Fans have been holding out for a gameplay demo of Halo: Infinite since the game was first announced at E3 2018. Now, ome of that patience may finally pay off. Microsoft and 343 have confirmed that the first look at Infinite's gameplay will be featured July 23 during the Xbox Games Showcase. The game won't be featured in its entirety, though, as the gameplay demo will only show the campaign.
Microsoft and 343 had been strangely tight-lipped on the development of Halo: Infinite until recently. What we do know is that the campaign will continue the Master Chief saga from where it left off in Halo 5. The announcement trailer also suggests the campaign will pursue Cortana's story.
Toward the end of the trailer, we see Master Chief plug a weapon containment device into his helmet, but no AI is detected. Supposedly, that's where Cortana would have been stored, had she not gone AWOL by the end of Halo 5: Guardians.
The trailer closes on a scene of Master Chief approaching a broken Halo hologram while Cortana can be heard saying, "I chose you because you were special." This could simply be a callback to the opening of Halo 3, where Cortana talks about why she chose Master Chief to be her partner, but it could also allude to a renewed alliance between the two.
Aside from laying out an idea of the campaign's story, the gameplay demo will also likely give us a more detailed look Halo: Infinite's new art direction and how it will behave on 343's new Slipspace Engine.
The Slipspace Engine was first demoed at E3 2018 and used to render the "Discover Hope" trailer in 2019. On the engine's promotional website, it's said to render emotional performance "with truly organic, believable fidelity," deliver vivid visuals, and be accessible to both industry veterans and newbies alike.
It's still unknown when and if the Halo: Infinite multiplayer and co-op experiences will be demoed anytime soon. We have also yet to see what the return of Forge mode will bring, whether it will improve elements from its former iteration, and what it may change. However, it's likely we'll get to see more gameplay and features as we near the Xbox Series X's release date this holiday season.