343 Industries recently revealed the inclusion of a grappling hook for the next entry in the Halo series, Halo Infinite. The iconic first-person shooter series has never utilized such a mechanic before, so there are plenty of questions surrounding its implementation.
The Halo series has historically taken a rather simple approach to movement options. Up until Halo: Reach, players were limited to walking, running, jumping and a variety of vehicle options when navigating the game world. Movement options which are often taken for granted in modern games, such as the ability to sprint, are not actually often associated with Halo or any of its spin-offs. Even when the ability to sprint and use jetpacks were added in Reach, they remained auxiliary armor equipment. They were not an essential part to the Halo player's toolkit until 343 assigned a permanent sprint function to the left stick in Halo 4. This makes the inclusion of a grappling hook in the upcoming Halo Infinite quite a shock, despite following 343's trend of expanding on movement options in the series.
Up until recently, it was a complete mystery how and what the deal with Infinite's grappling hook was for. However, the recently-released gameplay demo for Halo Infinite reveals the major uses for the new ability. Much like Reach's armor abilities, the grappling hook operates with a cooldown. However, instead of being a temporary part of Master Chief's kit, it is a mainstay that can be switched out for other abilities at the press of a button. The grappling hook itself can be used for a variety of things, from traversing the open world environment by zipping from place to place, to fighting enemies by pulling explosive barrels towards Chief to be thrown. Chief can also grapple onto large enemies in order to close the distance between them. So far, it all seems like the standard grappling hook affair with no real surprises.
Halo's Grappling Hook Could Change How Multiplayer Works
However, the Halo Infinite demo only showed a few short instances of the grappling hook's use. There's still plenty of room to speculate how the device can be implemented in the rest of the game, especially when it comes to multiplayer. Assuming players do get access to the grappling hook in matchmaking, it could drastically change the way Halo's multiplayer combat operates. Titles such as Titanfall 2 and Apex Legends have already shown off how a grappling hook works in an FPS environment, and it greatly increases the player's potential for mobility.
Theoretically, Halo Inifnite multiplayer users would be able to close distances between each other with much greater ease, and it could potentially weaken any mid-long range firefights that would naturally occur, reducing many of them to close-range encounters. Vehicles would be greatly affected as well, as hijacking Warthogs, Ghosts, and Banshees could be accomplished with much greater ease for any player, as long as grappling hooks are able to attach to vehicles.
Hopefully 343 finds a balanced way to implement the grappling hook into Halo Infinite's multiplayer. As a new addition to the series, player would be remiss if the new gadget was completely absent from the online experience, but it also shouldn't dilute the core aspects of gameplay that define Halo's legacy. With all of this in mind, it's no wonder why many Halo fans are critical of such new additions to the classic series. Every novel gameplay addition runs the risk of disrupting the tenuous balance between innovation and the series becoming formulaic.