Last night 343 Industries has previewing the Halo infinite campaign co-op in a live stream, showcasing how online co-op is being integrated into the game as well as the Mission Replay feature. Now, one day later, the Campaign Network Co-op Flight has gone live.
Available on Xbox console for any owner of Halo Infinite’s campaign or Game Pass subscriber, and for PC Steam users who signed up for Halo insider earlier this month, the test is running until 1st August.
Here’s how to get the Halo Infinite Campaign Network Co-op test on Xbox and PC.
While there had been widespread reporting that the test would go live on 11th July, 343 actually meant that the test was targeting the week of 11th July – for our part there was a little bit of miscommunication came through a press release.
Campaign co-op has already progressed through some internal testing rings, first with the QA team, then with 343 Industries and wider with a community insider ring and Xbox employees. They’re now ready for a full co-op test with the whole Halo Infinite community… but that build has to go through certification before Microsoft allow it onto Xbox consoles. It’s dependent on this whether or not the test flight’s release will be tomorrow or next week.
Once it does go live, Xbox and Windows Store players will be able to get access by unlocking it in the Xbox Insider app – our understanding is that anyone who owns the Halo Infinite campaign or has an active Xbox Game pass subscription will be able to access this by following the instructions listed here. Steam players will have to receive a dedicated download code in an email, having registered as a Halo Insider by last week.
This is a dedicated testing build, and your single player campaign will not carry over. Instead you’ll have a fresh campaign to start to playthrough. Halo infinite’s campaign co-op will have separate save files and progression for all players in a lobby, so you won’t simply be progressing one person’s play file. The game will compare save files and dynamically mark missions that all players have finished as complete, while anything where at least one player has not finished it will be marked incomplete. There’s similar concessions for collectables, and other unlocks.
In terms of the core gameplay, AI will behave differently to spread the load to different players, with any downed players able to view the cameras of other players to see when it’s safe to respawn. You also have ammo crates that scale in what they hand out, and one other little quirk they highlighted is the ability to grapple your buddies and slingshot.
The test also gives us a first chance to see the “Area-Of-Operations” in action, and that was demonstrated in stream. This is a player tether within the open world that will restrict how far you can move away from your buddies. At around 800 feet, you’ll receive a warning, and at 1000 feet, you’ll be killed and respawned at the nearest teammate. In stream that actually looked to be a pretty decent distance, though you really don’t have full freedom to explore and battle independently.
Lastly, the Mission Replay feature will be introduced and will work via the Tac-Map. This will now show completed missions that you can select and then choose to replay. You’ll be able to then select difficulty and activate any game modifier Skulls you or your teammates have collected. This will reset the mission and teleport you and your fireteam to that point. This includes replaying the very first mission in the game, Warship Gbraakon.
One excellent feature here is that, if you’re in a mission when selecting an older mission, you will be able to save your progress in the more recent mission and resume later.
Source: YouTube
