My main issue is they’ve split armor customization into these “cores”. The armor is essentially locked to its “generation”. This change really removes alot of the customization because you cannot mix and match armor from these cores. You unlock a shoulder/chest piece from Halo Reach, you cannot use it with the Rare Mark VIII armor core and visa versa. This game was touted for it going back to form and giving that sense of personal feeling to a player’s spartan, likening it to how Reach handled it. Unfortunately this feels rather limiting, especially at launch because there is so little armor for the new Mark VII while there is quite a lot for the Mark V [B]. If I spend $10 to get access to the Premium Battle Pass, I should be able to use that armor wherever and whenever I want.
I spent $10 on the Cloud9 armor kit, which I thought was just a color scheme/coating but I was wrong. It turns out kits are something you cannot customize whatsoever, so I get stuck with using this basic armor set and on this nice color scheme. If I spend the time and money to get other armor sets, I should be able to mix and match the kit with the armor, locking this further ruins the players sense of customization and feels terrible. I’m not really sure why this change was made, its nothing like previous Halos. Reach allowed you to use armor that wasn’t even made for Spartan IIIs to begin with, regardless of how silly it may have looked.
Limiting player customization by removing the ability to choose from a set color palette feels especially greedy. I understand maybe locking certain glossy/metallic or cameoed “coatings” is a way to drive player purchases and thus give give continual income to the developer so they can work on a live service game but this current model removes something thats in every single Halo game now. Monetizing that is a huge mistake.
5 Likes
Tried to make a post of this on my own but this website is so hard to use that I’ll just put it as a reply here-
I am very disappointed by the customization. I feel very limited by my inability to use my newly unlocked pieces of armor with others that I already have because they belong to different cores. Every other Halo game has allowed you to mix and match however you want. In addition, after buying one of the bundles in the shop, I found that I was unable to use the cool color scheme unless I used the entire set that came with it. This completely discourages me from wanting to buy anything from the shop in the future, as I don’t know if I’ll be able to make the character I want with it. So I say do away with cores, do away with sets, let us be free, like it is in the Master Chief Collection, like it is in Halo 5, like it should be.
2 Likes
I also agree. One of the thing I was most excited for with infinite was being able to make my ideal Spartan in the wonderful art style 343 has created. It was honestly the thing that initially got me in to the franchise. When I heard that color customization would be limited to preset coatings, I was very disappointed, but I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt- they have to monetize the game somehow, so as long as we still get a decent variety of free basic color schemes, I’m sure I’ll still love customizing my character. But this was contingent on the idea that I would actually be able to customize my armor. By limiting certain pieces, and even color schemes to specific core armors, I feel more limited in my customization than I have since Halo 2, even if that technically isn’t the case. Because all I can see are the strange, artificial-feeling limitations on my creativity that I didn’t have to deal with before.
And on top of all this, we now have to pay extra for most of these armor sets. Again, I know the game must be monetized somehow, but with so few options available to players playing for-free, the basic armor is ubiquitous and makes everyone seem generic and boring, whereas in Reach everyone had their own unique style that kept things fresh and (mostly) immersive, where everyone was an individual expressing their own sense of style.
But even if you do pay for extra armor, you can’t even customize a lot of it! So what’s the point in buying any of it? I’m forced to stick with the basic armor with my purple color scheme and one robot arm as the only thing keeping me somewhat unique, because I don’t have the option to make anything I find more interesting, despite the assets available to do so.
2 Likes