4/10: a Halo Infinite review

Games Halo Infinite
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This is a review of the multiplayer only and it’s a review of the game AT RELEASE because that’s the most important moment for a video game.

TL; DR
Halo Infinite suffers from serious lag, hit detection, balance issues, bugs, and lack of content. We shouldn’t be willing to overlook the serious problems with this game just because it’s better than battlefield and COD. It can be fun to play when it works but it only works 50% of the time, maybe less. Every time I’m hit with an Infinite loading screen, or die from someone shooting me from around a corner, or I headshot someone but it doesn’t register, or I melee someone and it makes a THUD sound but it doesn’t register and then they backsmack me from the front, every time I see the horrible UI when I get to the main menu, these things make the game unplayable. A game that is unplayable the majority of the time doesn’t even reach base level, so I give it a 4/10. It can be very fun when it works but it only works half the time or less.
The fact that they only fixed 2 bugs after the beta and didn’t release any new weapons, vehicles, playlists, or customization options should have everyone up in arms. They eventually released additional playlists but that was after the initial release of the game. Why have a beta if you’re not going to fix anything?

I’ll include my system specs in case people think it’s relevant to any of the issues I’ve been having.
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-core, RTX 2080 SUPER, 16gb RAM.

HIT DETECTION/LAG
This game has some of the worst hit detection and lag problems I’ve seen in a while. And to make it worse, we can’t see the PING of players in the lobby, why not?! I’m constantly getting killed when I clearly got behind cover, I’m constantly getting killed from people who have already died, I’m constantly having my headshots not count as headshots, I’m constantly melee’ing people only to have nothing happen, I’m constantly getting backsmacked by people who are in front of me. Halo 4 didn’t have this problem, Halo Reach didn’t have this problem, the MCC does not have this problem. It’s not my connection; I don’t have this problem with other games, It’s Halo Infinite. This NEEDS to be addressed, it’s more important than any other point on this list because this problem makes the game unplayable. 100% of my games I run into at least one of those issues, 90% of games I run into more than one. The game feels INCREDIBLY inconsistent.

LACK OF CONTENT/ BAD UI
Why is there a scroll wheel for the playlists when all of the playlists fit on the screen without it? Why?! The UI is just bad and unintuitive. I don’t know how we went from the MCC UI to what we have now but it needs to be completely overhauled. It’s a chore to get to the armor customization and it’s a chore to look through your armors. Why is there a scroll wheel for seeing what options you have to change on your Spartan? I’m talking about the menu that lets you see that you can change your visor, legs etc. All of that can fit on one screen but I have to scroll to the right to see that I can equip armor effects. It just doesn’t make sense. This game does not have enough content. There were only 3 playlists at launch (I don’t count bot training). Yes, only 3. I thought we only had 3 playlists because it was a beta, I guess not. There are way less weapons in this game than most other halos if not every halo. There are fewer vehicles as well.

How to fix armor customization UI: Make it to so that the customization happens on the armor core screen. have a box next to the customization option you want with a little line connected to the armor and the box. So for the chest piece, there would be a little box with a chest piece symbol to the left or right of you spartan with a little line connecting the box to the chest piece. Everything would fit on one screen, it would be intuitive what option changes what, and it would look pretty sleek. You could add a button to disable UI on that screen so that you can rotate your spartan and look at your customizations.

CUSTOM GAMES AND BUGS
The custom games are broken to say the least. Sometimes they just don’t load up or don’t let people connect. Sometimes people will randomly get disconnected. It’s missing a bunch of customization options, such as spawning with infinite grappling hooks, and you can’t even save the playlists that you make.
As for matchmaking, I tried to play just the other day and I kept getting disconnected before the game would start. I spent 40 minutes looking for games only to get “disconnected from local area network” or similar errors. When I finally got into a game, I was hit with an Infinite loading screen, which happens far too frequently. Sometimes the game works and sometimes it just doesn’t let you play at all.

