Master Chief’s Original Designer Shares His Thoughts On Halo Infinite

Marcus Lehto, the original designer of Master Chief and one of the chief architects of the entire series, has shared his thoughts on Halo Infinite. After playing the campaign over the holidays, Lehto said Halo Infinite’s campaign “brings back the magic of Halo,” even if he did have some issues with the game.

“Hats off to my friends at 343,” Lehto said. “Halo Infinite campaign brings back the magic of Halo. Really enjoying my time back with the Chief!” Lehto added that it wasn’t a perfect experience, though, as the designer remarked that he was having some issues with regards to the objective priorities on the open world map. “Common problem or an OK Boomer issue?” he said with a laugh in another tweet.

Lehto worked on the original Halo: Combat Evolved as its art director and is the co-creator of the entire Halo universe. He worked on Halo’s sequels at Bungie before leaving to start his own studio, V1 Interactive, which released one game, Disintegration, before the company closed. Lehto is now a game director at a new Electronic Arts studio in Seattle that will develop new narrative components to the Battlefield series as part of a wider shake-up of the franchise.

After a lengthy delay and what sounds like a difficult development period, Halo Infinite’s campaign launched in December 2021 to great success, with many strong reviews for the sci-fi shooter. The game’s free-to-play multiplayer element was released in November and is being praised as well, though some believe its microtransactions are a problem.