"INCOMING CONTACT, UNKNOWN CLASSIFICATION!"

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This article is about the game mode. For articles of the same name, see Infinity (disambiguation).

Spartan career introduction in Infinity.

Infinity is the multiplayer component of Halo 4. It consists of War Games, the competitive multiplayer mode, Forge mode, as well as the episodic cooperative campaign Spartan Ops. The mode is named after the prototype warship UNSC Infinity, which forms the in-universe background for the mode as the base of operations for the SPARTAN-IV supersoldiers, the players' avatars for Infinity multiplayer. In contrast to previous Halo titles, Infinity is designed to "blur the lines" between fiction and multiplayer gameplay, with the various multiplayer modes being tied into Halo universe canon.

Background and development

Prior to the beginning of development on Halo 4, 343i General Manager Bonnie Ross and Franchise Development Director Frank O'Connor set the framework of the new studio's mission which entailed that all pieces of existing and future fiction from the games, novels, comics, etc. would be interwoven and share content from each other. Among this would be the multiplayer component for Halo 4, which would later include the introduction of Spartan Ops; " Wrapping the whole thing together allowed us to make sure that all the fiction in all of those pieces actually mattered – in this case, it connects directly to your career as well as the narrative experience."

War Games

An Overshield power-up drop.

Main article: War Games

Competitive multiplayer, known as "War Games," pits players against one another in adversarial combat training in simulated environments in the advanced combat deck of the Infinity. However, due to the emphasis on the SPARTAN-IV supersoldiers, players do not have the option to use Sangheili for their multiplayer character.

343 Industries is aiming to provide a "brand new experience" in Halo 4 multiplayer. This includes a reworking of the series' traditional balance system. For example, the player progression system is more extensive, allowing players to choose between various modifications which have an effect on gameplay, in addition to aesthetic armor permutations similar to the prior games. Players are also able to customize their loadouts, being able to choose between various armor abilities as well as new customizable features, known as Support Upgrades and Tactical Packages. Tactical Packages offer a small performance boost to a chosen gameplay feature, such as the player's shield or weapon carrying capacity. Support Upgrades function similarly, and feature such improvements as motion tracker upgrade and an increase in the player's maximum ammunition. Halo 4 also introduces a new gameplay enhancement feature referred to as "Specializations". Specializations unlock different armor sets, emblems, visor colors, weapon and armor skins, and armor mods, which work similar to tactical packages and support upgrades.

The multiplayer gameplay of Halo 4 has been described as being "much more fast-paced, more intense and visceral" than in the prior games. Weapon pickups on maps are marked on the player's heads-up display, and players are able to call in ordnance drops, containing power-ups or weapons, during War Games matches. Some multiplayer gametypes include Slayer, Infinity Slayer, and Regicide. Power-ups available in Infinity Slayer include Overshield, Damage Boost, and Speed Boost.

Maps

Unlike Halo: Reach, where the original multiplayer maps were shared in the campaign as gameplay spaces, all multiplayer maps in Halo 4 are purpose-built for multiplayer alone much like in the first three Halo games. 343 Industries cooperated with Certain Affinity in the production of the multiplayer maps for Halo 4.

