I have loved the halo Ip since the first game launched on the original Xbox. I have followed through Bungi’s twists and turns as they attempted changes between 1-3. Halo 4 and 5 felt about the same. I can’t say that about the Halo infinite Campaign (will be called 6 from here on out). Halo 6 had great promise and could have been something to enjoy LONG hours on but after 1 play through its just meh. The game was fun and enjoyable as shooter game that you can just unload bullets and kill stuff, but not as a continuation of the Halo series. The story was okay but didn’t flow quiet like the others did and you had to pick up a ton of lore pieces before anything started to piece together of what happened.
With that said jumping into tweaks done to the current game that could make the open-world part a little more enjoyable.
Tweaks
Outposts- Fun at first but out right annoying after you destroy them.
- Put marines in them after capture.
- Have the banished attempt to retake for a major fight where you have to defend against waves.
- Have them recapture and you have to redestroy them to prevent them from adding a buff to the surrounding areas
– Buffs could be more enemy vehicles, more troops, more reinforcements when they drop in, or elite troops dropping instead of regulars (Ideas to make the bases worth something more than a valor soak).
FOBs- They are a great added bonus for ammo, vehicles, and support troops
- I would like to see less of them. Felt just thrown around.
- Have each FOB have certain points that can be used and then you have to let them recover that way you can’t called in like 5 tanks back to back after moving them off the platform. (points would increase as the Main missions and more FOB’s are recovered.
- Increase security at the FOB’s. Make them a true fight to be a waypoint in the game.
- Instead of them looking like supply depos from Halo Wars add other features or ways to customize them.
- At least 1 should have been like a super FOB that is the main hub for all the chiefs achievements and what not through out the increasing of valor. (it makes it the primary base of operations) (A place for each player to say this is how mine looks)
Objectives
- We have currently outposts, audio logs, skulls, HVTs, FOBs, Cosmetics, Cores, and towers. These would be fine if they weren’t in such high numbers.
– Outposts- Cool large bastions with goals to aid in what ever the banished has planed. They needed a bit of a reward for the UNSC (other than just Valor). After dealing with them they stayed and just created an annoyance if you had to go near or through one.
– Audio Logs- they are a fun thing to listen to as they give lore but they also are a pain to collect so many of them. One zone had 26 of them. Could have cut that number down and just extend the log to give out a better chunk instead of so many.
– HVTs- these where fun. I wish there was more lore surrounding them instead of just the “weapon” giving minor stuff and having to then pause and read about them in the database after killing them. I also was disappointed because other than the hunter pair the rest seemed to just minorly better than the version of the unit they took after. Most where not even a mini boss level of fight.
– FOBs- look above. They where cool for ammo/vehicle spawns but other wise worthless.
– Cores- I truly felt that some of these should have been put inside the main story missions. Why? that way if you didn’t want to scavenge for the cores you could still get upgrades to your gear. Not everyone wants to spend time finding things that may or may not help them.
– Cosmetics- Its nice to put them in the main campaign for those that want to maybe look cooler outside but if they have no real reason to be in the Campaign why put them in when you could have just put them under an achievement, or reward in pvp. These also took up time that the base game needed to improve so that it could have felt fuller.
– Towers- I HATED hunting these things down. They had no reason or place except to waste time. These also just annoyed the living day lights with their insults to the Master Chief or UNSC which survived 6 months against this “elite” humanity killing force and then they get their ever living day lights kicked out of them when the chief does come back.
Units- some are okay and others aren’t so much.
Banished
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Grunts
– The mules are cool addition to the ranks but for the most part where ignored for they didn’t drop much that was very useful often enough to worry about what they did drop -
Elites
– Camo seemed to me more agile than the others. Also they seemed to have stronger shields as well compared to past games. Don’t know if this was how they where always supposed to be or an over-tuning of them. -
Jackels
– I feel the snipers where REALLY to accurate. It felt like they where snapping to me every time, so on legendary if i ever saw a laser line i was always diving away from what i was doing to figure out how to take out that one unit over everything else. So a minor nerf to them would be amazing to allow the open world be a little easier to transverse. -
Hunters
– These guys overhaul was a little much for what they are supposed to be. Hunters are anti-infantry, heavy armored, heavy weapon. They are slow and have a ton of armor and HP.
