Seriously, people are leaving 343 regularly at this point and there’s barely enough staff on hand to handle more than one thing at a time. That’s usually a sign that things are taking a nosedive.
I’m not pointing fingers, I’m not attacking nor do I condone it, I’m not even mad anymore. I’m worried. I fell in love with this franchise and now it feels like it’s on life support, there’s still life yet within it but it can only cling to its mortal coil for so long.
Am I being overdramatic? Almost definitely, but even so the community doesn’t lie- things look really grim. We could REALLY use some actual proper honest sincerity and transparency.
I doubt any 343 employee will ever see this ever, but even so I’m compelled desperately to ask- Will Halo survive this? And what assurances do we, as consumers and fans, have that it will?
You know, besides the fact that fans alone will keep it alive at least in memory if nothing else.
There has been quite a fair amount of poor decisions made by past & present leadership/business/transmedia teams which have caused some significant damage to the IP.
Luckily, if nothing else, the franchise has shown to be incredibly durable throughout it’s life. It’s not the end, there is a lot of great stuff in the works, most if not all the people working at 343i do really genuinely care. Some -although well intentioned- have just taken the IP down the wrong paths from time to time.
I’m incredibly optimistic on future campaign DLC and other things to come. My hope is that everyone involved will learn from those poor decisions and course correct. They have in the past with other original ideas and choices that didn’t work out well or received negative feedback (i.e. Prometheans as an enemy type, cutting split-screen, and introducing microtransactions/switching to a F2P business model - I think they’re still learning from this one…). It’s safe to say that Infinite has received more negative and critical feedback than any other Halo title to date. Yet, pretty much everyone and their mother unanimously agrees. Infinite has a ton of potential because of how powerfully the art/music teams, additions to creative, and gameplay designers/engineers knocked it out of the park.
I and everyone else worry that the studio will instead double down on those poor choices which have led to its current downfall, continuing to try and force square pegs in round holes. -If this happens, it could very well be end times. Likely in fact, as this would be due to the intensity of which the franchise’s durability, and mailability are currently being stressed past anything they’ve ever withstood before.
With all that being said I’d like to think they’ve learned a lot in the last 15 years -the last year and a half especially- and couldn’t possibly be that stubborn/shortsighted. Thus I remain hopeful and cautiously optimistic, along with everyone else who holds a special place in their heart for the game. Only time will tell.
Here’s the thing. Halo Infinite sold really well and had a successful marketing campaign, in the end. It made the money it needed to. More Halo is on the horizon.
Microsoft had a reason to keep pumping money into 343, now that they have Activision, CoD, Warzone, Overwatch, and Bethesda they don’t need Halo anymore to stay relevant.
It has felt this way after 4 and 5, and certainly after MCC. Even a little after the drastic changes in Reach. We’re all worried for Halo, but this is not the end of it.
Baaically. The Halo franchise isnt the system seller it used to be, and is barely relevant with new releases in the public consciousness. The Series X/S came out without Halo and did… Fine, I guess. People are going to go to Xbox for stuff like Starfield and ignore stuff like Halo Infinite - especially when Modern Warfare 2: Electric Boogaloo comes out.
KC (who I’m fairly certain wont see this) makes a point that more Halo is coming. But id that necessairly a good thing? The main developers of 343 seemingly havent learned anything since Halo 4 on the 360. 5 was a fiasco and just wasnt Halo. Infinite is a giga-botch that gets worse by the day. Do we really want more Halo if, after 10 years, the best 343 can do is slightly above sub-par on gameplay and FAR below expectations on everything else?
Halo just isn’t the Halo I fell in love with. I got somewhat hyped for Infinite MP, and its borderline unplayable on PC. Ive been burned for the last time by 343, and I get the feeling that I’m not alone in that frustration and others are also planning to just leave Halo alone until it shifts developers to a group that are more competent.
You do make a very good point honestly infinite could’ve been a slam dunk but the greed behind some of the decisions behind the game and them using basically nothing but a revolving door of contract workers basically kneecapped this game
I hope Staten leaves as well, because there is no way if I was a developer would I want my name tied to whatever this is. We are going on a year and the game is hurting so bad that I don’t blame anyone for leaving. They literally have one of the original Bungie devs that actually has the experience to create a great game, and Microsoft/343 higher-ups chose microtransactions/BP/“live service game” over creating a quality type of game.
That last part is literally what has ruined Halo because it became the focal point, the worst kind.
