While the bulk of the Halo Studios (formerly 343 Industries) development team appears to be focused on its next Halo project being built in Unreal Engine 5, the developer is still making sure its free-to-play live-service Xbox and PC shooter, Halo Infinite, gets regular content updates. The latest of these — Operation: Last Stand — has just recently gone live, and it’s arguably the best Operation-style patch that the game’s gotten yet.
The highlight of the update is the new Mutilator, a Banished double-barrel shotgun power weapon with some unique quirks. The first of these is the ability to choose between firing each shell individually for better accuracy at range or firing both at once, giving you a huge burst of damage that can easily one-shot other players, but only if you’re very close to them.
The second (and far more interesting) feature is essentially the miniaturized business end of a Gravity Hammer on the weapon’s barrel that allows you to perform a big slam attack with your melees. With this, you can combo your opponents by softening them up with some buckshot before finishing them off with a ground pound. In close-quarters scraps, the Mutilator is sure to shake things up and lead to interesting engagements, especially against other short-range weapons like the Bulldog, Heatwave, Energy Sword, and Gravity Hammer.
Operation: Last Stand’s other big addition is the Battle of the Academy playlist that brings something I never thought I’d see in the game: new campaign-style story missions. Specifically, there are two, both of which were built using a linear variation of the PvE wave defense mode Firefight. The first is a level from community Forgers Cousin Tim and Timmyforges called Cole Protocol in which players have to protect valuable UNSC data from invading Banished troops. while the second is a dev-made mission called Out With a Bang that sees players escape the Banished with a vehicle-led charge to a Pelican extraction.
While these levels lack bespoke voice acting or cutscenes, they make use of various elements like waypoint markers, customizable objective updates on your HUD, and clips of dialogue from multiplayer match announcements to both tell a story and guide the player’s progress. One particularly noteworthy trick employed here is the use of scripting to change the name of certain NPCs multiple times in a sequence when approached, effectively creating readable custom dialogue.
Narratively, the missions follow up on the story that’s been slowly developing over the course of all of Halo Infinite’s major updates. In it, Spartans managed to capture a Banished AI called Iratus that was taken to the in-universe academy where multiplayer matches are held for study. However, Iratus eventually broke free of his containment there and began to take over the base’s systems, ultimately compromising the armor of several Spartans and broadcasting the academy’s location to the Banished. These levels show what happens once the enemy force arrives.
New cosmetic items and options comprise the rest of the update, with a free 20-tier Operation Pass available for all players that includes an ONI-themed SECOPS armor set, a new Cold Justice armor coating (skin), and some other items. You can also pay to get access to a larger 50-tier Premium Operation Pass with three additional armor sets inspired by Halo 3, Halo 4, and the animated Halo film Headhunters. Opting for the Premium option also instantly unlocks the Commander Agryna armor kit, Academy Champion coating, Pendragon and Victor visors, and the Chibi Johnson weapon charm.
Also, weapon coatings are now compatible with a much wider collection of Halo Infinite’s sandbox, and there are multiple new and returning unlocks available in The Exchange — the shop where you can spend Spartan Points you earn while playing for armor pieces, character poses, and more. The game’s microtransactions store also has new Headhunter Constellation, ODST Orcus, and X-Treme Sidekick bundles that add new armors and skins.
All in all, this is undoubtedly one of the best Operation drops we’ve seen come to Halo Infinite thus far. Compared to previous relatively tepid additions to the sandbox like the Bandit (essentially just a Halo: Reach DMR) and the Avenger (an Assault Rifle with shorter range and a deeper magazine), the Mutilator is a genuinely interesting and creative weapon I’m excited to play around with. The new story missions are incredibly cool, too, and for the first time in what feels like forever, there are more quality cosmetics to earn through gameplay than there are to buy in the shop.
I’ve had Halo Infinite uninstalled since I stopped playing after enjoying the Classic Firefight mode added in early March, and didn’t expect I’d be downloading it again any time soon. And yet…here I am, installing once again to check out everything Operation: Last Stand has to offer. If you’re curious, you should too — regardless of whether you’re a longtime player or a Halo newcomer. After all, it’s free-to-play (with an excellent single player campaign playable through Xbox Game Pass).
