Last Updated on July 9, 2020 by Mark P.
Halo Infinite may be in the works right now, but that doesn’t mean it is the only thing related to Halo that 343 has been busy with. One of their teams continues to work on the Master Chief Collection, having continually introduced a number of impressive updates since the game’s inception. And of course, the trend isn’t ending anytime soon, with a rather sizable and notable update coming to Halo: Combat Evolved in particular. In an odd twist, the first and traditionally least customizable game in the franchise is going to be getting some more customization.
Like most of the other games, Combat Evolved will be getting a whole slew of what is by now considered normal multiplayer customization in Halo games, such as visors, vehicle skins and weapon skins. It was in a blog post that design director Maz Szlagor explained why 343 is adding these aesthetic customization options to the first game.
We wanted to bring a greater level of customization to the games that didn’t have as many customization options for armor sets so players can have their uniqueness in each game,” he said. “With that in mind, we thought, ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be cool to have some new options for Halo: CE and what’s possible there?’ Turns out there were a number of things that we could do! We sat down and started to come up with some concepts, going through trial and error in trying stuff out, and I think we’re quite happy with what was possible and how to spice things up in multiplayer with these options.”
Szlagor also mentioned how, thanks to the size of MCC, which includes five different games, they had to think hard about which game to prioritize in regards to adding new content.
“There’s just so much stuff in MCC that it takes time to build out these features to the level of quality and the level of depth that we want,” he said. “This was an opportunity where we saw Halo: CE didn’t have any of these types of features previously and now, we are bringing these to life.”
These new customization options aren’t available just yet, but they will become available with MCC season 2, which is supposed to begin with the launch of Halo 3 on PC sometime in the near future. Szlagor also said that 343 may consider making new customization content for other games in MCC in the future. “I think people are going to be stoked to see what crazy stuff comes up for all the different titles in MCC,” he said.
That said, 343 even went the extra mile, understanding that some players may not want to use or even see these new skins. They’ll be adding an option that makes it so you can’t see them during gameplay if you so desire. It’s a nice touch that proves 343 does put a lot of thought into what will make the fans happy.
