343 Industries recently showed off some more multiplayer action for Halo Infinite ahead of the game’s back-to-back multiplayer tech previews starting this weekend. PC gameplay of a Big Team Battle CTF match on Fragmentation showed a little more of what fans can expect from Infinite when it launches later this year as well as an introduction to the game’s very own loot cave – seemingly a reference to Halo creator Bungie’s Destiny.
As broadcast from Halo’s official YouTube channel, community director Brian Jarrard was joined by Fernando Reyez Medina to speak about some of the gameplay elements shown off in Big Team Battle. During the match, (starting at around the 9:17 in the video below), the pair come across a large fortified door protecting what Medina says the team internally refers to as the “loot cave” – a seemingly quiet nod to a similarly named area removed from Destiny.
Medina explains that accessing the cave’s huge vault is something of a sub-objective during a match. For the team that does so first, powerful weapons and items can be found inside for the taking. In order to gain access to the loot cave, players must set their AI to work hacking through its entrance while they fend off enemy assaults.
As opening the loot cave isn’t strictly part of a team’s main objectives during the game, players will need to consider whether losing squad members to the loot cave cause is a worthwhile investment in their overall pursuits for victory. Either way, the area around the cave’s entrance is almost sure to see its fair share of gunfire when Infinite launches later this year as teams look to wield its powerful treasures. It’s a nice risk-reward feature, designed to bring players together in one small area in a large map.
The term “loot cave” very much comes with its own associations beyond Halo. Located behind Skywatch on Earth, Destiny’s original loot cave was a respawn zone in which players would exploit the game to farm enemies for drops and experience. Patching the loot cave into a haunted Easter Egg was one of the first of many changes made to Destiny after it first launched. Bungie explained at the time that it made changes to the area in order to improve Destiny’s standard progression for players. Given that Bungie created the Halo series, 343’s use of the term – even if it isn’t officially called a loot cave in the game – is a nice nod to the connection between the companies.
Halo’s Big Team Battle is set to feature in the second week of the game’s upcoming technical preview. For more on Infinite, including how 343 believes that bots will improve its multiplayer experience and a look at its new training mode, make sure to check out our dedicated page for the game.
Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.