Halo Infinite is exciting again, as players use new AI Forge tools to build Halo MOBAs and Pokemon arenas
343 Industries' and Microsoft's well-reviewed, but fan-derided and far from chart-topping sci-fi FPS Halo Infinite is experiencing a slight revival, and it's all thanks to the magic of, er, Pokemon. Pokemon being one of several new custom gametypes knocked together by intrepid Halo players using the Forge map editor's new AI toolkit, added in the Halo Season 5: Reckoning updates, which allow you to bring campaign AI into Forge maps and tweak its behaviour at length. I choose you, Master Chief!
As reported by IGN, Halo: Infinite's Steam playercount doubled in the wake of the Season 5 update, up from a piffling 7000 or so concurrent players to a... slightly less piffling 18,000. OK, so Counter-Strike 2 can breathe easy for the moment. But there's the glimmer of something longer-term in the new Forge options, which turn an already robust editor into the basis for some striking PvE experiences - including the aforesaid Pokemon homage, created by Xitter user DanTheBloke.
Quick update on the Pokemon battle arena!
Got em fighting now#HaloInfinite #HaloReckoning pic.twitter.com/3Iajkj68wq
The new Forge AI Toolkit doesn't provide access to every bell and/or whistle available to 343's own campaign designers, but it does cover a lot of ground - from setting zones for patrol routes to scripted triggers, all of it managed by a visual interface of branching nodes which seems, to my uneducated eye, perilously digestible. Perhaps it's time to dust off my old Carnage Heart instincts and do some Forging myself.
According to 343, the tools lend themselves to a range of genres, with people using it internally to build tower defence games. "Our North Star for the Forge AI Toolkit was wave-based PvE experiences," Forge lead designer Michael
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