Halo Infinite

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Master Chief's next adventure takes place on another Halo ring, but this one will be unlike the rest we’ve visited. Halo Infinite allows players to explore the new battleground with a lot more freedom instead of being confined to levels. As shown in the campaign gameplay demo during the Xbox Games Showcase, Chief can hop in a Warthog and take on mission objectives in whatever order you choose. He's even got a grappling hook called the Grapple Shot to help him get around easier. IGN interviewed Halo Infinite Studio Head Chris Lee and Associate Creative Director Paul Crocker to get more details on the depth of the exploration and how we'll go about earning upgrades. [...]

Wide Open Ring

Previous Halo games have had a sort of pseudo-openness to them. You could maybe find a skull tucked away behind an obscure pillar, or a terminal in a Covenant outpost, and Halo Infinite builds on those experiences.

"I would think about it more like kind of delivering on that promise we've had from the past," Lee said. "There's a lot of open gameplay in those previous games, but they're always in these linear levels. This time players will have the freedom to explore the ring. But we are telling a story with a beginning, middle, and end that we want to carry the player through as you go."

Lee and Crocker were quick to explain that while there is an openness to the ring, the gameplay will always come back to telling Chief's story.

"What you saw in the demo that we showed, you have this map. There's this huge open section of the ring. As you get to that point in the game, this is several hours into the campaign, then you have the ability to traverse that whole area and explore where you want to go on the ring. That's what we mean by open and explore the different places that you can go to. There's definitely a sense of freedom that you haven't had before [in Halo]. You will get to choose your path there. But we do also want to tell that story, so while you're doing that we want to keep the story moving forward versus like a nonlinear story or something like that," Lee said.

There's also a lot to find in the area shown in the gameplay demo, Crocker said. They couldn't go into the specifics about what kinds of things we'll find beyond equipment upgrades since they're related to the story (they didn't technically confirm skulls or terminals either, though I took that there's an implication for them to be in the game), but Crocker explained why we may want to explore the ring regardless of any sort of collectibles.

"There is a kind of emotional core to it. You'll be pulled to some of these locations as well, which you could say is story-based. It's also what the franchise is about. We really are trying to make sure there are things for Chief to do that reinforce the heroism and the hope he brings to humanity and those are pretty strong draws around the world," Crocker said.

But what if you miss something early on? Crocker said you can always go back throughout the game. "You may or may not be able to achieve all of the goals you have at the very beginning of the game in all of our spaces, but you can always go back and explore and find more stuff to do. There's nothing stopping you from doing that."

Lee also confirmed that there will be ways to overcome those massive gaps shown briefly in the world map in order to traverse the ring. Eventually, he added.

Upgrades Fit for a Spartan

Another thing that popped out at me while watching the gameplay demo was the "Upgrades" tab in the map menu. Halo Infinite doesn't have any sort of experience meter, nor does the Chief keep a permanent weapon loadout as far as we know. Lee explained that upgrades are items you'll discover as you explore, rather than some sort of experience-based skill tree or other mechanics that wouldn't make much sense in Halo.

"We do have a light upgrade system for Chief as he explores this ring. He'll be able to upgrade equipment items," Chris said. "The grapple and the drop shield that we showed are kind of in that concept of a spiritual reboot that harken back to the equipment system in Halo 3. Those are two new equipment items that Chief will be able to find and use as you play through the game."

As shown in the gameplay demo, the Grapple Shot can be used to pull Master Chief up to elevated areas, get closer to enemies, and even grab a fusion coil that can then be thrown at attackers. The Grapple Shot does have a cooldown, but it's unclear at this time whether or not the actual Grapple Shot can be upgraded to do different things. The Drop Shield was, as you saw, a shield Chief dropped for additional cover while in battle.

Shiny New Weapons

Then of course, one of the things we'll find as we make our way through camps of the returning Halo Wars 2 enemy, The Banished, is plenty of weapons. The gameplay demo showed off several new ones:
- Ravager - A Banished three-round burst energy weapon that runs on plasma fuel. The fuel level is, as always, represented by a percentage. There is a blade on the end of it that slightly increases melee damage.
- Mangler - A Banished pistol with giant kinetic projectiles that fires more slowly than the UNSC pistol but deals more damage.
- CQS48 Bulldog - New UNSC riot shotgun that replaces the classic shotgun. This one is upgraded with a dum magazine and 12 gauge over the classic shotgun's 8 gauge.
- VK78 Commando - This UNSC rifle can go full auto and is good for mid-long range.
- Pulse Carbine - A familiar but not quite identical version of the classic Covenant carbine weapon.

Weapon Tip
“Banished bladed weapons do have a slight boost in melee lethality. They take the same number of hits as other weapons to kill a full shielded Spartan, but can one-shot a Spartan that has 50% or less shields,” Lee said.

Lee and Crocker didn't say whether or not there will be hidden specially named weapons like there were in Halo 5.

Halo Infinite's Open World Has Upgrades to Discover, Places to Explore, New Weapons to Find - IGN