BALNCE ISSUES
Why wasn’t there a release day patch? Why are we still playing on the beta version of the game? The ravager is way under powered currently. The pulse carbine is pretty weak too. I don’t even know if the plasma pistol savable.
The vehicles in this game are STILL overpowered. Getting into a warthog is a free killing frenzy and a very easy running riot. The only way to kill a vehicle is with anti-vehicle weapons which are scarce. If 6 guys are shooting a warthog with assault rifles, the warthog should blowup, not just mow everyone down in seconds. I don’t think they need to adjust vehicle health; they just need to increase the damage base weapons do to vehicles. As it is, vehicles dominate BTB. You’re a fish out of water if you don’t get into a vehicle.
Why is Sprint still useless? Why wasn’t this fixed? Seriously, why have a feature if it doesn’t do anything? Sprint doesn’t do anything right now. Buff sprint, you don’t need to change the maps, you don’t need to change anything about the game, you can just make sprint 10% faster and it would just make the game better. I was hoping they would add a modern playlist but given that they only had 3 playlists for so long, I don’t think we’re going to see much content from the game.

I think that just about covers everything. I do want to say, I really enjoy this game sometimes. It can be very fun when everything is working well, but there are so many issues that the game doesn’t work well often. When I feel like playing this game, sometimes I just can’t play it because of the lag or the hit detection or the bugs. I didn’t expect this review to be so negative but when I was trying to think of the positives I couldn’t come up with any broader bullet points for any. The only thing I can say is that when it works, it’s fun; it just works half the time or less.

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Oh yeah, spawns are completely broken as well. People spawn right in front of you and right behind you.

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Just like Halo 3 at launch?

Its been a month… They’ll shove content down our throats before too long.

Have you watched good players use these? They are not useless. They aren’t meant to be like a Rocket Launcher or Sniper, they are situational pickups. Don’t pick up any of those weapons expecting to get Overkills.

That’s literally like 2/3 of the sandbox. You are not using the sandbox effectively my friend.

No it wouldn’t. You just mentioned hit detection/lag problems, you do realize that making it so players move faster (thus making it harder to land shots on them) would only exacerbate that issue right? Not to mention it would throw the whole sandbox out of whack.

Dude, I can list almost every weapon in the game that is good against vehicles. All grenades, Heatwave, Sentinels Beam, Rockets, Sniper, Shock Rifle, Disruptor, Hammer, BR/Commando, Hydra, Ravager ironically, even basic AR/pistol can be decent with enough people. Not to mention Grapple hook.

Everything else you stated was pretty accurate though, besides maybe the 3 playlist thing that was only relevant for 1 month.

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Not quite… No campaign co-op, splitscreen, elites, dual wield, forge, infection, campaign theater, customizable colors… need I go on?

We have no confirmation on this (As of December)

I am a good player. These weapons suck and are so niche that they are outdone by most other weapons in the game in most scenarios. The ravager currently has the longest ttk in the game, and its a pickup…

As for vehicles being op, I have no idea what they’re referring to lol

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You think a F2P game, a live service game, one that 343i have stated is supposed to last 10 years won’t have more content? Halo 5 did, and it had like 1/10th the amount of players and interest from fans.

Edit: The question is when not if. Its looking like it’ll be a long year is all I’m seeing from them.

I don’t mean to insult you here, but they are niche and as such are meant to be used in niche situations. Pulse Carbine is frustrating, it can absolutely dominate or be useless. Such a tale of two cities type of gun. Ravager is decent in terms of its charged shot function, you can snipe people across map with it, and its damage over time AoE is good against vehicles. if you just shoot it normally it is a pea shooter though.

TTK is misleading. By this logic the Sword is the best weapon in the game. However, you wouldn’t think that sword is superior to BR at mid-long range would you?

You are meant to charge up a shot, use it to strip someone’s shields (just like plasma pistol, but better honestly) then finish up with BR/pistol.

Inconsistent shooting, horrible netcode, balancing issues, etc. It had more content at release, but it was still plagued with issues.

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Lol, why do you even mention dual wielding? Prob one of he worst features of 2 & 3

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It was a fun mechanic that introduced interesting gameplay variations in both campaign and multiplayer. Why else?

