343 Industries is planning to release more playlists and PvP modes for Halo Infinite by the end of this year. These modes include Fiesta, Tactical Slayer (SWAT), and Free-For-All. However, they won’t arrive in time for Halo Infinite’s official campaign launch date of December 8.
343 community director John Junyszek announced the developer’s plans on Twitter. He also mentions that a Social Slayer playlist with multiple variations of the mode is being worked on as it was the most requested game type.
“Our goal for Events is to try new modes prior to adding to playlists,” explains Junyszek. “We’ll monitor playlist health after the 3 additions above and adjust our offering if needed, but we’re excited to make these updates before the holidays.”
So far, Halo Infinite’s multiplayer has received mostly positive attention, while there were early criticisms over its Battle Pass and progression system. Players have called the Battle Pass progression far too slow and additionally, XP progression is gated via completing challenges, with no extra incentives to do particularly well in a match.
However, 343 has introduced some changes since the multiplayer launched, such as providing players with more XP for their first 6 matches of the day.
Events have been criticized as well, as shown with the recent Tenrai event. Progression was also gated towards completing specific event challenges, and 343 also confirmed that players aren’t supposed to complete the entire event pass during its first week, as it is supposed to return five more times throughout this first season. 343 will continue to make changes and evolve the game as time goes on, including adding more weapons.
In IGN’s Halo Infinite multiplayer review, we praised the free-to-play mode saying, “Impressively, it manages to give nostalgic veterans the best of what they remember Halo multiplayer feeling like while also smoothly introducing new players to the joys of Spartan combat.”
George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @yinyangfooey