Image	Map	Details	Availability
	Abandon	Location: UNSC research facility, Erebus VII Description: "On the remote world of Erebus VII, at the very edge of human-occupied space, an ONI research facility which was once teaming with researchers now lies eerily vacant. Although the hostility of this world had been initially considered by its team leaders, it is tragically clear that a great many ‘things’ had simply not been taken into account."	Launch
	Adrift	Location: UNSC ordnance transport ship; orbiting a gas giant in Kholo's system Description: "Although this CAA mining vessel was refitted as an ordnance transport, damage sustained during the Battle of Kholo has condemned it to an inescapable slide down the gravity well of a gas giant. On board, its automated systems continue unabated, their operations executed in eerie futility as they drift ever-closer to destruction."	Launch
	Complex	Location: Galileo Base, Requiem Description: "With the presence of numerous hostile entities on Requiem, ONI rigidly enforces a 'Persistent Field Resilience' mandate requiring that all science detachments (1) maintain onsite weapon caches, (2) optimize the site's layout to meet ONI spec for defensive emergencies, and (3) retain an escort of well-trained military personnel."	Launch
	Daybreak	Location: Saviron highlands, Oban Description: "Operation: DAYBREAK is a cluster of research facilities residing in the scenic highlands on the planet Oban. With the destruction of so many worlds at the hands of the Covenant, this planet is now undergoing preparations to make it a home for millions of human refugees. In the meantime, the UNSC Navy continues to use it as a key staging ground for a number of highly classified military exercises."	Castle Map Pack
	Exile	Location: UNSC Diadochi's crash site; in a canyon on an unknown and remote planet Description: "Miraculously, the survivors of the UNSC Diadochi's violent crash managed to not only recover provisions from the vessel's debris field, but also use it as a makeshift shelter for several years. When rescue and recovery teams finally arrived, they were surprised to discover a healthy, burgeoning community thriving within the ship's remains."	Launch
	Erosion	Location: Human facility of unknown function in a cave on Eudemon Description: "With hundreds of human colonies now razed in the wake of the Covenant War, the UNSC has dispatched large numbers of advanced pioneer groups to survey potential new worlds. The discovery of Eudemon X49-05 was considered lucky, but concerns remain about the moon’s structural integrity."	Launch
	Harvest	Location: Harvest Description: "Harvest is the doomed agricultural planet where humans first made contact with the Covenant."	Crimson Map Pack
	Haven	Location: Solar Preservation System facility; high above Requiem Description: "Resting high above Requiem’s surface, harmonic-resonance platforms appear to facilitate the monitoring and management of the shield world’s solar preservation system. These elaborate machines enable artificial planets to support their immense populations of indigenous life."	Launch
	Impact	Location: Empty UNSC facility situated on an asteroid in unknown space Description: "This observation outpost was established to examine the site of a spectacularly violent meteor collision recorded by an ONI patrol drone in 2547. When researchers first arrived, they were startled to find a non-native fragment of the impacting agent had actually survived and was of unknown origin. More recently, interest in the site has grown as the fragment has proven to have originated from long before the earliest of known Forerunner artifacts."	Launch
	Landfall	Location: Casbah, Tribute Description: "Before it fell to the Covenant, the world of Tribute was a bright beacon of commerce among the inner colonies. Although this planet is now a graveyard due to its violent razing, the port city of Casbah was once the site of a legendary battle between a Spartan fireteam and the entire Covenant invasion force. These few soldiers would ultimately give their lives, affording a handful of civilians safe passage from the colony."	Majestic Map Pack
	Longbow	Location: Longbow Station, Northern Polar Region, Concord Description: "The frigid climate and unique gravitational conditions of Concord’s northern polar region provide an optimal perch for Longbow Station’s channel-based mass drivers. Before the Covenant War, the UEG launched deep space monitoring relays from here in an effort to study far-flung star systems."	Launch
	Meltdown	Location: Unknown Description: "While most Forerunner technology appears to support safe usage over immense passages of time, the failure of specific systems can cause a cascading effect which dramatically impacts a site’s foundational composition. This frigid moon’s icy conditions once served to control a Forerunner reactor’s intense heat, but those days are now long gone."	Launch
	Monolith	Location: Ancient Forerunner monument, unknown asteroid belt near Sothra Hakkor Description: "For over fifty years, the war between the Forerunners and ancient humans claimed uncountable lives. After the final victory, it is believed that the Didact personally ordered the construction of a number of monuments throughout the last bastion of human resistance, including the asteroid belt near the core world of Sothra Hakkor. These structures would serve as a reminder of the heavy cost of war and, unmistakably, the threat humankind could pose."	Majestic Map Pack
	Outcast	Location: Talitsa Description: "One of the few worlds left unscathed by the Covenant, the remote outer colony of Talitsa has always had a strong anti-centralization and pro-colonial autonomy sentiment, even since before the war. The UNSC halted several early political uprisings in the colony’s major population centers, but this only fostered a more radical form of dissent, now in the form of secluded and heavily armed redoubts. Ultimately, these sites would provide the foundation for a number of major political movements."	Castle Map Pack
	Perdition	Location: Pilvros, New Carthage Description: "New Carthage has always been a prime example of a healthy, growing colony, even since before the war. Hidden below the city of Pilvros, is however, one of the thermal reactors which provided clean and safe energy in the past has now gone critical. While a large-scale evacuation effort is underway, scans of the reactor section are quickly acquired to help analysts determine the root cause of this impending disaster."	Castle Map Pack
	Ragnarok	Location: Requiem Description: "Ragnarok is set in an area where some scientists believe that the Forerunners placed spire beacons within deep chasms to protect them from offworld debris and other external threats, while others believe they used the steep environment’s natural harmonics to amplify signals when firing deep into space."	Launch
	Ravine	Location: Requiem Description: "When ONI dispatched its first expeditionary group to this sector, it was believed that these impressive citadels were individual constructs strategically organized to protect this portion of Requiem. Teams on the ground now believe that they are actually the ramparts and battlements of an impossibly large structure below the surface of the sea."	Launch
	Shatter	Location: Mining factory in a Chi Ceti IV's moon Description: "Excessive volcanic activity may bring an end to the Materials Group's mining operation on Chi Ceti IV's moon.	Crimson Map Pack
	Skyline	Location: Station Nova Austin, Mindoro, Cascade Description: "With efforts to rebuild in the aftermath of the Covenant War, several major industrial corporations based out of Cascade’s capital city of Mindoro now assist with the construction of a new space tether. When complete, this tether’s terminus – Station Nova Austin – will be the world’s most important commercial spaceport. Intriguingly, and despite the relative safety of this skyward perch, combat analysts believe that the rooftop terrain here is an ideal training environment for close-quarters infantry combat. "	Majestic Map Pack
	Solace	Location: Unidentified Forerunner Installation Description: "According to data retrived from these installations, Forerunner stellar engineers, colloquially dubbed 'plasma jockeys,' were capable of suspending perilous death of certain stars. Due to tremendous volumes of energy involved in this process, such endeavors were rarely entertained, much less executed."	Launch
	Vortex	Location: Requiem's equatorial cavern Description: "The Forerunner structures which occupy Requiem’s equatorial caverns appear to generate power by harnessing its violent squalls. Onsite personnel believe that a full understanding of such a technology would offer the UEG substantial amounts of affordable, clean energy. Nevertheless, its internal mechanisms remain enigmatic."	Launch
	Wreckage	Location: Unknown Line Installation Description: "One of many attempts to contain the Flood, Line installations were designed to viciously force down any ships within range."	Crimson Map Pack

