Halo Infinite Campaign Overview Sets The Stage For War With The Banished

As promised, today Microsoft and 343 Studios gave us a look at Halo Infinite's campaign. In this new campaign overview, we get to see many of the locations we'll visit throughout the story. Get ready to use Halo Infinite's new grapple mechanic, because it's on display a lot throughout the overview.

Before today's overview dives into the story of Halo Infinite, it first brings us up to speed on what led to this point. As we already know, the Banished have appeared and taken control of Zeta Halo, putting humanity at risk. Master Chief's job is to stop the Banished, but he has to retrieve "The Weapon" to do so – a new AI that was originally meant to lock down Cortana.

The overview explains that Master Chief will be trying to figure out what happened to Cortana throughout the campaign, so in that sense at least, this is a direct continuation from the events of Halo 5. It sounds like Master Chief will find his answers on Zeta Halo, but he'll have to contend with the Banished – who are building outposts that can be infiltrated and destroyed – as he searches for answers.

Today's video explains that Halo Infinite is the "most wide-open and adventure-filled Halo experience yet." We're also told that this is the "biggest campaign to date." Throughout the trailer, we see Master Chief using the grapple to traverse environments, close the distance between himself and enemies, and even pick up weapons scattered on the ground, so it looks like we'll be putting that new mechanic to good use.

After a significant delay that moved it out of the launch window of the Xbox Series X, Halo Infinite is nearly ready for prime time. Microsoft is doing something different for this release, as it's making the multiplayer free-to-play and charging only for the campaign. We'll find out if that's a winning strategy soon enough, as Halo Infinite is out on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC, and Xbox Game Pass on December 8th.