HALO: INFINITE: A Disappointment 6 Years In The Making

HALO: INFINITE, developed by 343 industries

Halo is a massive gaming phenomenon. It was vital to the success of the original XBOX back in 2001 and has a huge following to this day, even with all the blunders 343 industries has made.

Halo was originally developed by Bungie but eventually Bungie left Microsoft and started working on a game called Destiny. These games developed by Bungie are usually referred to as part of the golden age of Halo. After Bungie left, Microsoft cobbled together a team, 343 industries or 343, to develop future Halo games. 343 hasn’t been living up to Bungie’s legacy though. Since Bungie’s departure in 2010 Halo has been on a dry streak with bad game after bad game. Infinite was 343’s only path to redemption at this point and with 6 years without a new Halo game, fans were ready.

It was a disappointment, it came lacking several core features like co-op campaign, fan favourite game modes and forge (a map maker). And possibly the worst of all was the monetisation. They sold the colour blue for 7 dollars. The campaign didn’t fare much better either. The story was ok but not anything fantastic. Even with all these setbacks 343 still nailed the core gameplay. Infinite was extremely fun to play. But that isn’t enough.

The problem was that its development was chaotic, they fired the original creative director and the new engine was giving them problems. And the switch to a free to play model was the reason for the greedy monetisation.

Infinite’s situation is getting better though, albeit slowly. New content, return of fan-favourite game modes and less greedy monetisation. All of these have already happened and more are sure to come.