Prepare Yourself For a Halo Renaissance

Following a year-long delay and an acclaimed multiplayer preview, 343 Industries prepares to launch what might be the best Halo title in over a decade.

When Halo: Combat Evolved launched alongside the Xbox on November 15, 2001, multiplayer games were changed forever. Never before had a video game delivered the combination of a single player sci-fi story worthy of a James Cameron film with a fully fledged multiplayer mode capable of invigorating a generation of gamers. Critics praised Halo, with twenty-nine major outlets granting it a perfect score, and the game made over $170 million in just four years.

Nearly twenty years later, 343 Industries is preparing to launch the most anticipated Halo game since the original trilogy. After taking over the franchise from Bungie in 2010, the Washington-based studio has been able to deliver two satisfactory sequels of its own, but hasn’t quite matched the impact left behind by the series' golden age. With Halo Infinite however, 343 looks like it might finally find its way out from under Bungie’s shadow.

As I wrote for TheGamer last year, Halo Infinite looks to reboot Halo without actually rebooting Halo. 343 wants to both create a welcoming entry point for newcomers as well as a nostalgic draw for longtime fans. Everything you love about Halo will be there, along with a reinvigoration of the series worthy of 2021. This can be seen from simply taking a look at Infinite’s box art, which bares a striking resemblance to that of the 2001 original.

While the concept certainly sounds promising, execution is the only thing that matters at the end of the day, and Halo Infinite’s 2020 gameplay debut had many fans worried. Criticism mostly surrounded the showcase’s graphics, eventually leading to Infinite’s release date being pushed back a full year. That year has almost passed, and all signs point to the wait being worth it. Halo Infinite looks extremely promising.

Infinite’s first multiplayer test took place this weekend, with the gaming industry having mostly nothing but good things to say. Kotaku’s Ari Notis praised the game for “nailing the Halo feel,” explaining the gameplay brings the “mantling of Halo 5, the weapons design from [Combat Evolved], and the single-use abilities from 3,” but clarifying that it’s, “measurable on its own merits rather than in comparison to prior games.”

GamesRadar’s Josh West explained the game, “delivers the sort of thrills that helped define the series so many years ago all while setting it up for future success and expansion.” Inverse’s Tomas Franzese stated, “the preview demonstrated that Halo Infinite modernizes in all the right ways,” and called it, “Halo in its purest form.”

As much as I’d love to write some of my own words in response to the multiplayer preview, I wasn’t invited to the cool kid’s table this time around. Even then, I can tell right away just by watching gameplay clips and the multiplayer trailer that this game isn’t going to be just any old Halo title. It finally looks like Halo is ready to be Halo again, and I can’t wait to play it.

To truly meet 343’s goal of appealing to a new audience, Infinite is going to need to bring more than the same great gameplay to the table. That’s why it doesn’t come as a huge surprise that a voice line introducing a battle royale mode was datamined from the technical preview. Veteran Halo players may be hesitant to see the game go in this direction, but there are a lot of reasons why a Halo battle royale mode makes sense.

Big Team Battle comes to the forefront of my mind. The game mode pinned two teams of twelve against one another, and for many players it was one of the most memorable playlists to appear in Halo 2 and 3. Big Team Battle proved that the chaos of a large scale Halo mode can work, and when you begin picturing a battle royale mode through that lens, it opens the door for a lot of exciting possibilities.

We also know that Halo Infinite’s multiplayer will be free-to-play, opening the door for many first time gamers to, at the very least, give the game a try. When you take that into consideration with the fact that Infinite will appear on Xbox One, and that, when adjusting for inflation, the Xbox Series S is one of the most affordable consoles of all time, things really start to get promising. Halo Infinite will be available to more gamers than any Halo game before it, hopefully resulting in a resurgent popularity unlike anything we’ve seen from the series in the past.

343 Industries has also indicated that Halo Infinite will likely be the last Halo game for the next decade. Instead of working on sequels, the developer will continue to add content to Infinite, hence its name. The title will evolve year after year as opposed to chasing an annual release. This will help Halo Infinite to serve as the benchmark it’s meant to be: a true to form renaissance for one of gaming’s most iconic franchises.

Despite the promising preview Halo Infinite’s multiplayer preview, it was only a preview and there’s still a full single player campaign left to be played. If what we’ve seen thus far is any indication though, 343 Industries has finally grasped what makes Halo so great, setting the stage for the franchise to reestablish itself amongst the top of multiplayer video games.