I’m low-key shocked at how universal the dislike is about this. But then again, color customization was something so basic to Halo’s identity that virtually anyone no matter what side of the coin they’re on on some rather heated topics despises this change. I just think we’re all universally bummed to finally confirm this. We had our suspicions ever since we saw the first appearances of armor coatings, and while it is nice to finally get something official about this from 343, it…didn’t help their situation.
Don’t get me wrong, I want more official news from 343 about this game. They need to say more than what they have about it for someone to make a reasonable purchase for the Campaign. But a post from Cobra J24 and very important parts from ran and shai’s gets across what I’m gonna post about here now:
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> **The red flags were there…**Let’s make sure not to ignore the other red flags Infinite poses: the mere concept of Free to Play multiplayer, the complete reboot of the campaign’s story, the frankly ugly graphics and design choices. These red flags are huge, and 343i answer the fandom’s worries with silence. Why? **Because they know we won’t like what they have to show.**343i, I hope you prove me wrong, but you already fooled us many times (Halo 4 multiplayer, Halo 5 campaign, MCC being unplayable at launch, etc). You have not earned our trust or our good will. This is the time to show us your game, to let us give you feedback, to flight it and beta test it so that when it does launch, we will love it and play it. Silence just serves to confirm our worries.
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> They said the in the post that they knew it would cause backlash. That tells me they probably decided this long already. I just wonder what else they will ‘fix’.
As shai said, there are red flags being slapped onto this game since the 23rd reveal. Even before that with how long the silence behind it has been. Now, imagine if we were actually there, 2 years ago when Infinite was first announced, and we had a proper say in what they were doing? What if we had constant, weekly communication with 343 about the game in updates about different sections of the game? And on top of that, the community creator talks they had between people like Late Night Gaming or Xperia?
I would argue we would’ve been in a very different situation. I would argue this whole shader system wouldn’t have been a thing. That the Sidekick wouldn’t look the way it does. That we would’ve had more info on the Campaign and its mechanics. For god’s sake, there is an upgrades tab visible on the map and not a peep has been said about upgrades since the 23rd reveal. But, as we all know, 343 has been so incredibly silent about this game. And given the red flags that are blatant to see, the history 343 has with the franchise? I don’t trust them.
I said it before, and I will say it again. 343 has NO benefit of the doubt. We have no absolute trust in this company to make a game that we will enjoy, and if we did, this announcement about armor coatings lit it in flames. I do not have trust in 343 to make a game we will enjoy, and they haven’t given me a good enough reason to say I should have that trust. No good reason that we should be here, in silence with the occasional blips of news that only seems to tell us that we’re right for being worried about the parts of the game we know.
343 has been able to run flighting programs for the entire MCC collection on PC since its debut. Most of those flights occurred during the 2020 pandemic(Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3 ODST, Halo 4). They have been able to turn MCC from the shell it was to something much, much greater for only a $60 price tag, and that was in part to us testing the game and giving feedback. They wouldn’t have been looking into additional mod support if we weren’t asking. They wouldn’t be looking into something like a custom games browser, if we weren’t asking. Fixes for hit registration, PC settings on console, and more if we didn’t ask them for it or gave feedback on that game.
What makes Infinite different? Its a new Halo game? Why not just give us the parts of the Campaign you’ve already shown us to playtest? What does it take to fit a flighting program on 343’s schedule, even AFTER the delay, where they should have no good excuse to let us give something on the game? Even if we cannot change a single thing about the game, we can’t change the coating system, the story, or whatever else they’re keeping from us because they’re afraid of how we’ll respond, can we at least know that 343 can give us a good reason to believe they won’t deliver a subpar story, that they can be confident in their own product?
The point is, 343 needed better communication with us from the start. I do not believe 343 understands the Halo community, and what we look for in a Halo title. What we expect in a Halo title. They’ve proven they can treat past games and freshen them up, giving them a new look, updating them to be better than ever. If all that can happen to MCC, I should have some faith in 343 to understand what we want. But despite not receiving a single complaint about the new customization features coming into MCC, not a single complaint about the color customization in Halo 5(except for maybe requests to expand it), they believe it necessary to give more “breadth” to our customization.
If they can change what was never broken, what was arguably better into something that causes uproar within the community, I can only imagine what else they saw as expandable. If they could’ve just given us more about the game early on instead of the deafening silence that we all know and hate, maybe we could’ve made it extra clear to 343 that this was going to be a choice we would’ve hated, no matter what Forerunner patterns you could’ve slapped onto my spartan. I wouldn’t even be concerned about other aspects of the game and believe 343 wouldn’t change them negatively if they would just talk to us about Infinite more consistently.
Give me a better reason to have faith 343 understands what we’re looking for in a Halo game. Hell, give me a reason in general they understand what we’re looking for. The customization of vehicles and weapons is great, but it would’ve been better to just allow us to customize them like in MCC with their skins and give us color customization.
Give me more consistent news, even if I’m gonna hate it. At least you’re being straight up with us instead of keeping your head under the sand.
