We’ve seen two trailers, yet somehow most of Halo Infinite remains an enigma. Here is everything we know about the next installment of the popular series.
It has been quite the wait, but Halo Infinite is nearly here. First revealed during Microsoft’s E3 presentation in 2018, the highly anticipated game is scheduled to hit shelves this holiday season. Although we are a handful of months away from its release, there’s still a lot we don’t know about the game.
Over the past two years, 343 Industries and Microsoft have been cautious about what content is offered to the public. The curtain was pulled back slightly during July’s Xbox Games Showcase, which showed off the gameplay debut, yet most of Halo Infinite remains an enigma. Here’s everything we know about the next installment of the popular series.
Further reading
Release date: Holiday 2020
Developer: 343 Industries
Publisher: Microsoft
Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PC
Much of what we know about Halo Infinite comes from the two trailers released by Microsoft. The first was the announcement trailer from E3 in 2018 — and although it didn’t reveal much, it did show off the new Slipspace engine.
That vague trailer was followed up with the Discover Hope trailer in 2019. This time, we watched Master Chief interact with a UNSC Marine after being rescued from orbit; then, he held a brief conversation with Cortana. There’s a lot more going on in this trailer than the one from 2018 — be sure to check it out below if you happened to miss it the first time around.
Other than these two trailers, we’ve also seen a bit of concept art from 343 Industries. While the images on their own didn’t reveal much, the accompanying blog post provided fans with some of the best Halo Infinite details to date.
In July, we got our first glimpse of gameplay that confirmed Halo Infinite will be a more open title and pits Master Chief against the Banished, enemies most well known for their involvement in the Halo Wars games.
Details surrounding Halo Infinite‘s narrative are still murky, but we do know one thing: Master Chief is the star of the show. Infinite will take place after the events of Guardians, and it sounds like players won’t be switching off between Chief and an auxiliary character, as they did in the last installment. In a post by Chris Lee, Studio Head at 343 Industries, he mentions that the team “heard feedback loud and clear on the amount of time spent playing as the Master Chief in Halo 5,” and that they will “focus on the Master Chief and continue his saga.”
Xbox tweeted a video teasing Master Chief as the central character in the game, honing in on the digits “117” branded on his armor, which refers to his other name of John-117.
Some fans believe that the destroyed ring in the trailers is Zeta, but 343 is yet to confirm these theories. Unless Halo Infinite wants to introduce a brand new ring; however, Zeta seems like a pretty good bet. Others believe Cortana might take on the role of villain, which, after the events of Guardians, could be a real possibility.
July’s gameplay reveal gave us the biggest clues yet as to Infinite‘s story. The demo opened with a date: May 28,2560, which places it two years after Halo V Guardians. It mentions that this is “167 days after we lost,” and based on dialogue from the Banished’s leader toward the end of the demo, that would be a loss to his troops.
The demo shows the UNSC soldier from the previous trailer, whom 343 officially refers to as the Pilot, and Master Chief crash-land on the Halo ring. The Pilot seems a little resentful at the fact that ever since he found Master Chief floating in space, he’s gotten into nothing but trouble. Master Chief promises that the pair can look for a ship to get them off the ring once he has taken out three anti-aircraft cannons.
