Halo Infinite Is Not Open-World, Will Have Dynamic Weather, Random Enemy Encounters, More

Ali Haider March 12, 2021

343 Industries has shared a lot of new details on Halo Infinite including confirming some of the gameplay details related to the world and more.

In a panel that was streamed live on YouTube, 343 Industries talked about some of the design choices and gameplay details that fans had asked them on Twitter.

We have taken the time to compile a summary of the major questions that were asked by the fans during this stream. Have a look at them below.

Halo Infinite New Gameplay Details On March 12

The world around the ring will feel alive thanks to a dynamic day and night cycle that will also have weather systems. While this includes a Wind system, there are no rain or snow storms at launch but could be added at a later date.
Day and Night cycles will affect the enemies that the player will encounter when venturing out in the world e.g Grunts sleep more at night, Phantoms have searchlights and are around more, etc.
There will be no hostile wildlife at the moment but some cute “Space Gophers” can be found in the world. Some wildlife is bioluminescent and only appears at night.
Dual-wielding is not supported in the game since the developers want to focus on the current weapon arsenal.
There are no playable Elites in the game but they could be added later if the time comes.
Weapon upgrades don’t make the cut but players will be able to upgrade equipment items and find “cool weapon variants” to unlock in the game.
It is possible to only hold one piece of equipment in Multiplayer and it will have one-time use only.
The game is not open-world but inspired by missions like Silent Cartographer.
There will be multiple biomes in the game. “Pacific Northwest” is the primary biome but there will be additional secondary biomes like swampy wetlands, wartorn areas referred to as “the Deadlands” which feature environmental storytelling, hexagon caves, forerunner architecture to explore, Banished bases.
The hexagonal pillars are an important environmental structure of the damaged ring.
The game offers an open-ended structure so the player has full freedom to tackle different objectives. While the main story has a general structured path, there are multiple places to go outside the story that will offer side objectives and so on.
The story will still progress in a linear fashion but areas will unlock based on the progression made by the player.
There will be many methods to find story elements on Zeta Halo beyond the “Golden Path.”
Audio Logs are confirmed to be in the game.
The skybox will be a full 3D model.
Cutscenes are real-time so they will be affected by the day and night cycles.
It will be possible to knock off things from Zeta Halo.
Banished maintain their “heavy metal, red war paint” aesthetic from Halo Wars 2
343 Industries has taken the time to address the concerns brought by the community after the July reveal
Outposts and bases can be encountered in addition to patrols and random encounters.
The game will keep track of the progress made by the player e.g if the player is walking on foot, the encounters will be designed for on foot and if they are using a flying vehicle, they will encounter enemies with flying vehicles in mind.