Halo Infinite’s Grifball Should Herald the Return of Another Underrated Game Mode

With the recent debut of the Halo 3-themed event Operation: Legacy, Halo Infinite’s official multiplayer playlists finally saw the long-awaited return of the fan-favorite game mode Grifball. Originally created by Rooster Teeth in Halo 3 based on a joke from their 19-season-long Machinima series Red vs. Blue, Grifball went on to appear in every subsequent mainline Halo game from Halo: Reach to Halo Infinite. Here, players can take part in three variations of Grifball: Classic Grifball without sprint, Octane Grifball with thruster equipment, and third-person Classic or Octane Grifball. While Infinite’s Grifball has been primarily well-received by fans, it should inspire Halo Studios to bring back another underrated game mode in the upcoming Halo 4-themed Operation: Reclaimer: Ricochet.

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The History of Halo’s Ricochet Explained

In Halo 4, Grifball was originally released in early 2013 as a variation of Oddball instead of the traditional Assault game mode due to the latter game mode not being featured in Halo 4’s multiplayer. Halo 4’s incarnation of Grifball was notable as it was the first instance of allowing players to actually throw the Grifball at other players or across arenas. It was additionally the first incarnation of Grifball that had the ball be affected by physics, such as the ball rolling on the ground after being thrown or a Gravity Hammer causing the ball to move. All of these mechanics caused Halo 4’s Grifball to be the most dynamic iteration of the game mode yet.

Grifball’s new mechanics eventually led 343 Industries, Certain Affinity, and Digital Extremes to develop a successor to Grifball a few months later in coordination with Halo 4’s launch of the Champions Bundle. This new game mode was called Ricochet. Here, two teams of four players would go head to head to try and catch the Gravball and score goals. Instead of being restricted to using Gravity Hammers and Energy Swords, however, players could simply use their loadouts and pick up traditional weapons on maps to combat the opposing team. Players who throw the ball into goals would score 20 points, while players who run with the ball into the goal would score 50 points. The first team to earn 150 points wins the match.

Halo’s Ricochet Beyond Halo 4

Ricochet remained a popular game mode for Halo 4 players up until its original Xbox 360 online servers were shut down in early 2022. However, Halo fans can still play Ricochet in its original Halo 4 form through Halo: The Master Chief Collection. 2014’s Halo: The Master Chief Collection additionally ported the game mode to Halo 2: Anniversary’s multiplayer, still allowing players to throw the ball with dynamic physics, albeit without armor abilities, sprint, or loadouts. Despite Ricochet’s popularity in Halo 4, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, and Halo 2: Anniversary, Ricochet never returned to official multiplayer playlists in Halo 5: Guardians or Halo Infinite.

The debut of Ricochet in Halo 4 additionally saw the debut of the Mjolnir GEN2 Ricochet armor, which was inspired by American football gear and was one of the first Halo armor sets that could be unlocked with real-world currency.

The Potential Return of Ricochet in Halo Infinite

Halo Studios’ latest multiplayer Operations appear to be celebrating much of Halo’s past multiplayer history with the reintroduction of classic armors and game modes such as Grifball and the grand return of Halo 3’s Ninja Gaiden-inspired Hayabusa armor. With Operation: Reclaimer celebrating Halo 4’s multiplayer and bringing back some classic Halo 4 armor sets such as Venator, it would make sense for Halo Studios to reintroduce a popular Halo 4 game mode to coincide with the Operation. While Halo 4 did have a variety of unique game modes such as Dominion and Spartan Ops, those would be more difficult to implement into Halo Infinite’s systems than the Grifball-like Ricochet.

Halo Infinite’s iteration of Ricochet could maintain much of its original mechanics while combining elements from Infinite’s Grifball. For example, players could still use traditional weapons and throw balls into goals, but there could be third-person variations of Ricochet alongside Octane variants with unlimited thrusters or potentially ball-deflecting repulsors and drop walls. These equipment additions could make Infinite’s iteration of Ricochet more dynamic and intense, as goalkeepers would be able to better reject incoming balls with repulsors or drop walls. Halo Studios could additionally reintroduce the Ricochet armor into Halo Infinite’s exchange, similar to Infinite’s Hayabusa armor, to truly let veteran Halo 4 players relive the glory days of Halo 4 Ricochet matches.