A brief rant about co-op

Games Halo Infinite
1

I don’t know about anyone else, and I know there is alot of toxicity going on in the community, but I feel like I need to rant about this.
I’m going to say it. I feel like 343 has always neglected co-op in one way or another.
I thought Halo Infinite would be different. I thought they learned.
So here is 343’s experience with co-op. In release order.

Halo CE:A Full co-op just like the original.

Halo 4: Replaced Firefight with Spartan Ops (I liked spartan ops, but it replacing firefight is not an addition)

Halo MCC 2014: Co-op bugged. Input lag is horrible. I even had issues with split-screen. All of this still there.

Halo 5: No split-screen or LAN co-op. Yet the game is centered around 4 player co-op. No spartan ops/firefight. Warzone firefight came post-launch AND wasn’t really co-op.

Halo MCC 2019: PC crossplay added, firefight came back! No campaign crossplay or co-op. No same-system co-op fixes.

Halo MCC 2021: Season 8 flight meant to bring new stuff to ODST firefight. Only some of it made it to full release.

Halo Infinite: Co-op announced with the whole game. Whole game delayed (good). Co-op delayed for 3 months post-launch. (Annoying, but fine) Co-op further delayed for 6 months (Who will be playing the campaign by then?!)

Its been 9 years since co-op has worked without a hitch. I was 12 when Halo 4 came out. I’m 21 now and I’m annoyed this is still an issue. I’m in a long distance relationship now. Halo is one of our favorite series. But I moved to PC early 2019, my GF is on Xbox. We can’t play MCC’s campaign together! We were looking forward to Halo Infinite and we promised each other not to touch the campaign so we can play it together. What was going to be a post-final exam playthrough, is now 6 months of spoiler dodging.
I made her a promise, I’m going to keep it.

Because co-op keeps being neglected in one way or another since Halo 4, I feel like this isn’t just a Halo Infinite issue, it feels like a studio issue. I don’t feel like its on purpose or anything. I just feel like co-op is something 343 forgets about and it becomes an after-thought rather than a main feature. Regardless of what they say or think, it feels like neglect. I’m sure they are putting as much effort into co-op as they can and they clearly did not forget about it this time. However, this has been a consistent 9 year problem. How else am I supposed to take the delay? It feels like I’m being forgotten again.

All I can say is that I hope the devs find some way to just separate co-op and forge from the seasons and release them early. I’d much rather have those drop during seasons rather than one big content-dump at the start of every season.
If they want people to come back week-after-week and month-after-month, then I see mid-season updates/ when updates are needed being more viable than only updating each season. That’s part of the reason a game like Evolve failed. Turtle Rock was only allowed to update during timed content drops, not when the game needed it. Because of that Evolve was abandoned.

I really hope (doubt it will happen) that in their promised January news drop they come out and say “We aren’t attaching co-op and forge to the seasons anymore, they will return to 3 months and 6 months post-launch as originally stated!” I feel like that is as much of a pipedream as MCC getting crossplay campaign co-op.

13 Likes
2

Peach! I was planning to wait, at least mostly, till co-op release, but not sure I’ll wait 6 months now. I think, at least in part, the longer season 1 was to give more time to co-op.
It is sad to see the delay, but I’d prefer a delay to a broken release.

1 Like
3

At this point dude, if they flat out canceled co-op, I’d feel happier than being teased for the last 9 years. I’ll take it or leave it. I’m just tired.

2 Likes
4

My buddy and I bought XSX’s with the express purpose of playing co-op together. The delays have been very disappointing. My guess is co-op is the last thing they worry about.
We have been playing Halo since we met on Halo 2, and now we are probably going to play the campaign while we party chat. Frustrating.

4 Likes
5

I will not spend 60€ for the Campaign until coop is released. Coop is a core element of Halo, it’s how many of us played the game for the first time. It’s an element that brings us together.

8 Likes
6

MCC on PC was my first Single player experience with Halo. My first experiences with Halo were as a party game. Halo was the Ultimate party game. A friend would bring it over every once in a while. Smash Bros and Mario Kart pale in comparison to Halo as a Party game. Coop, Splitscreen, and Forge, were THE reasons for me to buy any Halo game. If Halo 5 hadn’t ditched Local multiplayer it would have been my first Halo. While currently Halo is now one of my favorite single player experiences it is still desperately missing the fun of Coop and Splitscreen, and the Chaos of Forge.

2 Likes
7

I am game passing it for both of us. Gonna cancel gamepass afterwards.

1 Like
8

Same. I’m just gonna use the 1€ first month trial for Game Pass to try the campaign and see the story.

1 Like
9

Thank god they finished the shop though right?

5 Likes
10

Fun fact, so far people who played the campaign note that you can’t even freely replay missions in the build they played on.

So get this, not only do we have to wait several MONTHS for Co-op, but you can’t even just pop in and play a couple of missions at different parts like in every other Halo campaign ever, you have to START OVER if you want to replay anything (if the way the campaign was set up on the early build stays true for launch).

1 Like
11

That makes sense for the campaign being open like it seems, but I thought they would have some sort of replay ability. Like how ODST had prompts. Or in other games where you just have a menu and after the mission it puts you back in the world. But if something like that is missing… oh dear…

1 Like
12

True, I love being able to go back and play silent cartographer or guilty spark or whatever, but how would that work now that chief is progressing and upgrading throughout the campaign?

13

Probably first playthrough is the curated experience the devs intended and after beating the game you unlock new game plus or something.
Where you can select missions and decide what restrictions you want or if you want to be OP. There are a lot of good NG+ systems for them to take inspiration from.

14

I hope so.

This is one game where you don’t need to stray to far from the original formula. Just updated and modernised. It doesn’t need a progression system etc. It might be ok, but not at the expense of what should be its core features.

15

I was hoping for co-op and split-screen to play with my daughter, I was fine with the 3-month delay, but now is 6? what’s next, forge as DLC?

1 Like
16

I’m excited to upgrade armor and abilities and to experience the new ideas and even the open world which has me skeptical as well.
100% agree with what you are saying tho, as excited as I am for some of those features, it should never come at the expense of core componants like co-op.

18

All they really need to do is start the mission with a generic set of weapons as a standalone instance that ends when the mission is done.

19

I’m still hopeful that they’ll bring co-op crossplay to the MCC. It would let me play with so many of my buddies. And I’m very disappointed that they didn’t have co-op at launch for Infinite. I decided that I wouldn’t buy Infinite at launch, just play it on Gamepass, which I’ve now already beat on Heroic, I’ll buy the game later on a sale when co-op has been added.

1 Like
20

Yeah i have no idea what person in 343 was like lets not make co op functional in halo MCC like thats the whole point of that game ! Its to get new players into the halo universe and there is nothing more iconic than grinding co op with friends!

1 Like
21

The Feels :sob:

One of the things I noticed in the game is that when you capture a FOB, you then see 4 weapon pads on it… This indicates that 343i always intended it to have Co-op, but probably because of bugs/glitches had to delay it.

Out of all the Halos to not have Co-op Infinite is the one that I wish had it day 1. Its simply heartbreaking that a huge open world game can’t be explored with friends, I’m not in your shoes exactly here but its a gut punch to almost everybody that loves Halo Campaigns.

4 Likes