Halo Infinite and how I currently feel about the multiplayer experience

Games Halo Infinite
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FYI, THIS WILL BE A FAIRLY LONG POST

As the game currently stands, I want to give Halo Infinite my time and I want to enjoy it, but I feel as though there is literally NOTHING worth doing in the game’s multiplayer. It’s missing some of the feel that Halo 2 and Halo 3 had for me that kept me coming back to play the same things over and over again for days/months/years.

I’ve already grinded to Onyx on 2 accounts and soon by Tuesday 2/22/22, I’ll have to do that all over again with basically no reward besides a pat on the back and a “Good job”. Ranked Arena also (like everything else in the multiplayer right now) feels stale, but that’s NOT because of the Ranked Arena game type settings, they’re actually quite good this time around, it’s because of the maps themselves being extremely underwhelming, lackluster and boring, but I’ll get to all of that in a bit when talking about multiplayer as a whole between Ranked and Social.

The “Ultimate Reward” in multiplayer every week feels utterly useless and garbage every time. Personally, I couldn’t possibly care less about getting an emblem for my Spartan/vehicles/weapons that’s just mediocre at best. I need something that’s actually worth going after, if it’s gonna be an “Ultimate Reward” then actually make it something nice and worth the time. All of the things I’ve seen so far for the “Ultimate Reward” have looked kind of terrible to me if I’m being honest.

As for multiplayer as a whole the standard multiplayer gameplay settings aren’t that bad, but I absolutely can’t stand Assault Rifle/Pistol starts I’ll take a Battle Rifle/Assault Rifle combo or just straight up only Battle Rifle over the Sidekick pea shooter any day of the week without a second thought. When playing Social Team Slayer or FFA Slayer in Halo Infinite, since it’s Assault Rifle/Pistol starts the very first thing I do is run to the Battle Rifle because quite frankly it’s the only primary weapon that I want to use. The problem is that I don’t spawn with it, so I end up camping more or less around it’s spawn point(s) or go somewhere for the power weapon(s) or power up(s) and then back to the Battle Rifle spawn point(s) so I never lose it. I shouldn’t need to play the game like that to actually try to enjoy it. I play Battle Rifle Team Slayer and FFA a lot on MCC and that’s fun, but Assault Rifle/Pistol Team Slayer and FFA is just not it, it actually keeps me from playing the 2 modes I like most and I’m pretty sure that’s not what we’re trying to do here. However, I do also understand that not everyone is like me and that there are indeed people that enjoy the Assault Rifle/Pistol combo in 4v4 and maybe even FFA. So for certain playlists I think we should have both options for 4v4 and FFA for Battle Rifle starts and Assault Rifle/Pistol starts.

Multiplayer maps, none of these 4v4 and FFA maps are great, not a single one, they’re all just a 5/10 or 6/10 at best and some are just outright terrible (looking at you Launch Site). We need REAL maps, bring back The Pit, Midship/Heretic, Sanctuary and Beaver Creek all of those maps are iconic and legendary (there are others, but we can’t just bring every map we’ve ever liked over so I’m only mentioning a few great competitive maps for starters). Then ask yourselves, “Ok why do people love playing on these maps over and over again? What makes these maps in particular so great? What can we do to recreate the the feeling these maps have and yet make something totally new people will like?” Forge maps are great, but nothing can beat a solid well done developer made map no matter how good someone is with Forge so we need both at the end of the day.

As for the game modes, we shouldn’t be waiting 6 months for over half the core game modes to be added into the game we’re currently missing King Of The Hill, Assault Infection, and Ricochet for starters and who actually knows how many brand new core modes. As bad as it is, having no Forge for 6 months is alright I guess if it means it will be the best Forge mode we’ve ever had, but we still need more core modes at the very least even without Forge.

