Halo Infinite will be Microsoft’s attempt at jump starting the legendary franchise’s return to the mainstream. While the IP is far from dead or irrelevant, it’s nowhere near where it was in its heyday. Whether or not Infinite can rekindle that or not is anyone’s guess, but a lot of change is coming as seen from the high profile departures from the project. The game will also have a new engine, SlipSpace, with a lot of checks written to cash.
In speaking to IGN, 343 Industries head Bonnie Ross said that the team reworked a lot of the previous Halo engine that was used in 343’s previous titles. She said one complaint from people was the engine was very technical and straightforward, leaving little leeway for creativity. She says they’ve fixed that, and the new engine will be far more creative-friendly and easier in general to work with.
“The Halo engine is a very technical, engineering-focused engine. It’s super hard for creatives to work in,” Ross said, “It’s super hard for a lot of creatives to work in, at one time. We did a ton of work, on Halo 4, on the engine, to get it to look… I think it looked amazing for being on the last generation on the last year of the platform.”
“We promised the team we would do the work on the tools, and pipeline, for Halo 5, so it wasn’t such a challenging environment to develop on,” Ross said. “You know… ‘best-laid plans’… we didn’t do that, and the team, rightfully so, basically called us on it.”
While we haven’t seen a lot of the engine yet, what we have seen has been pretty impressive. Halo Infinite will launch across three different platforms on Xbox One, PC, and being a premier launch title for the upcoming Xbox Scarlett. Can the series find its way back to the top of gaming culture? Either way, the SlipSpace Engine will be there to support the Chief.