After a strong launch in November 2021 that saw over 20 million players step into spartan suits to try Halo’s latest game, Halo Infinite, 343 industries faltered to deliver an acceptable live service experience causing the player population to dwindle significantly in the months to follow. Since then 343i has gone through a significant restructuring of the leadership team with Pierre Hintze (most known for turning the bug-ridden Halo: The Master Chief Collection launch around) taking over the helm of the studio and reinforcing the studio’s dedication to turning Halo Infinite’s live service aspects around. While there is still quite a ways to go, Season 3 kicked off this past week to much praise from the community (albeit there were some significant bugs) and signified that the game was heading in the right direction. Let’s take a brief look at some of the highlights from the update:
New Weapon: Joining Halo’s illustrious sandbox is the M392 Bandit, a new, semi-automatic tactical rifle best suited for mid-ranged encounters. The Bandit is somewhat of a hybrid between Halo Reach’s DMR and Halo 5’s Magnum pistol, landing with more range than the standard assault rifle, but less range than the Battle Rifle. Sitting at a five-shot kill, many pros could see the Bandit eventually replacing the battle rifle as a starting weapon in ranked play.
New Equipment: Halo gets its own, unique version of a smoke grenade in its latest equipment, the Shroud Screen. Much like the Threat Sensor, the Shroud Screen is a projectile that players can fire whenever they want (assuming they picked it up). Once fired, it launches a spherical, holographic-like cloud of blue-tinted coding that obstructs the views of players both inside and outside of the cloud. Alongside the Shroud Screen come a multitude of new, creative strategies for teams of spartans to deploy.
New Maps: Three new maps (2 arena, 1 big team battle) join the fray for Season 3’s launch with others rumored to be added mid-season as well. Joining the arena rotation are Cliffhanger and Chasm. Cliffhanger is an asymmetrical ONI black site placed atop a mountain and featuring a cross-map man cannon; accompanied by some strong Halo Reach vibes, this one brings a nice mix of elevation and intriguing sightlines. The other arena map, Chasm, looks like it was pulled straight from one of the chapters of the campaign and reworked into a multiplayer map that presents a number of high-skill movement opportunities between the staggered columns, wide gap (aka the chasm the map gets its name from), and the availability of grappling hooks across a beautifully detailed forerunner aesthetic. The final map, Oasis, brings 24 players together to fight across an asymmetrical UNSC outpost located in a remote, desert landscape. This map not only features one of the best BTB map layouts to-date (according to many players), but it also features one of the most gorgeous skyboxes in the game. You can view a preview of all three maps here.
These highlights are only a small fraction of what Season 3 has to offer though. With other changes including a new mode in Escalation Slayer (Halo’s take on the popular “Gun Game” mode), new armor cores, deeper narrative events, a faster UI, stacked battle pass, and much more. Feel free to view the Season 3 trailer here and check out the full patch notes here. Season 3 is now live – prepare to drop, Spartans!
Image from: Xbox
