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Plenty of Call Backs to the First Halo Game
By Kevin Lee
The Halo Infinite cinematic trailer gave us a Master Chief floating in space and a few more clues about the state of the world in the Halo Universe. Now we’ve gotten our hands on the Halo Infinite cover art that includes a few more hints about the game.
The cover art depicts the Master Chief with his back to us (we’ll get to back to why this is such a big deal later) and a Halo ring rolling out into the distance. It seems we’ll definitely be setting our boots on a Halo ring again given that this is the third appearance of one between the legendary ending of Halo 5: Guardians as well as Halo Infinite’s reveal trailer and cinematic trailer just seen at Microsoft’s Xbox E3 2019 Conference.
Another thing we can see in the box art is the data chip on the back of the Master Chief’s helmet is glowing again as opposed to becoming completely inert since the end of Halo 4. This means the Master Chief has either moved on with another AI or he’s somehow made up with Cortana and they’re working together again.
We all know Forerunners like to build things using hexagons and so it’s interesting to see that this part of the Halo ring seems to have been sheared off, exposing the mechanical frame beneath the organic crust. While some might take this as a sign of the Halo ring coming apart, it might actually pulling itself back together.
The newest cinematic trailer showed us a destroyed Halo ring in the distance and the Master Chief notes that this is the time to fight. A shatter weapon wouldn’t be much of use to our protagonist, so perhaps the Master Chief has figured out a way to repair it leading to this almost fully reconstructed Halo ring. Or, perhaps, something else is repairing it.
When we played the second mission in Halo: Combat Evolved, we followed the pulsing beams of light to find three groups of Marines scattered in an area on Alpha Halo. Based on the reveal trailer and the most E3 2019 trailer’s almost implied theme of survival, these beams could be a similar callout for the Chief.
In the first ever Halo game these pillars of light were fairly close together due to all three being confined into a single level or mission of the game and the technology at the time. These pillars however seem to be much further apart separated by mountains and rivers.
This could suggest Halo Infinite will have a much more sprawling world. If we want to speculate further based on what we saw in the reveal, there could be some sort of wider or even open-world element at play. Five beams shine before Master Chief on this cover, and there’s a good chance they’re an intentional hint at some sort of gameplay goal.
On the lower right of the box art we see a building that looks a lot like one of the beam emitter towers we found on the Alpha Halo in the original Halo game. Although it’s not projecting any light at the moment, it’s likely what will be producing the beams we see in the distance.
This floating building looks somewhat like Forerunner structures we’ve seen cropping up in the Halo series since the fourth entry of the series. But it has a much simpler design hearkening back to older Halo games.
To the right of Master Chief’s left knee is a strange blue glow with pillars surrounding it. It’s unclear what this is, but it’s worth noting. ((you guys have any theories?)) The last time we saw a similar structure was in third mission of Halo: Combat Evolved. In the chapter Truth and Reconciliation, we boarded a covenant ship using a platform surrounded by pillars that emitted a beam of purple light.
This structure looks a little different thanks to its taller pillars and bluish glow, but this could be a device used to get to different parts of the halo ring, which would back up our theory about Halo Infinite being an open-world game.
Another important thing only keen-eyed Halo fans noticed is the Master Chief has finally finished rotating in his cover art images. A Reddit user by the name of “FlandersNed” noted how with Halo Infinite, Master Chief has finished rotating.
Since Halo: Combat Evolved, the Master Chief has been slowly going from facing completely front forwards to having his back to us in the latest cover art for Halo Infinite. Whether this was intentional, it’s a hilarious easter egg that’s been hidden through all six of the mainline Halo games.
For more on IGN’s E3 coverage, stay tuned to IGN’s E3 2019 hub. Be sure to also check out the list of confirmed E3 2019 games and the list of games that won’t be at E3 2019.
Kevin Lee is IGN’s Hardware and Roundups Editor. Follow him on Twitter @baggingspam
Source: IGN
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