author: Bart Swiatek
Halo Infinite Gameplay Sparks Wave of Criticism; Demo was Launched on PC
Players and industry experts have severely criticized the Halo Infinite's graphics. We also found out that yesterday's gameplay demo was running on a PC, not the Xbox Series X.
IN A NUTSHELL:
- Players and industry experts criticize the visuals of Halo Infinite;
- According to many people, the game is very poor compared to some of the titles from the current generation (not to mention next-gen);
- The demo presented yesterday worked on a PC with specs comparable to Xbox Series X.
During yesterday's Xbox Games Showcase, a gameplay from Halo Infinite, the latest installment of the popular FPS series was finally presented. The game is developed by 343 Industries. Unfortunately, this title didn't impress the fans, and its most commented and criticized aspect are the visuals.
Halo Infinite's visuals are controversial
According to a lot of players, both characters and locations are not very impressive. According to some, the latter are worse than in Halo 3 from 2007.
The main problem seems to be poor lighting system (e.g. lack of ambient occlusion effect), which makes the scenes lack depth. The unrealistic, pastel color palette, which gives the game a slightly comic book-like look, does not impress either. It is worth noting that the above comparison is not entirely fair, as it shows two completely different locations. Some people did not like the yellow octagons that appear on the screen.
And how does Halo Infinite compare to a competitive title from current generation, such as The Last of Us: Part II? To put it mildly... not so good. In the latest work of Naughty Dog both characters and locations are on a completely different level than in the game from 343 Industries (not to mention the static nature of the world presented in Halo - e.g. immobile trees). Anyway, see for yourselves.
Of course, this is a comparison of two significantly different titles - Halo Infinite is a classic, dynamic shooter and uses large locations, while TLoU2 - due to its slower pace - can afford to load various elements in the background, and most of the time enables us to explore relatively small maps. But I guess we should expect more from next-gen, right? In fact, yesterday's demo doesn't look stunningly better than PlayStation 4's launch title Killzone: Shadow Fall.
Screenshot of "fan mod for a secret Switch version"
Also developer Adrian Chmielarz (creator of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter) had something to say about Halo Infinite. He published one of the official screenshots from the game, adding that, in his opinion, this is not how an official promo screenshot of a next-gen title should look like.
Or maybe is it just an early version?
Some people point out that the poor quality of the graphics may be due to the fact that we're looking at an unfinished version of the game - effects such as ambient occlusion are likely to be added and the engine responsible for the lighting may yet be refined. It's also worth noting that yesterday's demo didn't run on Xbox Series X, but on a PC with specs comparable to Microsoft's new console.
However, the question arises: why was it decided to show players such poor material? Perhaps someone at Microsoft came to the conclusion that a presentation called Xbox Games Showcase cannot do without the gameplay from the latest Halo, but it's hard not to get the impression that such a show would only be harmful to this recognized brand. It remains to be hoped that the version of Halo Infinite that will eventually launch on our consoles and PCs, will look much better than what we saw yesterday.
