HALOOO everyone, Hope you all are well.
A little background before I dive into my personal opinions of the game.
I’ve been playing Halo since it debuted on the original Xbox back in the beginning of the 2000s. I remember seeing the previews on TV with the releasing of the Xbox and feeling my excitement building. When the game released I played, and played , and played. I beat the campaign on Legendary (two broken controllers later) and thoroughly enjoyed it (even though it was a grueling endeavor). Soon, my friends got into it and then came the LAN battles. We’d have 3-4 TV/Xboxs set up, all linked together and life was great. Then came Halo 2… The Halo 2 multiplayer experience changed the face of competitive gaming. I sunk so many hours into online MP it could’ve been two full time jobs worth a week. I missed school and many other functions at times to play Halo. I loved it. Was addicted to it to some extent. I’ve spent days and weekends scouring all of Halo’s campaigns to unlock rare armors, achievements, abilities, and ultimately, bragging rights. I’ve beaten every Halo on Legendary. I own and have read all 30 Halo novels (currently 30, one more in March 2022). I have most of the comics and graphic novels and have read most of them also. I also add, edit, and update information on Halopedia.
I say all that to say that I may have a bit more background knowledge and depth to my Halo opinion than most Halo fans that exist (probably even the Devs). Granted I’m sure there are people deeper in the lore than myself, but they probably don’t exit their caves often. . .(noble 6 reference) HAHAHA JK to the deep nerdos
Anyway, on to what I think.
A main theme I’ve been hearing and agree with myself is that a new Halo title should AT LEAST (from launch) come with everything that older Halos came with. A new title allows the DEVs to tweak the franchise between games, but having limited and lost older content that players loved is really kind of disheartening and disappointing to returning players. For instance, a big one, the SHOTGUN. . . Why does it not kill in one hit like all previous titles? The new shotgun is amazing in every way except damage output. If the shotgun can not directly parry or counter the sword/hammer then it is a regressive feature and is distasteful to everyone that already knows Halo.
The paying for Armor/customizations. . . Many players of the Halo titles are die hard grinders when it comes to game completion. We devote our time (after the initial buying of the game) and energy into a game for rewards. We do NOT appreciate having to pay for them all. I understand “Battle Passes” are the way of the future it seems. No longer are DEVs making games, releasing them, and then working on the next iteration. Everyone seems to be jumping on the cash grab, quick funds train. And the community is kind of fed up with it. I agree with that as well. At no point should someone be able to purchase more lore and rewards than someone that has put massive amounts of time and energy into a game. The time spent in a game is directly correlational with how good the game is. We want to put our time in it for rewards, we put money in at the beginning. . . Halo is one of those games that shouldn’t have to even try to compete with newer titles and their new ways of platforming performance and personalization. Halo is in a league of its own and shouldn’t compromise.
MP: The mp overall feels like Halo but it still is missing the depth that we need it to have. Map count seems inadequate. Game variant choices are very limited. Even at a launch, there should be more than; quick play, ranked, big team and bots. Granted slayer, swat, ffa, and fiesta will join the choices today (Tuesday) they should’ve been there from the start. Then not even there when the fans PURCHASE the “whole” game last Wednesday. Back in H3 the fans got there first taste of “add-ons” with DLC. Which wasn’t required to play but it extended the game if a player felt like purchasing it. Why can’t Halo still be like that? Release a whole game (complete) and add to it as you go. Some people say damage detection is not up to par. I’ve had this happen to me a few times. I melee a player, hear the sound of hitting, put no damage occurs. Or alternatively, I’ve hit someone who wasn’t actually close enough to hit. Granted those are all little things and can be adjusted, its the little details that make or break the overall experience.
Campaign:
I’m so conflicted personally about the campaign I’m not sure where to begin. The open world design is great. It is awesome to be able to battle enemies how we want to fight them and not as a preprogrammed channeling like most games have. I love being able to roam all over and finds skulls and armor skins and such. The grapple shot is really a nice touch too (I’m a big titanfall fan as well) and adds a lot of variable fun to the sandbox. Enemies are fun to fight, the map is laid out okay (the areas between islands that prevent crossing, even after campaign completion is not so great), and the terrain is fun to swing and run around. Older Halo titles really had players struggling to beat on Legendary for many reasons, one of the biggest being ammo availability. In Infinite, the ammo containers and weapon lockers are a super nice touch. It also kind of ushers players to use various weapons throughout their adventures. I give that aspect a huge thumbs up. I would personally prefer that we got to PLAY the lore throughout the game instead of learning about it through audio files like older style games like Bioshock. I personally would have loved to play as Chief while he was on the infinity and the banished attacked. Been able to fight atriox and loose then have to climb back up the existential tower back to greatness against the banished. I digress though, I don’t write the story or lore but just saying it would have been awesome to PLAY the crucial parts of the lore. Likewise with cortana. It would have been amazing to be able to fight back against the created and guardians instead of 343 just throw that material to the side and barely reference it. I know it gives the novel writers more room to come up with material but it just feels like a lot was left out. Like, what happened to cortana and atriox? Did they fight? Did the banished take on the created? Where is Spartan Locke and team? It feels like (Halo 5 wasn’t met with great campaign success but still, it happened) 343 saw a mistake and chose to just forget it. That was a big part of the last Halo title, is should still hold some weight in this next iteration. Don’t just throw ideas and material away because the fans don’t agree. There are a lot of plot points that are loosely attached and not necessarily contiguous with the story and the fans, the real fans notice that.
Overall: Its another Halo games Its fun, its confrontational (nothing compared to a Halo2 MP lobby) and its just starting a new era in Halos franchise. For good or bad we shall see. Ultimately most die hard Halo players don’t need much to be happy with the game. Most true Halo players were furious when 343 delayed the game another year just because the younger generation of Halo players were contesting the art style and lets not forget “Craig”. Like, really? they just wanted to complain about something and most of them HAVE to complain about something so they chose a brute render that wasn’t in super 4k HD (eyeroll). We, the real Halo fans would’ve not have even noticed or cared for such a small (if at all) issue. 343 does listen to feedback, but they need to realize most of the people on the internet and forums these days are younger folks that might not have a well developed perspective of how things should be.
The biggest thing for 343 to keep in mind (from the older fans ideals) in the future is to not regress with Halo’s development. Yes, add new stuff and make it better, but please don’t leave out what makes it the best multiplayer FPS ever 