Battle royale modes and games continue to live on in evergreen popularity, especially now.Fortnite’s latest explosion in popularity with Chapter 2, Season 5 has shown no signs of slowing down for Epic Games.Call of Duty: Warzonecontinues its streak as one of the most popular options, especially now that it’s fully integrated with the latestCall of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.Apex Legendsis also seeing a resurgence in momentum with Season 7, and Season 8 coming very soon. As forHalofans who enjoy battle royale modes, at least Master Chief made it intoFortnite. For those looking for a true-to-formHalobattle royale, well, it doesn’t exist quite yet.
Arguably, the classicHalomultiplayer foundation does lend itself particularly well to a battle royale mode. Many of the mainstay mechanics, items, and equipment in the most popular battle royales (Fortnite,Apex Legends,Warzone) were elements of traditionalHalomultiplayer previously. However, that’s not to say it’d be an easy entrance into the subgenre for Microsoft’s flagship shooter. Numerous battle royales have also saturated the market as well, with many failing to strike a following among a sea of other battle royales. 343 Industries is not immune to a similar fate, andHalo Infinitewould need to seriously switch things up to make a successful battle royale.
RELATED:343 Says Big Halo Infinite Delay Will Be Worth the Wait
The Pros: Some Battle Royale Mechanics Already Exist in Halo Multiplayer
For one thing,the usualHalomultiplayer foundationlends itself particularly well to a battle royale mode. Conceptually speaking, many of the mechanics in battle royale games/modes like picking up weapons, finding powerups or special abilities around the environments, and tangentially some of the objective-based modes resemble a battle royale archetype. Finding power weapons inHalomultiplayer is always the name of the game, which coincidentally is what most battle royale games do as well. Power-ups like Overshield and Active Camo, equipment fromHalo 3-ownard, and the armor abilities fromHalo Reach, all would have their place in aHalobattle royale.
Not to mention some of the larger maps inHalohistory could potentially be framed for battle royale, if expanded. Some of the larger maps like Forge World, Valhalla, or Boneyard would be interesting to see kind of mashed together into one big battle royale map. There’s a lot ofexamples throughoutHalo’s backlogof incredible map design that could potentially form together into a great battle royale map. Plus,Halo’s experimented with large scale multiplayer modes with Big Team Battle and Invasion previously, so a battle royale mode wouldn’t exactly be out of pocket for the series. Implemented appropriately, a battle royale concept forHalocould be great.
The Cons: An Oversaturated Market, Seemingly Uninterested Developers
However, like most other battle royale game modes,Halo’s battle royale attempt could easily become overshadowed in an oversaturated market. Especially ifHalo’s battle royale mode doesn’t particularly change up the formula in any way, it’s not going to have much going for it other thanHalogameplay mechanics. As previously mentioned, many of the battle royale conventions like power ups and power weapons already exist in classicHalomultiplayer. Implementing those same mechanics, in a subgenre of shooters that already features many of those capabilities, wouldn’tdistinguishHalo’s battle royale offering apart from any othercurrently available to play.
The effectiveness ofHalo’s gameplay loop is emphasized in the traditional, small-scale multiplayer modes like Slayer and Capture the Flag.Halodoesn’t have building mechanics, or any comparatively unique movement mechanics compared to examples likeApex Legends.Even with the exception ofHalo Infinite’s grappling hook, there’s no way the mode wouldn’t draw comparisons to Pathfinder inApex Legendsanyway. Even thoughHalo Infinite’s multiplayer will be totally free-to-play at launch, a battle royale mode doesn’t necessarily fit alongside the traditional offering fromHalomultiplayer, regardless of whether it could or not.
This is without even mentioning the numerous timesHalo Infinitebattle royale rumors have been shot down this year by 343 Industries. Even as recent as last month, 343 Industries’community director Brian Jarrard reiterates these rumors are “unfounded,“further reinforcing thatHalo Infinitehas no current battle royale in development. 343 Industries' studio head Bonnie Ross has also echoed this sentiment previously, stating that battle royale’s popularity (for now) doesn’t factor in toHalo’s repertoire.
That’s not to say it’s impossible, and assuming 343 Industries is capable of shaking some things up,HaloInfinitecould get a battle royale in the future. But for now, it just might not be feasible for Microsoft’s iconic shooter.
