343 Industries has dropped a new ViDoc detailing its Halo Infinite winter update; the biggest content drop for Infinite since its launch late last year. The update is split into three core components: what's new for standard multiplayer, the campaign co-op launch, and Forge mode; Halo's suite of community creation tools. There's a lot packed into this one, so much so that it feels like a 2022 relaunch for Halo Infinite. Let's dig in.
Halo Infinite Campaign Co-Op
Let's start with the big one; online campaign co-op. We recently had to stomach the news that local campaign co-op has been cancelled, but the online version is finally coming and it looks really robust here. The mode supports up to four players over Xbox Live, and each player's progress is saved after a session.
343 says that the game will work out who's furthest back in the story and start things off from there, ensuring no-one misses a story beat throughout co-op play. Things like spartan cores and other collectables are also saved per player, meaning you won't miss out on any single-player bonuses by playing online co-op.
In regards to co-op limits, the team has created an 'area of operations' about double the size of the game's largest enemy base, so that players have plenty of room to operate in during co-op play. If players do fall in battle, they'll spawn next to a 'safe' co-op partner, with the same equipment they were holding upon death.
New Halo Infinite Multiplayer Content
Core multiplayer is getting a bit of an overhaul in the winter update too, at least when it comes to progression. After many fan requests, the team has built a separate XP system to the game's battle pass progression, one that rewards players with match XP and bonus XP for things like wins and impressive individual performances. 343 says that the new XP system will help speed up battle pass progression too, rewarding players for performing well.
Two new Arena multiplayer maps are also coming next month as part of the update: Argyle, and Detachment. These are both Forge-built arenas that make use of 343's impressive toolset, which will allow plenty of user creations as well. You'll be able to test both of these maps out on the new 'Covert One-Flag' mode, an asymmetrical mode coming to Halo Infinite Arena multiplayer.
Halo Infinite Forge Mode Is Coming
Speaking of Forge, a large portion of the ViDoc is dedicated to 343's upcoming toolset, and it's clear that the future of Halo Infinite will lean on Forge mode quite a bit. It'll be in "open beta" when Forge launches next month, but the tools look pretty robust even at this stage.
The team is keen to note that even though it's launching as a beta, any Forge community creations built right now will still work when the mode moves to its full release. So, we can all start building and playing community games to our hearts' content as early as next month!
Halo Infinite's winter update arrives on November 8th for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, where all of these additions launch alongside a new 30-tier battle pass for 343's latest Halo title.
Is this the big update needed to push you back into the world of Halo Infinite? Let us know your thoughts on all this down below.
Comments 14
So late it is actually impressive. Seriously, takes some lack of skill to c**k it up this hard. Year late and with one of the big selling features cancelled. Maybe just cancel the whole thing and start from scratch with a better team, while there still are Halo fans out there (see myself as fan, but I won't blindly advocate mediocrity)
Some really great looking blips of cool multiplayer stuff there. The biggest thing for me is they have these maps & modes they're showing off but they should be getting them into a 2 week or monthly rotating playlist. I want to Repulsoccer & Eternity without putting in any extra effort.
I may have missed it.
What about replaying missions?
@Dezzy70 yep, it was in there. Might have been mentioned more than once but definitely at: https://youtu.be/IooofLOzwxQ?t=353
Until it removes forced crossplay with PC, this game is always going to be dead to me. It seems MS are intent on undermining their customers about this issue and will never back down. Same reason I will never play Warzone or the new conquest in MW2. It's a good job this game was F2P otherwise it would of flopped like a greasy pancake harder than it has.
@ParsnipHero
Ok got it, very brief and mentioned in the co op section.
Hope that means us single players that have finished the campaign can go back and replay missions.
They should have explained that better.
See I don’t trust them at all.
@Dezzy70 understandable but that UI should be the same playing solo or coop.
@ParsnipHero
I agree we shall see come November
But you are probably most definitely right.
Glad to see the game continuing to improve. As others have said, it was never really close to being ready at launch. The eventual retrospect on Infinite's development will be juicy.
Thankfully, the gameplay is still a blast. If they keep removing roadblocks to getting there they may actually end up with a great product.
One more thing from me on this update. So the match based XP is great. Moving through the Battle Pass has never really been too much of a challenge as the seasons have been way too long.
My biggest issue, as someone who has completely every weekly capstone since launch is, I want the match based EXP to replace the weekly challenges. Those things are just so tedious. I'd prefer it be optional or a choice "complete the weekly challenges or earn X match based XP to unlock the capstone reward".
I'm happy they are improving the XP progression, That's the main reason i stopped playing the game.. I'll definitely check out this update when it releases..
Forge and Co-op should be fun. I don't really care about multiplayer anymore, but the forge adds so much creativity that it gets me to dabble, trying out different modes.
When will networking and desync be fixed?
I feel lucky to have only played MP and very casually up until now. This game is going to be practically new to me when this update comes. I haven't even paid attention to my rank and have never played the campaign. My first campaign experience will be online co op with 3 buddies, who I convinced all to wait until the update to play. It is almost time to jump in!
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