The story ofHalo Infinite’s campaign co-op has been one of frustration for fans of theHalofranchise. Campaign co-op has been a series mainstay going back to the originalHalo: Combat Evolved, but developer 343 Industries wasn’t able to finish co-op forHalo Infinite’s launch. It’s now been over six months sinceHalo Infinite’s launch and co-op is getting closer. However, this won’t necessarily be like previousHaloco-op modes.Halo Infinite’s co-op is going to require some limitations.In the latest development update from343 Industries, the team explained that due toHalo Infinite’s more open campaign structure there will have to be a significant limitation imposed on co-op parties. This limitation is what 343 is calling the “Area-Of-Operations” system and the restriction it imposes will preventHalo Infiniteplayers from separating too far from one another.RELATED:Halo Infinite Explains Why Desync Issues Aren’t Fixed YetWhat 343 has had to address is a technical limitation tied to having multiplayer players in a singleHalo Infinitegame world. Keeping co-op players together is the only way to maintain a healthy technical game state. As such, all players in aHalo Infiniteco-op Fireteam will have to stay within a 1000-ft radius. Moving beyond 800 ft will first prompt a warning, followed by death at 1000 ft and a respawn closer to the other co-op players.
343 says that a radius this size should be more than enough for anyHalo InfiniteFireteamto tackle even the largest of in-world objectives together, citing the Banished dig site as an example. It just likely won’t allow a Fireteam to split up and tackle multiple objectives at the same time. This idea is in line with what 343 describes as its philosophy of “Playing Together,” which it says is the entire point of playing co-op. But it’s probably safe to assume that technical limitations are at the heart of this issue.
It’s always been an inevitability that 343 would have to make certain trade-offs toadd co-op toHalo Infinite. In turn, however, this extra time has allowed 343 to flesh out some exciting features.Halo Infiniteco-op will be open to 4-player Fireteams with shared progression, it will be fully cross-play enabled across PC, consoles, and cloud, and it will allow players to replay missions with relative ease.
Halo Insiders will be able to accessHalo Infinite’s Campaign network Co-op and Mission Replay test flight starting the week of July 11. Once 343 is confident in the state of co-op and all its features, allHalo Infiniteplayerswill be able to play. Expect further updates in the weeks to come.
Halo Infiniteis available now on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
