To be perfectly honest, I’m sad. This is going to be a bit of a long winded post and if you get through it hats off to you.
I started playing Halo when i was 7-ish. I’m 27 now.
I reached ONYX, did the laso challenge and am 2 levels away from completing the battle pass. (Over 600 games played.)
We watched 343i take over the mantle of responsibility 10 years ago. Most of us old heads have been fighting to keep our community alive through the dark times of Halo 4/5.
When the news came that Halo would launch a month early i was IN. I grabbed all my friends and the boys were back! Reunited to play the game we all loved.
The Journey through Campaign:
Going through the campaign I realized the open world was Barron and devoid of any love what so ever. Really
most of the FOB’s are just cut and paste content and there really isn’t much of a point to the open world.
The grunts were hilarious and had some of the best dialogue in the series. Master chief was kick -Yoink!- and the main story had some of the best writing in the series.
After getting completely destroyed on Legendary, i beat it! On Day 1. I was ready for some cool reward but there wasn’t any. On Day 2 i collected all the skulls and Day 3 i completed LASO (pre scorpion gun). Surely this time will be different. It wasn’t. As i starred at the 20 minutes of credits before me i contemplated if it was worth it.
I spent $60 on a campaign and had not a single thing to show for it besides some colors for an armor core that i won’t use. The campaign was okay certainly not $60’s.
Multiplayer:
When i first launched Infinite i thought, this game has so much potential to be great and i found myself repeating this sentiment over and over again. The gameplay is good but everything surrounding it is not.
At this point it’s like beating a dead horse but the microtransactions in this game are egregious. I would’ve glady paid for things within the store but dear god this is encroaching on UBISOFT level of failure.
Never the less we traveled into competitive. Between shots just not Registering/Desync and after 1500 gaining a total of 2 points per win and 6 for a loss created an environment where there isn’t really a reason to play past that point.
But there was something more missing. I wasn’t feeling the magic, but why? There is a complete lack of maps and if i’m going to be completely honest maybe 2 of them look like they belong in Halo and not some random shooter. I was craving the dopamine hit of a lockout/midship/the pit but what I got was a countdown and behemoth.
From this point the bugs and lack of content really started to kick into over drive.
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Theater not working.
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Custom games not working.
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The challenge system being so laughably bad it makes you wonder were it went wrong.
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Events not being interesting or even well thought out. I’d really like to know why the final reward for the Christmas event was orange. Like? Why? Orange?
Even now the LTM for fracture tenrai is just fiesta v2.
At this point it was HCS time and after all the crashes it was super entertaining. But of course twitch drops broke and half the people including myself couldn’t redeem. So what does 343i have to say? Nothing. The ticket respone? We are aware and don’t have a solution.
It’s clearly evident the game wasn’t ready for a release and that act of good faith from 343i releasing the game for the holidays only served to line pockets rather then do good for fans and that’s the knife thats twisting into my side. I would’ve paid so much for a fair game made with love.
I just don’t see it.
You would think after all of the outycry on Reddit and Waypoint a Community Manager would at the very least attempt mediate the situation or put out fires. The communication is abysmal and shows how weak the leadership really is.
If this game fails it’s on you 343i.
We followed you for 10 years watching blunder after blunder.
When you sit back and wonder why am i getting all this hate just remember the pivotal decision to release an unfinished game in efforts to line your pockets.
For me my Halo Journey is over. I’m extremly thankful to this community and all of the good memorys.
Bungie’s philosophy before being Acti/Bungie was put the player first and to not understand that is not understanding Halo at it’s fundamental level.
I hope i’m wrong.
I want you guys to tell me i’m wrong.
It’s been 10 years of this and i’m tired.
Good luck Spartans!