For me personally, Infinite was poised to bring me back to Halo. I could see what Halo 5 was going for, and I played a decent amount of it because I enjoyed some parts of it, but it wasn’t the classic Halo gameplay I loved. Halo 4 was a nightmare, and still is on the MCC. I was hyped for Infinite and was set to buy the Battle Pass with my own money because I thought it was going to be great, and I would play a lot of it.
But when the dust settled, I got left with a game that just feels so half-baked. It’s like getting your favorite dish that visually looks great and smells fantastic, but every single component even down to the person giving you the plate of food just isn’t good. The Battle Pass is bad. Maps are okay at best, downright awful at worst. Most weapons just aren’t good. Equipment is either game changing or lackluster at best. There’s hardly any game modes, and what is there isn’t great. Desync is a serious issue. The game crashes a lot. There’s no red reticle on PC. There’s no Forge, co-op, Firefight, playable Elites, there’s just… Nothing here that resembles the Halo I fell in love with.
Arguably the worst part is that these complaints are NINE MONTHS old. These are not recent complaints. And yet… Nothing is getting done.
Halo definitely feels dead to me. The series will most likely continue as Microsoft will never let their flagship cash cow die for good but 343’s Halo games just don’t have any soul.
Soon will be my time to act.
Just gotta sort my documents, schedule a meeting, some time off, and a flight to Redmond Washington to conduct a business meeting that has been twelve years in the making.
A metaphorical Raknarok is coming.
And it is not the end.
Rather the passing of the torch.
From Odin and his Sons down to Lif and Lifthrasir.
Hit the nail on the head, here. But imagine the potential gains that couldve been made if infinite was TRULY successful throughout its entire life span… thats gotta be hundreds of millions of potential dollars lost. It couldve been the best in the series.
Lol nope.
Story was a 7/10, points docked due to ret-cons, simplified gameplay mechanics, and brevity
Multiplayer a 3/10, points docked due to loadouts, bullet magnetism being ALL THE WAY UP, lighting engine quality, and ordinance priority.
Forge was 6/10, points docked due to the default Forge Maps being cluttered and the free one came out too late, plus items in forge had WAY too many items being unique to certain forge maps.
Spartan-Ops a 2/10, points docked for a wide variety of reasons. Spartan IVs were childish half-the-time, we played as FT Crimson while FT Majestic got all the cutscene glory, missions were just over-glorified Firefight with arbitrary objectives, locales were reused all the time, and of course - BRIAN REED.
Halo 5 Gorbians was a mixed bag in the OPPOSITE DIRECTION of Halo 4
Campaign was 4/10 Gorbs, thanks Brian Reed for having the -400 IQ move of having us play a dual narrative story that was HEAVILY centered around the adventures of your OCs and less of it being half-&-half a story starring Chief and Locke.
Multiplayer was 7/10 Gorbs, because they actually made a solid multiplayer. Points docked due to lighting engine downgrade from the Beta and the fact that it released with 9 sets of armor missing from Halo 4 and Halo 2 Anniversary PLUS the broken WarZone Firefight Bug.
Forge was 10/10 Gorbs. GOOD JOB SKYBOX LABS !!
Halo Spartan Assault was a solid 8/10 spinoff
Halo Spartan Strike was another 7/10 spinoff, points docked because it is the first Halo Game to not be available on Xbox and remains PC & Windows Phone exclusive because Microsoft didn’t think it would sell on Xbox.
Halo Fireteam Raven was a good 7/10 spinoff, points docked for being Arcade exclusive and NOT being added to the Master Chief Collection as a co-op bonus experience with buddies.
Halo Wars 2 was a 9/10 sequel spinoff, shame that some of the DLC was cancelled and that 343 didn’t want to greenlight Halo Wars 3.
Imagine it.
That six-month gap between Halo Infinite’s opening cutscene on the UNSC Infinity and our first mission COULD’VE BEEN a campaign experience . . . one where the UNSC loses and forces are scattered. Your commander was the only one to successfully execute missions and keep his forces somewhat unified on a separate portion of the ring.
Halo Recruit was a VR Demo and was a descent 7/10 experience. But it was just that, a demo.
Halo MCC was a solid 5/10 at launch and has quickly advanced to being a 9/10 thanks to the needed updates.
Halo CE Anniversary was a 7/10 remaster.
Halo 2 Anniversary was a 9/10 remaster.
Halo Infinite is probably going to follow a similar path to MCC - 5/10 at launch and climbing up to be a masterpiece of a game in due time and with proper care.
No, I feel you. I think a lot of expectations were on Infinite, especially considering how long the development time was. But we ended up with an incomplete title, slow development, just so many bad choices in customisation and micro transactions.
It aimed to reach out to an ever wider audience, but it couldn’t sustain their interest. Thinking about it makes me sad really.