The long-delayed return of Master Chief is once again approaching with the highly anticipated release of Halo Infinite's multiplayer will be free-to-play, adapting to the live service-swamped multiplayer landscape. Along with these sweeping changes in approach is another tweak to the Halo formula that may not seem very noteworthy at first: being able to drop weapons.
343 Industries, developers behind the franchise since Halo 4, have been steadily supplying fans with gameplay and details in anticipation of Infinite going live this holiday season. Amidst a gameplay preview that included showing Halo Infinite running on an Xbox One, it was revealed that players will be able to drop weapons with the press of a button, making the seemingly benign action less of a chore compared to previous games.
In every Halo title before Infinite, the only way to drop a weapon was to find a replacement. Picking one up off the ground would swap out the one players were holding, but now a weapon can simply be discarded by pressing the right d-pad button (at least on Xbox). It was also revealed that Halo Infinite has fully customizable controls, so anyone looking to move the drop weapon button to a different input is able.
Halo Infinite's Weapon Drop Button Fix Some Annoyances
This may not be the most drastic change for the Halo franchise, but it does address two common nuisances that can be encountered when playing. The first is not being able to freely give up a weapon for teammates. Whether playing one of Halo's many co-op campaigns, or just trying to be a coordinated team online, being generous with weaponry was sometimes a difficult - and dangerous - task when the only course of action is to find a replacement gun.
The other, much more annoying issue this change will help alleviate, at least a little bit, is getting team killed for powerful weapons. Those who truly have no sportsmanship or camaraderie will likely continue with their betrayals, but others may resort to simply asking for their favorite piece of weaponry. Regardless, the drop weapon button will lead to some mid-match trade negotiating. There's also potential for devious strategy, such as leaving a power weapon as a lure for enemies, dropping one with low ammo to put an opponent in a precarious situation, and likely many more that players will come up with once Halo Infinite releases.
