Halo Infinite is the best MP in the series, yes, I said it

Games Halo Infinite
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I’ve played a ton of Halo Infinite both during the flights and in the beta, and I just keep coming back for one simple reason: its gucci.

I have never (and I repeat NEVER) had this much fun with Halo MP before, I think its a mixture of good maps and just really fun and solid design with its MP.

One of the biggest criticisms about Halo 3 (coming mainly from Halo 1/2 fans btw) is just how awful the equipment was in that game, they were either game breaking (Energy Drain, Regen) or really stupid (Radar Jammer, Flare, that stupid deployable cover thing) and somehow Infinite turned one of the biggest weaknesses of Halo 3 into its biggest strength.

What makes equipment so dang good is just how interesting it can be used, even something boring like the Drop Wall can win/lose fights if used right, Repulsor is nuts and I personally think hasn’t been mastered yet, I just recently saw a Scrim (Sen vs Snipedown team, whatever they’re called) and Snakebite meleed a guy with overshield, then immediately repelled them away (so they couldn’t trade blows) then just completely wrecked poor Bound, its insane that such a simple ability can be abused so hard. Grapple is really quirky and has some weird glitches/effects (think of it more as a slingshot and it sort of connects how odd it is) and its extremely potent because you can use it to do all sorts of things (Pistola grappling the Oddball to clutch a win for Optic gaming is one example). Threat Sensor isn’t really as interesting but I do think it works well for BTB.

What’s really crazy about Infinite is that I personally do not believe its close to reaching its potential, game is lacking so much stuff and yet it still manages to be incredible in its own right. I keep hearing the constant complaints about the game, but I feel that the complaints (arguably) only really address a minor aspect of the game, stuff like cosmetics isn’t why you keep playing a game, why you enjoy/don’t enjoy a game is due to its mechanics and its design principles.

We’re on to something special here folks, let’s just welcome all the newbies with open arms and try to make this community constructive going forward. We got the game that 343i is actually proud of, we can put the last 10 or so years behind us and just relax for a change. Halo will only go up from here.

Summary: this isn’t much of a criticism thread, Infinite is :fire: and I hope it’ll be something we look back on years later and reminisce about. There is still a lot of unknowns about this game, like the Campaign, but I am finally proud to be a Halo fan again.

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I’m definitely trending in your direction. Having so much fun with the core game play. It’s somewhere in between H2 and H5… so I like it a lot.

I’m struggling with the equipment though. Once I get the hang of the grapple shot and repulsor I think I’m going to fall harder for it.

And those thrusters. Those tiny, beautiful, thrusters.

As for the release. We got it early - that was huge. But I think it just needed a couple of tweaks. Separate slayer for a start. And maybe at least one of SWAT or Infection. Some more in-game stats (or at least access to the API). And a couple more custom options (traits, equipment).

So close!

I’m really liking the maps. Could always use more… but probably needed one that was different. Alien / covenant different (but not just another remake of Mid-Ship).

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I dont disagree with much of anything you said, except the bit about being over critical. What’s so crazy to so many of us is how 343 can get the fundamentals so right, but get almost everything surrounding the game so wrong. The flaws are so obvious that its pretty much impossible to believe that they didn’t see this backlash coming.

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See and that’s where you messed up lol, Grapple/Respulsor and even Thrusters/Dropwall are really complicated because in the hands of a master its basically on the level of a Power Weapon, but if used poorly its irrelevant. So idk I’m still learning a lot about it, I am seeing new ways to use these things and I’ve played a lot. Fatrat will be making some absurd montages over the coming years, that’s all I’ll say about htat.

I thought similar at first. Back in the days of 3/Reach (I didn’t play online til Halo 3 btw, did start with CE though) I would always play Slayer, but now that I’ve played a ton of objective I’m starting to think that Slayer was bad because it essentially just hurt my skills/decision making. I liked Slayer because I could just out 1v1 folks, but I’m digging objective because individual plays might not get as many kills but they can win games and that’s just a lot more rewarding to me.

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Halo Infinite’s core is amazing, but there are so many design decisions that leave my head scratching with regards to the intended sandbox and Custom Games options.

