Halo Infinite finally gives players their first taste of an open-world cooperative campaign, and while it's a blast watching a group of Master Chief's grappleshot each other with increasing velocity, it's clear the mode still needs to iron some problems out. While every game in the series featured linear but large and open levels, Halo Infinite decided to change up the formula the series was known for, which has in turn made co-op a trickier element to balance.
When the campaign for Halo Infinite launched a month after its free-to-play multiplayer mode, players were happy to take control of Master Chief once again. Chief's latest adventure takes place after the human race has been defeated, and it's up to players to reassemble what's left to defeat The Banished. The game is an open-world FPS that takes place on a section of the Halo Zeta installation where enemy strongholds, upgrades, collectibles, and other secrets must be discovered in order to complete the campaign.
While Halo Infinite. Forge mode's release date is currently slated for sometime in the multiplayer's third season, which starts in November of 2022. However, the developers have finally given fans a chance to beta test Halo Infinite's Campaign Co-op.
Players ed for the Halo Insider program have been given the chance to beta test the game's cooperative campaign mode from July 15th till August 1st on both PC and Xbox consoles. significant issues to fix before Halo Infinite's Co-op mode becomes available for everyone.
Previous save files were not usable for Halo Infinite's Co-op flight. This means everyone was required to start a new save file exclusively for the beta. However, when pairing off with other participants, the game would not allow players to load up levels that other players had not yet completed. This resulted in having to restart the game from the linear tutorial levels every time a player ed the group unless the new player had also progressed. This was a glaring issue after the game crashed or got stuck in an infinite loading screen, causing to regroup or need to find new teammates.
After playing through a few missions with nearly half a dozen players, it became apparent that some were having a smoother time than others. Screen Rant personally had the game freeze or crash a couple of times on PC after the game failed to load Halo Infinite's open-world map. Both resets were required after a skippable cutscene or team death, significantly derailing the experience. However, several other players expressed that they encountered little to no issues when trying the cooperative mode. Developer 343 Industries are hoping participants will report bugs they encounter through Halo Waypoint so that those issues can hopefully be fixed before the Halo Infinite Co-op Campaign becomes available for all players.
When the campaign first launched last December, many long-time series' players felt Halo Infinite was too easy. Now that players can tackle the story of the game with four Master Chiefs, the game feels even easier, even on the most challenging Legendary difficulty. The build for the beta test did not increase the number of Halo Infinite's enemies or improve their AI to compensate for more players. Adding skulls and finding overpowered weapons increased the mayhem players are capable of, but without the extra challenge, there isn't much in the game that stands a chance against a well-oiled Spartan team of four. Suppose the cooperative mode launches without any alteration to enemy forces: in that case, players will run into the same issue they did when Halo Infinite's campaign first launched, and quickly run out of things to do.
Halo Infinite's co-op campaign is expected to launch in the latter half of 2022. Screen Rant participated in the beta for the purpose of this preview article.