On paper, bots in Halo Infinite are a good thing, filling in for teammates who leave games early, and being good practice dummies in the Academy. In reality though, they can be a bit of a burden, with a new infuriating clip providing evidence for why bots shouldn't be able to run the flag in Halo Infinite.
When it comes to bots, they are only as effective and intelligent as their programming permits. During its test flighting days, players were reporting how challenging Halo Infinite's ODST-level bots were in the Training Mode, performing a variety of advanced maneuvers and clever tactics against them. While still being a fairly effective tool for practice now that the game is fully released, more attention has been brought to the armor combinations bots are wearing. For some reason, Halo Infinite's bots can often be seen using unreleased armor pieces, which has burned some players due to the game's ongoing customization problems.
Reddit user ThisIsAitch shared an aggravating video of a game of Halo Infinite Capture the Flag, where a friendly bot nearly costs their team the round. Playing on Launch Site, ThisIsAitch is able to toss the enemy flag just through the map's choke point between the two bases, when the friendly bot on their team picks it up, and begins running away from the delivery point. As the video continues, the bot adds insult to injury by managing to get stuck between the ground and a truck, before ultimately deciding to stop moving. It's only when the enemy team finally respawns and kills the carrier that ThisIsAitch is able to return the flag.
In the replies to ThisIsAitch's post are many other players sharing similar experiences and expressing their thoughts. The most upvoted comment is by a user named cb325 who writes, "Further proof that no collision is a horrible decision," touching upon an especially desired request from players.
Halo Infinite does not have friendly collision, something that has been a staple of the Halo series for years, but does have collision against enemies. In this instance, had their been friendly collision, ThisIsAitch could have potentially pushed the bot out of its stuck state so that it could keep running, and maybe even return the flag if its path-finding system worked properly.
Halo Infinite's bots are not inherently a problem, as it depends on where they are used. In the Academy, as mentioned, the bots can be formidable adversaries, especially when cranked up to higher difficulties. The bots that get backfilled into multiplayer matches are where most player aggravations lie though, because like ThisIsAitch shows, they are prone to making mistakes and not getting the job done. It is instances like this where 343 Industries potentially overhyping Halo Infinite's bots really rings true.
Halo Infinite is available on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
