Halo Infinite Campaign Gameplay Premiere

Not to be confused with Halo Infinite Campaign Gameplay Overview.

The Halo Infinite Campaign Gameplay Premiere was the campaign demo for Halo Infinite shown during the Xbox Games Showcase on July 23, 2020.^[1] This demo uses an in-progress version of Pelican Down, besides retaining major gameplay features as well as story, the graphics were improved compared to what was shown in the demo.

Transcript

We see a black screen with as Echo 216's pilot speaks.

28TH MAY 2560 is superimposed.

Pilot: Am I dead already? I...I must be, I mean.

167 DAYS AFTER WE LOST is superimposed below the date.

Pilot: This is a punishment, right?

As the pilot speaks, the date fades out, leaving only the date counter which sits on-screen for four seconds before we cut to:

The interior of Echo 216's cockpit, with John-117 standing behind the pilot. The Pelican jostles as a red light flashes and sparks fly from a panel on the bulkhead.

Pilot: Yep. This is death.

We pan around to look out the cockpit window. An explosion appears on a cliff just ahead of them. On the Pelican's front console, a caution indicator is present. As the Pelican passes through the explosion, the scenery of the installation is revealed, including a large anti-aircraft cannon that sits on a plateau directly ahead. It fires, resulting in an explosion immediately in front of the Pelican. The Pelican begins an abrupt dive and the caution indicator changes to a striped alert.

Pilot: No! No!

The Pelican banks to port and we swing to see the pilot in his seat as sparks fly from the forward console.

Pilot: No no no no!

The Pelican levels out right in front of another anti-aircraft cannon. It fires, hitting the Pelican. The Pelican makes a half-roll to starboard as the camera swings around to show the pilot.

Pilot: This isn't happening...!

The camera swings around to show the Pelican coming in for a crash landing in a river as the pilot speaks.

Pilot: I'm going to have to make an emergency landing!

Water splashes up over the cockpit window as the Pelican lands in the shallow river.

Pilot: Hold on, Chief.

Out the window, we see the Pelican headed straight for a large piece of debris. As it collides with the debris, the camera swings around to show the Chief and the pilot. The pilot grits his teeth and we hear a faint thud. The screen cuts to black.

We hear another faint thud and a soft ringing of the ears. As the screen fades back in, the pilot is unconscious, leaning forward in his seat. The Chief grabs his shoulder and pulls him back. The pilot regains consciousness with a heavy gasp.

Pilot (angrily): No! Get...! No! You! I can't! Stand this! Oh, you are...!

John-117 (calmly): Breathe.

Pilot (irritated): No! You don't get to tell me what to do! You don't get to tell me anything! We're...

The pilot looks at the Chief.

Pilot (irritated): Are you even listening?!

The Chief is staring out the cockpit window.

John-117: I count three anti-aircraft cannons.

Pilot: Three what?!

The Chief turns to leave the cockpit.

John-117: You'll be safe here.

Pilot (irritated): Oh? I'll be safe?!

He lets out a mirthless chuckle. The pilot's seat slides back as he unbuckles. He gets out of the seat to follow the Chief to the passenger/cargo area.

Pilot (irritated): Safe?! I haven't been "safe" since I found you! I found you, remember?!

The camera pans around the Chief to the aft of the passenger/cargo area.

Pilot (irritated): You were out there on your own, and you'd still be there if it wasn't for me! I thought I was going home!

The camera pans around to face the Chief.

John-117: There won't be a home if we don't stop the Banished.

The camera continues around behind the pilot.

Pilot: You keep saying that. We're outgunned, outnumbered.

The pilot turns to point.

Pilot: I know I saw Condors over there.

He pivots back around, clenching his fist.

Pilot: I'm going to dig through them and find one with a working Slipspace drive, and when you're done with this war we get away from here.

John and the Pilot speaking to one another.

As the pilot finishes speaking, the Pelican's bay door opens.

Pilot: Far away.

John-117: Wait here.

The Chief heads for the door. The pilot quickly catches up, grabbing the Chief's arm.

Pilot: Woah, woah. Please.

He lets go of the Chief's arm.

Pilot: Let me see what I can find.

John-117: Cannons first. When I get back...we can look. Together.

The pilot lets out a small huff through his nose and walks back towards the cockpit.

Pilot: Okay, big guy.

The pilot retreats back into the Pelican as we transition to gameplay.

The Chief equips an MA40 assault rifle and exits the Pelican.

Grunt: Where are ya human?

He looks around at the landscape of Installation 07. As he walks, several small creatures skitter on the ground as we hear plasma pistol rounds and Grunts chattering to his right.

Grunt: Open up to fire!

