The sixth main entry of the Halo series, it continues the story of the Master Chief, following Halo 5: Guardians . It features several types of abilities for player character the Master Chief, such as the Grapple Shot and Thruster, with the former enabling him to pull himself towards foes or retrieve items.
The title's campaign mode features an open world in which players can complete objectives to gain command of Forward Operating Bases, furthering their progression throughout the story. Players may also upgrade the Master Chief's abilities.
According to Microsoft subsidiary 343 Industries, developer of the Halo series, Halo Infinite is the third chapter of the "Reclaimer Saga", following Halo 4 and Halo 5: Guardians . The storyline of Halo Infinite will be "much more human", with series protagonist Master Chief John-117 playing a more central role than in Halo 5.
The game's E3 2018 trailer indicated its story will be set on a Halo ring that has mysteriously suffered damage, and also showcased the design of the Master Chief's MJOLNIR armor, which returns to a design similar to that seen in Halo 2 and Halo 3 . 343 Industries later confirmed this Halo ring to be Installation 07 . The Banished, a violent Brute-led mercenary organization first seen in spin-off real-time strategy game Halo Wars 2 , appear as enemies.
Halo Infinite's plot focuses on the Master Chief's efforts to locate a new artificial intelligence known by codename "The Weapon" and, with her assistance, determine the whereabouts of the Chief's former AI companion, Cortana.
Halo Infinite is being developed by 343 Industries with assistance from SkyBox Labs, Sperasoft, The Coalition, Certain Affinity and Atomhawk. Nicolas Bouvier is the artist.
Development director Frank O'Connor stated in August 2019 that Halo Infinite was being built "so it plays and looks fantastic" on Xbox One, but would have enhancements when played on Xbox Series X/S.
On August 27, 2020, 343 Industries announced that Joseph Staten, the former lead writer and cinematic director of the Halo series at Bungie, had joined as Campaign Project Lead for Halo Infinite. 343 Industries later announced that Staten's role had changed to Head of Creative for Halo Infinite. On October 28, 2020, Bloomberg News reported that Studio Head Chris Lee had departed the project.
On April 17, 2021, it was confirmed that series regular Jeff Steitzer would be back to voice the multiplayer mode announcer once again.
Halo Infinite will see the return of split-screen, in response to the backlash of its removal in the previous game. After the Xbox Games Showcase on July 23, 2020, 343 Studio Head Chris Lee stated that a public beta was unlikely due to the impact of the ongoing pandemic, despite Microsoft stating at E3 2018 that there would be a public beta ahead of launch. 343 Industries said that the game would receive a free ray tracing update post-launch. It was reported that 343 Industries was heavily outsourcing the game to external developers, resulting in development troubles, and was a contributing factor to the delay. On August 20, 2021, it was announced that the game would be launching without campaign co-op, a longtime feature of the series.
