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*Original post. Click at your own discretion.
In light of the recent reveal that co-op and forge would both be absent at launch, I have a very strong, growing suspicion this game will not perform well long term. From the very subpar reveal trailer last year to this unfortunate news I don’t think this game will wow halo fans or even gamers in general. I’d wager it’ll be decent, with a campaign and multiplayer experience that’s worth playing until about forge and co-op release. Now to explain why I reason this:
-every other big multiplayer FPS is free. Well not every other one but that vast majority. F2P can both be a blessing and a curse.
-343 and an incorrect, in my opinion, focus on game development. The wrong content is being omitted. But but but… just be patient and wait for forge!1!1! stop complaining!1!1 Wrong thought process. 343 had enough time to devise all of this new armor, new designs for the weapons that already exist (seriously why does 343 keep wasting time reimagining iconic weapons like the plasma rifle every new game despite outcry), ways to monitize the game in the form of colorings, etc. but not enough time to include features like co-op or forge at launch. Is it not fair to question their priorities? Halo infinite seems to be designed as a marketing tool first rather than a game first.
-sub par multiplayer experience. This is largely personal but I don’t think this game is similar to halo ce,2, or most importantly (as the equipment features draws unwarranted comparison) halo 3. This game plays much more like halo 5 with neutered movement options. The everything, full time viable approach (I.e. tight spread on full autos, smart link/ads, bloated weapon sandbox and now potentially modified weapons?) is at odds with classic halo design. There is no incentive to use anything besides full autos if they have all of these features I listed. They are lower skill than slow rate of fire precision weapons. That is a primary reason games like quake or counter strike are both considered high skill games (where there is a huge penalty for missing) while cod is not (low penalty for missing).
-tough competition. Infinite is competing with games like fortnite and apex, other f2p fps games on both console and pc and games like cs on pc. Halo isn’t a big name anymore. I think public sentiment is that its a franchise that used to be good. It’s going to be very tough to get players to transfer from other FPS (often free mind you) and stay for a good amount of time.
-bad track record. I think most people who were dissatisfied with 343’s previous releases left halo. Silent majority. Player counts of 5 (idk if 4s was ever made public) and MCC support that halo isn’t a big name anymore. 343 has managed to lessen the community every single release either with bad/incomplete launches, and bad gameplay/huge gameplay departures and it seems they are following suit in at least one of these regards when infinite launches.
all this being said, I hope the campaign experience is good. In fact, I think the campaign experience will be good. Campaign, however, does not get returning players especially without co-op. I personally have low interest in the multiplayer and I suspect infinite’s multiplayer will be little more than a trend like fall guys. I’m ready (and hope) I’m wrong but there is little to dissuade my fears and much to reinforce them.
