Extra Year? Please, Give us Firefight

Games Halo Infinite
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Obviously 2020 isn’t the year we as Halo fans, or as human beings in general, expected it would be. It’s all been a challenge for every one of us, and losing out on Halo Infinite for this year, despite it being “just a game,” is just one more thing to lament about this year.

343i’s stated reasons for the delay are good reasons. They want to take care of their dev team and deliver the fans a true, full-fat and well polished Halo experience when Infinite is ready to go. It’s up to them to prove that the extra time will make a difference by delivering the most fully realized and well-rounded Halo game they’ve ever made (hopefully, that has ever been made).

Of course, our understanding as fans as to what makes a “complete,” Halo game has shifted over the years. I personally believe the high-bar for the series when it comes to a complete, well rounded game at launch was Halo: Reach. A solid, replayable campaign, a robust and expanded PvP, an enhanced suite of community creation and sharing tools including a dramatically enhanced Forge mode, and my personal favorite: an expanded Firefight mode with customs options and matchmaking support.

Halo 4 took Firefight away and instead gave us Spartan Ops. However you feel about SpOps, I submit that its linear paths and mini-objective based gameplay was never a true replacement for the customizable survival arcade mode that Firefight was. Nor is Halo 5’s Warzone Firefight, which often feels so frantic and competitive as to defeat its ostensible role as a cooperative survival gametype.

For me and a lot of other PvE players, there’s been a Firefight-shaped hole in Halo since 2012. I hoped for (and expected) Firefight to be in Halo 4, and was disappointed. I hoped it would come back in Halo 5 and was let down again. MCC has thankfully enabled us to enjoy ODST and Reach’s Firefight modes again in higher fidelity, but I think I’m not alone in still wanting an expansion on true, classic Firefight in Infinite.

Please use the extra time to polish the campaign and multiplayer, but if at all possible, please don’t ignore those of us who’ve been crying out for a Firefight comeback since H4.

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Agreed.

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I’m sure a more traditional approach to Firefight will return in Infinite. Spartan-Ops was cool and all and I got a feeling there will be room for all of that given Halo Infinite is said to have a “massive landscape.” I don’t think we’ll get Warzone Firefight considering Warzone in general relied heavily on the Requsition system, and that wasn’t too well recieved so it’s possible they’re doing away with all that. I hope we get firefight along the lines of how Halo 3: ODST and Reach did it

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> 2533274870308953;3:
> I’m sure a more traditional approach to Firefight will return in Infinite. Spartan-Ops was cool and all and I got a feeling there will be room for all of that given Halo Infinite is said to have a “massive landscape.” I don’t think we’ll get Warzone Firefight considering Warzone in general relied heavily on the Requsition system, and that wasn’t too well recieved so it’s possible they’re doing away with all that. I hope we get firefight along the lines of how Halo 3: ODST and Reach did it

That’s what I’m saying! I really REALLY hope its ODST/Reach styled.

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I’m not going to get my hopes up, but I 100% support the idea of Firefight over any of the other takes on PvE. I understand the need to innovate and try new things, but Spartan-ops and Warzone are so different that it left the Firefight fans feeling left out. I don’t think that many were upset when spartan-ops got replaced with Warzone, but I imagine there will be an outcry if Warzone gets replaced.

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> 2533274866989456;5:
> I’m not going to get my hopes up, but I 100% support the idea of Firefight over any of the other takes on PvE. I understand the need to innovate and try new things, but Spartan-ops and Warzone are so different that it left the Firefight fans feeling left out. I don’t think that many were upset when spartan-ops got replaced with Warzone, but I imagine there will be an outcry if Warzone gets replaced.

I think if there is another PvP style mode introduced OR BtB is expanded on in a way tat it has its own maps or even more players, the elimination of Warzone will be accepted generally. That is assuming there will be the traditional ODST/Reach FF mode for those of us who enjoy PvE as well.

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Yes fire fight in infinite would be awesome, especially with larger map capibility.

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It’s worth noting that development delays are not put in place to add extra stuff; they are put in place so that the team can finish what’s already planned. That’s not to say that some FF mode wasn’t already planned for Infinite, but if it wasn’t, they wouldn’t be adding that mode on just because of the delay. That said, I also hope Infinite has a more traditional FF mode, akin to ODST or Reach (not WZFF).

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> 2533274817408735;8:
> It’s worth noting that development delays are not put in place to add extra stuff; they are put in place so that the team can finish what’s already planned. That’s not to say that some FF mode wasn’t already planned for Infinite, but if it wasn’t, they wouldn’t be adding that mode on just because of the delay.

It makes sense, but I wouldn’t be 100% sure of that. Halo 2 was made in just over a year. Sure, they had access to plenty of assets that already existed before then, but Infinite is supposedly playable start to finish right now. That leaves plenty of room for Firefight, especially since there’s no way they can actually rebuild a modern AAA game from start to finish in a year, like Halo 2. Unless they have a whole lot of Campaign changes and additions planned, they very well could be putting some effort into Firefight. Firefight in its most basic form, like in ODST and Reach, is probably easier than designing a multiplayer map because you don’t have to be as concerned about balance. Pathing can be an issue, but if the people in charge of pathing are mostly done with Campaign, what else would they work on? Of course, this is all based on IF they don’t have too many changes planned for Campaign.

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@Chimera30 more than fair and I appreciate the insight. I understand that the delay is fundamentally polish time to maximize fit and finish moreso than it is intended to be a time for major feature additions/overhauls.

I’ve also hope they’ve had a Firefight mode in the spirit of ODST/Reach planned as part of Infinite for a long time. My personal hype for the game would elevate big time if 343i were to announce that Firefight will be coming back.

If it doesn’t come right away, I suppose there is hope given the “ten year journey,” that’s so often alluded to by 343i for this game. Still, I’d prefer it be part of the foundation rather than an afterthought, as I feel that was one of WZFF’s first and biggest issues.

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Agreed. I miss regular firefight.

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> 2533274861158694;10:
> @Chimera30 more than fair and I appreciate the insight. I understand that the delay is fundamentally polish time to maximize fit and finish moreso than it is intended to be a time for major feature additions/overhauls.
>
> I’ve also hope they’ve had a Firefight mode in the spirit of ODST/Reach planned as part of Infinite for a long time. My personal hype for the game would elevate big time if 343i were to announce that Firefight will be coming back.
>
> If it doesn’t come right away, I suppose there is hope given the “ten year journey,” that’s so often alluded to by 343i for this game. Still, I’d prefer it be part of the foundation rather than an afterthought, as I feel that was one of WZFF’s first and biggest issues.

Absolutely. Give me firefight in an environment it was meant to be played in. Warzone Firefight is barely any fun because of this.

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I see Firefight coming back