Halo Infinite Gameplay Features New Weapons And Flying Grunts

We knew Microsoft's Xbox Series X stream would be a showcase for Halo Infinite, and sure enough, the new game from 343 took center stage at the event on July 23. A cinematic trailer opened the event and showed the creation of Master Chief's iconic armor, followed by a gameplay reveal from the campaign--multiplayer was not shown at all. Here's what we learned from our very first look at Halo infinite gameplay, as well as a look at some screenshots and an additional trailer that features more gameplay.

Halo Infinite Campaign Gameplay

The gameplay session started with Master Chief crash-landing with the assistance of a pilot, who was previously seen in the E3 2019 trailer for Infinite. Despite the pilot's objections, Master Chief told him they have to stop the Banished (returning from Halo Wars 2), and then headed out on a mission. After dispatching some grunts, Chief headed into a Warthog and consulted a map for his objectives. It appears to be a more open-world structure, with various objectives that can be tackled in any order. These included several anti-aircraft guns that had to be eliminated, as well as dozens of aliens that acted as little more than target practice for the Chief. Some things never change. There was even the appearance of a "kamikaze" Grunt who had two activated plasma grenades. However, he was thrown by one of his superiors toward the Master Chief in an even more aggressive show of force.

An extended combat sequence confirmed the rumors of a grappling hook--known as the grappleshot--as Master Chief used it to grasp a crate and throw it at an enemy. The grappleshot works off of a cooldown, allowing it to be repeatedly used but with a short delay in between. In addition to pulling in items, it can be used to pull yourself to new locations, or even toward enemies.

The trailer ended with the apparent antagonist explaining that he's already taken over the Halo, and he looks forward to clashing with Master Chief as a fellow battle-hardened warrior.

Bigger Environments And New Weapons

This first-look at gameplay from the next entry in the Halo series also showed off just how enormous Master Chief's adventure will be. Halo Infinite's titular Halo ring is massive. In fact, it's bigger than the worlds in Halo 5 and Halo 4 put together, and the campaign is locked at 60 frames per second on Xbox Series X and runs at "up to" 4K. Microsoft promises the battles will be bigger than ever before, and there will be all-new gameplay mechanics we haven't seen in the series. You can see a selection of screenshots below.

Gallery

There are many returning elements from previous games, as we saw the standard assault rifle, frag grenade, plasma grenade, and warthog. We also saw a variety of new weapons and equipment, such as a deployable energy shield that can be fired through by players. New weapons include the VK78 Commando and Ravager plasma weapon.

Halo Infinite arrives on Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and PC this holiday season. As part of the Xbox Smart Delivery program, those who buy the game for Xbox One will be able to upgrade to the Xbox Series X version for free.

If you were missing more traditional Halo-style music, Microsoft has also released a more condensed gameplay trailer, which you can watch below. This actually has some additional bits of gameplay, confirming the return of the energy sword and introduction of some type of new electric grenade or piece of equipment that shocks nearby foes.

What About Halo Infinite's Multiplayer?

Multiplayer was not shown off at all as part of the Halo Infinite presentation. We have since gotten a couple of details: The grappleshot is in Halo Infinite's multiplayer mode, but it'll be acquired as a pickup, rather than something you have by default. Additionally, Infinite will support four-player split-screen co-op; that's notable because split-screen support was abandoned for Halo 5: Guardians, though only two-player split-screen will be supported in the campaign while the four-player support applies to competitive multiplayer.

343 says it'll be talking more about Infinite's multiplayer in the near future, but for now, we'll just have to guess at how or if the changes to the campaign might translate to multiplayer.

Prior to the presentation, Microsoft teased the footage and hinted at the return of the Banished from Halo Wars 2. Xbox boss Phil Spencer also said Halo Infinite is rethinking the structure of a Halo game. Subsequently, we learned that Halo Infinite is intended to serve as a long-term platform for the franchise.

Spencer has said that no first-party exclusives are coming in the first few years of the Series X lifecycle, though he later clarified that first-party studios are free to make them if they wish.