Halo infinite: Open world? Upgrades? Guns?

Games Halo Infinite
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I was originally and, in hindsight, probably foolishly pretty optimistic about Halo Infinite but after seeing the gameplay demo I am now extremely worried. Open world? I honestly am having a hard time believing that that’s what they’re doing and I’m even more shocked so few people are talking about it.

It seems like every game these days is open world. One of the reasons I love Halo so much is because it’s a streamlined experience. The campaigns were never very long but they were high quality (Halo 4 and 5 not so much but that isn’t the point). It takes an exceptional game a la skyrim or Witcher 3 to really make an open world work. The vast majority of the time you get what you get in Far Cry; just a bunch of filler content, running around a massive map picking up collectibles or clearing out generic enemy camps. Think about it. None of the very good open world games out there are shooters and I highly doubt that Halo Infinite is going to break that mold. It blows my mind that 343 thinks that they can and that this is a good idea. It really just feels like they are trying to jump on the trend and ride the popularity of open worlds.

Halo has always been focused on gameplay and story. By making the game open world you are severely handicapping your ability to tell a worthwhile story because it is inherently very difficult to control the pacing of the story when players can go wherever they want whenever they want. So even if by some miracle Halo Infinite actually has a good story it risks being severely watered down by all the time you can spend just frolicking around the map. It’s impossible to imbue any sense of urgency into the narrative when you have an open world. The gameplay also suffers from this change. When your game is linear you are much more in control of the player’s experience and thus you can better insure it’s quality since there are far less variables. Obviously the experience is much less free and more limited but give me 20 hours of quality, carefully directed content of 100+ hours of mediocrity any day of the week.

The other thing I noticed and am also shocked nobody seems to be mentioning at all is the upgrades tab in the menu. Upgrades? Really?? Is 343 just trying to turn halo into an RPG? Are there going to be experience points as well? Upgrades have never been a part of any Halo game. You are the master chief. You have the abilities you have and they don’t change throughout the game. Obviously I don’t know what these will be but color me extremely worried.

The last thing I wanted to talk about was the guns. As I’ve seen other people mention in these forums the guns feel like they were straight up ripped out of call of duty. They don’t feel Halo at all. Even something so simple as the names. Halo guns don’t typically have numbers and random letters in them. It’s always been simple names: battle riffle, DMR, Magnum, Assault Rifle, Sniper Rifle, Shotgun. It sounds dumb but just naming them VK43 Commando and CQS48 Whatever really contributes to making the game not feel like Halo. Halo has never been realistic and it never really tried to be.

All this being said I am still excited to play the game and for some reason that I cannot explain I am still hopeful that it will be good but I know have far more doubts than I did before seeing this gameplay reveal.

Here’s to hoping 343 proves me wrong.

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Coming from a very optimistic standpoint, in hopes to contrast your respectably concerned point of view, here is what I hope for regarding open world, upgrades, and weapons:

I don’t see Halo Infinite as a truly open world game. What I see is a main objective (destroy all the AA Anti-Air Turrets), and well balanced combat and travel. Looking at the map, I am sold on the idea that each “island” is its own mission. I don’t see a map jam-packed with side missions and objectives that I will never complete, like many open world games do have, and this observation is well grounded, seeing that the gameplay demo takes place around halfway into the game. Halo has always been objective based, but this format presents objectives a little differently. Regarding storytelling, there is a lot of potential here for an awesome story. I love the pilot character as a foil to Master Chief, and I love the Brute leader. The fact that Escharum is satisfied with his victory and would delight in fighting Chief as if it is some kind of sport sets up a satisfying opportunity for Chief to blow our minds and make a one in a million comeback for humanity. But if 343 has players grind for treasure, loot, and materials whatsoever, I will be disappointed. If 343 has us going on insignificant side missions through the game, I will be disappointed. But so far, I have not seen many hints to either of these negative factors.

When I think upgrades, I think Star Wars Battlefront 2. You know those terminals you would put your droid in? If you’ve never played it, the jist of the upgrades in that game were focused on weaponry. Upgraded sights, upgraded cooling, etc. It would be interesting to see upgrades for vehicles as well. But I sure hope the upgrades are easy to obtain. By easy, I mean you don’t need to spend hours fighting to find ten parts that you need to craft this stupid silencer or something. Based on the weapons we saw, they seem rather plain, which leads me to believe weapon upgrades will be a likely possibility. If these are upgrades for Master Chief alone, I don’t know what to expect.

All the weapons we saw in the gameplay trailer were new weapons, except the AR. If you look at it like that, then really, there aren’t too many weird COD weapons. The shotgun was really lame, but I actually like how those new weapons function and sound. And based on the BR and energy sword, I have good hopes for the rest of Halo Infinite’s arsenal. I am certain that the SAW, SMG, Magnum, SPNKR, classic Sniper Rifle, and all the classics are still in the game, and look and sound stunning. The random letters are unnecessary, however, but I don’t think that is much of a deterrence.

The game looks good to me so far, and seems to have lots of co-op opportunity, which is what I love and know is what I’m getting. Let’s just hope the Halo fans working at 343 are thinking the same things we’re thinking.

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I don’t remember who exactly, but one of the content creators that had a private meeting with 343 said that they were told the upgrades would not be something strained by leveling up/gaining experience, but by finding them on the Halo. Pending information on what the upgrades do, I like this idea.

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> 2533274964025169;3:
> I don’t remember who exactly, but one of the content creators that had a private meeting with 343 said that they were told the upgrades would not be something strained by leveling up/gaining experience, but by finding them on the Halo. Pending information on what the upgrades do, I like this idea.

Yeah I feel like finding the upgrades by exploring the ring could be a pretty cool addition to the game. That sounds much more fitting than an experience based system, at least in my eyes.