Halo Infinite is looking a lot better in these 4K screenshots

We got our first look at Halo Infinite, the next game in Microsoft’s huge franchise, back in July, and the results were… underwhelming. The graphics and visuals weren’t quite as impressive as you might expect from a next-generation game (the demo was running on a PC “that is representative of the experience that players will have on Xbox Series X”), and one vacant-looking enemy even became the infamous Craig meme. The game was delayed to 2021 a few weeks after the demo aired “to ensure the team has adequate time to deliver a Halo game experience that meets our vision.”

On Thursday, though, developer 343 Industries shared new screenshots of Halo Infinite in 4K from an in-development PC version of the game, and the graphics look much better. We’ve included a few of the images below, and I recommend checking the full-sized versions on the Halo Waypoint blog and zooming in — the screenshots are packed with detail. (We’ve also included direct links to the full-size images in captions.)

As you’re looking at these, there are a few caveats to keep in mind: we don’t know how powerful this PC is, we aren’t seeing the game in motion, we don’t have a great idea of how the game now looks on consoles, and marketing images don’t always translate to what you might see in the final product. Still, for Halo fans who have been looking forward to Halo Infinite, these screenshots make it seem like the game will look pretty good on the right hardware.

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The game will also have a day / night cycle, which you can see play out in this collage of images put together by 343 Industries.

And if you want to compare earlier screenshots to how the game looks now, check out this comparison from @AidanEStranger on Twitter.

Halo Infinite is set to launch in fall 2021.