Why Halo Infinite Doesn’t Let You Replay Campaign Missions

Players will not be able to replay Halo Infinite missions, marking a departure from previous Halo franchise installments. Microsoft confirmed that as of the campaign’s release on December 8, Halo Infinite players will not be able to play individual story missions again once they are completed. However, players will be able to return to the mission area for most missions to retrieve missed items.

Halo Infinite will mark 343 Industry’s first attempt to incorporate an open world-like setting into Halo franchise title. Beyond the first two missions, the game’s setting will take place on Halo Zeta, a damaged and inoperable halo ring the Banished are attempting to bring back online. Each story mission will offer players a chance to collect items, such as skulls and audio logs, as they go about completing mission tasks and encountering events related to Master Chief’s goal to save humanity. As in previous game titles, once a skull is collected, it will remain permanently available on the player’s account.

The ability to replay story missions in Halo has long been a staple for the franchise, offering players a chance to relive important elements of the game or snag collectable objects they previously missed. Knowing this feature will be missing from Halo Infinite may dampen reviews and the enthusiasm of many players who enjoy the experience of a particular mission so much they want to replay it. As Halo Infinite’s campaign promises some big reveals concerning Master Chief’s own story and lore, 343 may need to make a higher priority of implementing this feature into the game.

Halo Infinite’s Inability To Replay Campaign Missions Is Tied To Its Open World

In its statement to Polygon, Microsoft explained, “The postgame does give you the option to keep exploring the wider environment, but for missions like the first two, where you’re not on the ring yet, you can’t replay from the same save file.” While players will be able to return to the mission locations and further explore these parts of Halo Zeta, the missions present in these locations will not appear again after completion. Players in Halo Infinite can still find some collectible items after a mission is completed, but some hidden items will not be retrievable outside of the campaign’s story. This may lead to some players being more meticulous and careful as they play through each chapter, but more than likely, it will generate frustration and disappointment among players who genuinely just want to experience parts of the story again.

The main cause of the inability to replay missions is the very open-world setting meant to bring a fresh gameplay style to the series, while also bringing Halo Infinite to a more level playing field with other open-world franchises. Currently, players will have to restart the entire game on a different save file and replay the missions in order. However, 343 Industries Paul Crocker did confirm in an interview with The Verge there are plans in the works to bring the ability to replay missions into the game, though a release date for this Halo Infinite feature has not been set yet. Crocker acknowledges the “tricky” nature of incorporating certain features into an open-world setting: “So we made a decision to improve the quality of the single-player campaign to ensure that, as a foundation, that it’s as strong as it possibly could be so that we could then add the other features back in.”

Clearly, 343 Industries intends to tread carefully as it moves forward bringing additional features to Halo Infinite in the future. In 2022, the developer plans to release the co-op version of the campaign and Forge mode, though even this will come later than 343 intended to release it. In the meantime, players will decide if the version of Halo Infinite’s campaign, free on Xbox Game Pass, now will be enough to enjoy while its developer takes a slow-and-steady approach going forward.

Sources: Polygon; The Verge.

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