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Irrelevant. There is no confirmation of anything aside from coop campaign/forge and some store changes in january. Don’t promise something that is not known to exist.

Too niche=/niche. The plasma rifle in halo 3 was niche but had its place as a shield ripper. The grenade launcher in reach is niche because of its low range and limit to one round but it had multiple uses like stunning vehicles and one shotting on impact. The weapons in infinite are very hard to use and that was done deliberately by 343. IMO it’s only a problem because it makes the game sweatier.

I should’ve probably elaborated. I think the pulse carbine is the best out of the weapons mentioned by op. It can melt players if you can predict shots. The ravager and plasma pistol are more or less useless in any scenario. The charged shot can easily be seen coming and is charged lmao. I’m not sure about its damage towards vehicles but I know damn well its not going to destroy any of them. Flying vehicles? Out of the question. Warthogs and ghosts? Too fast. Tanks? Good luck not gettin blown up instantly.

So you render the weapon useless unless so that players are forced to use the average charged shot? Touch chance. Theres a reason people are complaining about these things.

Had a lot more content at launch, released finished, and with less bugs, Regardless it’s all irrelevant. I only brought it up because you made the equally irrelevant claim that this games bugs are like halo 3.

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Not to jump into the middle of the quote fest, but Halo 3 did not have forge on launch, and with only 11 multiplayer maps on launch, it isn’t a good argument against Infinite.

Also yeah, dual wielding, although it looked cool and I wish there was an option, didn’t do much to add to the sandbox.

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Ok there bud. I never said they’d have a ton of content in January btw, but to seriously believe they’ll never add anything to this you gotta be kidding. I won’t argue something that’s common sense.

So you want them to hold your hand for you? Well, ok then.

Noob combo has always been and will always be good.

I’m pretty sure that if you hit a vehicle with it it blows up on it so the damage over time does a good deal of damage actually? :thinking: I need to contact Mythbusters lol

They are meant to be charged yes. Do you recall the Railgun in Halo 4/5? They work like that but no instakill. Plasma pistol has always been almost worthless unless charged, Ravager is pretty similar.

Its frankly a lot better than Halo 3 when it comes to bugs, that being said it does fair far worse for PC, so if you are not a console player I see what you mean.

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You’ve said a lot of untrue things.
You can list a bunch of weapons but that doesn’t make them good against vehicles. Sorry to break it to you but getting a killing frenzy shouldn’t be guaranteed just because you hopped in a vehicle.

Your take on sprint is also untrue and what I said stands. You don’t have to make any adjustments and you can increase sprint by 10% so it actually does something.

Honestly, you listing the BR/commando as “good against vehicles” indicates the poor accuracy of your comments so I won’t bother replying to the other things you’ve said. It’s just not worth dealing with trolls.

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It was a fun mechanic that introduced interesting gameplay variations in both campaign and multiplayer

Gonna need you to take off those nostalgia glasses. Dual wielding was a thorn in the side of Halo 2 and 3 that threw a giant wrench into weapon balancing and made the sandbox way worse.

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Yeah ok buddy, I haven’t said something that was untrue in years (speculations aside lol)

Instead of getting good at the game you want it to lower it down to your level, that is not how games work. Dark Souls didn’t decide to lower its difficulty because it was too hard. Infinite is a hard game, you have to be able to land shots, you have to know what you are doing. No amount of complaining will ever make you better at the game.

Too many people on here that don’t understand game design nor Halo I’m afraid, I won’t bother responding to you again. They care far more about stuff said on Twitter/Reddit btw, this forum is meant to discuss/argue with facts, we are supposed to be a bit more informative than what random people are on twitter. Keep that in mind.

