WELL.
☹
To quote one of my husbands Majima – that’s a kick in the dick.
If the headline isn’t obvious enough, last week 343 announced Halo Infinite won’t feature campaign co-op or Forge at launch. Those modes are still coming, mind you – just not until next year, as part of Halo Infinite’s roadmap.
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343’s Joseph Staten said this was a “really though decision” and the TLDR is that these modes just aren’t ready, they aren’t stable, they’re not where they need to be. Specifically regarding campaign co-op, it sounds like 343 is a little on the struggle bus when it comes to the nonlinear experience and the technology required to make that experience run smooth like a baby grunt’s ass. Games are hard, people.
“We have the opportunity to play campaign all the time. It’s this wonderful, wide open, nonlinear take on a Halo campaign, and it’s going to offer so much more flexibility to take down Banished bases from all kinds of different angles, to progress through the game in your own way to a certain extent. At the same time though, that’s complicated when you think about save systems and all the technology that needs to drive this more nonlinear experience. So, in a co-op scenario that’s even more complicated. And that’s another reason why it’s going to take longer, just to make sure it’s quality day-one, and people can jump in and play and have fun.”
But, man. MAN. This just…this just really, really sucks. But I want to be clear: as unfortunate as this is, I’d rather see these modes delayed than see the folks at 343 working under unhealthy and harmful work conditions, no question about that. Doesn’t mean it stings any less, though. In a perfect world, Halo Infinite would just be delayed again – but going down that hypothetical timeline opens up a whole ‘nother can of worms.
So I now find myself in a little bit of a pickle. (Granted, in the grand scheme of things it’s the most trivial pickle of all, but nonetheless, it’s a pickle.)(Mmm, pickles.)(Also, for the record since we’re on the topic: fuck sweet pickles.)
I guess I can’t overstate how important experiencing Halo Infinite’s campaign cooperatively is to me. Since the beginning of our relationship, so for about 10 years now, Jayson and I have played through the Halo series several different times and the memories we’ve made are priceless – like when we tried our damndest to squeeze a Ghost through a narrow corridor by smacking it for over 20 minutes, or when we took edibles and came up with an entire new, alternative narrative for Halo 3. (Remind me to tell you about “Mastress Chief” someday.)
At the end of the day, we’ve lived and relived the journey of Master Chief and Cortana SO many times side by side that it’s almost unfathomable to even consider going through Halo Infinite’s journey without experiencing it together.
But at the end of the day, we’re going to have to make that decision: Do we wait until campaign co-op is patched in, or do we pass the controller back and forth?
There’s another layer of complexity to this issue: my job. I often have the honor of reviewing games prior to their release – and it goes without saying that Halo Infinite is a HOT HOT HOT title. I dunno, I feel like I’d be “bad” at my job if I selfishly choose not to cover Halo Infinite at launch for my personal reasons.
BUT as soon as that thought crosses my mind, I counter myself with, “Hey, video games are supposed to be fun and you’re supposed to enjoy your time with them, if you need to wait, wait.”
BUT THEN I’M WORRIED ABOUT SPOILERS LEAKING ON THE TIMELINE WHILE I WAIT
Ahhhhh.
Anyway, like I said above, it’s trivial, but I really, really don’t know what I’m going to do here. What about you? Has this development impacted the way you’re going to play and experience Halo Infinite? Let me know!
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