343 Industries Responds to Halo Infinite’s muddy graphics mess

Halo Infinite is not a pretty game. At least not by next gen standards, with all their fancy ray tracing and more polys than you can shake a stick at. The game looks, kind of gross to be honest. Even Digital Foundry questioned why they had chosen to show that particular part of the world for Microsoft’s big Series X demo.

Well, 343 Industries has responded to criticism, thankfully in a mature manner, which is certainly becoming a rare courtesy these days in this industry.

“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.”

The developer explained that the build used for the demo is still very much a work in progress, and that they’ve got a lot of polishing to do before Infinite gets released later this year.

“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.”

Many developers have been facing challenges due to the CCPVirus pandemic, so this is completely understandable. Though one wonders just how much they can get done between now and its expected launch window.

Despite criticism over the graphical fidelity of Infinite, fans do seem to like the return to classic Halo gameplay, that hearkens back to the first two games on the original Xbox.

“Based on our learnings from Halo 4, Halo 5, and Halo Wars 2—along with strong community feedback—we decided to shift back towards 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.”

Fresh on top of their explanation comes new rumours that the game’s multiplayer mode will be free-to-play, with support for 120fps. This is coming from the Verge allegedly by way of an Irish retailer, who has since taken down the original claim, so take it with a big grain of salt.

A release date for Halo Infinite has yet to be confirmed, but you can expect it’ll be due out sometime in November as a launch title for the Series X.

Source: Hot Hardware