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at the beginning of a second round of oddball i’ve had a member of the enemy team spawn with my team like WTF

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I’m going to need you to take off your biased glasses. Dual wielding being broken is a common misconception. It was only broken in halo 2 mp (which was broken as a whole). In halo 3 it was working as intended and in halo 2A it was perfected. All dual wielded weapons have faster ttk’s than their single counter parts, and every single held weapon is still capable on its own. Halo 3’s sandbox is near perfection when looked at under a microscope. Dual wielded weapons were also balanced by being less accurate than thier single handed counterparts. And not to mention the various unique combinations that increase sandbox diversity.

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I never said that’s what you said… What I did say was that aside from the new updates in January, coop, and forge, there is nothing new officially planned for this game. End of.

My onyx rank holds my hand.

It doesn’t… The weapon sucks.

The railgun was multipurpose, it was a vehicle killer, a spartan killer, and a long ranged weapon. Why? Because it was niche and hard to use. You get one shot, you miss; you’re exposed. And you had to charge it. Plus, this type of gameplay was never a good thing. Thankfully 343 did the plasma pistol right in halo 4 and even better in halo 5. This is just a total step backwards. The ravager being useless without its charge is a bad thing. Just because 343 changed it doesn’t mean its good.

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Are you criticizing the game for the lack of a (content) roadmap? I hope so.

what is unofficially planned is often far more impactful than what is. For example, they almost assuredly will not announce anything to do with Campaign, although its pretty obvious they’ll have DLC at some point.

This is starting to feel like a beauty is in the eye of the beholder argument. I’ve had long and drawn out arguments with people about balancing before, all I add onto this is that I 100% think that the Ravager has a purpose and can be used in a competitive setting. For example, I think it would be a good weapon for a map like Streets because of how difficult setups can be to break on this map, but ultimately its a difficult sell because the only map that has one in Ranked is Trashemoth so you may never see great players use it.

You are basically just asking for it to be overpowered then, which isn’t really meaningful to me, moreso to you and how you play. They can buff it bro, but all I’ll say is don’t complain when you have to play against someone with it and they destroy you with it.

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Yup.

This is the biggest problem I have with the game in its current state. It’s as bad or worse than Halo 2/3/Reach used to be and those games didn’t even use dedicated servers.

The lack of content is a problem that will eventually get fixed. But I could see them never fixing the netcode.

You constantly get killed behind cover, have shots fail to register, have shots that look like they absolutely should be headshots not actually be headshots, have shots register with a noticeable delay after you fired, get trade kills that are ridiculous, etc.

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Last night an enemy phased through in front of me at full shields and ninja’d me. And yet all I see on this site are 20 posts about the cat ears. You’re right they’re never going to fix the netcode anytime soon

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I’m going to need you to take off your biased glasses.

There’s a certain level of irony with this being your opening statement and then following with the paragraph gushing about dual wielding.

Dual wielding being broken is a common misconception. It was only broken in halo 2 mp (which was broken as a whole)

The mental gymnastics required to put these two sentences back to back. “It’s a common misconception that it was broken. But yes it was broken.”

Anywho, how was the entirety of Halo 2 multiplayer “broken”? I’m genuinely curious about this statement, no snark.

All dual wielded weapons have faster ttk’s than their single counter parts, and every single held weapon is still capable on its own.

Perhaps I’m reading this incorrectly: Are you comparing an SMG to its single wield counterpart the AR? Or 2 SMGs vs 1 SMG? If it’s the former then I’d say “that’s not true,” but if its the latter I’d say “…duh?”

Dual wielded weapons were also balanced by being less accurate than thier single handed counterparts. And not to mention the various unique combinations that increase sandbox diversity.

Yeah. Dual wield weapons when dual wielded meant that you were at a distinct disadvantage at medium/long range and you absolutely melted at close range so long as you weren’t doing something like dual wielding plasma pistols. I have no idea what you’re talking about “unique combinations that increase sandbox diversity” because a Spiker/SMG combo plays the exact same way as 2 SMGs, or 2 Spikers, or 2 Plasma Rifles. Get close and hold triggers. Really the only “combo” that happens is when you pair a high fire rate dual wield weapon (or charge plasma pistol) with the magnum to melt shields and then headshot. And this “melt shields then headshot” combo still exists without dual wielding.

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