Talking Point: Would Halo Infinite Have Been A Bigger Success Using Unreal Engine 5?

"Would Halo Infinite have been a bigger success using the Unreal Engine 5?"
I don't think this can be answered easily. Previous reports mentioned that 343i was using Unreal Engine for prototypes. Also the biggest problem with Halo Infinite's development was the Microsoft mandate to have contractors replaced every 18 months, where the Slipspace engine had a steep learning curve and many contractors took a lot of knowledge with them. Unreal Engine might have been able to mitigate that problem.

On the other hand if Unreal Engine 5 would have been used then probably the gane wouldn't have releaed in 2021 and there would have been no Xbox One version. I believe we saw the first true UE5 games in 2023. And compared to the Slipspace engine UE5 has some issues of it's own.

no the game was fine but story was poor

I think the game would have been bigger if they'd have built on the campaign and world, rather than focused sheerly on the MP. The game would have been perfect for expanded lore and even an PDST campaign expansion. Either way, I'm excited for the new game.

@themightyant I was just about to comment the same thing, it was too samy and lacking in variety. Unless using UE5 somehow would have afforded them more time to work on different biomes and set pieces etc

Yes, it would look great and have more constant hitching struggling with an open-ish world 🤣

Infinite's major problem was the sorta open world, well more accurately, them doing nothing with it. It feels like it's there because "open world" appeared on some checklist somewhere.

Even after reading the article I'm a little confused as to what the thesis is here.
So many great, succesful games use custom engines, the RE Engine, Dantelion, Decima, Idtech, Nintendo's engines, etc.
And so many PC asset flips use popular engines like Unreal and Unity.
The real issues with Xbox and 343 lie so deep, you can point at the Engine, the short campaign, the lack of features, the lacking multiplayer, the mismanagement. Basically throw a dart at any aspect of that game or studio and you'll find a potential reason why it failed. The reality is that the studio's and Xbox's way of making games is broken and changing the Engine wouldn't have changed that.

No. Using an old optimized and buggy engine not meant for the genre would have been disastrous.

This is not a realistic scenario. As long as we are fantasizing, make it at least version 5.6 and the entire studio along with the industry are well-versed in it. This would have made development go smoother (and quicker). The bigger issue was an inability to get new maps and content out, along with network issues making some matches frustrating.

For the Multiplayer maybe. But for the Campaign, the open world would still be empty, the Levels would still all feel the same, and 343 would still be incapable of starting and resolving a conflict within the game instead of across multiple pieces of media.

The multiplayer is perfect in that game. Any change would be a negative in my book. I imagine they had a good reason to not use unreal if it was being considered.

Halo infinite is an awesome game. I will die on the hill that Halo infinite and Starfield are two of the best games of this generation. I still play each pretty regularly.

Story was bland the environment was repetitive art wise

All they needed was more content, the campaign was fine but it had an open ending so it’s baffling they never made DLC, multiplayer tho was basically in a beta for a whole year, but even then it was my most played game for 2022 as the gameplay was nailed, I’ll die on my hill saying that it’s the best feeling Halo to this day but between the stumbles at launch (Craig…) and the lack of content for a looong time never gave the fantastic gameplay hiding underneath a chance.

Would the change in engine have made the open world any less bland and samey? Would it have meant that Forge and campaign co-op were included in the game at launch? Would it have changed the broken-arse multiplayer progression system?

There's your answer.

@themightyant any shooters off top of your head that use UE5? Kinda makes me think that FPS multiplayer games have their own engines for a reason

Giving what a disaster Unreal Stutter 5 is things might have been worse.

the engine wouldn’t have mattered, 343 is just incapable of making good halo games.

Everyone has a different opinion on this game. But mine has always been it was really good for me. I liked the campaign, not going to say loved it. But it was solid. The PVP was almost perfect. The ONLY thing was it took way to LONG to bring new maps and modes. I was playing the same 3 maps for close to 200 hours in PVP when I stopped playing and that is just insane. Content hurt the game in a big way. Now would using unreal 5 have made it quicker to make new content, that i do not know. But if so then the answer is yes.

@themightyant I think they all had frame pacing issues, that's always my worry with UE5 (or 4 for that matter!)

It would have absolutely, unquestioningly have been a bigger success. The game was a huge hit at launch with the media and gamers. The game died because they couldnt create more content for it. An engine everyone knows would have helped immensely. It might have actually launched on time, too.

There's a lot of people, commenters here included, rewriting history with idiotic narratives. Halo infinite was not a bad game. Halo infinite was not a good game. Halo infinite was a GREAT game, according to both the games media and players. It won the doritopope award show players choice award. It was after the game got no meaningful updates for a like a damn year that sentiment turned.

Engines do play a roll and using them or expanding on them or just in general how particular they can be while avoiding licensing fees from UE or others past their sales point (or how each agreement works for engines).

But not as much as game design/staff balancing or leadership also do. How they work around that, main teams, outsourcing, etc.