Lastly, before I wrap this up I’d like to briefly mention the Store. Probably 80% of the items I see on the store on any given week are honestly pretty lack luster, the occasional armor effect is probably the only thing on the store that really even gets my attention most of the time. It’s bad enough that we basically have to buy the armor colors we like when/if they come along and half the time it’s only for 1 armor core that you might not even use. The store could at least offer stuff arguably worth paying for, for example what if we had something like an animated Battle Rifle skin and it was stars twinkling on your gun or the Milky Way galaxy on your gun? I for one would buy that kind of skin if I saw it. Another would be animated emblems and weapon coatings for HCS partnered teams on the store.

Again, I genuinely want to play Halo Infinite, be excited about it and actually enjoy it, but in its current state I feel I basically have to play literally anything else entirely because every time I get the feeling of “Hey, I wanna play Halo today” after logging in and playing just 2 games I’m immediately reminded why I haven’t been playing the game and that’s kind of heartbreaking.

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Maps are definitely lacking

I want maps like high ground where it’s a natural looking place that’s ment to exsist within the game world. Halo infinite maps are just boxes. Nothing natural about them.

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That’s one of the reasons I’d really like Beaver Creek in the game, not only is it a solid competitive map for Slayer, CTF, Assault, Oddball and KoTH it’s also in a canyon so it provides a nice change of scenery

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imagine a waterfall going through the middle of the map and when you walk through it suddenly pushes you the direction the water is going. It’s things like this. Map elements where the map changes the players place in the map.

One of the things I’m trying to achieve in forge is making a functional 4v4 map with an intersection in it and moving cars. I made a btb and 4v4 version. It’s hard to balance but I’m getting there. Can’t wait to port everything over in infinite

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A lot of good points that I find myself agreeing with. The biggest thing I can agree on is the maps. Aside from the BTB Fragmentation, I don’t think we have anything in the current rotation that stands out as leaving a lasting impression. At least for me.

I also agree on the shop and ultimate rewards. I haven’t spent much money on this game yet, but it isn’t for lack of wanting to. I am just waiting to see something I’d actually use and most of the stuff isn’t up my alley. Same with the ultimate rewards. Though I can understand why those won’t always be stellar. They are a weekly offering and they do have to make this stuff last a decade or so. So I’m really not expecting something worthwhile every week.

I really like the idea of animated weapon skins. I’d definitely pay for that.

As for the ranked/incentive to play ranked, I can’t really say I agree because H2/H3 had nothing outside of what Infinite offers (a rank to strive for) so if that’s the standard, Infinite has met it. Though it was easier to hit Onyx than they intended, so we will see what happens after the reset. Though I’d like Champion rank to make a return.

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They can be very distracting, but I do really like them in other games like Gears of War.

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It could be, but that would be up to the player to decide.

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Champoin ranks were a lot more satisfying to grind for. It also held more weight as a bragging right. That’s one of the major flaws in halo infnite. There is nothing to fight for. Nothing to grind for. Even if you were Champion you weren’t #1 all the time so the chase is always there. Once you reach any random number in onyx in infinite it doesn’t feel the same as before

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I agree with that. It’s one of the advantages the division system has over the 1-50 system. Sadly, because we don’t have champion we just have Onyx (X MMR) and that’s not as flashy or exciting.

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Yes, none of these current maps really stand out for me at all or have any sort of “WOW!” factor to them,
they’re just bland and stale. I can honestly say that I felt basically the same way about every single core matchmaking Halo 5 map, they weren’t fun for me or even memorable for that matter and most felt like a clambering jungle gym to me and that’s just not something I like at all. However, I did like the Forge map remakes from the H3 Throwback playlist (obviously) and the Forge maps from the H5 Mythic playlist. I’m typically not a fan of maps that are mostly vertical involving a lot of clambering to get anywhere high up. Personally I’d prefer ramps/stairs, lifts or teleporters in most cases, I don’t mind jumping up for/to things I just don’t want to clamber constantly.

