Halo Infinite’s Open World honors the old while embracing brand new ideas

343 Industries has released a maintenance-oriented blog post for Halo Infinite, which looks at Zeta Halo, the open-world environment of the upcoming game. Justin Dinges, lead artist of Halo Infinite Campaign, said that one of the biggest challenges in creating the space is honoring the nostalgic feel of Halo while creating something that feels brand new.

“With Halo Infinite, we wanted to bring this new adventure back to its roots and create a visually pleasing experience that is not overwhelmed with unnecessary complexity where readability and clear artistic composition prevail,” Dinges said. “This is our artistic interpretation of a beautiful world to exist within – rather than something purely based on photorealism. Both goals were a real challenge to balance, especially against the expectations of what it means to be a to be ‘next’. gen ‘title. “

Part of the tribute to the appeal of Halo’s roots comes from Zeta Halo’s layout. As an open world, Zeta Halo evokes the same feeling of Halo: Combat Evolved’s hours when you can tackle problems in different ways, depending on what weapons you have, vehicles you drive or roads you discover.

“I love the agency we’re creating, which’s really doubling down on the premise of keeping Halo: CE’s promise,” said John Mulkey, head of Halo Infinite World Design. “Enemy strongholds can be approached from any direction and there are so many options available to tackle the challenges.”

A portion of this new freedom of movement comes from the Grappleshot, Halo’s gripping hook. With the new mechanic you can drag smaller enemies towards you, drive you into larger targets and reach seemingly inaccessible areas.

“The fact that we have a tool like the Grappleshot has definitely challenged us to reconsider the way we build our environments, because it’s such a versatile and fun mechanic that makes it possible for players to get almost anywhere. , “Dinges said.

With that in mind, we can expect Halo Infinite’s levels to drift further away from the linear way seen in the more recent series entries – with a tool like the Grappleshot you could bypass almost any obstacle in your path and just reach the end without having to fight. This will take the pleasure of a linear shooter out of the first person.

Halo Infinite game director Troy Mashburn said that this change from a development point of view is ‘frightening and completely liberating’, as this adaptation has helped the team break from the mindset of a single path and develop into something very exciting . ‘

Halo Infinite is currently in the final months of development for the launch of Xbox Series X | S, Xbox One and PC. Dinges said most of the development team completed their remaining tasks. “The team is 100% focused on summarizing the campaign experience that includes collecting and addressing user feedback – both internal game tests and user research data – troubleshooting, performance and balancing,” Mashburn added.

For more information on Halo Infinite, check out our previous coverage of the game: