Hey there guys, I would like to share my experience and opinions after 100h+ in multiplayer. I will conclude this thread with ideas or wishes I have for the future of Halo Infinite.
To have a better understanding for the points I will mention I think it is important that you know some information about me.
My first touch with the franchise was Halo 3 short after release and I fell in love with the franchise. I played every Halo-game and I am very into competitive (ranked). I played also the other FPS Franchises like Battlefield or Call of Duty and Apex Legends, last one catched me after I were done with Halo 5.
For better understanding, I would like to point out that I will use following abbreviations:
MM → Matchmaking
MP → Multiplayer
BTB → Big Team Battle
FFA → Free for All
MCC → Master Chief Collection
F2P → Free to play
So to begin with I was very happy and hyped about the release in December even that it is currently a beta-phase but that is the current trend for a lot of MP-developers to but their game out as beta so they can include the player base in tweaking and optimizing the game. However Halo Infinite MP just feels to me kinda very unfinished and I am not talking about the gameplay I enjoy that a lot but everything around the matches seems so ill-convinced…
Let`s go through the points
I would like to start with the MM, we had from the beginning Quick Play, Ranked and BTB which is compared to other games from the franchise is nothing… Sure FFA, Fiesta, Team Slayer, Tactical Slayer (just name it SWAT again pls) but that is still to less in my opinion. Where is Shotty Sniper (which would be easy to add since it just needs tweaking in the team slayer options like Tactical Slayer (I totally do not like the new name of SWAT), Double Team, Team Objectives (would make sense to have the opposite of Team Slayer no), Action Sack and Ranked modes for FFA and Double Team. It really is not a lot of work since it uses game-modes which are already in the game. And there are even modes that I would mention as core modes for halo like infection, King of the Hill or Grifball. I mean it is unlucky that since the release of the campaign BTB is broken because everything that is already in the game is so rock solid and polished! Halo Infinite has a lot of potential but 343 needs to answers fast to the loudest critics to the game before the player base will move on… (or back to MCC)
In my opinion the most important thing is an anti-cheat engine, since the game is for free on PC and Xbox it was only natural that cheaters will find their way much easier and faster into the franchise than it was before when Halo was only Xbox exclusive.
Let`s move on to the unsatisfying customization options that Halo Infinite has, I remember when 343 told us they would like us to feel special / more engaged or more personal with our Spartans that’s why they gave us the different AI and I love that Idea, also the different armor cores are also a great idea to bring more variety into the game and lets the player be more unique if done right. But for as it is now most things are locked into the shop or battle pass, nothing much to unlock with achievements or challenges (besides the event things) There needs to be more Halo 3ish things like the Hayabusa Armor.
Which leads me to the shop and battle pass and know I do have to compare to another game, Apex Legends, the Battle Pass there is in my opinion the best of it`s kind not only that it has for the whole season weekly challenges that are unlocked when the week begins it also comes with a few stages within those challenges. The next huge advantage that it has is that it refunds more than 100% of the credits it costs so players can earn premium currency. I know Battle Passes ar now the thing how developers of F2P titles earn their money but look at riot games from League of Legends how the game works with premium and playable currency. With that in mind I think the shop should have a better pricing (it is overpriced in my opinion) and much more “Ohhh this looks nice, oh wooooow” Items that players would like to buy. I am talking about Weapons that transform if you have a killing streak going on or warthogs with underfloor light or with a paintball gatling gun. If it is awesome and has a fair price people will buy for sure, at least I am like that and I think a lot players will join me in that opinion.
Back to the customization problem, the coatings, I mean it is cool for weapons but preset colors for our armor`s or emblems? Nope you took a lot of individualism from us, that at least I would like to get back, let us color our Spartans like we want to, let us unlock colors with achievements, challenges or let us buy some special colors in the shop to a fair pricing or with ingame currency which I will mention a bit later… I think the customization that we have now is a huge backstep from what we had in previous games… As an idea let us select every armored part and let us colors on them let us act out how we think we would paint our personal armor, sync the AI color to the color of the HUD UI that we see while playing, to be honest, that was a huge disappointment to me when I found out that the AI color just changes the AI not the HUD…
So next I would like to talk about progression and currency. I love the ranged progession so far, the idea that you progress more because of your own performance ist awesome and as far as I know unique. I just think it needs a bit tweakin because lately I encounter a lot that play more fore their KDA than for the team win. The other progression system that we have is the battle pass which is okay but we need a overall level or rank System. Personnaly I like to show how much game experience I have or I would like to see how much my teammates enemies have. I found the Halo 3 system by far the best that I had encountered so far. I think it is a great thing to combine normal and ranked into one. For example, we could have the ranks from recruit to general and if players play ranked their rank is added for example bronze general or onyx sergeant. With an overall progression system player could unlock customization items like armor parts or weapon skins or colors. Experience is gained during matches for style medals like sprees, multi kills and so on. Now we go for the currency’s the premium one is totally fine I do understand that 343 wants to earn some money with the game, but give us currency that we can earn by winning matches and doing challenges. So we could buy Items from past events, battle passes or normal shop items. That way everyone could customize his/her Spartan as they wish, but they would have to put in the work for it or buy it with premium currency. I am sure that a lot of the player base agrees with this people can either work for their optimization options or buy them right away.
Last but not least I would like to mention the balancing so far, I have noticed that the Assault Rifle outmatches the Battle Rifle in most midrange distances. The Sidekick seems a bit to strong in my opinion.
For the Future of Halo Infinite, I would love to see Warzone and Firefight have a comeback since those 2 modes were very chilled to play with friends or strangers a great way to make new gaming friends. I would love to see iconic maps like Guardian, Valhalla, Sandtrap Avalanche, Powerhouse, Warlord, Coliseum, Haven having a comeback in Infinite as I see them fitting with the new mechanics. I would love to see some more new gadgets or old ones like the bubble shield or gravity lift. I would love to see some more old weapons back like the DMR, covenant sniper, firebomb, and some more forerunner weapons.
A emblem or weapon coating creator on Waypoint would be a fresh thing for players and a huge step for customization.
Last but not least I would love to have a Battle Royal Mode, I will post my blueprint idea for this into another thread but for now this concludes my post.
Thank you for reading until the end and I hope I got everything covered, let me know what you think about it or if you have a similar or maybe totally different opinion.
See you on the battlefield Spartans!