Been thinking a lot about what we’ve seen of the multiplayer thus far and, for the most part, I am excited. That being said, I am on the spectrum of “Classic Halo” purists who whines a lot about things not being “the way things should be.” I am aware of the general frustration with this mindset and am doing what I can to keep an open mind while having my opinions - I still want to be able to talk about the game without making a ton of people’s eyes roll. I’m sure some of the opinions below will still do that, but I tried my best to outline some of the things that I think could be improved or have adverse effects based on what we have seen and understanding that some things are still changing. Some of these things may end up feeling good but the last 10 years of this franchise (and last 6 years of this game’s planning and development) has left many of us feeling burned.
Spoilers: Sprint itself is NOT on the list. My feelings on it are in the air because it has clearly seen some big changes and I’m curious to see how it feels in this game.
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Visual Shield Effects (Opacity, Pattern, Pop/Break Effect, Overshield, etc) - This is purely subjective and the most petty piece of criticism I have on this list. Does anyone else feel that most of the shield effects in the game just look really flat compared to previous iterations in Halo Reach, Halo 4, and Halo 2 Anniversary? Fortunately, we did not see any hexagon effects on-screen during shield recharging for the player (hopefully removed) but popping an enemy shield still shows them and looks…cartoonish. Additionally, the shields over the player model have a ridiculously opaque hexagon pattern, and the Overshield effect we’ve seen thus far looks like a yellow color overlay over the player model. Perhaps they are keeping the effect simple so that it does not confuse anyone, but I feel it ends up just looking terrible. Will have to see it in Flighting. Perhaps it is not final.
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Personal AI Options - This feature sounds very flexible which is good. While 343 assured us the main announcer will be Jeff Steitzer, some legacy fans will still think this addition is unnecessary or corny. Solution? Just have a mute AI and a Jeff Steitzer AI. Boom, problem solved.
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Medal Announcements (Double Kill, etc) - Clearly, certain medal announcements like “No Scope” and “Bankshot” were heard, but a triple kill using a hammer was seen later on with no on-screen medal or announcement. It would be very disappointing for Halo to drop such a historically iconic multiplayer characteristic for absolutely no reason, hoping it’s not finished. If it seems silly of me to suspect such a thing and that it’s obviously just not done yet, 343 has screwed up stuff like this before…and it certainly would not be an example of “respecting the legacy of what came before” if this happened.
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Possible Flag Sprinting & Flag-On-Back - Sprinting with the flag sounds like a bad idea, but we will have to see if it’s actually in as it was difficult to identify in what little we saw. It was recently noticed that some of the gameplay footage possibly revealed the flag being able to be placed on your back similar to a weapon. That sounds ridiculous to me and potentially worse than worse than Flagnum but we will have to see if it’s true. If it IS true, we will have to see if it is as bad as it sounds or if it’s exclusive to specific game modes.
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New 1.4x “Smart Scope” - I think a slight zoom for some/most non-scoped weapons that doesn’t affect reticle accuracy would be very good for Infinite. The popular legacy Halos had a generic binoc zoom if your current weapon had no scope. It had no reticle, immediately de-scoped upon firing, and felt clunky. A reticle accuracy boost for smart scoping (like in Halo 5) has some adverse effects on the weapon sandbox, but a 1.4x basic zoom that doesn’t de-scope when firing and you have yourself a net-positive.
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Sliding - Slide-jumping was being shown extensively during the campaign showcase last year. I am opinionated and do not think slide-hopping compliments Halo’s gameplay at all, but a less-overboard iteration similar to CoD Modern Warfare 2019’s slide should be included and would be great for using to slip into and around cover with a smaller hitbox. It not being seen in combat this year suggests it’s been adjusted, isn’t as useful as sliding in Halo 5 or Apex Legends, or that they decided to hide it. Hoping to see that it was adjusted during flighting, but…
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Clamber Tolerance - Missing ledges in older FPS’s (including legacy Halo) was always annoying af, but Halo 5’s clamber was extremely (and overly) forgiving and seems to be what we are getting. Additionally, 343 has not yet proven that it can develop maps to accommodate for the ability to prevent players from turning carefully designed maps into jungle-gyms. The removal of most Halo 5 abilities and lower sprint speed definitely helps, so perhaps 343 will nail it this time. We will see in the Flights.
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Red vs. Blue Retirement & Colored Outlines - I have encountered customization-conscious Halo fans over the years who wondered when they would ever see their custom colors if they never played Zombies, FFA, or Firefight, and 343 clearly needs to increase the visibility of coatings so that they can have value to players who exclusively play team-gametypes. While the outlines system addresses this and might be sufficient after a few months of adjustment, it is literally impossible for this to have a positive-impact on quickly and easily identifying enemy players during very chaotic and competitive matches. The outline system itself also silhouettes player models from the background environment which can make the game look more ugly and cluttered. The need for this system due to modern gaming expectations is…understandable, but this needs to be flighted and tested by the public playerbase ASAP. If it has a noticable impact on the flow of combat in team-gametypes, I would at least recommend that Ranked and HCS playlists stick to forced RvB team-colors. For the love of god, even if that does not happen, PLEASE have a toggle for custom games.
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Grenade Hitmarkers - This is probably the feature I am the most stubbornly arrogant about. I noticed that grenade hitmarkers (for both physical contact and explosive damage contact) are currently present in Multiplayer. While grenade spamming still happens without it, it’s not fair to encourage players to use it as a method of detecting enemies around corners. This seemingly small gripe is exacerbated by the commonality of grenades as spawn-items when compared to Bankshot-capable firearms (such as the new Scattershot-like rifle or a future Grenade Launcher DLC). Kill hitmarkers should be the only things that grenades should be able to show. If this was kept in intentionally, then I would recommend that it be out of Ranked and/or HCS playlists…or at the very least included as a toggleable option in Custom Games. This is not something I think flighting can sell fans on.I know it broke 7000 characters but I hope this gets some responses so I can see how badly some of these get ratio’d or if anyone agrees with some of them or have better ideas of solving these potential gripes.