Halo Infinite’s multiplayer dropped this week as a surprise to celebrate Halo’s 20th anniversary. While the multiplayer itself has been widely praised and is being enjoyed by fans, some parts of the game are certainly undercooked. Yes, I’m the sicko who loves Custom Games and seeing how I can push the boundaries of the sandbox presented to me at any given moment.
Halo Infinite’s Custom Games Editor Is Undercooked
Over the past few nights, friends and I have been testing out the various options in the Custom Games lobby. We’ve been able to create some genuinely cursed game modes. For instance, what if there was no gravity, so when you jump, you instantly hit the invisible ceiling on the map Highpower? Now you’re flying around with Energy Swords having a battle that could be compared to your favorite high-flying anime DragonBall Z.
This is where the toolset for Custom Games is essential. I’m happy to report that Infinite has a lot of really excellent options when it comes to scaling your movement speed across its different mechanics. Slide speed, duration, mantle speed, and individual player speed all have their own sliders to be adjusted.
However, for every good option, there is a lack of options in the suite. You have no control over vehicle speed or any vehicle modifications outside of if they can spawn or not. You cannot choose specifically which vehicles are available, or custom tailors them to fit a mode even slightly.
When it comes to your loadout, you can pick your starting weapon, ammo, and secondary weapon from the list of all available weapons which is pretty bog-standard for custom games. The big drawback here is you can’t give players starting equipment or change equipment at all. There’s no way to give everyone grappling hooks or repulsors for a custom match, outside of a few options to toggle equipment on or off for a game.
This isn’t to say Custom Games are bad, because like I said, my friends and I have been playing them the past few nights, like a match of Free For All Oddball with Skewers only on Behemoth. There is fun to be had here, but the lack of toolset is incredibly limited in scope, even by Halo 3’s standards.
Related: Halo Infinite Will Not Have Campaign Co-op Or Forge At Launch
We know Forge isn’t coming for another 5-6 months, as 343 stated months ago, but if Custom Games are to thrive, the team needs to be looking at how they can expand the range of options in the meantime.
Last night, we also learned that if you have more than seven players in a match and try to play an Arena-style game type, it won’t take any of the overrides you’ve set in place for your match. So now you’re forced to play in the Big Team Battle preset modes available, which do not include Oddball. So 343 has some stuff to iron out, and we can hope that the Forge update will also bring a more robust custom games experience alongside it.
Nothing official has come from 343 in terms of an expanded Custom Games ruleset, but leaks have indicated that full scripting features are in the works. I hope Custom Games and Forge are heavily supported alongside the more competitive multiplayer because that’s where the heart of Halo with my friends lies. Goofing off and creating enjoyable and completely unplayable modes, but the future is quite foggy, and I hope 343 can lift the fog soon.
