The technical preview for 343 Industries’ Halo Infinite has finally gone live, allowing Halo Insiders to participate in select modes and experience different features ahead of release. The most notable mode is Bot Slayer which pits a team of players against bots in a 4v4 match in the Live Fire, Bazaar and Recharge maps. Though the bots are at their lowest skill level currently, it’ll be increased and more maps added if the community manages to hit the developer’s goals for daily engagement.
If it’s testing goals and engagement for Bot Slayer are satisfied, then 343 Industries will look at enabling 4v4 Social Arena Slayer, allowing teams of four players to compete with each other. This will be able briefly on August 1st in the evening and a few “potential hiccups” can be expected.
“Specifically, we know that in some cases players will end up in a bad state as a session is forming and after a brief delay, will be kicked back to the main menu. As a result, the game itself will start as 4v3 which is certainly a less than desired experience all-around.” Then again, since this is a technical preview, 343 Industries is looking to gain additional data to help fix the issue for the final release.
Other features include Weapon Drills for the MA40 AR, the MK50 Sidekick, Needler, S7 Sniper, Ravager and much more along with a pared down version of the first Battle Pass. Players also receive in-game credits to spend, though none of this carries over into the main game. 343 Industries also notes that the cost of customization pieces, order of Battle Pass tiers, XP provided by challenges and so on are still a work-in-progress.
To see all of the features of the technical preview in action, check out the livestream below. Halo Infinite is slated to release in Holiday 2021 for Xbox One, PC and Xbox Series X/S. Future flights for betas are expected to be larger in scope so stay tuned.
