Update on Halo Infinite Public Beta, Gameplay Reveal, and Storyline Teaser 

Halo is undoubtedly one of the most loved FPS games around the world among Windows and Console players. Halo franchises are very old and launched its first title back in 2001, since then Halo is ruling millions of fans hearts. The last major title release of Halo took place back in 2015, which was the Halo 5 – Guardians. Though there have been two other titles launched after that, named Halo Wars 2 and Halo Fireteam Raven, none of them were featured in the main storyline. Even the Halo Fireteam Raven was not a mainstream Halo title either as it was developed and launched for Gaming Arcade Machines only.

The Halo Infinite is being developed by 343 Studios and it would be published and marketed by Microsoft Xbox Game Studios. According to Wikipedia, and most of the confirmed sources, the launch of Halo Infinite would take place sometime within the Q4, 2020. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the launch may get delayed unexpectedly.

 

A cinematic trailer for Halo Infinite have been launched 1 year ago, and here is a link where you can check that out.

 

Just one week ago from writing this article, on 23^rd July 2020 the first gameplay trailer was premiered on YouTube, and here is the link for that video. The video shows the 8 minutes of actual footage and visual quality of the game, though the game is still under the post-production and optimization stage.

Now after watching the cinematic trailer Halo Infinite received a very positive review, as the trailer was really awesome and the beloved Master Chief’s return with the main storyline was appreciated by all the fans. But since the gameplay trailer launch, the Halo Infinite is receiving mixed reviews and even many critical responses. Now you can watch the gameplay trailer yourself, to understand what is there to like and what is there to hate. Though personally I liked the gameplay, yes there are lots of room for improvement.

It has been confirmed that Halo Infinite would not become an Xbox Exclusive Title like the Halo 5 Guardians. Halo Infinite would be launching on MS Windows at the same time along with the Xbox launch, of course, there is not going to be any PlayStation launch of Halo Infinite. It has also been confirmed that Halo Infinite would be featured with the next-gen Xbox Series X, and if you own the game on Xbox One prior to getting the Xbox Series S, then the game would automatically be added to your library when you get the next-gen console.

Microsoft planned an official reveal of the Halo Infinite on E3, 2020, which was supposed to be held in May 2020; but due to the COVID pandemic, the event was not organized. To compensate that Microsoft released a Gameplay trailer directly on 23^rd July 2020 which you can find on YouTube.

Most of the fans and gamers are disappointed at the visual quality and graphics quality of the Halo Infinite. As the next-gen console is on the verge of its launch, and in the presence of Nvidia Ray tracing Tech, such visual quality and graphics performance was not expected by the fans. Especially many of the enthusiast gamers think that the Halo Infinite is not worthy to be called a next-gen game at all.

Story-wise it is being speculated that Master Chief would be the protagonist and also the center characters of the story, and the timeline set after the timeline of Halo 5 Guardians and side by side with the timeline of Halo Wars 2. The story is being said to be very engaging where Master Chief would truly become the savior of humanity.

Now fans are worried about how good the game would look on Xbox Series X 4K resolution and how good the performance would be. As per the quality of the gameplay trailer, I am expecting a stable 60 FPS performance in Xbox Series X at 4K, but the visual quality may not be satisfactory for many fans. While on PC powered with RTX 2080 would definitely crunch the best performance with best visuals from the game, and here also the performance is guaranteed but the visual quality may seem to be a little inferior as a next-gen game.

The best part in all these Graphics Criticism is Tweets from the 343 Industries narrative experience director Dan Chosich, who said “I’ve been in your shoes, I know what it’s like to have expectations built and feel let down. I want you to know your voice matters and is heard. You’re not falling on deaf ears. I always want to live up to the legacy that Bungie pioneered. I personally care a lot about honoring that.” But as the game is already in its post-production not many changes we can expect but at least some we can. Now the fingers are crossed until the final product hit the market.

Xbox Official Aaron Greenberg said, “it’s still a work in progress with several months of development time ahead of it. Here’s hoping its visuals match up to its promising combat when it launches this fall”. So here is another ray of hope for a better visual quality of the game. According to 343 Industries officials (source Wikipedia), Halo Infinite would receive a major post-launch update that would feature the Ray-Tracing Visual effects.

If we talk about marketing Microsoft and 343 Industries are doing all kinds of relevant marketing already including featuring Halo Infinite Graphics showcase publicly on Dominos Pizza UK’s Twitter account.

Wrapping Up

According to 343 Studio Head Chris Lee, the Halo Infinite Public Beta version is highly unlikely to happen due to the COVID-19 Pandemic and shortage of staff. To ensure the launch of the game at the stipulated time the developers are being forced to work from home. The Halo Infinite would feature Multiplayer gameplay along with the Single Player Campaign mode. As it is a Halo Title we can expect the Halo e-sports to be revived again with the Halo Infinite Multiplayer, which is being a sleeping dragon since the end of Halo Championship Series (HCS) 2018.