Halo Infinite's bots aren't messing about
Combat evolved.
Halo Infinite launched its multiplayer technical preview this week in limited fashion: all you can do is play against bots - but these bots are no pushover.
Halo Infinite is the franchise's first foray into the world of multiplayer bots, and developer 343 is using the technical preview to gather feedback on bot behaviour and online performance. To that end, the technical preview debuted with the Bot Arena playlist, which puts four players against four bots on arena maps.
The technical preview launched with bots that felt pretty easy, and last night I won every game against them. But while I slept, 343 pushed an update that added ODST difficulty bots and a new map, Recharge. And I am here to report these ODST bots are not messing about.
These bots are accurate, aggressive and ruthless. I wouldn't say they act like human players do - there is a noticeable robotic nature to their movement that is unlike how humans move their Spartans. I guess this makes sense!
I consider myself to be a decent Halo player, familiar with age-old multiplayer strategies when it comes to your average gunfight. These bots know what they're doing - they will come in for a well-timed melee hit after dropping your shield. They will dodge grenades. They use grenades well! They pick up power weapons and they're not afraid to use them. Once, a bot used the grappleshot to fly towards me before smacking in the face with the gravity hammer. It was terrifying. I've even had a bot outsmart me as I've danced around cover. Humiliating, I know.
Reassuringly, it seems I'm not alone. Here's a snippet of the bots in action from surprised players:
If you had told me that Halo would add bots that could style on me like this, I would have called you a liar from r/halo
I got destroyed by this bot from r/halo
Yo these bots need to chill from r/halo
There are a couple funny clips of Halo Infinite's bots in action, too. The clip below, from redditor AfixeVI, shows a bot having a bit of a glitch that makes it look like it's teabagging a human player it's just killed. Savage.
The bots have learned how to bag from r/halo
I also love this clip, from redditor yawatt, that shows a squad of four bots all marching towards the enemy team.
Bots moving as a whole unit might be the funniest thing I've seen so far from r/halo
I think the ODST bot difficulty isn't too hard, really. I'd say it's just right, and I'm having a breezy blast with the technical preview as a result. There's certainly enough on offer for me to feel good about where Halo Infinite is going in a competitive multiplayer sense.
343 has said the bots have an even higher difficulty, called Spartan, which it will eventually enable. Now that's going to be carnage.