WILL THERE BE A NEW HALO GAME SERIES
WILL THERE BE A NEW HALO GAME FREE

The recent arrival of Halo Infinite's first in-game event highlights some these issues in a profound way. Or they're wandering off from their team to hunt down a particular gun, giving the opposing team a numbers advantage in the process. They're dropping out of matches that don't line up with whatever their current challenge calls for. So Halo Infinite's challenges have created a situation where you get people who are playing for the XP rather than for the win. People don't necessarily want to wait for random elements to fall in their favor, however. It's a similar issue with gun-based challenges: Everyone starts with the same weapons, so if your challenge calls for kills with one of the trickier-to-find firearms, you're similarly stuck waiting until you track one down. So if you've got a challenge calling for a win in the 'Control' match type, where opposing teams fight to capture specific points on the map, you've got to wait for it to come up in whichever playlist you choose. Halo Infinite jumbles all of its different ways to play into playlists, largely built around two options: A smaller 4v4 playlist and a larger 12v12 'Big Team Battles' playlist. It's not quite that smooth in reality, however. So if you're consistently clearing a challenge or two in every match, you're earning the 1,000 XP needed for a new level every three or four matches. The reward for completing a challenge rarely climbs higher than 300 XP. Those challenges are randomly pulled from a pool and they come with requirements like killing a certain number of enemy Spartans (the name for Halo's space marines) with a specific gun or completing some number of a specific match type. You can lose every match and rank near the bottom of your team each time, but you'll still be making regular progress as long as you're checking off the boxes of your challenges.Īt any given moment in Halo Infinite, you'll have three challenges in your queue (or four if you've got the premium Battle Pass). In Halo Infinite, you only earn experience points (XP) toward the Battle Pass by completing challenges. The bigger issue is how much of a drag it is to actually level up that Battle Pass.

Uninspiring cosmetics are only part of the problem, though. That's a problem 343 should be thinking about as it looks to the next Battle Pass. But the premium track for this first Battle Pass, which costs about $10, doesn't seem like a great buy just because of how boring the unlocks are.

WILL THERE BE A NEW HALO GAME FREE

There's also a free track to the Battle Pass that gets you an even smaller pile of stuff. For every cool helmet or visual effect that makes it look like your armor is on fire, there are scores of slightly different color schemes or visually similar armor attachments. Each level only nets you a couple of items - there are 166 awards in total, spread across 100 levels - and much of what you get isn't terribly exciting. The troubles for 343 start with what's available Infinite's first Battle Pass. The free-to-play pitch in 'Halo Infinite' starts with a Battle Pass - a concept that should be familiar to fans of games like 'Fortnite'. As they play PvP and level up, they unlock cosmetic items that can be equipped to change the look of their profile and their in-game space marine's armor. Just like in Epic's hit battle royale, Halo's Battle Pass gives players something to reach for. Halo Infinite's free-to-play pitch starts with a Battle Pass - a concept that should be familiar to fans of games like Fortnite. Free-to-play games generate their own kind of income, and the process of turning Halo into something like that means that 343 needed to follow the examples set by other successful games. The free side of the game still required an investment of time and money from Microsoft, which owns 343. That kind of change has a ripple effect, though. But Halo is also a favorite among people who enjoy the thrills of competing against other players online, and there's no up-front cost for that anymore. 8 release is still a $60 game with a story that finds Master Chief, longtime hero of the series, facing off against a new alien threat to humankind's existence.

WILL THERE BE A NEW HALO GAME SERIES

This PvP side of the game features one significant change for the series in particular: It's entirely free to play.

15 with a surprise release of the new Halo's competitive multiplayer mode. But Microsoft and developer 343 Industries surprised fans on Nov. It's still early days for Infinite, which technically launches on Dec. For some fans, it doesn't matter that Halo Infinite 'lives up to sky-high expectations.' The unlocks simply aren't coming fast enough.

Will there be a new halo game