343 Industries confirmed that Halo Infinite’s long-awaited Campaign co-op has been delayed out of May, with Halo’s massive open-world causing the biggest problem in building a seamless multiplayer experience. Halo Infinite launched in November 2021 to both critical and commercial success, having enjoyed the largest launch in the franchise's 20-year history with over 20 million players at the time of release. However, a barrage of missing features and issues affecting the online multiplayer experience have since interrupted the game’s success, with Halo Infinite’s surprising lack of Campaign co-op and Forge becoming one of the fans’ biggest frustrations.
Campaign co-op was a staple in Halo games since the series’ first entry in 2001, but it was noticeably absent from Halo 5 Guardians, one of the most divisive installments in the franchise. 343 Industries originally promised that Halo Infinite would receive a more complete treatment, with the return of Campaign co-op and the eventual release of a split-screen mode on Xbox consoles. Fans also expected the reprisal of Forge mode, a multiplayer mode that debuted in Halo 3, which allowed fans to create and edit custom maps before sharing with friends and the wider Halo community online. Halo Infinite was void of all of these features, and consistent setbacks have delayed the launch of Halo Infinite’s Campaign co-op and Forge mode multiple times.
According to a post on Halo Waypoint, Halo Infinite’s long-awaited campaign co-op has been delayed again, with developer 343 Industries claiming it needs “more time” to “land a high-quality, full-featured 4-player network co-op experience.” The team did confirm it is making progress on the Campaign network co-op and that work is being done on Forge simultaneously to work on Season 2. That being said, the campaign co-op will not drop in May as previously expected. 343 Industries did reveal that it is committed to making a 2-player split-screen co-op experience for Xbox consoles, though the non-linear, open-world aspects of the Campaign have added difficulties to creating a seamless split-screen experience. While the May 3 deadline will not be met, 343 Industries claimed it is aiming to launch Campaign co-op later in Season 2, and that a release date for both co-op and split-screen will be revealed soon. Halo Infinite’s Forge mode, on the other hand, likely won’t launch until Season 3.
At the moment, Halo Infinite is suffering from a lack of content, only offering a single-player campaign and limited online multiplayer modes. Successful Halo games of the past like Halo 3 and Halo 4 both included a plethora of game modes, a co-op campaign, and a Forge mode, which enabled a consistent stream of newly crafted maps and modes for players to try. The absence of Forge has greatly diminished Halo Infinite’s community dedication. While its release date is currently unknown, what is said to be leaked footage of the Forge mode did showcase what fans might expect when the game mode eventually releases. Halo Infinite's Forge may have alternate weather effects and time-of-day variations for each map, which could vastly improve on previous iterations of the game mode.
343 delayed Halo Infinite multiple times, and while its piecemeal release is unorthodox, what has been released is in a solid state as compared to other recent AAA games. If 343’s track record can be trusted, then when Campaign co-op and Forge mode do finally launch, fans will be pleased. As has been proved with other games, rushing the final product will only hinder it.
Source: Halo Waypoint