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Halo Infinite update rewinds time for Halo 2's birthday, throwing the FPS back 20 years with a nostalgic mode that deletes sprint and adds classic maps
Halo 2's 20th anniversary is being celebrated with a Halo Infinite update that brings back classic gameplay mechanics, a third-person mode, and fan-made maps, while Halo: The Master Chief Collection gets a playable E3 2003 demo.
Halo 2 stomped onto the scene two whole decades ago with all the heft of a 1,000 pound supersoldier, but it's already been remade in fancy fashion once via The Master Chief Collection, so its milestone birthday is instead being celebrated within a Halo Infinite update that's throwing it back to 2004 (just without all the MySpace hype).
The newly-rebranded Halo Studios today announced that Halo Infinite would be getting a surprisingly meaty update called Operation: The Great Journey on the classic shooter's anniversary, November 5. That surreal third-person mode is part of the package, but what's even more exciting is a playlist that's basically rewinding time.
The upcoming Delta Arena playlist essentially emulates classic Halo gameplay and erases the modern quirks that have flooded the series in the years since. That means you won't be able to clamber up ledges in this playlist, there won't be any player collision, your jumps are all floaty again, and sprint - probably the series' most controversial change - is not allowed here either. It's 2004 settings in a 2024 update.
To get you even further into a Mountain Dew and Doritos mood, the update is also folding in classic Halo 2 maps made by fans with Forge, the series' custom level editor. Iconic battlefields from Midship to Lockout, which gets a lush overgrown facelift, are all incoming.
"Twenty years ago, the gaming world was introduced to Halo 2, and things were never the same," the official Halo Waypoint blog explains. "The multiplayer experience forged friendships, propelled online gaming to the mainstream, elevated MLG to another level, and was truly a catalyst of the early gaming and online eras."
Halo: The Master Chief Collection is also getting a little love as that infamous Halo 2 demo from E3 2003, the one that never made it into the final game, is being rebuilt by a group of modding excavators and put into the PC release, wildly.