Halo Infinite has finally come out! Well, the multiplayer beta has, at least, though the campaign is close. This free-to-play side of the game was released right in the middle of November, and people have been ravenously playing it since.
That said, Halo Infinite’s controls take a bit of getting used to, and there are quite a few settings most players might want to change before even hopping into a game, whether it’s on a controller or on keyboard and mouse, as these little changes can make a pretty big impact on gameplay.
12 Low Anti-Aliasing: Video Settings
Can decreasing a graphical setting actually improve the experience? It sure can! Anti-aliasing is generally a good thing in games because it smoothes out textures and figures, making them more blurry as they get more distant to simulate accurate visual representation.
But what Halo: Infinite fanatics need isn’t worse vision, they need better vision. The game will look a little less realistic and more jagged as a result, sure, since Master Chief can now see perfectly at any range. But that’s how players who put together unbelievable killstreaks get an advantage.
11 Low Shadow Quality: Video Settings
There are two major reasons to run the game with the minimum possible shadow quality. The first is rather simple; the game’s shadows are very good, even with them nearly shut off. They aren’t as good as the ultra settings, certainly, but only a very perceptive player can tell the difference.
Also, according to most community members and professional analysis, the single largest video settings contributor to framerate drop is tied to increasing shadow quality. Shading might make the comic book better, but it makes the multiplayer worse.
10 Field Of View At 100 Or Higher: Video Settings
This is a must-change in just about every multiplayer game, and especially every multiplayer shooting. The Field of View is the player’s literal line-of-sight and how “wide” and “tall” their fictional character’s eyes can see. The higher the number gets, the more players can see in both their horizontal and vertical peripherals.
That said, it does sort of have this fish-eye lens effect past a certain level, so the standard recommendation is to crank it to around 100 or about as high as it seems comfortable.
9 Compressed Mode: Audio Settings
With apologies to all of the audio fidelity purists out there, the compressed audio mode leads to winning more games. The dynamic mode boasts that “Loud sounds are loud, and quiet sounds are quiet.” But the issue here is that pro players need to hear those quiet sounds.
Footsteps, picking up weapons, swinging a melee weapon, all of these are nearly undetectable with dynamic sound. With compressed audio, these quieter sounds become easier to pick up on, leading to better response times. Also, don’t forget that while players are wishing loading screens had maps, there is no radar in ranked more, so this becomes all the more important.
8 Environmental Effects To 0: Audio Settings
Don’t let anybody say that Halo Infinite doesn’t have an active audio environment. On any given map, players can hear birds chirping, engines running, gears grinding, or water flowing. It’s a wonderful experience for those who don’t have to listen for the footsteps of their opponents.
But shutting these environmental effects completely off, players know that anything they hear is produced by another player. In single-player, there are some mods that improve the game, but for multiplayer, it’s less about immersion and more about hunting.
7 Screen Shake & Blur Both Off: Accessibility Settings
Once again, these are both settings that many experienced gamers make sure and look to turn off in just about every single title they play.
And, these are of course the Screen Shake and Blur options. Motion Blur, while it looks good for those watching from afar, is nothing more than a nuisance to the player themselves. And, Screen Shake is good for cinematic moments in a campaign, but it ruins visibility in a multiplayer setting. So, going into the Accessibility options (or the bottom of Video options) in Infinite and sliding both of these to zero percent will have an almost immediate effect on gameplay, as seen with Dr. Disrespect.
6 Speed Lines Off: Accessibility Settings
Next up is another option within the Accessibility tab of the Options menu, as there are quite a few useful options in here. Stuff like Exposure or Sharpening is highly dependant on the player, but the Speed Lines effect that Halo Infinite uses is pretty much disliked by just about everyone who has played the game thus far.
It’s not that the effect looks bad or anything, but rather because the speed lines have a bit of animation to them and are at the edges of the screen, it accidentally tricks players into thinking that they’re getting shot at. This doesn’t happen to every player, obviously, so if the Speed Lines don’t trip the player up, they don’t need to change it.
5 Reticle Outline Opacity & Thickness Maxed Out: Accessibility Settings
Halo is a relatively unique franchise in that just about every gun has some unique crosshair or visual information it presents to the player while wielded. Usually, games let players customize the crosshair themselves, and some special guns might have their own special crosshair when used, such as a grenade launcher or mounted turret.
While there are pros and cons to Halo’s crosshair systems, turning up the Reticle Outline Opacity and Thickness in the Accessibility options is just a net gain all around. It’s very rare that a player will prefer to play without a crosshair, so having it as visually apparent as possible will absolutely help out.
4 UI Verticle & Horizontal Display Margin Adjusted Slightly: UI Settings
This might just be more of an individual issue, but the HUD/UI in Halo Infinite is a great UI design, but not the best User Experience design. Equipment, Grenades, and Weapons all have names, but they only pop up for a second in the bottom right and aren’t immediately readable, rather than constantly having the name up with a hard drop-shadow. This means, more often than not, that players have to memorize all the iconography for the different equipment, grenades, and so on.
And, on top of that, it’s so far tucked in the corner! It’s hard to focus on everything that’s happening in a Big Team Battle normally, but when players have to look at the far edges of their screen for their radar or to see if they actually switched grenades (as grenades are so incredibly strong right now), it can be a problem. Thankfully, players can use the Horizontal and Vertical Display Margin settings in the UI tab to bring all those UI elements a bit closer to the player’s line of sight.
3 Weapon Offsets Comfortably On-Screen: Accessibility Settings
The next option to change on here is about as hyper-specific as it gets, and it’s the Weapon Offsets. No, not the Crosshair Offset like one would expect, but rather this option changes where the gun in the player’s view sits, whether it’s closer to the left, right, if it’s higher up on the screen, or even closer to the player’s chest.
Now, this might not seem like it would make a difference, but people get used to very minute things in shooters, and some guns in Halo take up a lot of camera space. Giving players the ability to have their guns sit right where they want them is just a nice quality-of-life option.
2 Zoom Level & Mouse Acceleration Fine-Tuned: Keyboard/Mouse Settings
The Zoom Sensitivity setting in the Keyboard/Mouse tab of Infinite’s options doesn’t actually control how far the ADS for guns actually zooms in, as many players though. Rather, players select a Zoom level, adjust the sensitivity, and that changes how sensitive the aiming is while using that specific level of zoom. A lot of guns in Infinite use 1.4x Zoom, for example, while longer-ranged options may have 3.0x Zoom.
There are also the Mouse Acceleration settings that change how far the mouse moves across the screen depending on how quickly the player moves the mouse (AKA flick shots). Make sure this setting is enabled if needed, and play around with the minimum, maximum, and scale of the acceleration until it feels perfect. And, for players on a controller, not having this setting is fine since the innate Aim Assist is so incredibly good.
1 General Keybinding Changes: Keybinding Settings
Lastly, Halo Infinite has a lot of odd default keybindings. It has:
Now, for many players, this all sounds fine. But, there are likely players reading this that were at least slightly disgusted by the thought of using Ctrl for crouch rather than C. And, since most modern mouses have at least two side-buttons, people tend to use this for melee rather than keyboard input.
So, players just starting up Infinite for the first time should absolutely sit down and fiddle with these in a custom or bot game until it all feels comfortable.
Halo Infinitereleases on December 8 for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The multiplayer beta is available now.