Ranked Arena game type settings are done quite well this time around as I said before and I’m very happy to see the Assault Rifle/Pistol combo and radar go away, it makes me feel more “at home” if that makes any sense. As for the whole divisions thing I’ve never been crazy about the way it’s set up honestly. I’d much rather have a 1-50 rank system on the surface even if behind the scenes it still functions more or less how it does now. I’d personally be alright with something like you start off as a 1 before your first placement match and then you go up or stay the same based on your performance over the 10 games and maybe you skip a few levels in those 10 games (like going from a 1 to a 5 or a 5 to an 8) and then jump up to a certain level cap based on your 10 matches (maybe like 35?) and work your way to 50 from there being able to skip ranks if you’re constantly doing exceptionally well. Halo 3 let you get a level 50 skill rank in 20-30 games if you were truly that good. Now I’m not saying we should or shouldn’t be able to get to max skill rank that fast, but it is pretty rewarding and I for one wouldn’t stop playing ranked just because I hit max level if I already enjoy the game types and maps.

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I like jungle gym style maps. Spartans should be doing parkour. However I do get what you mean by not standing out. Plaza is one of my favorite maps in all of Halo but the one problem is suffers from is painted on asthetics. The map streets is a the same thing. You look at the walls its more of a skin on top of block that’s there and not an actual store front. We need more alive and breathable maps where things are moving.

I am a fan of vertical maps. I like light posts like in plaza where to jump from light to light. Maps like that should definitely exsist

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I for one do not like jungle gym maps and do not think Spartans should be doing parkour without equipment like a grappleshot, repulser, etc. etc. I was extremely happy to see that Halo Infinite was a more stripped down game in terms of base mechanics after coming from Halo 5 as I simply did not like Halo 5’s multiplayer outside of playlists like H3 Throwback or H5 Mythic. I’m very happy to see that everyone doesn’t have built-in thrusters, stabilizers, ground pound and shoulder charge anymore in Halo Infinite.

When it comes to maps the best example I can give for a map I like that’s very vertically focused it would be Prisoner from Halo: Combat Evolved. Typically, I’m more of a fan of maps with a lot of openness but a fair amount of cover like The Pit from Halo 3 or Sanctuary from Halo 2 or even small maps like Warlock also from Halo 2 and I’d like to see some of them return, but I do also want fresh maps, but hope for similar atmospheric vibes that create those sorts of play styles that those kinds or maps typically create.

My personal all time favorite maps in Halo ever over the last 20 years in order are (I’m a competitive person so keep that in mind when reading this):
-The Pit
-Midship/Heretic
-Sanctuary
-Lockout
-Beaver Creek
-Warlock
-Ivory Tower
-Guardian
-Turf
-Hang ‘Em High
-Prisoner
-Damnation

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It will always feel like a watered down halo and not in a good way. HCS settings with the removed ground pound and spartan charge should’ve been the future of Halo. As a competitive person the thruster added a lot of depth to how you can out play someone. Now the gameplay is stale and boring. You even see it in the HCS streams. It’s just waiting around corners. Pot shoting and sprinting away. Very sad they took it away.

The best maps out of Halo 5 we’re colli, the rig, and plaza and every map you picked I like them too. Out of all of them I like gaurdian the most in the same way I like plaza because it has a lot of options for jumps and jump paths.

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So it seems like 343’s just not getting it with issues with the store. Unlike many other things that may be complicated to fix, adjusting store prices should be super easy, barely an inconvenience. They’re just keeping things overpriced as a jerk move for shareholders. Yeah, to 343, good luck trying to get people to literally buy in. Of course, if you actually want some good income with the store, here’s some good tips on how to actually make an exciting store.

Weekly
1 Legendary Bundle with a Full Armor Set: 1000 Credits MAX (not 2000, not 1200, 1000. You’re almost there guys, just bring it down a couple hundred credits)

  • A full armor set = 1 Helmet, 1 Helmet Attachment, 2 Shoulder Pieces, 2 Knee Pieces, 1 Chest Plate, 1 arm wrist attachment, and 1 leg piece (like the knife).

2 500 Epic Bundles worth 500 credits (These bundles could be a couple of visors for all armor cores, a number of AI models, a couple of armor camos, with each camo being able to be applied to ALL CORES, etc.)

Daily
1 250 bundle full of fun stuff (can be various emblems for armor and vehicles, maybe an armor affect for ALL CORES, etc.)

One other thing that can help is to allow people to be able to earn credits IN ADDITION to EXP. Maybe when the next season comes out, if you can put in 2500 credits in the battle pass, that will give people a reason to pay for the premium edition.

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I like the Halo Infinite version of gameplay, the current HCS settings feel like what I’ve basically been waiting 12 years for honestly, but I really just want far better maps than what we currently have and I’d ultimately be satisfied overall.

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I believe it was said somewhere that store credits would be earnable through gameplay in Season 2, but I’m not absolutely 100% sure of that off the top of my head.

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I’ve been thinking about this a lot as well. What I’ve found is that 343 wants to make Halo hyper competitive, but what’s competitive isn’t always what’s “fun”. As such many of their 4v4 maps tend to play like Guardian, Midship or The Pit. That’s not really a bad thing, but it become a problem when all of the maps feel like that. I just feel like the they’re ignoring the Cold Storages and the Constructs of the world. What’s crazier is that they didn’t remake Haven/Mercy which is both competitive and easily 343’s best map, in my humble opinion.

As for clambering, the issue I found was that many of the maps’ trick jumps forced you to clamber. A crouch jump was simply out of the question. I think clamber would have been better if it was treated like an optional, quality of life, mechanic and not a life or button that you have to press.

Those Mythic maps were the bomb and I hope we see some of them again. I really liked Goliath, Cryptic, and Frontier.

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I actually don’t think any of the 4v4/FFA maps we have feel like Guardian, Midship or The Pit. If they did I’d probably like them a lot more honestly. As it currently stands the closest map I can think to reference would be Aquarius very very vaguely being like Midship, but even then it’s not even close to the same feeling. As for the rest of the maps in the game as of this moment in time, none of them feel like any of the maps I mentioned at any point in this thread to me. However, you were right about one thing, they are definitely ignoring maps that feel more in line with something like Construct. Construct is one of those maps that while being very vertical it still is extremely open with a lot of sight lines and that’s something we really need in the game.

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Sorry. I should have been clearer. When I said,

what I meant was that those maps are focused on being balanced for ranked play. That is, the intent behind those maps was to be hyper competitive and not casual (obviously you can still have casual experiences on those maps).

For instance, look at H:CE’s maps. None of those were designed with ranked in mind, because Ranked Halo didn’t exist before 2001. Yet all of CE’s maps have a lot of character, from the verticality of Prisoner and Damnation, to the symmetry of Battle Creek. But they can also be played with competition in mind. And I believe the quality of Halo’s competitive scene relies more on the players, and less on the developers, to make the game competitive.

Infinite’s maps feel like the opposite. And funnily enough, the 2 maps that don’t seem like they were entirely designed to be competitive, Behemoth and Launch Site, are regarded as the worst maps in the game. Launch Site easily the map I have the most fun with because it has a quirk none of the other maps have: Fusion Coils.

I think weapons need to be taken into consideration as well. Infinite’s maps notably lack many power weapons to choose from on any map. Streets has a Cindershot/Rockets, AC/OS, and a Bulldog/Heatwave. The Pit has 2x snipers, 2x shotguns, Rockets, a Sword, OS, AC, and a pair of chainguns. So a lot of fights are just fought with the starting weapons and not the power weapons.

Edit: Construct with grapples/repulsors sounds really fun tbh.

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Dammm :+1:t5: Thats very great for my halo moral to see you relate and converse with us !! Great reply