Halo Infinite Gameplay Revealed in New Trailer

At last, Xbox has dropped our first look at Halo Infinite‘s gameplay running on the Xbox Series X! The footage confirms a few things we’ve long suspected about the game, including the fact that it’ll have open-world elements, as Master Chief rides a Warthog around a new Halo ring.

According to Xbox Wire, we also see Master Chief using “his trusty MA40 assault rifle” as well as “the new high-precision VK78 Commando [rifle] and the devastating Ravager plasma weapon.” Also featured in the demo are the CQS48 Bulldog shotgun and the familiar but new Pulse Carbine. The long-rumored grapple hook has also been revealed as the Grappleshot, “which lets Chief close the distance to enemies at will, pull objects directly to him, and move around the map like never before.”

The trailer also confirmed what Xbox had already teased: the Banished, the group of Brute mercenaries who’ve broken off from the Covenant and were first introduced in Halo Wars 2, are the villains of the game. During the demo, we watch as the Banished prepare to capture Installation 09, a new Halo ring that threatens the galaxy. The group is not led by Atriox but “the ominous War Chief Escharum, who will one of the most formidable foes the Master Chief has ever faced.” But don’t worry, you’ll still get to kill plenty of the usual Covenant enemies throughout the game.

You can watch the footage below:

We’ve yet to hear how Cortana and the Created will play into the story after Halo 5: Guardians ended on a cliffhanger that teased a galactic takeover led by Master Chief’s former AI best friend. Agent Locke, who co-starred in that game, is also nowhere to be found in the marketing material, suggesting he may not play a role in the game, although a new Mega Bloks set to tie into Halo Infinite seemed to tease a dark fate for the Spartan played by Luke Cage actor Mike Colter. Perhaps we’ll learn more about that at a later date.

Ahead of the gameplay trailer, Microsoft revealed Halo Infinite‘s box art, and let’s just say that it’s more than a tad familiar. Not only does it place Master Chief back on a Halo ring for the first time in quite a while but it basically recreates the cover of the very first game from 2001, Halo: Combat Evolved.

Check it out for yourself:

Video game art has certainly changed quite a bit in the last two decades, as what the Halo Infinite cover gives us is a high-def version of the Combat Evolved box art with some modern flourishes. First off, there’s the Halo ring in the background, with Master Chief in the foreground, as assault rifle at the ready. We also see ships flying overhead as well as Forerunner structures, all features that made the cover for the original game such an interesting sight on store shelves almost 20 years ago.

IGN’s Ryan McCaffrey compared both covers side-by-side on Twitter, so you can have a better look at the similarities:

Halo Infinite slated to hit the Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and PC this holiday.