The Halo Infinite campaign reveal has been hot topic for the past week. Regardless of which side of the fence you’re on, there’s no denying the sheer amount of feedback that 343 Industries has received on it. In a recent community update, the developer has attempted to explain its philosophy behind the art style, among other things.
For the art style, it admitted to going back to the “legacy aesthetics that defined the original trilogy.” “With Halo Infinite, we’re returning to a more ‘classic’ art style which was a key message going back to the very first reveal that garnered enthusiastic and positive responses. This translates to a more vibrant palette, ‘cleaner’ models and objects with less ‘noise’, though it doesn’t mean less detail. While we appreciate this may not be everyone’s personal preference, we stand by this decision and are happy to see it resonating with so many fans around the world.”
As for the quality of the graphics, the developer acknowledged the feedback on things being below par. “Negative feedback in this area includes comments around characters and objects appearing flat, simplistic and plastic-like, lighting feeling dull and flat, and object pop-in. We’ve read your comments, we’ve seen the homemade examples of retouched content, and yes we’ve heard the Digital Foundry assessments.
“In many ways we are in agreement here – we do have work to do to address some of these areas and raise the level of fidelity and overall presentation for the final game.” What’s interesting to note is that the campaign demo build was is actually a few weeks old instead of a few months. “The build used to run the campaign demo was work-in-progress from several weeks ago with a variety of graphical elements and game systems still being finished and polished.
“While some of the feedback was expected and speaks to areas already in progress, other aspects of the feedback have brought new opportunities and considerations to light that the team is taking very seriously and working to assess. We don’t have firm answers or outcomes to share yet but the team is working as quickly as possible on plans to address some of the feedback around detail, clarity, and overall fidelity. The team is committed and focused on making sure we have a beautiful world for players to explore when we launch.”
Of course, the question is whether there’s enough time left. Halo Infinite is slated to launch with the Xbox Series X this holiday season (which could be in November, as per Microsoft CFO Amy Hood). In these next few months, 343 Industries still has to showcase multiplayer among other things. We’ll see how things pan out as more gameplay footage is revealed.
Halo Infinite is currently in development for Xbox One, Xbox Series X and PC. It will be available at launch on Xbox Game Pass and support Smart Delivery.