Halo Infinite‘s development might be in trouble and its Destiny-like coating system is being criticized, but if there’s one thing that Halo fans are excited about the game, it’s the addition of the grappling hook — also known as the “Grappleshot.” And in this month’s latest Halo Waypoint update, 343 Industries talked more details about Halo Infinite grappling hook and how the new weapon sandbox will work in its first-ever #Ask343 video log. You can watch the complete 25-minutes #Ask343 video or simply read on below for the summary.
Halo Infinite Grappling Hook and Weapons Details
The 9-minutes demo back in July revealed how grappling hook will work in Halo Infinite. We can use it to grapple to steep cliffs, launch ourselves towards enemies, or pull a fusion coil and throw it to cause explosions. But that’s not all of the strategic advantages Master Chief’s new toy will provide. Lead Sandbox Designer Quinn Delhoyo has confirmed that “if you’re good enough”, you can skyjack that annoying Banshee that keeps flying around above. And if you’re out of ammo but pinned down by enemies’ fire, just point-and-shoot the Grappleshot to pick up the nearest weapons off of the ground.
Meanwhile, regarding changes to vehicle and weapon sandbox or balancing, there are four interesting points that have been revealed by Delhoyo:
- Vehicles, particularly Warthogs, will have a “fully-fledged damage response system” that breaks vehicles by parts instead of destroying them from general damage. For instance, in the demo, they have shown us how a Warthog can lose its front left wheel. More of it will be shown later.
- Spike Grenades now deal additional instant damage when it sticks before exploding thanks to its spikes. Grunts can even die in one hit just from getting stuck.
- Different damage types (bullets, plasma, hard light, etcetera) will have “sub-types” as well. For example, The Ravager is a “red plasma” weapon that deals more damage but overheats faster compared to classic blue plasma. Similar to how Halo 2 Brute Plasma Rifle works. Other types of damages will be explained later at another time.
- Since Halo Infinite will be potentially updated forever, existing weapons in the base game will keep getting rebalanced depending on the meta. Additionally, “classic and legacy” weapons will be added over time to the game. However, the PvP online mode and the campaign mode will be balanced separately.
Adding from January’s Halo Infinite update, Lead Weapons Designer David Price said that making sub-types of existing damage types gives them room to easily diversify weapons and playstyle.
We want to keep the rules for damage types simple, understandable, and sustainable. Halo has already had a loose rule set with plasma weapons. We wanted to further define this ruleset, so players can have expectations of a damage type. Keeping the rules simple and understandable allows us to still have weapons with unique behaviors and roles. If they want to quickly strip personal shields they can use Plasma for example. But this doesn’t dictate a weapons playstyle, class, or power level. I could still have a shotgun-style weapon that is any one of these damage types. This approach allows us to still make multiple weapons that feel unique within a damage type. We want weapons to feel diverse even if they share the same damage type.”
Although 343 hasn’t shared more footage of the game itself, it’s pretty cool of them to share more detailed tidbits regarding the development of Halo Infinite. What do you think of these changes? Drop by in the comments and share your thoughts.
