Skip to main content

Halo: Infinite isn’t a stunner, but it’s exactly what the Xbox Series X needs

Microsoft finally showed the first real Halo: Infinite gameplay during its Xbox Series X Games Showcase on July 23, and the memes soon followed. Gamers eager to dish out the salt were quick to jump on the title for its shift in art direction and lack of obvious visual wow-factor.

There are good reasons for the shift, however, and the decision not to prioritize visuals over gameplay will prove to be in Halo: Infinite’s favor. This looks like true old-school Halo delivered on modern hardware.

Performance wins over realism

The memes digging on Halo: Infinite immediately targeted game’s undeniable shift in art. Until now, Halo has pursued a hyper-realistic look filled with gritty soldiers, shiny aliens, and detailed scenery. Infinite is a bit different. The intentionally blocky, flat look of some distant terrain led to sarcastic comparisons to Minecraft.

Halo Infinite campaign be like pic.twitter.com/lcVgqHeOlm

— ayylmao (@ayylmaotv) July 23, 2020

Like most jokes, this one has a hint of truth. Halo: Infinite certainly looks leagues better than Minecraft, but its new art style reminds you that you’re playing a game. The latest Halo, unlike its predecessors, doesn’t try to look realistic. It won’t even launch with raytracing support, though 343 Industries says that will be added in a later patch.

This might seem an odd decision for a new console’s headline title, but it places emphasis one another aspect of next-generation consoles; performance. 343 Industries promises 4K/60 fps gameplay in Halo: Infinite, and if that is delivered, it will be a stunning new benchmark.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Take Call of Duty: Modern Warfare for comparison. It attempts to hit 4K/60 fps on the Xbox One X and PlayStation 4 Pro but is often forced to reduce resolution in the name of performance. Despite that, the game’s framerate can dip into the mid-40s. Other current-generation stunners, like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Red Dead Redemption 2, make no attempt to target 60 fps gameplay on console.

Halo: Infinite is making a next-gen promise. It’s just not the one we’re used to. Instead of dialing up the detail to unbelievable levels, the game more smoothly delivers the very best of what’s possible on current-gen hardware. As I’ve said in the past, next-gen games won’t often blow you away with their visuals. But that doesn’t mean the next-gen experience isn’t better.

Delivering the Halo you remember

While Microsoft is strategically using Halo: Infinite to showcase the importance of smooth, high-resolution gameplay, there’s another reason for the game’s shift. 343 Industries wants to go back to Halo’s roots and deliver the old-school experience fans remember.

That’s not easy, because nostalgia is a hell of a thing. The original Halo trilogy is great. Play it today, however — which you can easily do, thanks to Halo: The Master Chief Collection — and you’ll realize the games are smaller, shorter, and more linear than they felt at the time.

343 Industries has a predictable but effective solution. Turn the scale up to 11. Halo: Infinite wants to give players the epic alien vistas they’re used to and, unlike earlier Halo games, actually let players explore them.

Huge levels combined with classic Halo gameplay is precisely on point.

This isn’t revolutionary, and I’m guessing some critics will sigh heavily as they note how Halo is merely following a template for open-world game design that’s beginning to feel tired. For fans, however, huge levels combined with classic Halo gameplay is precisely on point. This is how Halo felt back in 2001.

It may even feel unique today. Shooter fans crave a big, open-world game with the variety and epic scope they love. Far Cry’s template has grown stale. Destiny never delivered the epic scale it promised. And other recent stabs at the idea, like Rage 2, have fallen short on gameplay. Halo: Infinite could serve up an experience that shooter fans have desired for well over a decade.

The Halo we need?

Despite mixed reactions to its graphics, fan opinion about Halo: Infinite seems cautiously optimistic. There’s a reason for that. Infinite’s single-player gameplay appears to capture the ideas that made old-school Halo great in a more modern format. It also lacks the superhero-film distractions that made Halo 5: Guardians such a groaner.

It’s strange for a headline next-gen title to root itself so firmly in the past. Still, if Infinite can deliver the experience fans remember — and deliver it at 4K and 60 frames per second — it will be the launch day success Microsoft’s Xbox Series X needs.

Editors' Recommendations

Matthew S. Smith
Matthew S. Smith is the former Lead Editor, Reviews at Digital Trends. He previously guided the Products Team, which dives…
Starfield is a success. What does that mean for the future of Xbox?
A ship lands on a planet in Starfield.

Starfield was one of the most vital video game launches ever.
The last couple of years have been full of whiplash for Xbox fans, full of high highs and low lows. After a solid fall 2021 game lineup, 2022 was comparatively barren for first-party Xbox games. Microsoft then started the year on a strong note with Hi-Fi Rush’s surprise launch before crashing and burning with the disastrous release of Redfall, the first heavily marketed AAA game coming out from Bethesda after it was acquired by Microsoft. Starfield, a game that many were uneasy about due to its scope, would inadvertently become a make-or-break moment for Microsoft.
In May, I wrote that Starfield was “the most pivotal game for the future of the Xbox brand since Halo: Combat Evolved” because of what I thought was at stake if it failed. Well, Starfield just launched, and … it’s a hit. It’s not the genre-defining, industry-changing mega-RPG that some fans were lauding it as prerelease. However, it’s still an enjoyable sci-fi adventure that's receiving positive attention despite some drawbacks. And it's already earned over 1 million concurrent players across all platforms. Digital Trends gave it a three-and-a-half star review, writing, “though it can’t nearly deliver on Bethesda’s intergalactic ambitions, Starfield is an impressive space RPG filled with impactful decisions.” On Steam, over 24,000 reviews are averaging a ‘Very Positive” consensus.
While not a total stunner, Starfield hasn't derailed Xbox or caused the public to lose faith in its first-party games; in fact, it has renewed some confidence. Reassessing Xbox’s future post-Starfield, it’s clear that it’s still reliant on something it has struggled with this entire console generation: consistency.
It’s all about consistency
Despite the success of Xbox Game Pass and some excellent first-party games like Pentiment and Hi-Fi Rush, Microsoft has struggled to establish consistency across messaging, game launch cadence, and quality. That has hurt it this console generation, where it has felt like Xbox has promised more than it's delivered despite several game company acquisitions and exciting announcements. It doesn’t help that Sony and Nintendo have been at the top of their game in regard to those things in recent years.