He walks over a small hill, and engages the Grunts on the other side. Once he kills the Grunts, he reloads and multiple yellow hexagons appear as his shields recharge. He walks across a small wetland, observing a large piece of starship debris that has landed nearby, immediately starboard of the Pelican's crash landing site. As he observes the debris, a Banished Phantom comes into view, and the Chief tracks it as it crosses the sky and observes it as it lands. He sprints to a nearby Warthog and drives it through a small debris field below the large debris and up a hillside, towards the Banished Phantom. He engages his TACMAP, interacting with the icons for the three anti-aircraft batteries, setting the western battery as his target. He closes his TACMAP and resumes driving across the wetland, being engaged by Grunts as he takes his Warthog off a cliffside ramp.

Grunt: Hostile drivin' around!

He lands, continuing forward, being engaged by Grunts and Jackals, which he splatters with his Warthog.

Grunt: Stop! Stop! Whoa!

He continues forward briefly before disembarking and engaging a Grunt directly in front of him. He kills the Grunt with the butt of his MA40, pivots left to see an Elite and a Grunt in a small bunker, switches to his MK50 Sidekick, engaging and killing the Grunt.

Elite: He killed a grunt... Incoming fire!

He throws a frag grenade at another Grunt on the far side of the bunker, before killing it with a headshot, immediately prior to the grenade detonating. He re-equips his MA40 and engages the Elite, killing it at close range with a melee. He leaves the bunker and swaps his MA40 for a VK78 Commando. He is engaged from the left by two Grunts - one with a plasma pistol, the other with a needler.

Grunt: Hit 'em in the head! unintelligible

He pivots left and engages them with his VK78, killing them, then reloads. He looks up at a "pillared" cliff face and sees a platform elevator descend from the top of the cliff. His shields recharge as he sprints up a ramp towards the elevator. From the sky, three streaks of red light appear, ending with the impact of Banished drop pods. The doors blow off and two Brutes emerge. He engages the first with his VK78.

Brute: I'll tear you apart!

The chief sticks the Brute with a plasma grenade before taking several steps back. The grenade detonates, killing the Brute.

Brute: I've got you now!

The Chief retreats down the ramp as the Brute charges him, firing his VK78 at the charging Brute. He finishes the Brute with a melee kill from his VK78 and reloads. He walks over to a nearby ammo dump and grabs a drop wall and spike grenades. The third drop pod lands as the Chief is getting the equipment. He emerges from the ammo dump and deploys the drop wall as the Brute throws a spike grenade. The grenade sticks to the drop wall and detonates. The Brute engages the Chief, its rounds hitting the drop wall, while his VK78 rounds pass through the drop wall to hit the Brute. The Chief emerges from behind the drop wall to engage the Brute. He fires several rounds, destroying his helmet, before leaping towards the Brute. He uses his grappleshot to quickly bring himself to the Brute and sticks it with a spike grenade.

Brute: This is the end!

The Chief backs away as the Brute uses its jetpack to take to the air. The spike grenade detonates, killing the Brute, causing it to crash back to the ground. He grabs the Brute's Veporokk Workshop Ravager, switches to his MK50 and reloads. He continues to the lift and activates it. As the lift goes up, the Chief takes in the scenery. Some avian creatures fly past, and then are again seen as the Chief reaches the top. He looks around further at the scenery before seeing a Banished Phantom approaching, which then turns and continues on. A Jackal emerges from behind a cargo crate, which the Chief engages, but doesn't kill, before switching to the Ravager, which he uses on an engaging Grunt. He reloads just in time to see a Grunt with an armed plasma grenade flying at him, having been thrown by a Brute.

Grunt: Screw you!

The detonation of the plasma grenade depletes his shields as he kills a Jackal. He climbs on a nearby crate, and jumps, engaging another Jackal. He lands as he kills a Grunt. He switches his MK50 for a nearby Erudo'ma'keth-pattern pulse carbine. From a pair of nearby bunkers, more enemies emerge as the Chief switches back to his Ravager. He engages and kills a Grunt that came from the right bunker.

Brute: Die for the Banished!

Grunt: Oh yeah!

He switches to the pulse carbine and engages the left bunker enemies before pivoting and engaging Grunts to his right, killing one. He switches back to the Ravager to engage the Brute, then quickly switches back to the pulse carbine, the Brute having drained his shields.

Brute: You'll die-!

He kills the Brute and a Grunt that was behind the Brute.

Grunt: You can't kill me! I'm too small to kill me.

He pivots right and fires his pulse carbine into a bunker, detonating the fusion cores inside. He engages a Jackal just outside the bunker, overheating his pulse carbine, and switches to his Ravager.

Jackal: unintelligible. You do!

His shields recharge and he kills the Jackal. The Chief turns right.

Grunt: Take tha- whoa-oh!

