While Halo Infinite came out on a very strong note back in December, the game now entering March is left in a state many did not anticipate initially. Although the core gameplay has still remained a staple for arena shooters like itself, the lack of content for a promised live service, free-to-play game is a different story. So far, the most 343 Industries has elaborated on for the title is its initiative to resolve desync/latency issues with its servers.
Additionally, the game studio also addressed problems head on most recently with the mid-season update last week. In that, Halo Infinite welcomed a handful of improvements to the game which stood out. But, a roadmap many are begging to get a glimpse at is still absent. So far, Season 2 appears to be the first break for the game with co-op campaign promised when it ships later this May as stated.
In a new Halo Waypoint update for Halo Infinite, the developer reveals new information for its plans for content. First and foremost the team approaches the biggest complaints for Halo Infinite.
Since the launch of Halo Infinite, we have been carefully tracking and analyzing all critical issues negatively impacting players’ experience with the game and supporting services. The internal name we have for this process is the “Hotlist.” Every week, we refresh the Hotlist with new insights and review issue prioritization and progress toward fixes. The Hotlist serves as a vital internal planning tool for our monthly development sprints as well as the Hotfixes, Content Updates, and Seasons we deliver to you.
Some of the issues on the Hotlist are gaps in the Halo Infinite experience that we only fully understood close to launch and were unable to address at an acceptable quality bar before ship. An example of this kind of “known” Hotlist issue is “Spartan Career” aka score-based player progression. Examples of “unknown” issues at launch were vulnerabilities in our anti-cheat system and problems with BTB matchmaking that we didn’t realize existed until we launched the game at scale.
Thus far, we have prioritized acute, unknown-before-ship issues that have a widespread negative impact on the shipped experience. Some items have been addressed and cleared from the Hotlist (e.g., BTB matchmaking), some have had partial improvements but need more work (e.g., anti-cheat), and others are in active development but not-yet-released (e.g., Spartan Career, Campaign Co-Op, and Forge). We are working on a public facing version of the Hotlist, similar to what the studio did during the Master Chief Collection updates, so that all of you will have a clear and constant window into the status of Hotlist issues as we work to address them.
Additionally, 343 Industries does confirm where Season 1 – Heroes of Reach ends for the next content season. In that, Season 2 – Lone Wolves is to commence on May 3rd this spring. The firm goes on to verify two new maps are being added then as well: Catalyst & Breaker. “During Season 2, we will also be shipping playlist updates, balance changes, new modes, and maps, specifically, one Arena map named ‘Catalyst’ and one BTB map named ‘Breaker.’”
The paragraph continues, “The new modes include ‘Last Spartan Standing’, a free-for-all elimination mode, as well as another new mode named ‘Land Grab,’ plus the return of an updated, all-time favorite mode, ‘King of the Hill.’” Next month is promised to elaborate further on the new vistas and game types coming to Halo Infinite.
The more dire questions still lingering is its plans for anticipated modes co-op campaign and Forge. So far, it is still scheduled for Season 2 allowing players to experience the single-player campaign with friends. However, it will not be until later in the season where 343 Industries will flip the switch.
The reality is that it’s going to take more time to land a high-quality, full-featured 4-player network co-op experience in the massive, wide-open world of Halo Infinite. We’re also committed to a great 2-player split-screen co-op experience on all Xbox consoles, from the original Xbox One through Xbox One Series X—and the non-linear, wide-open sections of the Campaign present some big challenges for split-screen that have taken us more time to solve.
All this means that we will not be able to ship Campaign network co-op on May 3rd, at the start of Season 2. But we are still aiming to deliver Campaign network co-op later in Season 2, and we will share a release date for that and for split-screen co-op as soon as we can.
We are also making great progress on Forge. Indeed, we are already flighting Forge to a small group of community creators and working closely with them to ensure that all of you have a terrific experience creating, sharing, browsing, and playing Forge content. In the near term, we will continue to privately flight Forge as we develop it while also planning for public flight(s) later this year. We still have the goal of shipping Forge with Season 3.
The team closes the blog post revealing event ‘Tactical Ops’ is coming next week. In that, the Mark VII Armor is featured for the event with “variants on the Tactical Slayer mode” also promised for the event. The event is part of the initially promised roadmap 343 Industries provided ahead of release last year. You can read the full report by heading here.
Are you happy with the details from 343 Industries on the state of Halo Infinite?
Halo Infinite is out now for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
Source: Halo Waypoint
