Hello forum! Before diving into my summary there are a couple of things I would like to clarify to add context to my perspective.
- I’ve been playing Halo since the launch of CE
- I did follow Bungie to Destiny, which is my main game, but have sunk many, many hours into Halo 4 & 5
- While there are many technical issues with the game (desync, server stability, etc.) what I’m about to describe is a much bigger problem in my opinion
So what do I mean by stating that Halo Infinite has ‘no purpose’? Well let’s start with a comparison to the legendary Hayabusa Armor from Halo 3. This was a rigorous armor set to earn and even required participation in the Campaign to unlock this prestigious gear. However, even though it was a time sink and dedication, it was the best feeling to earn the Hayabusa set and gave a sense of purpose to flex the armor in the arena.
This example literally does not exist in Halo Infinite. In Halo Infinite, we all follow the same battle pass to earn participation trophies. And with the extremely limiting core model, there is very little variation that we can create, turning us into an army of “Spartan Clones” where the coolest looking players, are those that dipped deeper and deeper into their wallets.
I understand this is a FTP game, and I added the bullet point above about Destiny because that is a game with a massive online store for real currency, but also has so many avenues in game to earn achievements for sweet loot that you can flex in game.
Halo NEEDS purpose, it needs long term investment and difficult challenges to overcome that give the player a reason to want to play the game. These long term investments should provide rewards that can be flexed accordingly. I understand the game needs to make money, but you need a player base FIRST to even get the bucks to follow. Hell, I would spend some money in the store if it could supplement hard earned items of my current setup. But until then, Halo lacks no purpose, and will continue to struggle!