I think they captured enough of what they wanted to, old Halo 1 style flare, modernising things, fitting in with trends for the open world or multiplayer structures, it makes sense enough what they were going for, it may have rough edges or that may be a player's perspective. But I think they captured enough of the vision or whatever it ended up as in the end to be worked into something despite delays, leadership, outsourcing, core teams, etc. efforts on the game.

If people liked it by all means. I myself didn't find the open world formula like the ones I enjoy (aka Gravity Rush, Sunset Overdrive and Infamous Second Son, so as it doesn't fit those, I wasn't going to buy it/play it anyway).

I hated Halo 5 but played it late. I have no interest in Halo Infinite at all. The campaign doesn't interest me. I wouldn't have been an additional sale but even still the game design appeal I look for just wasn't there.

That and the disk was useless as it was partial as well.

I mean the only real difference would've been that the staff constantly changing wouldn't have to learn a new engine. But the root issue of doing that is still failing to build a studio culture. Halo Infinite was sabatoged every step of the way by Microsoft. The new proprietary engine wasn't the issue, but forcing the studio to make the next flagship game on a new engine while also using temporary workers was. 343 should've made a smaller AA Halo game first using the new engine and more importantly they should've been allowed to build up with permanent staff. I feel like we saw the same issue with The Initiative. You can't make a brand new studio and tell them their first project is a AAAA worthy flagship title based on a beloved IP. The studio needed to build an internal culture first and learn how its creatives work together.

@Jenkinss The technical debt and awful in game economy/store killed it a first time. Then the studio figured it out and had the content and story and everything for a great multiplayer experience.... and Xbox just ignored it. I knew Halo Infinite was dead when the Infection update wasn't at the Xbox Games Showcase that year, while games LIKE Overwatch, Eso, and F76 were there with nothing live service updates. It was confirmed for me when Microsoft cut their funding and they stopped the story cutscenes. Microsoft did not even give the game a chance.

@CallMeDuraSouka It really shows how the average quality of games has gone down doesn't it? For the past 10 years AAA games have just not been what they used to, to the point where people look back at games that were panned when expectations were higher and talk about how great they were now. With a few exceptions (mostly on PS4) the XBO/PS4 Gen was the equivalent of the Star Wars Prequels, and the current Series/PS5 Gen is the Disney stuff.

No engine in the world could fix the mess that 343 Halo, including Infinite, was.

No because it would still have had the same crap developers and the same crap content and the same overpriced micro transactions and overpriced skins. The same ***** dripfed modes from the same ***** company.

All for an IP that isn't relevant anymore to anyone under 30.

Looking at the state of most UE5 games, probably not. They only really started to optimise for performance in version 5.3 onwards and we’re only approaching what feels like a mature, polished engine at version 5.6 that only just released a month ago. A handful of the most elite dev studios have proven capable of overcoming the challenge of optimising with earlier versions of UE5, but I’m not confident that 343 have such top tier talent working at that studio - as harsh as that sounds.

I don't think its overall fate would have been drastically different because there's so many management, creative and culture issues at that studio. That said, I do think if the game was built in UE then maybe the content droughts wouldn't have been so severe. And maybe it would have stayed on the rails enough for single player to actually get the DLC.

Who knows. I guess we'll learn a lot from the state of this upcoming project. People keep saying their faith in 343/Halo Studios hinges on the next release. That couldn't be more true this time around, I'll probably be tapping out of the franchise if they mess this one up.

Anytime a team decides to use a propreitary engine over a 3rd party engine you are saying that you think your proprietary engine gives you some advantage over the 3rd party engine. Given the features and functionality that I saw in Halo Infinite I am not sure Slip Space gave them any advantage. They used valuable resources on the engine that could've been more focused on making the game better then it was. I for one felt the game was great but it lacked content on Day One and the lack of Co-op in a Halo game on Day One I felt was just plain dumb.

Would have been helpful if the studio that had 6 years to make the game, where actually micro managed by Microsoft’s top team, that’s if they can manage.
Should have been a game that launched millions of console sales the BOTW of Xbox consoles.
They could have not messed it up much more overall really for what it should have been, though I did enjoy the campaign and the fps mechanics and grappling hook.

Microsoft will never make a game well maybe FH5 that takes full advantage of the series x as they make for multiple consoles and PC and cloud.
They are just a multi publisher now and their series x a console that never got to show its pure full console potential.
Such a shame in the console world.

I’d say probably as it seems the engine they were using wasn’t fit for purpose and that’s why they couldn’t make the most of the initial interest in multiplayer. I love Halo and all the games (hmm, okay even Guardians) and enjoyed the Infinity single player, not Earth shattering stuff but Fun nonetheless ❤️

The engine they used was among the least problems that game had.

Tomato,Tomato whats the point of having an opinion on something that never happened. Who cares? The campaign was boring and slow. The multiplayer was rubbish at launch and took years to become decent. The MP now is one of the best on xbox and getting people playing now should be the aim but yet again MS have just let the game die. MS once used advertising to keep games alive oh those were the days.