A group of knowledgeable technical experts has just dived into Halo Infinite to see how much its graphics have improved since last year. When 343 Industries first showed off its latest sci-fi FPS at an Xbox Games Showcase event last July, fans cried foul over its dated look and seemingly stale gameplay, so much so that the developer postponed its planned November 2020 launch to allow more time for polish.
Since then, 343 has seemingly taken the negative player feedback to heart, as recent showings of Halo Infinite have featured much-improved graphics, a more varied color scheme for Spartan armor in multiplayer, and a return to the grittier, more lived-in aesthetic of original developer Bungie's early Halo games. Last weekend, 343 allowed fans to try out Halo Infinite’s multiplayer for themselves in a free trial beta, giving them yet another preview of how the game will look when it finally launches on the Xbox Series X later this year. 343 is planning more playable previews to come leading up to the game's release.
As reported by Eurogamer, Richard Leadbetter and his team at Digital Foundry recently took Halo Infinite’s multiplayer beta for a spin to analyze the graphical improvements 343 Industries have made since last year. The team posted their findings to the Digital Foundry YouTube channel earlier today, having tested all of Infinite’s graphical settings on every available system. Digital Foundry’s team noted that performance on the Xbox Series X judders somewhat while set to 120Hz, but both it and the Series S render the game fairly well on most settings. Both Xbox consoles also have Performance and Quality settings available, but they were disabled for the beta test. Meanwhile, the PC version of Infinite has some issues with frame-rate drops, but Digital Foundry remains confident these can be addressed before the game’s launch. Finally, the Xbox One version features a predictable 30fps and some framerate pacing issues.
So far, there’s no official word on when Halo Infinite is set to launch, though a recent Krispy Kreme ad suggests a November release date - which would put it in line with the launch of the first Halo back in 2001. Meanwhile, rumors and leaks regarding the game’s plot hint that Master Chief will be facing off against a new threat called the Banished, as well as his own former AI companion Cortana, across several separate story campaigns.
Halo Infinite does look better than it did 12 months ago, and it’s fascinating to see just how much has improved since that controversial showing last July. 343 Industries still has time to improve the game further in the months leading up to Halo Infinite’s planned release this holiday season, so there’s a chance it will look even more impressive when fans finally get their hands on the finished product.
Halo Infinite will release on Xbox consoles and PC later this year.
Source: Eurogamer, Digital Foundry/YouTube