Just look at his page on Artstation. the Amount of Variety he infused into his concept art for the landscapes of infinite is amazing, yet the final game, doesn’t closely stick to the Great Ideas he used. Halo Producers need to Trust their Artists and Art Leads more and do a better job of Integrating their Ideas more closely.
If the Infinite Campaign Map World design much more closely matched the Concepts of Martin Deschambault, the game would have been MUCH COOLER. He Had Full, snow-capped mountains. The layout of the “Islands” was better ( they had more verticality in the distribution of the islands with some being higher and some lower and some in the middle ), the Background atmosphere has a nice Blue, foggy glow to it, with thick, full Clouds that have better depth then the Whispy clouds in Infinite. He has TONS of variations of the PNW Theme, and even much better use of the Hexagon Pillars, so I just don’t understand why the actual level design doesn’t more closely match these ideas.
One thing the final campaign did do well and closely matched to his artwork was the Banished bases ( also his work ), I just wish the rest of the world was a much closer match to huge variety of the ideas presented in his concepts than it turned out to be. Especially because he had much bigger environments, better use of color and contrast, Massive forerunner structures like Floating Rectangle/walls in the sky, Bigger waterfalls, long rivers, coastal regions and more. just more variety all around than what we got in infinite. His concepts also had a huge variety of Forerunner structures which looked AWESOME, many of which didn’t make it into the final game.
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Even the sections that he designed with lots of Hex Pillars LOOK exciting to play in, compared to the design /location/layout of the Hex Pillars in the game.
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The design of the map and locations in his work feels unique, varied and interesting, wheras in the final game, it all kinda just feels meh like a big smear blended together as if the persons crafting the levels, didn’t understand ( or couldnt ) more closely match the vision established in the concept art set pieces. ( Which I would blame on higher ups who have more of a say in the matter than the actual artists )
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The background of his “Island” designs have actual snow capped mountains, the main Cluster of Islands isn’t just all one the same level, but some are higher and some are lower, and there around other Islands off to the side that look interesting as if they are sections player can visit later on
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The use of COLOR in his concepts for the Landscape of Infinite appear MUCH more Vibrant and have more contrast, deeper, richer colors, compared to the actual Infinite campaign which feels very “samey” in terms of it’s use of Color. He has deeper greens, Brown Cliffs, the Metal textures of the Hexagons look better from a distance ( The Hexagons look great up close in Infinite, but from a distance, they all kinda look like a smear of Gray )
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The Background atmosphere around and above the Islands in his concept art is Vibrant, with thick clouds that have Volume and fullness, and color variety, whereas the clouds in the sky and background in Infinite, feel thin, whispy, “samey” and lacking contrast and variety.
For Example, one of the pieces he made, is a Forerunner structure on top of a group of Hexagons with a Cut-out, framed against Rocks covered in moss, coastal fog and a coast-line with water. I feel like this is the type of variety I wished that infinite had.
anyway, that’s just my two cents. I just wish 343i would trust the Input and the work of their artists more and not “dumb down” their work by only putting like 10% of their ideas in the game: ESPECIALLY, the Color variety. There is a piece that features a bunch of floating Islands, and the Sky is a rich Blue hue with varities of darker and lighter blue, the landscape is a rich dark green, with nice different shades of green, the Metal hexagons have nice variety of reflections and coloration. I just wish the final game had this intensity of color and color Contrast.