After three and a half long years, we finally got to see a new E3 trailer for Halo: Infinite, the next installment in the Halo series. And it’s a long one, filled with all sorts of little details.
Master Chief Is Back in Classic Halo Style
The first thing that pops out to fans in the Halo Infinite E3 trailer is the return to the classic art style that Bungie created back in 2001. The Pilot’s uniform, Pelican’s design, Chief’s beautiful new armor, and music all made me jump out of the seat in excitement when I saw and heard them.
Those with a keen eye might notice more classic details: the pilot’s patch on his left shoulder showing the original UNSC logo, his helmet one of the seats, and the shield’s recharge sound are all throwbacks to Halo of old.
The assault rifle John picks up is the most bewildering details, however. It is the old model from Halo: Reach, which is canonically outdated. For how long was this pilot stranded?
Sense of Mystery, Wonder, and Action
The E3 trailer leaves us much more questions than answers. Who is this new character we are introduced to, and why is he stranded in space? The same question goes to Master Chief, who is just floating in space. And what happened to the Halo?!
Sadly, it’s impossible to answer all of those at the moment, but the trailer does have some information hidden in it. To start with, when the pilot goes back to the cockpit to check the signal, one of the screens reads “Local ref Zeta.” That may imply the Halo we see later is Zeta Halo, also known as Installation 07, the one with probably the most prominent backstory in the series’ lore.
The next juicy detail can be found in the scene where Master Chief wakes up. When his heads up display loads up, there is some information running down the screen, indicating that the current armor is actually generation three of the Mjolnir armor series, created in 2559 and was last modified in 2561, about three years after Halo 5’s ending and about a year after last year’s E3 teaser trailer. After that, there are a few indications of the system loading up A.I. countermeasure software, thanks to our lovely Cortana who’s going rampant.
Another small thing that most might miss, but is easy to read thanks to the game’s new Slipspace Engine, is the serial code on the A.I. chip that Master Chief holds. It reads “CTN 0453-0” which is one iteration higher than Cortana’s serial.
Between all of the lines of code that run through the Chief’s HUD, there are a few amusing references to the old Halo 2 “I love bees” and Halo 3 “Believe” marketing campaigns, plus a lovely gift from Microsoft – lots of Xbox Ultimate Passcodes. As much as we know, they’re all taken, but there are a lot of them, so you might get lucky if you try.
The Halo Infinite E3 trailer title is actually another Easter Egg. It’s a reference to Halo: Reach’s marketing campaign “Deliver Hope.”
There’s Still Time
In an Xbox insider’s interview with 343 industries’ studio head Chris Lee, Lee confirmed that the trailer is a part of the game’s opening cinematic, which begs another question – what happened since the ending of Halo 5?
Fortunately, we did get a time window for when we can expect all these questions to be answered – Holiday season 2020, presumably early November since that’s usually Halo’s release window. Still, a long time to wait if you’d ask me, but hopefully it’s worth it.
While it was announced that Halo Infinite is going to be a launch title for the next generation Xbox, codenamed Project Scarlett, 343 stated that the game would also be available for Xbox One and PC.
It’s a smart decision, letting PC gamers play the sequel after releasing Halo Master Chief Collection on PC. It will be interesting to see how this will play out with any cross-platform features, though Microsoft is yet to say anything about it.
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