It’s a rare day in video game land when fans ask for a bunch of stuff from a live service game and then…actually get it. But that’s exactly what happened today when developer 343 Industries rolled out a bunch of community-requested features for Halo infinityits free-to-play multiplayer shooter.
Halo infinityfirst release last year, has had a somewhat rocky life cycle. As with many free-to-play shooters Halo infinity based on a seasonal model. Originally planned to last three months, the seasons have so far run every six months. (We’re well into Season 2, which is scheduled to run through early November.) Fans say this has left the shooter starved of essential content like maps, modes, and cosmetics, preventing it from feeling as fresh as it could be .
The shooter is also structured around an introduction to weekly challenges. As you complete your challenges, you’ll earn XP that upgrades your Battle Pass and gives you new cosmetic options with each level. Previously, you could only check your active challenges while idling in the lobby between games. Following today’s update, you can see them in the middle of a game. There’s a catch, though: Challenges don’t track progress in real-time, so you don’t really know if you’ve landed those five headshots or whatever until the game is over. But hey, progress!
Today’s update also marks Halo infinityThe first step towards “cross-core customization” or the ability to use all customization options for all “armor cores”. Instead of armor for your avatar, a 26th-century super soldier, you have five so-called armor cores. Everyone rocks a different look; You can customize them as you like. But cosmetic options – from accessories to armor pieces to the different color options – are specifically tied to each core. For example, you cannot use colors from the Mark VII core’s true Crayola armor plating box the cores, which lack solid options (looking straight at you, Mark V [B]).
Now, after today’s update, all visors work with all armor cores; They’ll just show up automatically for all five of your cores. However, unless I miss it, the armory doesn’t specify which armor core the visor was originally connected to. And since some are more or less identical – like the deep blue hardened steel of the Yoroi core and the deep blue hardened steel of the rakshasa core – you end up with a handful of sight options that look like duplicates. (Your periodic reminder that you can hold down the Y button to compare each cosmetic option to what you currently have equipped.) But hey, again: progress!
That’s not all. later in the month Halo infinity Get competitive and social versions of the popular Team Doubles Playlist, where teams of two compete on small maps. (These are currently scheduled for August 23, but 343 hasn’t always reached the scheduled dates for infinity‘s Updates.) But 343 quietly changed the Team Snipers playlist today and released an update that wasn’t in it the official announcementdraw attention to it only on social media.
Since the launch of the Team Snipers playlist earlier this summer, there’s a mode that starts you off with the Stalker Rifle –a damn good precision weapon…that’s also extreme Not a sniper rifle. After today, that mode is gone and will be replaced by a mode that only spawns you with snipers. Shotty Snipes, in which you start out with a sniper and a shotgun, is fortunately still around. Unfortunately, the Brute Snipes mode hasn’t been deleted, although at least the starting weapon, the skewer, is technically a sniper rifle. Sorry, no word yet on whether or not Halo infinity gets a mode with only the shock rifle. But hey, one last time: progress!
Sure, individually these are all small changes. But taken together, it’s a sign of a game slowly adapting to what players want – much like Halo: The Master Chief Collection before. Pretty soon we’ll all wake up and realize Halo infinity Also has rightly evolved into a live service game.
