Infinite was the first open world Halo game so it’s understandable there were several changes during development, but in particular the scope and biome variety were heavily revised.
The open world of Halo Infinite was significantly scaled back compared to its original vision.
Staten also discussed what an open world game even means, balancing expectations of the genre and the high quality of the Halo series.
“We are like an open world game in as much as our game is a lot more open than it used to be.