The Gaming World Has Changed
The gaming scene has changed a lot over the last 20 years since the first Halo came out. Battle Royales are now all the rage from Fortnite, Call of Duty’s Warzone, Apex Legends, PUBG, and more. Many players are wondering if there will be a Halo Infinite Battle Royale or if they will skip out on this one.
The Halo franchise has had a long and prosperous life thus far. Many players look back fondly on Halo 2 and Halo 3 specifically, with differing opinions, but mostly highly positive. Back in those days the Arena Shooters like Halo were king, and Battle Royale was just not a concept at the time.
Ogre 1 and Ogre 2 are a pair of brothers who broke out of the Halo scene with astronomically higher skill sets than other players. They were so dominant that they are almost unanimously top #1 and top #2 of all Halo players of all time, on almost any list you look at. They even come up in conversations today about the best shooter players period, in any game.
With so many streamers getting sweaty nowadays and the competition heating up, isn’t it time for Halo to join the scene and create a Halo Infinite Battle Royale?
Halo Infinite BR Map Would Need To Be Much Larger
As many would expect, 343 Industries would need to create a brand new map just for a Battle Royale Mode for Halo Infinite. Even the current Big Team Battle maps would be itsy bitsy on a full fledged BR map.
Halo Infinite brings some amazing new maps with excellent symmetrical and balance, and we would hope for the same level of care and effort from a Battle Royale.
Just take a look at this High Power Halo Infinite Detailed Map created by our own writer, Adam:
This Fragmentation map is just one of the many custom detailed Halo Infinite Multiplayer maps where each weapon spawn is laid out for you to always know where to go for your favorite weapon. These maps can also be found on the Main Halo Hub. Here is a quick listing of the other maps with detailed weapon and equipment spawns drawn out:
Halo Infinite Battle Royale – How Would It Work?
Halo mechanics are just different than the fast-paced shooters of today by the likes of Warzone, for example. Halo has traditionally been a game less about who shoots first gets the kill, and more about who has better aim in the long run.
The key difference here is that Halo’s Time-To-Kill has always been a lot longer than other games we have seen arrive with a Battle Royale mode. Having a high time to kill usually means if someone shoots you first, you still have a decent chance at winning a gun fight if you are a much better player than they are. This is a key selling point for many long-time Halo fans, so how would it work in a Battle Royale?
Stripping Down the MJOLNIR Armor
For a Halo Infinite Battle Royale to work out, the first thing that would likely need to be stripped down is the iconic MJOLNIR armor Spartans wear. With such powerful defenses and recharging shields, the Time-To-Kill could be just a bit too long for a fast-paced Battle Royale where you can actually finish off your kills.
If there are as many small buildings, escape ways, etc. in a Halo Infinite BR, this would need to be done. They shouldn’t strip the armor so much that time to kill is so fast it is like Warzone, but there should be a happy medium or even a 20-30% decrease in defenses vs. what we see in arena mode.
The goal with this one would be to adjust the playstyle so that you aren’t in such long gun fights and wild goose chases that multiple other teams can roll up on fights and clean up the existing squads.
Weapon Variety and Power Weapons
At the time being, there aren’t too many weapon types in Halo Infinite, and even less that are actually considered worth using. Weapons would need a serious overhaul to balance out, as well as the sheer number of available gun types would need to be increased if we want enough variety in gun play.
The other large difference between a Halo Infinite BR and current traditional BRs is gun customization. Currently there is no gun customization in terms of attachments in Halo Infinite. With no attachment customizations, there is less to grind for in a Battle Royale mode and there is also less reason for customizable loadouts.
This begs the question, if Halo Infinite doesn’t have Loadouts, what would be the big purchase your squad will strive for? If there are loadouts available but no attachments to build exactly what you want, will there be enough interest to keep people playing?
What Would a 100 Player Halo Infinite BR Look Like?
Invenglobal writes what they think would be a great setup for a 100 player map on Halo:
“The Last Spartan Standing (Large) mode could feature teams of two and four, numbers that line up with Halo’s typical player splits for teams.
Since this mode will feature a full 100 players, it will make sense to have a little bit longer timer for each game. However, Halo is not about slow-paced gameplay, so the pace of the game should remain high at all times. One way to help keep the pace of play up is to keep the timers tight so that you force players on the edge of the map to be constantly moving toward the center.
While the developers could implement a BR on their standard larger maps, it would probably be best for them to create dedicated maps for the BR purpose. This will ensure that the maps are balanced and fun to play in BR, instead of attempting to retrofit maps made for entirely different purposes.
The drop mechanic for the BR could be an orbital drop. This mechanic already exists in the Halo universe in the form of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers from Halo ODST. This is a perfect use of the same concept.
Every team could orbital drop from a random edge of the map, with players being able to control where they fly from there. This gives players a good balance of freedom and constraint since they can make decisions but can’t access just any part of the map.
Around the map, there should be various points of interest, like any BR, around which combat can take place. In addition to power weapons to grab, players should also be able to find standard power-ups that you would find on a Halo map, like overshields, invisibility, etc.
The Last Spartan Standing (Large) mode will feature a variety of vehicles, which are essential to the core identity of classic Halo games. These vehicles could spawn at places of interest, adding one more thing to help funnel players into high-value confrontations throughout the map.”
Turn To Reddit For BR Ideas
343 Industries could take a look at popular forums and fan content to look for good ways to implement a Battle Royale. One commentor on this thread states:
“Halo actually lends itself pretty well to a battle royale gamemode, simply because they both happen to share a lot of the same DNA derived from arena shooters. How I’d work it:
- 4 Man Squads, 12 teams (24 players total)
- ODST drop pods into the arena, maybe even have you playing as ODST specifically instead of Spartans.
- SWAT (No Radar, No Shield, MAYBE a BR start but pistol only is probably more true to a BR feel)
- Drop rarity increases in high-visibility areas for a risk/reward factor; if you’re going to try and grab that Warthog or that SPNKR, people are gonna see you do it.
- To prevent them from just dominating the map, vehicles are louder and weaker than they are in main modes.
- I think having air vehicles as the top-tier ultimate finds would be interesting cause you rarely see those in BRs, and they would be pretty strong depending on map layout.
- Choose equipment at start Reach-style, but it’s a finite amount with other equipments occasionally dropping.”
When is the Halo Infinite Battle Royale Coming Out?
343 Industries still has not confirmed plans for a Battle Royale mode. They have not yet ruled out the possibility of a BR mode in Halo Infinite. There have even been rumors of leaks about a 300 players massive battle royale, but these have all been taking with a very large grain of salt.
One thing so many players can agree on is that if a mode like this is released, and it is actually good, it could disrupt the entire First Person Shooter category for years to come.