Halo Infinite has all the makings of a great game for both players and Microsoft/343. This isn’t a flame post, this is meant as constructive feedback with some suggestions on how things could change for the better. Everyone agrees the gameplay is great, and the obvious primary feedback point is the progression is bad.
When I look at the customization and battlepass I notice one primary thing:
Customization combines elements into single packages that should be made modular
Here’s what I mean.
Armor, Weapon, and Vehicle Colors: The existing system allows you to buy a color palette that comprises five components that should be individually applicable:
Color
Color placement (which arms or legs are colored and how)
Light color
Pattern (camo, stripes, chevrons)
Material (glossy, rusty, matte)
All five of these components are clearly in the game, but are not individually applicable, and a player is forced to take all options or none, often sacrificing one preference for another. Take a look at Anthem for some insight on great customization (but nothing else). Not only would this encourage player freedom in design, but allow 343 to fill their battlepasses and stores with more content that feels bursting with interesting items to unlock.
Every single color option you’re trying to sell or award in the battlepass could be FIVE items. Your battlepass wouldn’t be full of meaningless chaff that leaves players feeling cheated every time they level up and get a small booster.
Armor Cores and Armor Kits: This has been touched on by others, but these are just another area where you took your customization and needlessly limilted it. Allow players to mix and match parts and build the spartan they’ve always wanted. We all know the bots can, so your existing system clearly can. Armor cores and armor kits just need to be thrown away. I want to make my own spartan. I might want parts of Jorge’s kit, but I don’t want to just BE Jorge, that’s not fun for anyone. Give me all his components and let me build my spartan the way I want, maybe mixed with some new flavor for fun.
This really all boils down to two salient points.
Don’t needlessly constrict the volume of your own storefront and battlepass content by bundling it all into single, restrictive items, and let players freely customize their spartan in the way they see fit.
If you do this, people will give you money, people will love building their own personalized look, and people will come at you less for having a battlepass full of garbage, especially since everything in it could have filled it twice over if you just broke it out into modular pieces.
