favorite characters from the campaign, such as Russell Adler, in the multiplayer, or having Zombies be an actual thing that happened in the BO universe. The problem is forcing it to be canon and sacrifice gameplay elements for a bit of extra story.

If you aren’t aware, Halo 4 and 5’s multiplayer are simulations on the Infinity ship. They were made to train Spartans against different threats, like the Flood in Infection. What I don’t like is how some features have been altered or scrapped because it wouldn’t make sense in the lore. For example, Halo: Reach had 3 player types: Spartan Male, Spartan Female, and Elite. Halo 4 and onward got rid of elites because they were no longer allied with humans and only Spartans were part of War Games. Halo 5 had Spartan Abilities because of the new armor having more abilities. Many players did not like sprint, but the new armor allowed it, so it stayed. Warzone has to be flooded (no pun intended) with Palmer blabbing out random strategic talk, and the new AI system isn’t making me feel any better. I think you get my point.

A game’s main goal is to be fun, with the story being second. Especially in multiplayer where you aren’t necessarily there for a rich story. This is why I believe that Halo should not worry about everything being canon to the universe. While canonicity in multiplayer may appear to be a gateway for more opportunities, it is actually a prison, holding the game back. What are your thoughts on this issue? Do you wish Halo would go back to just prioritizing fun or do you not mind some gameplay elements being sacrificed for more lore? As I think I made it clear in this post, I want Halo Infinite to do the former, but I’d love to hear your opinions down below.

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Gameplay is always going to come first when it comes to multiplayer.
The whole lore behind sprint and why Spartans don’t need it in the game etc is just nonsense to me. Just let people sprint, it’s not that big of a deal

Same thing with the Infinity being a simulation, that’s cool and all but I didn’t really care that much about it. Was a cool way to kind of realise ourselves as a Spartan to some respect and I think that’s definitely being doubled down on with Infinite as they seem to be eluding that our own custom Spartan is going to get integrated into the wider Halo universe in some form.
I can’t say that Halo has really held itself back in terms of multiplayer because of life either.

For story in Halo Infinite I’m only really concerned about the campaign. Any Multiplayer lore I’m not really fussed about. Wether it’s Palmer in Halo 5 on the Comms or the new Spartan in charge of the Academy (I can’t remember their name haha) I’m not really too bothered. As long as the game is fun to play that’s what I care about.

With Infinite even having events in the battle pass that give out armour that are specifically non lore shows they aren’t afraid to experiment with new and different things.
“Why’s that Spartan wearing samurai armour?” - Because it looks cool and that’s it.

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I personally like the idea of canon MP. That said they could do some work on it to improve it.

Like having two types of missions, live fire and simulated. simulated allows for the more out there play types while live fire is more grounded.

As for lore, one thing I hate about 4 and 5 is how they state in lore there are elites training along side the spartans on the Infinity, but we never see it. Give us playable elites back, I like having my elite character.