– Halo 6 hunters have all that AND fast speed. Almost to the point of being able to snap to the players movements, and could chase you down when trying to find cover.
– They also never shot near their partner or themselves because they have AOE on their weapon.
– Their swings also were not speedy to the point you need an equipment mod to even avoid being slapped across the room by the spaceship steel shield.
– The new firing method on the assault cannon is fine as it gives them an option to actually hit a faster moving spartan or vehicle, but the damage needs to reflect the fact their firing faster not as charged rounds as it felt they had the same strength if taken one to the face. (Red Elite Hunters only)
– Overall they need toned back a bit (Blue hunters speed a bit, Red Elite Hunters need a bit of everything) -
Brutes
– The only changes I would like to see the the plat chieftains being a bit easier, they are a bit much at the moment at the higher difficult levels just like the elite hunters.
UNSC
- Marines
– Their AI needs to be imporved a bit.
– Have them take cover a bit. They tend to stand in the open and get destroyed at the upper difficult levels.
– Guns. I have done the FOB drop and watch some of them run over and grab certain guns over others. So maybe have them less worried about which gun to use and stop them from standing on the FOB when a vehicle is coming down. I don’t know how many I have killed calling in a vehicle.
– Have a ping system so you can have some get in vehicles and follow. They tend to run more than get in a vehicle.
– Past games had 4 extra seats for them on the Scorpion but Halo 6 seems to only allow a gunner. If it supposed to allow them then there’s bug in the code preventing them from jumping on.
Vehicles
Banished
– I really have no complaints about the Banished vehicles.
- Banshee
–The only one to make this list and this is because in a dog fight they tend to get REALLY close. I would love to see the dog fighting be a bit different. Its stale and if you’re in a wasp you just circle and aim the locked on rockets in front and you win with no effort.
UNSC
-
Warthog
– I know that the 50 cal machine gun was a bit powerful in a lot of the other games but its very underwhelming in Halo 6. I watched my gunner fail to kill 3 grunts in the time i saw my passenger kill a brute. The damage is also underwhelming vs other vehicles. Animation and sound for the turret and the ground base turret also needs reworked. It doesn’t feel like I’m using a 50 cal machine gun. -
Scorpion
– The main battle tank only has one flaw and it is that its REALLY hard to control and requires a ton of patience to drive. I would just increase the turn rate of the tracks at all speeds and make it more fluid on turning -
UNSC vehicle speeds except Scorpion
– Mongoose (both types), Warthog (both types) need to have their top speed dropped a bit. It just a bit to much.
– Wasp needs its top speed increased. I understand you can’t be zipping around at Mach 1 but it feels so slow compared to the the Banshee. Speed shouldn’t be nerfed just because it can fly when you make a map that’s 2/3’s rough terrain. -
All UNSC ground vehicles + Banished Ghost
– I feel like there was a lot of terrain that used to be no problem to climb or create cool flips/flying just stops the vehicle dead. The map is to big to be running and only using the grappleshot for speed. These used to be fun to see where you could get them because they would roll over terrain if angled and speed was just right to allow it. Making GREAT drivers able to take vehicles to places they shouldn’t, and that increased joy driving them.
Campaign
What needs to be done to the campaign
- Length
– The main missions are few and short. Most of a playthrough is doing the open-world and finding the little things, so longer or more missions should have been added (for sure since you charged AAA price for $59.99+tax). More zones. Something to make it worth the tag. - A major hub for the UNSC would be amazing. We saved many squads and earned Valor with little to show physically on the map.
- Access to the whole map that we have available through this section of the ring we are on. Distance is much so FOB fast travels is fine to bridge that rather than preventing travel outside the 4 islands.
