We're getting our first good looks at Halo Infinite's gameplay. Yesterday, 343 Industries held a livestream that saw several developers sit down and chat about Halo Infinite's development and what people can expect during the technical beta test this weekend.
One of those developers was Tom French, senior mission designer at 343. He was particularly "proud" of Halo Infinite's bots and how they're designed to act like real players, such as listening for enemy footsteps when they're tracking down an elusive foe.
He also talked about assassinations. Several Halo fans noted that the trailers made it seem like assassinations might be a thing in the technical beta test, but French said that there were just too many issues with the way assassinations had initially been implemented.
"They're not in for launch," French said. "We actually really love assassinations… but what happens at a lot of levels is people just turn them off because there's a gameplay disadvantage to it."
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In games like Call of Duty: Warzone, assassinations can work because players are so spread out that if anyone even thinks about assassinating an unwary opponent it's unlikely the assassin will, in turn, be murdered by another player. Warzone’s gameplay is slow enough where a player can decide to take a few seconds to perform a flashy kill.
That’s not the case in Halo Infinite. The arena-style shooter gameplay shown during the livestream was fast and frantic, with players dying and respawning every few seconds. Taking the time to show a flashy assassination animation just didn’t “fit into Halo Infinite's gameplay loop," said French, although 343 is looking for ways to "bring them back in a way that feels meaningful."
If you didn't get invited to Halo Infinite's closed technical beta this weekend, you can check out the gameplay footage above to see what you're missing. The closed beta begins today, with the full play schedule now posted over on Halo Waypoint.
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