Remember Halo Infinite? It seems like just yesterday that everyone was interested in the big return of Microsoft’s flagship FPS, and at least at first it looked like Halo Infinite was going to get the job done. It felt and looked great, the surprise reveal of multiplayer didn’t hurt, and then…well, it seems to kind of fade into the background.
Infinite struggled to maintain momentum, and in retrospect, that may be because it started so unevenly. Halo 3 arguably represents the pinnacle of the series and is part of why it was released as a complete and complete package. Everything was there. With
Infinite, we are still waiting for campaign co-op and more importantly, Forge mode. If anything can boost Infinite’s competitive and community scene, it’s Forge, Halo’s custom level, and mode creation pack.
Forge finally arrives as part of the game’s Winter Update, which launches on November 8 with up to a four-player co-op campaign. The latter includes the possibility to repeat the task so that groups can go around the completed parts as they wish.
Forge apparently has “thousands of new items” and various additions and improvements: here are the official 343 dive. The most interesting element here is the setting and how players can use robots (as well as rocket guns), but for now, the most important thing is just getting it into people’s hands.
The Winter Update also brings a new free Battle Pass, two maps built by 343 in Forge, and some new modes, including a CTF version. I quite like Infinito, but it’s hard to go back to it: the initial wave of enthusiasm has long since peaked and the nostalgia has faded. It feels all too familiar now, and not in a good way.
What gave the older Halo games a long tail was never the nightmare of the campaign or the endless double teaming (although I did that a lot), but the awkward side that Forge lets sing: Halo cards, grifball, the meat – a grinder mode where one spartan with a minigun faced off against an army of swords and an endless array of good and bad cards to bounce off. With a game called Halo Infinite, it began to offer these options.