- Revisiting old mission sites. Everything should be open if you aren’t going to add replay able missions in that saved file. To get skulls, audio logs, and see if you missed any secrets you have stashed away for Easter eggs.
- Make ammo for the weapons better. It got annoying going into a mission with a Valor earned weapon only to have to leave it behind after a few fights because there wasn’t an ammo box with the required type near by. So if you have 2 styles of the same gun they should use the same ammo to allow for that unique player loadout without having to worry about ammo each fight,
- -The open-world after you have done everything is blah. I know some people like driving around just blasting away but after an objective is finished it loses appeal and just get annoying traveling when you cleared something only to see new enemies in the path that are more of a annoyance than a fight. So there needs to be something to do that’s repeatable and rewarding without it getting to boring after the first 50 runs (rough guess on number of times that would make its stupid to repeat anymore)
- For future campaigns/DLC/add-ons. When ever you decide to add onto to expand don’t reset the progress of what’s earned on saved files. Some people only want to play the new stuff and not the old and some will do a replay with the new. If each new section is a restart it will get old fast of having to farm the valor and/or clear the maps to just progress.
- Ammo boxes. Ammo being limited in the field is all fine until you use it all up and are running back to the FOB’s to get more only to have almost all the enemies reset. REALLY sucked when dealing with the HVT’s and you used everything around. They need to have more in them or there needs to be more out. Also Power Ammo boxes are too rare. Heavy weapons are fun and unless is the Skewer they just stop being something to use as they rarely drop or found. (except the UNSC Rocker Launcher which just needs to hold more ammo since it does drop more often from brutes)
- Bosses fights retuned. Some where cake walk while others was hell. Blademaster and Escharum where way harder than anything and they where not final bosses of the game. The monitor fights was annoying and you could of done a nice change for the 2nd fight but it was the same. Just a different location.
- For a newer AI it has a bad habit of not carrying who or what is around when firing their guns. Its like they are all trigger happy bloodthirsty goons than former Covenant forces.
- UNSC Forces aren’t push over and same for Spartans. I truly felt you didn’t give them justice in Halo 6. All seemingly killed by a “Spartan Killer”. Which all except Blademaster seemed to be push overs. The whole story also needed more back story and explaining. It REALLY felt dry as a veteran player of the games. You took the “restart” to far. Not to mention you basically ruined 4-5’s whole story with Cortana. You did her wrong for what she was able to do and accomplish.
Rant
There was a lot about the game I enjoyed as just a player but as a lover of halo. Someone who has played every game and read up on the lore books/series. This was an insult. If you wanted to create a “restart” just tell the community the truth about it. I 100% though you did Cortana dirty. Like this AI is in control of Guardians that can DESTROY a dang planet. Do you really think she would fall for some stupid trap, get contained, get toyed with by a stupid Brute (I have no love/respect for Atriox), and then go oh wait I have been wrong about everything for YEARS! You added a time skip with SO SO SO much information missing and forcing anyone to have to go back and search to fill in the gaps. You guys also failed at piecing together the story btw. It felt like a I was playing an indie’s copy of Halo 1. This is Halo 6 and your 3rd game into the series. Like if you wanted a restart it should have waited until Halo 7 where you could have wrapped up the Cortana and Chief and then moved on. I still have a head ache from trying to make sure I collected every lore and listened to everything to make sure I didn’t miss anything. I know you got rushed but DANG. You should have just pushed back the date and said “Sorry but the game isn’t polished right” and you know what. I bet you would have gotten heat but everyone would have accepted it because you where honest. At the same time trying to give us a great product instead of this.
I truly hope 343 can recover from this failure of a start to this “10-year plan” because AAA price tag of this is level isn’t what I have come to except from the studio that did Halo 4 and Halo 5 which was great work. You already launched the multiplayer for the people crying they want another version of the same thing (which I heard your missing parts of that as well). Should have just taken the time. I also don’t want to see any DLC for the campaign that costs that much again for that quality. Frankly it is disappointing you rushed the release that soon.