Halo Infinite originally had an open world similar to Breath of the Wild

Halo Infinite's open-world was reportedly cut back from a "Zelda-like experience."

This new detail comes from a report published earlier today by Bloomberg, speaking to anonymous sources familiar with the fairly tumultuous development of Halo Infinite. According to the report, developer 343 decided to cut out nearly two-thirds of Halo Infinite's existing campaign development in Summer 2019, vastly scaling back its open world.

If you're unfamiliar, Halo Infinite features an open-world for the very first time in the history of the storied series. According to the new report however, this open world was meant to be far larger in scale, similar to that of a Zelda game, and was actually going to be designed in a similar sense to that of 2017's The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

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Now though, Halo Infinite finally launches today on December 8, a year removed from being delayed out of Fall 2020. It's been an extremely long road from conception to the launch of the Master Chief's latest adventure, as this new report from Bloomberg makes very clear, but now the end is finally in sight for 343's bold sequel. To see what we made of our full playthrough of the new entry in Xbox's iconic saga, head over to our Halo Infinite review for more.