343 Go back and Learn from Reach's UI

Games Halo Infinite
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In terms of gameplay I think 343 did a great job in trying to find a middle ground between old vs new school Halo. What I can’t understand is why 343 put so much time and effort into adding a ton of content that was missing in MCC but then left all that same stuff out with Infinite??!!!

Whether or not you liked the game, I think Reach from 2010 is a great example of this. 343 have gone back to Reach multiple times over the years (mainly for cosmetic purposes), hell the first Infinite battle pass is Reach themed but everything that Reach did well in terms of the UI, has been missing in Halo games since.

Menu: A simple but easy to navigate UI with playlists in a list format so they can be viewed easily - now with the new playlists available you can’t even see the ranked playlist anymore which is beyond me. Reach also had great armour customisation without needing an over the top menu that makes it a hassle to alter.

The Reach Progression System: I still don’t know why to this day 343 have not gone back to this level system. Yes they kinda did it with MCC but similarly to H4 and H5 the ranks might as well have been a number too. Going through the general army ranks and then the mythic ranks was the most enjoyable social grind Halo ever had. Why 343 went to numbers in H4/H5 is again confusing to say the least but we don’t even get that in Infinite. Yes I am aware they are working on it but just make a carbon copy of Reach’s social rank and I’m sure 90% of the population would be happy to grind for Inheritor without a fuss.

Dedicated Server Selection/Good connection filter: This was removed in MCC and H5 and added over time but once again, not in Infinite despite 343 stating it would be in the game…

Medals: Reach medals were the best period, there’s no argument to be said here. When you got a medal it meant something, now they are just handed out for simply playing. Why did we go away from weapon spree medals but instead have medals for getting 5 kills with a weapon ? Anyone can get 5 kills with a rifle or a pistol, or a melee, it just doesn’t make any sense.

Social/Ranked MMR: It’s been around since H5 and it just doesn’t work. The MMR system just incites smurfing and boosting, it’s already happening in Infinite and the game hasn’t even been out for 2 months. It should be gone entirely from social as it defeats the purpose of the damn mode. The rank system from Bronze to Onyx is fine but I truly believe the 1-50 worked better because everyone started together. The current system could work if everyone started at Bronze 1. I really don’t see why this isn’t a thing. The ranks are currently inflated and once you hit onyx what do you do? Just keep grinding? For what? Too many people get bored grinding for more CSR as there isn’t a champ rank. It’s pointless. I’m sure 343 will add in a champ rank at some point but as with H5 it’s not hard to get especially when more playlists drop. If it was actually a grind then people would continue playing as they have something to work towards and make Platinum/Diamond actually meaningful rather than just a ‘placement rank’.

Challenge Rewards: Well what do I say here…Yes Infinite is a monetization monster but why is the ultimate challenge reward for completing absolutely stupid challenges a weapon emblem??? So you spend a few hours grinding challenges to then get a pointless emblem or background but in the shop you have all different armour pieces. You can do all the monetization you want but what is even the point of the challenge rewards if they are absolutely garbage, it’s honestly pathetic (both the rewards and the challenges themselves). 343 go back to the Reach weekly challenges and maybe you might learn a thing or too about challenges that are meaningful that people will actually enjoy going for instead of gametype specific challenges that people just hate to complete.

There’s a ton of stuff I’ve left out but it paints the picture. For a game that had 6+ years of development and a supposed $500 million budget, a 2010 Xbox 360 game still has many features that worked fine and we are impatiently waiting a return for.

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The thing is, it’s not about learning, it’s about what they wanted to do, and there lies the actual problem only thinking about themselves. IMO Reach was well-liked because it took the good parts about the previous games and applied them while adding new things. Infinite IMO when it comes to finding a middle ground was not done well at all.

The best way I can express this is that our Spartans feel too damn stiff, that there isn’t enough flexibility. Then there is the odd selection of weapons with how things are way too watered down and the weird explosions. It also didn’t help removing collusion and assassinations that I’m surprised they didn’t remove friendly fire.

Longer story short, 343 is trying to turn this game into something it’s not that the game feels way off from what you call a middle ground.

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I wasn’t really into MP when Reach came out (I was mainly campaign). But I get your point here.

It seems like everything in the Infinite menu structure takes at least one extra click…if not more.

For all of the criticisms and frustrations aimed at Halo 5 over the years, I thought that it’s UI was pretty clean and solid…minus trying to navigate thru all of the armor choices. Although, I can’t judge it against Reach.

Waypoint has always been a nice fallback if you wanted to check something that wasn’t obvious in the game’s UI. But this new version of Waypoint also seems to be missing the deeper integration with the game history/stats.

Hopefully they’ll keep working to improve things.

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i agree with everything other than the ui. reach ui is not mouse and keyboard friendly (well neither is infinites but still more friendly) . The problem comes here . the have to make a ui for both controller and mouse and keyboard

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Missed the point of this post entirely. I’m not talking about Infinite’s gameplay, it is what it is. Reach’s multiplayer gameplay is what ultimately led to Halo dying throughout H4 - H5 with the addition of bloom, armour abilities and loadouts so not a great example of good Halo multiplayer…

Reach had the best menu system and UI out of all the Halo’s I’m simply saying go back to what Reach did and then look at how much Infinite is lacking.

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I’d go a step further and say go back and learn from Reach’s core pillars. Why oh why has 343 not gone back to the universally used Spartan set-up? Particularly now that they’ve got a monetised incentive to do so. I’d happily see Master Chief respectfully retired to make way for a new Noble-6 type character, or even move the Chief to a supporting role for said new character. Heck, there was no reason Locke couldn’t have used the multiplayer armour in H5.

I still feel that despite some mechanical flaws Reach absolutely had the best scope of any Halo game. The design work was the best we’ve seen (H4+5 were awful) hence the reason they chose it for the first Infinite season I guess. The armoury was simply the best version of customisation we’ve ever had (although, shout out to Infinite for prosthetics). The fact you could play any mode to work towards unlocks was genius too.

I’d love to see Infinite eventually go the route of keeping the current gameplay, but then aligning almost everything else with how Reach approached things.

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Reach’s UI was probably one of the best I’ve seen in any game. Mostly the menu and lobby systems, the way you could easily see people’s cool armors, you could see how many people were partied up, what map and game-mode you’re actually playing, WHO you were playing. I can’t fathom how anyone sat there and thought, you know what’s a good idea, let’s completely take out the lobby system, let them guess what map and game-mode they/re playing, we won’t even tell them who’s in the game.

And yea no idea why there’s no level system, simple numbers are boring, first time when you met a rank you’d never seen was so exciting in Reach. They don’t even have numbers in Infinite, honestly most of the decisions they’ve chosen are mind blowing, whoever made the game-play decisions got it on point I think, whoever handled the rest seriously F* up.

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Agreed.

The simplest of things from reach worked so well. Why try to change them to something thats lacking features.

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I understand what you are saying, but you also have to remember who’s creating Halo, it’s not the devs, it’s the higher-ups that make all the calls and they are the ones that decided to take the game in a whole new direction.

Just to add, the original Bungie were gamers that were creating Halo. That is a huge difference between now how games are being created vs a decade ago.

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