Halo Infinite player turns video game into a Master Chief-themed Heroscape clone
Trade Halos for hex grids.
An enterprising modder has transformed the latest Halo video game into a strategic digital tabletop experience that looks a heck of a lot like Heroscape with Spartan and Covenant soldiers.
First spotted by PCGamesN, a YouTube creator who goes by Red Nomster has used video game Halo Infinite’s in-game creation tools (known as the Forge) to transform the most recent entry in the acclaimed shooter series into a clever turn-based skirmish game. It’s free to download and play - if you already own Halo Infinite - and the craft and care invested in the adaptation is clearly evident.
Red Nomster’s creation is somewhat erroneously dubbed “The Halo RPG”, and I hope they will excuse our little bit of pedantry. A recent video shows off the real meat and potatoes of gameplay, which is much closer to Avalon Hill’s reborn-then-dead-then-reborn-again Heroscape miniatures game - the hexagonal terrain is a dead giveaway, as is the alternating unit movement and scenario-based structure.
To their credit, there is a lot of XCOM and Baldur’s Gate 3 vibes going on in here, and those are likely much more relevant touchstones for video game audiences. Regardless, two opponents will control a team of United Nations Space Command (UNSC) humans or the alien Covenant. The former can immediately win by rescuing a captured soldier from the other side of the map and escorting them safely to an evacuation point - otherwise, it’s an all-out brawl to the death.
It’s worth watching the video embedded above for two big reasons. Red Nomster does a wonderful job explaining how he wrangled Halo Infinite’s quirky logic and AI scripting to act more like a skirmish wargame - Spartans and Grunts zip around the map at the press of a button as if players had picked them up by hand. Then, there’s the environment - the game board has been set inside a digital recreation of someone’s attic, complete with dusty storage containers, a notecard with the rules scrawled on the side propped against one corner, and other forgotten toys peeking out of upturned cardboard boxes.