#Halo 1 game synopsis update#
#Halo 1 game synopsis series#

Currently, Halo Infinite leans primarily on cascaded shadow maps and some screen-space ambient occlusion and that seems to be basically it. However, the main issue is the way in which shadows are handled. While exploring indirectly lit areas, for instance, you'll notice a prominent 'blueish glow' due to how specular lighting is handled - it could look more natural with a different solution. It's basically lacking indirect shadows entirely which I believe ties into the reason why it looks the way it does outdoors. Halo Infinite doesn't really seem to handle indirect specular lighting especially well.

#Halo 1 game synopsis update#

This system allows for a real-time update which is crucial when you have a dynamic time of day but the approach to lighting the world has some limitations which I'd like to touch on. These probes contain the lighting data which is sampled across the world allowing for objects to appear indirectly lit. In the case of Halo Infinite's SlipSpace engine, the team has shifted to a fully real-time lighting system with diffuse global illumination handled via a probe system.

#Halo 1 game synopsis series#

In addition to moving Halo into a larger world, Infinite also marks the first time the series has tackled a day/night cycle - infiltrating a base at night feels different than taking it head-on mid-day, but lighting such a world is difficult. The striking contrast between more natural surfaces and the hexagonal structures visible across the world is genuinely excellent most of the time. There's a real density to the environments but also legibility - it's easy to parse each scene but it never feels sparse. You can see that a lot of love was poured into building these elements to populate the world. You can walk up to and zoom in on many an object and it holds up well. Weapons, structures, enemies and other objects all feature plenty of granular detail. While there's macro-scale, detail at the micro level also impresses. There's never so much content as to feel overwhelming - you don't feel as if Halo is a giant checklist of tasks - and this is ultimately why it works where so many modern open world games fail. The various outposts scattered around the map are optional but offer tangible rewards, such as vehicles, once taken. You always have a main objective, just like a classic Halo game, but the width of the mission has been expanded allowing you to find your own way. As you progress, you explore these pieces and they basically serve as mission zones - again, comparable to the second mission of Halo 1 but larger. Halo Infinite is built around the concept of a broken Halo ring - look to the distance and you'll see pieces floating in space, disconnected from one another. Think OG Crisis rather than latter-day Far Cry and hopefully you'll get some idea of what I mean. It works and it retains much of what makes Halo special while introducing a level of freedom that feels like a natural extension. Thankfully, Halo Infinite's approach to level design works brilliantly, just as the preview build suggested, taking the foundational building blocks of Halo 1's second mission and expanding it into something far larger in scope. The gradual shift in the games business away from linear design to wide-open play areas crammed with busy work and filler content is becoming a real issue - franchise titles like Far Cry and Assassin's Creed exhibit these issues at their worst. Let's tackle the thorny issue of the open world first.

Regardless though, you've got to play it. There are numerous tech issues to address and fundamentally, I'm not sure this is the game that was originally envisaged based on reviewing early marketing assets. Worries I had about the transition to an open world have been assuaged and despite the seemingly difficult development period, I simply love the game.

It's a release that far exceeds the studio's previous work on Halo 4 and 5 in terms of design and in nailing the 'combat sandbox' experience.

Honestly, against the odds, I feel that 343 has delivered one of the best first-person shooters of the last decade.