Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries has taken us behind the scenes on how it made the weapon noises for the upcoming Xbox Series X shooter.
Going by a video uploaded to YouTube, the studio’s audio team has spent an awful lot of time shooting things and blowing things up in the name of bringing the game’s weaponry to life. That includes the sounds of the weapons themselves, as well as the noises they make when they impact on various surfaces.
This includes more ‘typical’ weapons, such as pistols, what appears to be an actual hand cannon, submachine guns, shotguns, machine guns and various flavours of rifles, but the Halo developers also were playing around with slightly more hardcore armaments, including what looks like a mortar. All of which is pretty wild, as a British person who isn’t used to having massive firearms just knocking about the house or available to purchase in supermarkets.
There are some pretty creative solutions to getting some more outlandish sounding, um, sounds, like firing a catapult at various surfaces for different results. This isn’t the first time that 343 has come up with novel ways of creating audio effects for Halo Infinite. Last year, the studio’s technical art director brought their dog in to help create some of the game’s sound effects.
Halo Infinite is a “spiritual reboot” of the franchise that was first revealed back at E3 2019 before being shown off properly in a broadcast in July. Many fans felt that what they saw was something of a letdown, likely because what was shown was an early build of the game.
343 has admitted that it has “work to do” when it comes to Halo Infinite’s graphics.
Regardless, development on Master Chief’s new romp has been difficult, with reports pointing to heavy outsourcing causing troubles. Last month, the game’s director Chris Lee stepped away from the project. He is the latest high profile developer to leave Halo Infinite, following creative director Tim Longo’s departure in August 2019, ahead of his successor, Mary Olson, the following October.
Halo Infinite was set to launch alongside the Xbox Series X/S on November 10, but the game was pushed back until 2021 earlier in the year.
