There’s something special about playing Halo games with a friend. Whether it’s taking on waves of enemies together or giving them a little love tap every now and then with the stock of your gun, campaign co-op modes are the lifeblood of the series’ campaign modes. Now, with the Halo Infinite campaign co-op right around the corner, 343 Industries has shared more details about this long-awaited mode, and revealed that you will not be tied to the hip of your pal in this open-world adventure.
While you could certainly leave a member of your Fireteam behind in the old Halo games, this is the first game with a truly open world. And to address that, the developers have had to play around with what they call the ‘Area of Operations.’
“The whole point of playing together is just that – playing together,” lead world designer John Mulkey says in the Halo Waypoint blog. “We have established what is called Area-of-Operations (AOO). This is the maximum distance players in a Fireteam can stray from one another as they explore and tackle the challenges of Zeta Halo.”
According to Mulkey, players can stray 1,000 feet from one another (that’s about 300 metres) before you’re forced to stop. You’ll get a warning at 800 feet (about 240 metres), just so you’re aware of the distance you’re putting between your Fireteam.
While that doesn’t sound like much, Mulkey argues that’ll allow you to take on big objectives, like the Banished dig site, from two different points with room to spare.
“We want players to have the fun of fighting together, but we also don’t want it to feel like the game is forcing you to be joined at the hip,” principal software engineer lead Isaac Bender adds.
It’s a great little addition that’ll allow you to play the campaign together your way. With progress that carries over to everyone’s saves, cross-play for up to four players, and mission replay, this version of campaign co-op is looking pretty promising indeed.
However, there is some bad news: the campaign network co-op will only be open to trial for ten days, from July 11 to July 22. Anyone can sign up to give the mode a go, providing they’re an Xbox Game Pass member, of course. Players on console will need to be part of the Xbox Insider Program, while those on Steam will need to be Halo Insiders.
You’ll also need to start the campaign from scratch for this test run.