Welcome to shooter bizarro world: First Fortnite goes FPS, now Halo Infinite's adding a third person mode

Everything's going crazy. People wear hats on their feet and shoes on their heads. Cats and dogs are living together in harmony. Fortnite's testing an FPS mode, and now 343 Industries has announced a third person camera option coming to Halo Infinite in November. One of the first person shooters, now going third person⁠—hold your loved ones close, we are clearly experiencing some manner of metaphysical rupture.

First reported by GamesRadar, 343 Industries took to X, "The Everything App" to announce this heretical addition. The accompanying video shows exactly what you'd expect: Halo multiplayer, but in third person. It's the Fortnite style of zoomed out, slightly offset cam rather than the more classico over the shoulder popularized by Gears of War.

There isn't a more in-depth post explaining how the camera will work or be restricted in game, but one part of the video certainly makes it look like we'll be able to freely toggle between first and third person. What remains to be seen is if it will only be available to certain game modes, whether 343 plans to have modes specifically employing the new cam, and if it will be available to use in Halo Infinite's oft-forgotten campaign.

All jokes aside, the comments on X, "The Everything App." are surprisingly negative. Maybe I've been around the block enough times not to be surprised by online vitriol about perfectly anodyne, harmless things, but still: "Fortnite-ification of Halo," "trend chasing," "I'm never playing again," it seems a bit extreme. For my money, I always enjoy idly flipping between camera perspectives in games that allow it. What's more, this isn't even entirely new: Halo has incorporated a third person view with heavy weapons for 17 years now. There's clearly demand as well: A modder added a third person camera to Halo Infinite's campaign over two years ago.

You could even say it's a return to the series' deepest Macintosh roots: Some of the earliest footage of Halo: Combat Evolved showed off a third person shooter that looks very different from the FPS we eventually got. Halo Infinite and the franchise at large are certainly in a rough spot after the deep layoffs at series steward 343 Industries, but the third person mode strikes me as a perfectly fine, potentially fun addition to Halo Infinite.