Yeppers. Flat, almost PNG-like explosions. No volume whatsoever.
the vehicle damage indicator and death explosions are hilariously bad. HALO 3, a game in 2007 had better damage to the vehicles and explosions. Halo 5, the game before, had better explosions than this⌠like, they felt like actual explosions. infinite⌠like a poof of smoke and then nothing. no gibs (aside from the base vehicle) no particles of medal flying off. just⌠poof. a split second png
Reach did the vehicle damage and explosions the best imo
i mean, the vehicles in reach, like say the warthog. it would be damaged by where it was hit. meaning leaving from a firefight, you could tell what that vehicle went through. the fire effect and smoke on the engine told the players how damaged it was. smokes for still good enough. a small fire for being half health. and a inferno if it was near explosion
in infinite⌠no damage indicators at all. maybe a thing falls off, but thatâs it. no bent metal. no major difference between full and low health. yeah yeah the tires and certain parts can be shot off and mess with the handling⌠but in my experience 9/10 times, the vehicle is in the death faze by the time anything of the sorts happens.
and the smoke - fire effect is non existant. i as a player cant gather important information on how damaged a vehicle is. weather i should get in it for a campaign, or leave it be and save my life
4 Likes
here is the thing, halo infinite has dynamic damage⌠but it isnât active, like right now you can only blow some parts off a vehicle but they have shown larger chunks coming off. I wonder what happened.
just like everything else with this game, it probably wasnât finished. itâl most likely come in a future update, if 343 even care about it. better dynamic damage, for every part of the vehicle (like 3 and reach) gibs etcâŚ
Well if people keep putting money into it and its player numbers keep up it likely will get everything. Right now it is stable at 60k (based on the 30k on steam and expecting a min doubling of that.) players which is pretty good (now that the normal launch drop off is done.)
And if only a 1/100th Puts money into it they are making money per week, but if polls are to be believed about 30% of the players are⌠yeah halo isnât going to die any time soon.
The hope is that means the updates will bring things to the level of earlier games.
3 Likes
they could most definately be improved, they are kind of lackluster at the moment
lack luster is an understatement. IF you use settings to disable that blinding flash the phantom literally just vanishes in a puff of smoke.
3 Likes
Personally I hate the destruction timer. No other game had this. Vehicles would last until they were completed destroyed. The timer reduces the how long you can actually use the vehicle. Plus its super unrealistic, and takes you out of the realness that halo once was. I Like Halo Infinite but the whole game overall feels very cartoony, or has added weird effects for some reason.
Another example is the friend or foe system, how it highlights players from long distance away. It also makes it impossible to even see the players amor or coating once they are hit.
343i did a decent job on Halo Infinite but really dropped the ball on some standard halo things.
Realistic isnât the point really it is game play.
Why not both? Even you said you like the old explosions better. What does improving explosions do for gameplay? Itâs a visual cosmetic or animation. It was more realistic in past games, why shouldnât it be more so now that we have more powerful systems that the game is running on.
I mean if youâre saying is a âgame playâ thing why even start the post regarding what explosions look like?
OK, yes there are some totally underwhelming cosmetic items that could use some TLC.
Would I task any of the totally overwhelmed 343i people with such a task at this time?
Certainly NOT!
There are more pressing issues - functional issues!
The game is so broken and incomplete.
Remember when 343i bragged about bringing back split screen?
I remember split screen from when I played the Halo 1 campaign.
We canât even play co-op campaign at all right now.
I rather get that and then care about cosmetics later.
343i themselves obviously think things could be better, which is why theyâve been hiring new FX Artists. The job for Senior FX Artist is still open now despite first being posted on July 19 2021, and involves these tasks:
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Create all types of photorealistic, high quality effects for weapons, vehicles and characters.
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Concept and prototype new effects as well as raising the quality bar on existing content.
See:
https://careers.microsoft.com/professionals/us/en/job/1101017/Senior-Fx-Artist-343-Industries
Once hired, watch out for such updates at some point in the future.
Hope this helps. 
5 Likes
LateNightGaming did an excellent commentary on this.
The explosions do feel rather dull and unimpactful.
2 Likes
Very strongly agree; the vehicle damage in general has terrible visual clarity and explosions look just plain bad. I can honestly say I think the classic Bungie Halos looked better than this one, despite having less âqualityâ graphics.
2 Likes
You know different parts of a team work on different things right? An FX artist will not be working on Co-op ever, but a programer will.
this isnât an either or thing.
1 Like
Iâm really kinda blown away by this (pun intended.)
I feel like 15 years ago every game was a step forwards, and would just look better and feel better and add new features, now it feels like weâve gone so far backwards. Infinite has âobjectivelyâ higher fidelity graphics, but it just doesnât look as⌠real as Halo 3.
1 Like
Most likely as they focused purely on gameplay then only focused on looks at the last moment, hopefully with time it will be fixed.
343 sucks at explosions, they have since Halo 4. Itâs a damn shame and I hope they give them a do-over.
1 Like
Yeah they do need a do over.