That’s ultimately what put so much pressure on Redfall and Starfield. They needed to pay off an expensive Bethesda acquisition and usher in a steady stream of new Xbox games. Perhaps that’s why the poor quality of Redfall felt like such a slap in the face for Xbox fans. What should’ve cemented a consistent Xbox first-party output instead highlighted all of its problems. This made Xbox’s situation heading into Starfield’s launch feel dire, even more so than it actually was in reality for a branch of a megacorporation like Microsoft.
But now Starfield is here and people like it, even if it has some evident flaws. Starfield was neither the Redfall-level critical flop that would kill Xbox nor the 11/10 game some people expected. It’s just an entertaining RPG that Xbox players can lose themselves in and feel a little bit of console pride over. The vibes across the Xbox community are mostly positive right now, and Microsoft needs to maintain that feeling.
The weak first-party 2022 lineup and the rough state of Redfall left us wondering if the only thing Xbox was consistent at was disappointment, but Starfield and other recent efforts from Microsoft-owned studios indicate that this is not the case. Since Redfall, we’ve got a big Monkey Island-themed update for Sea of Thieves, an excellent remaster of Quake II, a solid Xbox Series X/S port of Age of Empires IV, and Starfield to show that Xbox’s studios are back on track. It’s up to the Xbox team to keep up that momentum after Forza Motorsport launches and the Activision Blizzard acquisition finally concludes this October.

Read more
Baldur’s Gate 3 drops Series S splitscreen support to release on Xbox in 2023
Jaheira in Baldur's Gate 3.

Larian Studios promises to release Baldur's Gate 3 on Xbox Series X/S later this year after pushing the game back because of performance problems on Xbox Series S.
Baldur's Gate 3 is available now on PC and will come out for PS5 on September 6, but an Xbox Series X/S version won't be available for a little bit longer. In a July 2023 community update, developer Larian Studios explained that this is because it needed "to ensure that the game is performing without compromise across the entire Xbox X/S ecosystem, in multiplayer and with split-screen. The Xbox Series X version was running fine, but the Xbox Series S version of the game was struggling a lot more. The Xbox versions of Baldur's Gate 3 didn't have a release window until now, when Larian Studios co-founder Swen Vincke took to X to confirm it'd come to Xbox platforms before the end of the year. That said, it will exclude one notable feature.
"Super happy to confirm that after meeting [Phil Spencer] yesterday, we’ve found a solution that allows us to bring Baldur’s Gate 3 to Xbox players this year still, something we’ve been working towards for quite some time," Vincke wrote. "All improvements will be there, with split-screen coop on Series X. Series S will not feature split-screen co-op, but will also include cross-save progression between Steam and Xbox Series."
Thankfully, it looks like Xbox players won't have to wait too much longer to play this excellent game, but it will be one of the first games to notably drop a major feature between the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S versions. This follows comments by Head of Xbox Phil Spencer where he said he doesn't believe Microsoft will drop support for Xbox Series S in the foreseeable future. "I want to make sure games are available on both, that's our job as a platform holder and we're committed to that with our partners," Spencer told Eurogamer. "And I think we're gonna get there with Larian. So I'm not overly worried about that, but we've learned some stuff through it. Having an entry-level price point for console, sub-$300, is a good thing for the industry."
 
Baldur's Gate 3 is available now for PC, launches for PS5 on September 6, and will finally come out for Xbox Series X/S before the end of 2023.

Read more
Turn your Xbox Series X into a Starfield machine with this console wrap
The Starfield Xbox Series X Console Cover.

Microsoft announced that official Xbox Series X Console Wraps will come out later this year. Three of these are already available to preorder, including one based on Bethesda Game Studios' highly anticipated Xbox console exclusive Starfield.
Following in the footsteps of customizable PlayStation 5 console covers, Microsoft is finally giving people more options to customize their normal Xbox Series X series. That comes in the form of Xbox Series X Console Wraps, which Microsoft says are "made with solid panels and an engirdled fabric," and are "designed to perfectly surround your Xbox Series X" without blocking the console's vents and airflow like some of the other current third-party options. The first Xbox Series X Console Wrap to release is based on Starfield and will come out on October 18.

Its design lines up with the special Starfield headset and controller and is based on the avionics modules players will encounter during the game. The Starfield Console Wrap will cost $50 when it launches in October, but two more Consoles Wraps launching a month later will come in slightly cheaper at $45.
Those two Console Wraps use soft microfiber fabric and feature designs based on camouflage, with the Mineral Camo Console Wrap using blues and purples and the Artic Camo Console Wrap featuring gray and white tones. Both Camo Console Wraps release on November 10, the three-year anniversary of the Xbox Series X launch.

Read more