You can do a whole lot in Halo Infinite. You can get completely lost in forests on a derelict alien space station. You can mow down hordes of religious aliens with a kit of futuristic weapons and gadgets. You can also, apparently, fly halfway across the map, thanks to a newly discovered exploit that oozes Breath of the Wild vibes.
Incredible Halo Infinite Map Captures Iconic Toy Story Room In Its Full Glory
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Read More: Halo Infinite: The Kotaku Review
Out this Wednesday for Xbox and PC, Halo Infinite deviates in form from previous Halo campaigns, which were largely structured as linear first-person shooters. A good two-thirds of Halo Infinite plays out in a widely open, explorable area, with all the room for hijinks and fuckery you’d expect. Case in point: Mint Blitz, an Australian Halo player who streams on Twitch and YouTube, figured out how to slingshot himself from a rampaging Razorback jeep, to propel himself through the sky:
So, what exactly is going on here?
First, Mint Blitz smashes a Razorback with a gravity hammer, sending the vehicle flying. As it takes off, he hooks onto it with the grappleshot—Halo Infinite’s take on a grappling hook—timing it so he disembarks exactly at the apex of the launch. And he’s not just ultro-jumping for the sake of ultro-jumping. Instead, he sets things up to land on top of one of Halo Infinite’s spires (structures I’ll not describe in detail out of concern for spoilers).
Mint Blitz says it took around 20 minutes of tinkering to fine tune the exact timing. Ultimately, he says, he traveled around three kilometers. (In terms of size, Halo Infinite’s map is pretty impressive, especially when you consider developer 343 Industries hasn’t made an open-world game prior to this.) It’s unclear if there’s any way to stop mid-arc, but I assume it could be done by using Infinite’s thruster ability to spur velocity in an opposite direction. Mint Blitz did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Kotaku.
Nonetheless, exploits like this further bust the door wide open for speedrunning, and are eerily reminiscent of similar exploits in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Earlier this fall, glitch-hunters devised a move called “BLS sliding,” which essentially allows Link to fly unfettered across the map.
At a dozen-odd hours for a critical path run, Halo Infinite isn’t a terribly long game, especially among some of the other open and open-ish shooters out there (hi, Far Cry and other Ubi games). But one of the most significant time sinks involves making it from one waypoint to the next. Circumventing that entirely could significantly shave down hour counts.
And then there’s the matter that, oh, right, this game isn’t even out yet. Imagine what speed-runners and glitch-hunters will discover in one, two, five years from now. The possibilities, it seems, are infinite. (You’re fired -Ed.)