Spartan Ops

A group of SPARTAN-IVs preparing to suit up in one of Spartan Ops' pre-rendered cinematics.

Main article: Spartan Ops

Spartan Ops is a secondary campaign and a replacement to the Firefight mode featured in Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach. Much like traditional campaign cooperative play, Spartan Ops allows up to four players to participate in weekly objective-based episodic missions; this new mode is being likened to a second full-scale campaign for the game. Set six months after the end of the Halo 4 campaign, Spartan Ops continues the story of the UNSC Infinity and her crew, putting players in the role of SPARTAN-IV Fireteam Crimson as they embark on missions across Requiem. Compared to a season of a television program, each "episode" of Spartan Ops features a pre-rendered cinematic and five playable missions complete with new events, characters, locations, and gameplay challenges, totaling up to 12 hours of new gameplay. The development of Spartan Ops has seen the largest influx of new characters, along with corresponding facial and voice talent, and gameplay/sandbox elements into any property of the Halo franchise since 2001. 343 Industries will be supporting additional Spartan Ops missions for months after launch of the game and unlike Reach challenges, players have the opportunity to play from the beginning of the episodic campaign regardless of when they started playing. The first "season" is included with the price of the game, though 343i has not ruled out charging players for additional Spartan Ops seasons. Frank O'Connor has stated that Spartan Ops will "bridge the gap" between the events of Halo 4 and the future release of its sequel Halo 5.

The development of Spartan Ops came to fruition under the ideals of persistent, fresh replayability and small additions to the fiction surrounding the Reclaimer Trilogy and ancillary content. Each episode of the series, gameplay-wise, is set up with meaning to enhance the significance of the events you are playing through, and as such, simplistic single-objective missions will not be a focus of Spartan Ops. Frank O'Connor in an interview with The Guardian states that the stories and events have been loosely laid out for "a few years"; the success or failure of Spartan Ops may lead to a continuation of the series past 2012-2013 with a "known beginning, a middle, and an end." The first season of Spartan Ops as of June 2012 has been noted as being "very rigid" with the direction of the story having already been mapped out from beginning to end.

Season One will consist of ten episodes and a total of fifty missions (five missions per episode) released following the launch of Halo 4. Spartan Ops Season One will run from its premiere alongside Halo 4's worldwide release on November 6th, 2012 to early 2013, with the first five episodes being released on a weekly basis following the launch and the second half (episodes 6-10) following in early 2013, beginning with the release of Episode 6 on January 21.

Forge

Main article: Forge

Forge, the multiplayer map editing feature first included in Halo 3, returns for Halo 4. It was first shown to public audiences at the Rooster Teeth Expo on July 7th, 2012 in a presentation highlighting various new features included with this newest iteration of Forge mode. Co-developed with Certain Affinity, the Halo 4 Forge mode has three dedicated maps with unique object palettes and a number of improvements over its predecessors, including the ability to use "magnets" to snap objects to one another or duplicate any object at will.