We now know that there is still a long wait for Halo Infinite to arrive this fall, but 343 Industries has pledged to fill that time with regular chats on developer blogs. This month, they assembled a team to talk about what makes Infinite a “spiritual reboot” of previous Halo games. They also escaped in a daring defense of the grappleshot.
In this month’s Inside Infinite, campaign art leader Justin Dinges says the 343’s art direction is focused on “legacy” and “simplicity” themes.
“We want players to feel that they are experiencing a game that they fondly remember (Halo: Combat Evolved), but with modernized graphics, of course,” says Dinges. “Another good example is how we approach the Jackals and Grunts visual design to their appearance in Halo 3 and previous titles. We want players to feel nostalgic familiarity with these designs, how to find an old friend, how they experience everything Halo Infinite has to offer. ”
On the subject of simplicity, Dinges says the Halo 5 team’s lesson was to move away from “noisy” designs and move towards an artistic interpretation of the world instead of photographic realism.
Gameplay director Troy Mashburn explains that “spiritual reset” is also a concept that 343 used to guide the inclusion of new things like grappleshot.
I haven’t done anything serious Spartan since Halo 3 and I couldn’t even stop thinking “seriously? Why?” when the grappleshot was revealed. We only have to trust 343 in this one, it seems, because all three of the participants this month came to praise him.
“If you are a fan of using melee, like me, you will love to fight enemies to hit that powerful knockout blow. So satisfying, ”says Mashburn. It will also allow you to reach all kinds of locations that you wouldn’t have been able to in previous games, adds Dinges, which will open up interesting vantage points. World design leader John Mulkey says that the grappleshot itself is fun and therefore is to combine it with other pieces of equipment that have their own functions. “I can’t wait to see the videos that people share on YouTube showing movements that we never imagined.”
Okay, okay. I will reserve the judgment on the grappleshot a little more.
As they approach launch this fall, Dinges and Mashburn say their teams are focusing on fixing bugs, improving and addressing user feedback in internal testing.
As always, this month’s Inside Infinite is quite bulky, so there’s a lot more to the three developers if you’re in the mood to read.