Following the release of Season 5: Reckoning two days ago, Halo Infinite seems to be making a comeback of sorts, at least judging by the player numbers.
Shortly after the new season's launch, the game reached its highest concurrent player peak on Steam since the release of Season 2 (about a year and a half ago). Halo Infinite also jumped in the top sellers' revenue chart for a time, reaching the 6th place in the United States and 16th globally.
According to Twitter user Halo.ip, the game enjoyed a similar boost on Xbox. The total number of active players across all platforms was nearly doubled compared to the debut of Season 4.
It is too early to say whether players will stick to the game. However, 343 Industries appears to have finally delivered what the community wanted with Season 5.
There are long-awaited additions like Extraction mode, which returns from Halo 4, though the most important is arguably the Forge AI toolkit. This allows users to add Campaign AI to their Forge-made maps and modes. The following options are available to them:
- Campaign AI character units (43 variants)
- How they deploy on the map (Spawn, Drop Pod, or Phantom)
- The weapons they spawn with
- Guide their movement path
- Difficulty level
- Behavior modifiers
- Nodegraph scripting logic
- Allegiance (will they fight with you or against you)
Creative uses of the Forge AI toolkit could see RTS, MOBA, or Tower Defense inspired modes coming to Halo Infinite.
Season 5: Reckoning also adds two new arena maps (Forbidden and Prism), Flood-themed visual customization for armor and weapons, a new weapon variant (the Bandit Evo) of the M392 Bandit, and multi-use helmets. Later in the season, the developers will add a King of the Hill take on the classic Firefight mode and a new piece of equipment, the Repair Field, which repairs vehicles and restores Spartan health - to friends and foes alike.
As a reminder, Halo Infinite studio 343 Industries went through a significant restructuring this year. It is rumored to be dropping the game's Slipspace Engine as well in favor of Epic's Unreal technology.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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