March 2021’s ‘Inside Infinite’ From 343 Industries Elaborates On Quality Of Life For Halo Infinite, Including Dynamic Weather, Duel Wielding, And Playable Elites

Upon the more pressing details for the extended wait that is the Halo Infinite release set for this autumn, developer 343 Industries promises that information on the next mainline installment for the two decade-old franchise through its monthly ‘Inside Infinite’ feature for the game. Unlike other developer diaries we see from different teams, this new broadcast strings from in-depth blogs and sometimes even a live Q&A held by the studio itself.

In February, the developer blew away fans with its publishing of in-game screenshots from a recent build of Halo Infinite. Additionally, 343 Industries also elaborated on the matters regarding Zeta Halo, Installation 07, and how the main setting of the coming title also plays as a main character that receives as much attention as any starring role for the project.

Now in a Q&A livestream held late on Thursday, 343 Industries shares new information on how the studio is tackling quality of life aspects for Halo Infinite and answer some burning questions from the fans. Off the bat, the team addresses concerns for duel wielding weapons in the full version:

Currently no, that’s not in the cards right now and just to get into that a little bit is whenever you set out to make a game the size of Halo Infinite – there’s just so many things you can do. I think we have a talented team where we can do anything, but we can’t do everything and so we needed – we wanted to really focus down on the weapon, the gunplay, grenades, melee, and where we wanted to put that bet this time was on equipment.

Bringing equipment back and so right now duel wielding isn’t necessarily there, but that’s because we’re trying to focus on everything on all the other things that we’re working on.

Quinn Delhoyo, Halo Infinite Lead Sandbox Designer

Although the final version arriving later this fall will not include the iconic gameplay feature, Delhoyo does elaborate that the mechanic is not exempt from the game entirely. For now, the main focus is for 343 Industries to tackle the project head on in capturing its vision and plans to work on more additions in its post-launch phase, as issued in a previous statement already.

Furthermore in a separate statement from Gameplay Director Troy Mashburn, he elaborates on the team’s ambitions with weapons and equipment. In that, players when progressing through the game will uncover new pickups like firearms, ordinance, and even vehicles to use when exploring Zeta Halo. Variants are also included to be hidden findings players are to also unearth which brings some accomplishment to those that play to another level.

Again from Delhoyo, he continues on the same matters regarding playable elites for Halo Infinite. For the time being, the option is not present as the experience as Spartans are 343 Industries greatest concern currently.

We’re not currently planning on supporting elites as a playable character in Infinite and the reason is, you know, this is a Master Chief story and a Spartan story. Especially multiplayer, we want to make sure we focus on how the Spartans battle against each other and that feels fair and it’s competitive, it’s balanced.

And, you know, we love elites, but never say never maybe well see that one day, but right now the current plan is you’re going to be playing Spartans.

One of the bigger concerns from Halo Infinite fans, however, is how impactful the setting for the game is. Already, 343 Industries disclosed the focus to bring the world to life and its ambition to make Installation 07 a crucial part of how gameplay is experienced in the game. Moreover, Campaign Art Lead Justin Dinges tells that the Pacific Northwest design for Halo Infinite is the foundation for its artistic approach, but it is more diverse than that.

He continues by issuing that there are sub biomes to explore that are as rich as what we only witnessed from the July demo last year: high-altitude pallets, wetland pallets, swampy wetland pallets, war-torn areas “deadlands”, and cave systems. Ancient forerunner architecture and occupying Banished structures are also to leave an impression regarding the part of the Halo you are at.

Even more, Dinges also cover some ground on the weather system for Halo Infinite, Alike the dynamic day/night cycle in the game, weather is also told to include an organic mechanism that reacts as you would expect it to in real-time.

Part of our job on the art team and the graphics team was to make the ring feel alive right and so I’m a big part of – kind of a living ecosystem is weather at least on our planet and we want to emulate that on the ring so we’ve definitely added things like – there’s a really cool wind system which is not just visual, but also audio we have.

We have fog systems you could call them that come in to different altitudes and different times a day. We didn’t go down the road of having rain store and thunderstorms and snowstorms and things like that for our launch this year, but we’re really excited about the future and what that might mean for things like that.

The world itself is also told to feature unique wildlife that Master Chief will stumble upon – John Mulkey, Lead World Designer shared this on the topic: “We don’t have any hostile wildlife in the environment. We wanted to focus the idea on the battle between The Banished and the UNSC forces.

“Chief, you know, pushing back against that so we didn’t want to bring in the idea that you’re fighting the ambient population of the ring, but we do have them as an element that really brings the ring to life.” What aspect discussed has you most excited for Halo Infinite?

Halo Infinite is scheduled to arrive sometime in fall 2021 for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.