His Ravager depleted, he walks to a nearby supply dump and swaps his pulse carbine for a Mangler. He looks up at the anti-aircraft battery and scans the area. He sprints to a nearby cliffside and grapples up, encountering a Grunt. He charges forward and melees the Grunt with his Mangler, killing it. He pushes forward and sees a Bolroci Workshop Shade on a short cliff, which begins firing at him, but not before he can take cover behind a rock. He engages a pair of Grunts to the right of the rock, killing them. He sees a Fusion coil next to a bunker and uses his grappleshot to pull it to him. He emerges from behind the rock and throws it at the Shade, disabling the Shade's shield. It pivots to engage the Chief, but the occupant is killed before it can. He walks up a short dirt ramp, passing the Shade, and engaging a Brute, Jackals and Grunts. The Chief throws a spike grenade past the Brute.

Grunt: I got one!

Brute: Fire...unintelligible. unintelligible. He threw a grenade!

The Brute dives to the side. The Chief continues engaging the enemies with his Mangler.

Grunt: This is the...unintelligible boys, let's go!

The Chief mounts the Shade and pivots around.

Jackal: Kill the human!

Brute: I saw him...unintelligible.

He opens fire on the enemies and nearby fusion cores. He dismounts and kills fires at the Brute with the Mangler before swapping it for a nearby CQS48 Bulldog, using it to kill the Brute. He sprints towards a small crate.

Brute: You should've protected it!

Brute: Make me!

Grunt: Help! Behind us!

The Chief jumps over the crate, killing the Jackal behind it with the CQS48, fires a shot at the Brute, who fires back, knocking the Chief's shields offline, and sticks the Brute with a plasma grenade before pivoting and firing a shot at an Elite, draining its shields. He jumps and fires another shot, killing it. His shields recharge as he turns around reloads the shotgun.

Brute: Today you-!

He fires at the Brute, killing it. He turns around, swaps to his Ravager, then back to the CQS48 and jumps over a crate, engaging an Elite and two Grunts just past a large rock.

Grunt: He's here! It's over!

He kills one Grunt, then engages the Elite, knocking out its shields, and then uses his grappleshot to rapidly approach the Elite, landing a killing blow with his forearm as the last Grunt knocks out the Chief's shields. He kills the last Grunt then enters an adjacent gravity lift, carrying him up into the anti-aircraft cannon. He lands inside the control room, approaches a console and pushes the controls. After he does, a klaxon sounds and alarm lights activate, followed by the room's doors closing.

Voice: The UNSC lost this war months ago.

As he speaks, the local topographic map behind the console changes into an armored Brute with one eye, who turns to face the Chief.

We cut to a montage as the Brute, Escharum, speaks:

SCENE: Echo 216's pilot runs into the rear of his Pelican.

Escharum: Your people are

SCENE: Echo 216's pilot falls down a hole inside a ship or craft.

Escharum: broken.

We cut back to the hologram of Escharum.

Escharum: Scattered. Hunted!

SCENE: Echo 216's pilot wipes the frost off of the cockpit window of his Pelican to see the Chief floating in space.

Escharum: Defeated!

We cut back to the hologram of Escharum.

Escharum (menacingly): By me.

Escharum smirks menacingly as he continues.

SCENE: Echo 216's pilot walks towards a giant hole filled with starship debris and falls to his knees in sorrow.

Escharum: I wish I could tell you it was difficult.

We cut back to the hologram of Escharum.

Escharum: But it wasn't. (laughs)

SCENE: Inside Echo 216, the Chief is viewing a room-filling hologram. At the center is Echo 216, and around it are triangular markers labeled "UNSC INFINITY" and are accompanied by either a UNSC emblem, an ONI emblem, or an SOEIV silhouette. As Escharum speaks, they all change to red DECEASED and are replaced with red X's.

Escharum: We are one step ahead! Always!

SCENE: The Chief sees Installation 07 out Echo 216's cockpit window.

Escharum (proudly): The ring is already under our control!

SCENE: The Chief and Echo 216's pilot look at a hologram of Installation 07.

Escharum: Soon, the Auditorium as well.

We cut back to the hologram of Escharum.

Escharum: The Harbinger and the Banished share the same goal! We fight together to honor the will of Atriox! But...

Escharum turns to the left/his right.

Escharum: But, without challenge, I grew...weary. Lost. Alone. But... (smiles)

Escharum turns back to face the Chief. The hologram transitions into the real Escharum.

Escharum: ...here you now stand.

Escharum bares his fangs as white lights flicker in the dark room behind him.

Escharum (emphatically): This is my last fight. A true test of legends! Our story will outlive us both. Set a fire in your heart, Spartan! Bare your fangs! Fight hard! Die well.

CUT TO BLACK

Halo Infinite Holiday 2020

A slowed-down version of four notes of the Halo theme play as the words finish appearing.