In a new blog post, Bungie announced that Halo Infinite will feature a fully customizable control scheme on all platforms and showcased some classic Halo weapons in the new Infinite engine.
Quinn DelHoyo, chief designer of Sandbox at Halo Infinite (and weapons designer during the start of production), detailed on the blog how developer 343 Industries is focusing on accessibility and customization for players with its new control scheme.
“Everything should look intuitive and we don’t want the player to have to” fight “the game for fun,” said DelHoyo. “It is because of this principle, and the fact that Halo Infinite will be on the PC, that led us to rebuild the control scheme system to allow players to completely redo and remake their controls, regardless of the platform. The way players control the Chief or his Spartan is crucial and we recognize that players feel more connected to the game when customization of the control is complete. “
343 Industries later continued on the blog, stating that the company has a team dedicated to improving PC controls, in addition to feedback from an in-house professional team and players from the PC Master Chief Collection.
“The PC as a first-class enterprise is another aspect of Halo Infinite that we are actively considering,” said DelHoyo. “The PC as a platform will not be a port after we launch the game. We are playing on the PC every day. So now, not only does our game need to be great and like Halo on a controller as it did natively over the past 20 years, the game and all of its systems need to take into account the native functionality of the mouse and keyboard. “
343 Industries also offered several new images of how some classic Halo weapons will be rendered on the Infinite engine. Everything from the original Needler to the BR 75 of Halo Reach is there, plus some potentially unexpected options, so take a look at the gallery below.
Different types of weapon damage will be an important factor in fighting Halo Infinite, expanding experimentation with light-based rifles seen in Halo 4 and plasma weapons from the original Halo.
“Players should now have stronger options presented to them,” said DelHoyo. “Instead of using the weapon you like because of how it shoots or handles, in Halo Infinite you may want to grab a particular weapon because of how it affects other players, the environment or vehicles. In essence, the ambition of damage types is to better integrate weapon types, ammo types, faction technology, etc., into game loops in a way that is easily understood by the player. That way, the player can make better combat decisions based on the scenario. In addition to more clarity and purpose for the legacy damage types – that is, kinetic and plasma – the team has also been looking for new surprises for players that we look forward to talking about in the coming months. “
Chief weapons designer David Price emphasized that 343 Industries wants to keep these types of damage simple to understand, but also to allow for a variety of unique identities, even among weapons that share the same damage base.
“If they want to quickly remove personal shields, they can use Plasma, for example,” said Price. “But that doesn’t dictate a style of play, class or level of weapon power. I could still have a shotgun-type weapon that is any of these types of damage. This approach also allows us to make several weapons that look unique within a type of damage. We want weapons to look diverse, even if they share the same type of damage. “
The launch of Halo Infinite is scheduled for the fall of 2021 and, fortunately, 343 Industries has promised fans that it will share monthly updates as development progresses. A difficult debut, the subsequent last-minute delay before the launch of the Xbox Series X, and the departure of director Chris Lee put Halo Infinite directly in the sights of an upset player base. Movements like the “Inside Infinite” blog posts and the hiring of Halo veteran Joseph Staten for the correct development of the course clearly aim to inspire confidence in the franchise’s huge fan base.
Joseph Knoop is a fugitive writer / producer / fighter from IGN.