Halo Infinite’s Craig Meme gave 343 ‘more time’ to hone brutes

The Halo Infinite developers have talked about their “love-hate relationship” with the Brute who started Craig’s meme. While teased, the character model ultimately gave the 343 Industries team more time to bring Halo Infinite to a higher level of quality.

“While it was fun watching the community gravitate towards Craig, he unfortunately represented some content and systems that weren’t ready for prime time on that demo,” said Steve Dyck, Director of Characters and Combat at Halo Infinite, in a new version Halo Insider Post. “The positive result for Craig was that it was one of the factors to buy more time to finish the job and get the Brutes to a place where the team is happy with them. This is one of many positive 343 examples working and aligning with the Halo community around expectations. Players who look hard enough will still be able to find some evidence of Craig in Halo Infinite – his spirit lives on! “

‘Craig’ is the name given by the community to a Brute who appeared in the first reveal of the Halo Infinite campaign, which was the subject of teasing and throwbacks due to the quality of the graphics, among other things.

While discussing the character designs for Halo Infinite, Dyck also noted that the team is looking back at the Bungie Halo games to influence their art direction. “As for what part of the legacy we look for inspiration, we fit more around the Halo 3 / Halo: Reach time period,” he explained.

“We wanted to go back to the legacy designs that made Halo characters iconic,” added Character Art leader Bryan Repka. “I’ll use the elites as an example: in Halo 4 and Halo 5 the elites were big and bulky. We ended up reducing them a bit and giving them a more elegant look. “

While Halo Infinite is looking to the past in the name of being a “spirit reboot,” it also has several new enemy ideas of its own. One of them is the Skimmer, a new troop of the Covenant.

“One of the new enemies that we just revealed in the campaign overview is the Skimmer,” said Dyck. “They are a mid-level combatant, roughly on the same level as the higher-level Jackals and Grunts. They are not fully flying enemies, but have floating packs that allow them to move quickly and provide unique challenges and opportunities to the player while on foot or in a vehicle. “

The post also provided a little additional detail about the Spartan Killers, a group of exiled members who are equipped to hunt down Spartans. One can be seen in the campaign overview trailer, Jega ‘Rdomnai, but they are just one of many.

“Each Spartan assassin is unique and has his own story and battle trophies,” promised Repka.

To learn more about Halo Infinite, check out the trailer for The Banished Rise, the new AI companion and Master Chief’s outpost opportunities, and how Ray Tracing will be a priority for the PC version … after the launch, at least.

Matt Purslow is the UK news and entertainment writer for IGN.