We have more movement options, but a nerfed Radar to the point where Quick Play is basically Ranked-lite. Custom Games is supposed to be the best it has been, yet we cannot edit individual weapon properties, give specificity to our input options, have custom Loadouts, and have missing parameters from older titles. The main menu UI is a hassle to go through. The Energy Sword and Gravity Hammer both have been nerfed to the point where pressing the melee button has no difference speed-wise to regular attacks. Plasma Pistol tracking hasn’t been buffed to account for strafe acceleration increase. Sprint is a base mechanic rather than a supplemental Equipment/Armor Ability (for giving players more options). There are a lot of design decisions that don’t make sense, but the core game is amazing. They just have to refine so much of the game to make it the best F2P shooter in the world.

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I agree. I love Infinite’s MP. They just need to fix issues like aim assist randomly turning off mid game and hit registration and it’ll be amazing.

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I remember The Boys Unknown (Youtube channel, I recommend them, they’re funny bros) saying that Infinite is like giving a girl a ring but its covered in crap, and yes this might be true but its pretty easy/simple to wipe it off and clean it though.

I’ll put it another way. I’d much much rather grind in this game than many others because the overall experience is fun, so I like cosmetics just as much as the next guy, but I consider that fluff and it don’t mean much months/years down the line.

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I do think it’s up there, and has the potential to be the best, but I can’t say it is until 343 fixes some of the big gameplay issues. The biggest are the lack of indicators and clarity; the radar is tiny (both in range and in actual size on the HUD), making it all but useless; there are no grenade indicators, meaning grenades can land at your feet and you don’t even know they’re there, and you also don’t know if they’re friendly or not (which is a big deal when friendly fire is turned off); the tick rate is so low, I get kills and get killed around corners constantly; vehicles are very weird in terms of both physics and fragility, making them oddly uncomfortable in what otherwise would be a really fun sandbox for vehicles. There’s also far too few maps and modes at the moment, but that’s something that hopefully will get better with time.

Once they fix these things, I do think the game will be exceptional even among Halo games, but right now I feel like it’s very much lacking, and these frustrating little details contribute to that a lot.

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I suspect that the current custom game options are very much WIP… They probably didn’t bother finishing it because Forge won’t be there at launch. Not to say that they shouldn’t be better, but without Forge custom games are limited.

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People keep saying things like this to preface any criticisms of the monetization, but I honestly don’t know what y’all are talking about.

I’ve never bounced off a Halo game so hard. Bloom is back with a vengeance along with spread and recoil. Weapons with on paper fast TTK’s are hampered by spread(except for the mindless AR), while weapons that require some measure of skill like a BR or Mangler are slow as sin and these slow TTK’s are only exacerbated by sprint, slide and equipment. Vehicles are still paperweights due to the chip damage system that has been plaguing the series since reach and the easy ranged EMP’s of the shock weapons.

The sandbox is very flawed in its current state, and being forced to start with AR/Garbo Pistol in social and BTB especially is even worse. The aiming itself is still suspect and 343’s only response was to crank up the aim assist.

The game itself is utterly barren in terms of actual content, customs and matchmaking alike. Meanwhile the game itself is negatively affected by the monetization and challenge system between random weapons/vehicles and the aforementioned bloom/spread/recoil and TTK designed to prevent anyone from doing too well through their own efforts. Can’t have silly things like fixed spawns and skilled players getting in the way of players doing challenges and interrupting the dopamine/money farm.

As much as some people like the scoff at the idea of people getting upset about “just cosmetics,” the system is demonstrably worse than what we got out of games from a decade ago, cosmetics matter, especially when they have been designed to be worse with the intent of squeezing more money out of players.

Basic things like anti-cheat and reporting are in an unacceptable state.

Yes, the way 343 has implemented the equipment as limited map pickups(powerups are another story but I digress) with a visible trail is good, the the sandbox interactions of certain items has potential, but that along with the general art style are the only two things I see that this game has going for it.

Otherwise it is a long long way from being “the best MP in the series” if it can even get there to begin with.

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Simple enough to clean it off maybe, but rest assured, she’ll be -Yoink!- about that moment for the rest of her life. :rofl:

… and rightfully so.

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Yeah, but I’d like it more if I could just play slayer. I’m not a fan of objective modes and I like the more random encounters.

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I wouldn’t even be excited for the campaign if the MP hadn’t shown me that the base combat is pretty outstanding. At the very least, having a sandboxy open world Halo romp will probably be fun to play, even if the writing is unlikely to recover after where H5 left it.