Halo Infinite won't have assassinations at launch, but they're coming later

Assassinations are gone for now, but will be back.

During a Halo Infinite technical preview livestream that premiered ahead of the first Halo Infinite beta test, 343 Industries' Lead Multiplayer Designer Tom French confirmed that assassinations will not be in Halo Infinite at launch, but will eventually make their way into the game at a later date.

Assassinations — fancy killmoves that allow players to execute enemies they catch off guard from behind — have become a fan-favorite part of the franchise ever since they were introduced in Halo: Reach. However, 343 Industries has chosen to remove them from Halo Infinite for launch because of the fact that they put the player performing the assassination at great risk without any gameplay benefit. "Back-smacking," or simply hitting a player in the back with a standard melee, kills them in one hit as well. Therefore, there's really no point to using assassinations.

With that said, the developer has also confirmed that after assassinations receive a rework of some kind, they will be added into Halo Infinite post-launch. Perhaps the developers will make it so that successfully performing an assassination will grant players a small overshield or temporary damage boost? Only time will tell, but we're interested to see how the developers plan to evolve assassination kills after Halo Infinite's release.

Halo Infinite is expected to launch for $60 on all current Xbox consoles as well as Windows 10 (and Windows 11) PCs. The singleplayer side of the game looks like it will cost $60, although the multiplayer will be free. The Halo Infinite beta is also going live for the first time from July 29 to August 1, so make sure you sign up to help 343 Industries test the game (for more on this, catch our guide on how to play the Halo Infinite beta).

The next adventure in the saga

Halo Infinite

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A new Great Journey awaits

Halo Infinite is the biggest Xbox game of the year by far, and based on both the beta and what we saw at E3 2021, it looks like it's going to be fantastic.