While 343 Industries has yet to officially reveal Halo Infinite’s multiplayer, a new rumor got out earlier today that not only will it be free-to-play, but that it’ll also run at 120 frames-per-second. Those curious if there’s going to be a Halo Infinite beta/flightling, sadly, 343 themselves doesn’t know the answer to that one.
In a huge post on the Halo Wapoint site, Bungie answered some of the more important questions about Halo Infinite, which includes the potential for a Halo Infinite beta.
WHAT ABOUT A MULTIPLAYER BETA / FLIGHTING?
The Xbox Games Showcase was only meant to focus on Halo Infinite’s campaign. However, I can’t blame you all for being curious about the multiplayer experience. As Chris Lee mentioned in his blog which accompanied the demo last week, our original plans for large-scale flighting aren’t where we originally intended in large part due to the challenges of working from home during the COVID-19. At this time we’re honestly not sure what is going to be possible in terms of flighting but we still hope to have an opportunity for broader public hands-on before release. And, as we’ve previously stated, we’ll be relying on flighting and continued feedback and community partnership well beyond launch as we grow and evolve the game together.
Alongside that, the studio also gave a rather detailed explanation on why the visuals looked like that in the gameplay debut. 343 mentions that a lot of stuff aren’t done yet, though they also admit they are taking the feedback and doing more work. That said, as for the art style, 343 is looking for a more “classical” look.
QUESTIONS ABOUT GRAPHICS AND VISUALS
First, we want to acknowledge that yes, we’ve heard the feedback coming from parts of the community regarding the visuals in the Halo Infinite campaign demo. While we see and hear far more positive than negative, we do want to share a bit more context. From our perspective, there are two key areas being debated around the community – overall art style and visual fidelity.
Based on our learnings from Halo 4, Halo 5, and Halo Wars 2 – along with strong community feedback – we decided to shift back towards the legacy aesthetics that defined the original trilogy. With Halo Infinite, we’re returning to a more ‘classic’ art style which was a key message going back to the very first reveal that garnered enthusiastic and positive responses. This translates to a more vibrant palette, “cleaner” models and objects with less “noise”, though it doesn’t mean less detail. While we appreciate this may not be everyone’s personal preference, we stand by this decision and are happy to see it resonating with so many fans around the world.
The second theme being discussed involves visual fidelity. Negative feedback in this area includes comments around characters and objects appearing flat, simplistic and plastic-like, lighting feeling dull and flat, and object pop-in. We’ve read your comments, we’ve seen the homemade examples of retouched content, and yes we’ve heard the Digital Foundry assessments. In many ways we are in agreement here – we do have work to do to address some of these areas and raise the level of fidelity and overall presentation for the final game. The build used to run the campaign demo was work-in-progress from several weeks ago with a variety of graphical elements and game systems still being finished and polished. While some of the feedback was expected and speaks to areas already in progress, other aspects of the feedback have brought new opportunities and considerations to light that the team is taking very seriously and working to assess. We don’t have firm answers or outcomes to share yet but the team is working as quickly as possible on plans to address some of the feedback around detail, clarity, and overall fidelity. The team is committed and focused on making sure we have a beautiful world for players to explore when we launch.
There are loads more answered in this Q&A, such as the Battle Rifle is confirmed to be in the campaign, and even mentioned how the grapple hook will act differently in multiplayer than in the campaign.
HOW WILL THE NEW GRAPPLE HOOK WORK IN MULTIPLAYER?
Equipment items like the Grappleshot function differently in multiplayer and will be available as items that can be picked up on the map.
I suggest giving it a read since there’s more info revealed there. Also, the studio gave a long list of confirmed aspects of Halo Infinite:
- In Universe Timing: It follows the Master Chief’s story some time after Halo 5: Guardians’ conclusion
- Pro Team: We’ve assembled an internal Pro Team for Halo Infinite
- Splitscreen: Yes, splitscreen will be a thing! (See above for details about Campaign)
- LAN: Halo Infinite will support LAN
- Back in Black: Black undersuits will be in the game
- Microtransactions: Halo Infinite will not include real-money loot boxes
- Player Customization: If you liked the level of armor customization options in Halo: Reach, you will be pleased
- SR 152: Players who hit SR 152 in Halo 5: Guardians will receive a token of appreciation in Halo Infinite
- Forge: Our famous editing tool will be in Halo Infinite and will have Undo & Redo buttons, which is a first for Forge
Halo Infinite will shoot its way out this holiday for the Xbox One, Xbox Series X and PC.
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I love the art style, I just want the low res textures, pop in, and lighting fixed.
I’m fine with it too. Textures, and other stuff need to be brought up, but otherwise, it’s fine. I mean if MP is at 120fps? Holy crap! That’s going to be smooth as butter.