Halo Studios’ free-to-play Xbox and PC live-service shooter Halo Infinite is officially no longer getting major updates as the developer moves on to Halo: Campaign Evolved and whatever’s next for Xbox’s flagship FPS, but that doesn’t mean the game’s passionate Forge community isn’t hard at work creating amazing fan-made experiences for players to enjoy.
We’ve seen everything from remakes of campaign missions from past games and hilarious Pokémon battle arenas to incredible Baldur’s Gate 3-style RPG combat encounters and even a Helldivers 2-inspired mode come to Halo Infinite thanks to Forge and its forgers. One very special new creation, though, might just be the wildest thing somebody’s made with the mapmaking tool yet.
I won’t spoil the specifics of the raid here, but after watching the full video, seeing Shard of Ascension in full — three action-heavy puzzle encounters and a final boss fight — and speaking as a longtime Destiny 2 player and raider until recently, I can say that the raid is, without a doubt, an incredible achievement.
It has everything players love about Destiny raids — plenty of combat, baseline mechanics that get utilized in creative new ways as the raid progresses, and even a platforming section to balance the pacing — adapted perfectly to Halo and the design goals MadmanEpic outlined.
It’s not a stretch whatsoever to call it a masterpiece, especially since MadmanEpic built it all themselves in just six months, finding remarkably creative solutions to deal with Forge’s limitations.
It even has a cool plot and setting, with the raid taking place on the Alpha Shard (a shard of the destroyed Halo ring from Halo: Combat Evolved), and a fireteam of Spartans tasked with stopping Iratus — the antagonistic Banished AI from Halo Infinite’s multiplayer story — from hooking into and taking over a powerful Forerunner network.
Shard of Ascension is so good that players are clamoring for Bungie to hire MadmanEpic to its Raid and Dungeon (RAD) team, and in the comments of the devlog, two individuals claiming to be developers (one of which says they work on Destiny) have praised their creation and their talent highly, with one saying the “right eyes are indeed watching.”
Of course, there’s no way to know for sure if these are actually developers. Regardless, I really hope someone picks up MadmanEpic, both because they’ve said they’re looking for a job and because they’ve clearly got some amazing level design talent. Fingers crossed.
What do you think of the Shard of Ascension raid? Will you download or come back to Halo Infinite to check it out? Would you like to see Halo experiment with Destiny-style raids in future games? Let me know in the comments.
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