Halo Infinite world design details shown off in new update

What you need to know

• 343 Industries has released a new "Inside Infinite" article that gives insight about Halo Infinite's environments and world design.
• The blog post mainly talks about how 343 Industries is focusing on making Halo infinite's world beautiful while ensuring that it feels familiar to Halo fans and isn't overly-detailed.
• The developers also talked about how the primary inspiration for the game is the look and feel of the Pacific Northwest mixed with science fiction elements.
• The next big Halo Infinite update in March will focus on the game's audio, and the one in April will focus on the game's PC version.

Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries has released February's "Inside Infinite" article that provides some big details about the upcoming Xbox and PC exclusive. Specifically, fans have been given a detailed look at the types of environments and world design that Halo Infinite will feature.

In the article, Campaign Art Lead Justin Dinges, Gameplay Director Troy Mashburn, and World Design Lead John Mulkey sat down to go into detail about the type of world that 343 Industries is crafting for the next big Halo adventure. According to the developers, the core philosophies behind the design of the location the game takes place in, Zeta Halo, are "Legacy" and "Simplicity." The former represents the studio's goal to craft a world that will feel familiar to Halo veterans, while the latter represents a focus on creating a beautiful, mysterious world without flooding players with too much detail.

"For 'Legacy' we really want players to feel like they are experiencing a game that they remember fondly, but with modernized graphics of course," says Dinges. "As far as 'Simplicity' is concerned, we wanted to ensure that we steer away from overly noisy designs and details which is a key takeaway for the team coming off Halo 5. With Halo Infinite, we wanted to take this new adventure back to its roots and create a visually pleasing experience that doesn't overwhelm with unnecessary complexity where readability and clear artistic composition prevail." The developers then go on to explain that they like to classify Halo Infinite as a "spirtual reboot," or a type of experience that aims to allow for "introducing new ideas while staying true to what it felt like to play the classic games."

In terms of inspiration for Halo Infinite's world, the developers commented that they primarily focused on trying to blend the look of the Pacific Northwest with elements of science fiction.

"Our main source of artistic inspiration for Halo Infinite's setting began right in our own Pacific Northwest backyard," Dinges explained. "Because we made that early decision to go back to Halo's roots and recapture the PNW art pallet on Zeta we immediately headed out into the mountains, forests, and valleys for not only personal inspiration but more importantly lots of photo reference. Armed with these references and experiences we then leaned on our amazing Concept Art team ... to merge the real-world relatable photos and anecdotes with what it means to be a science fiction world."

Additionally, the developers also talked about how Halo Infinite will have a time-of-day system, and also how lots of work has been done to balance the world's visuals and design with the demands and requirements of gameplay mechanics. Small notes were made by other teams working on the game as well, such as the graphics, UI/UX, and Forge teams. I highly recommend checking out the full article for all the details and some juicy screenshots. A fan discovered a hidden audio file in the post as well, which is quite cool.

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What do you think of what 343 Industries had to show off in the February update? Let me know. 343 Industries confirmed that the March blog post will focus on the audio of Halo Infinite and that April's will cover the PC version of the game, so there's a lot of news to look forward to.

Halo Infinite is expected to launch in Fall 2021 on the Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One consoles, and Windows 10 PCs. The game's price is expected to be $60 much like other big AAA titles, although it's important to highlight the fact that the multiplayer will be free to play. Additionally, it will also run at 120 FPS on Xbox Series X and Series S. Also, we highly recommend checking out the Master Chief Collection while you wait for Halo Infinite, as it bundles all of the pre-Xbox One Halo shooters together for an excellent price. This easily makes it one of the best Xbox One shooters on the market, and it recently got even better with the arrival of Season 5 of the MCC that added tons of new cosmetics to Halo 3 and Halo: Reach.