Since the announcement of Halo Infinite, there have been rumors of a Halo battle royale. This week, Season 2 of Halo Infinite brought a new story chapter, two new maps, and Last Spartan Standing – a free-for-all elimination mode that is the closest 343 has come to parachuting 100 Spartans into a island.
Cards on the table. I don’t think Halo Infinite needs a battle royale. Despite being the terminal that likes Apex on the team, I don’t even How battle royale, jumping straight from PUBG and Fortnite. Halo is its own kind of shooter, with its own unique rhythms and flows, an arena shooter built from a wonderfully fun sandbox of weapons, vehicles, and gear.
But even though Last Spartan Standing isn’t a battle royale in name, it’s very clearly an attempt to hit many of the same beats. An elimination mode where you acquire better weapons as the match slows down, Gun Game style, with a circle that closes on the last fighters.
It’s an attempt to capture the essence of battle royale with the tools Halo already has at its disposal. And honestly? Does not work.
real killer
See what my Last Spartan Standing experience was like. You start out on a decent sized map, wandering around with two pistols looking for targets. If you’re lucky, you’ll see one first, kill it, and upgrade to a Mangler. If you’re not lucky, someone else will see you first and get the upgrade. Now you’re behind in weapons, one life down, with only five left.
The map slowly shrinks from 12 to 10 and below as players stumble through ongoing fights or attack each other from a distance. Battles rarely last more than a few seconds, and eventually only four players are left standing. It is now that the ring arrives, very slowly, to invade the remaining players. Survivors likely have shotguns, and the game is suddenly very slow as players fall, leaving only to take a nap nearby.
In one game, I saw the last two players practically stand next to each other, refusing to move for nearly ten minutes.
the battle royale halo is uh. not good. pic.twitter.com/IPopHUKu8MMay 4, 2022
As an experiment, Last Spartan Standing is interesting. The custom game is kind of what you’d expect to find in a private match. But as a full mode, I’m not sure it holds up. Fights in Halo end too quickly for prolonged skirmishes, losing yourself for a minute can leave you behind the weapons curve, and while I appreciate adding power-up drops to direct the battle, it can often feel like players are untouchable if they can consistently lock down an overshield.
The LSS is also missing out on some of Infinite’s wildest weapons, promoting you through a fairly routine lineup of pistols, assault rifles, commandos, and shotguns. It’s easy to imagine, in place of Overshields or Active Camo, the game tossing a limited-use energy sword, battle rifle, or one of the more creative equipment tools like grappling hooks or repulsors.
king of the hill
I don’t think a Halo battle royale is a bad idea. When Fortnite shifted from an unpopular tower defense RPG nightmare to a world-consuming battle royale, it did so by realizing its building mechanics could effortlessly fit the PUBG mold. Respawn was extremely careful in how they slowed down Titanfall pilots for Apex Legends, ditching wallrunning and keeping the fundamental core of what makes movement in these games work.
Halo itself is a game about finding power-ups and learning to spawn weapons in a sandbox of chaotic, physics-based toys. It’s easy to imagine a world where 100 Spartans crash into a ringworld, scavenging gear and armor to kill each other in strangely buoyant firefights. It just requires a total commitment to figuring out what parts of Halo could work in a battle royale and what would need to change.
There are rumors of a Adequate and basic Halo Royale being developed at Certain Affinity, of course. And perhaps it does justice to the concept, bringing a touch of Halo to a genre we still can’t move on. Fortunately, Last Spartan Standing is a proof of concept that Certain Affinity can learn the right lessons from. I don’t really want a Halo battle royale – but if we have to do a Halo battle royale, let’s at least do it right.