Halo Infinite"s free-to-play multiplayer portion had its first public test session last month, with Halo Insiders getting the opportunity to battle against AI bots and test out a large variety of guns. Now, with another technical preview now looming, developer 343 Industries has published a blog detailing what adjustments are being made to the multiplayer based on feedback. Get a quick summery of the major changes below.
The motion tracker (radar) is being altered to function much like older Halo titles, making only crouch-walking invisible to it while all other forms of movement are displayed to enemies. In the technical preview, only sprinting showed up on the radar, making being blindsided a much more common affair.
Another hot topic were the battle pass and progression systems, where players were irked about regular play not granting XP to advance levels, and only challenges would. 343 said once Daily Challenges with targets like "Play X Number of Games" are enabled for launch, this situation should be rectified, though it is still looking into the matter.
The audio of the Needler is being improved to feel more "glassy" and "crystallized" like in legacy Halo games, with some enhancements also reaching the Plasma Pistol and Gravity Hammer sounds. In-progress versions of these will appear in the next preview for further feedback. There"s also work being done on implementing volume sliders for different types of voices in multiplayer.
Bot AI was also touched on, with the studio saying the extremely accurate grenade throws will be tweaked, while some problematic behaviors like every bot taking the same route, not using enough equipment, and randomly standing still are being fixed.
Weapon drills are being improved to explain alt-fire modes better, include quick weapon swaps, add an unlimited time drill, and drills for further gameplay systems than just shooting. Other changes include improved Spartan shield readability when being damaged, faster Drop Wall deployment, a fix for screenshake being enabled even when turned off, as well as improvements to Medals, HUD, and menus to improve readability and presentation.
343 Industries said the changes being made to the mentioned systems will either be available at launch or arrive as post-launch updates depending on their complexity. The blogpost with extensive details and discussions on each change can be seen here.
Both the Halo Infinite campaign and multiplayer portions are launching on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S systems on December 8. The next multiplayer preview for Halo Insiders will contain Big Team Battle and 4v4 Arena formats for all out player versus player combat, though no dates have been revealed yet.