Halo: Reach Designer Reveals that Modern Warfare Series Were a ‘Huge’ Inspiration for Bungie
Halo: Reach designer Niles Sankey has revealed that the game’s campaign was significantly influenced by the first two entries in Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series. In a Twitter post responding to discussion about the iconic nuclear explosion scene from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Sankey highlighted how the Modern Warfare games shaped key aspects of Bungie’s final Halo title.
According to Sankey, while Bungie believed Halo excelled in certain technical areas—particularly enemy artificial intelligence and vehicle gameplay—Infinity Ward had achieved superior results in other design elements that the Bungie team admired and sought to emulate. This creative cross-pollination resulted in several notable features in Halo: Reach, including the squad interactions of the Noble Team, the game’s iconic fireteam of Spartan soldiers.
Sankey also noted that the ‘Objective Survive’ mode was spiritually inspired by comparable design philosophies from the Modern Warfare series. These revelations demonstrate how influential Infinity Ward’s work proved to be in shaping Bungie’s final Halo game before the studio transitioned away from the franchise.