While I have been really enjoying the core gameplay of Infinite’s multiplayer, as I’m sure we can all agree, the progression, customization, and shop could use some improvements. The following is a series of ideas, critiques, and overall feedback for Halo Infinite’s progression, shop, and customization systems, but please note, I will not be advocating for the removal of the shop, or for the game to have no monetization. Infinite is free-to-play, I’ve experienced the benefits of that, but I’ve also seen the drawbacks, and either way there needs to be a source of revenue for the developer and publisher to keep the game going. In spite of this, I believe there is a way to have fair monetization while not violating or changing core elements of a ‘Halo’ game and while keeping the game free-to-play. I know that what I’m describing below is a ton of content, and it would likely take a very, very long time for all of this to be developed, tested, and implemented, and while I of course hope that it all one day can be, I by no means expect any of this to happen any time soon. I know that the 343i team worked their butts off leading up to the Holidays, and that they needed that well-deserved break, so this list just serves as my suggestions and ideas coming from my first month spent with the game. I hope that my suggestions, critiques, and ideas can help improve this great game down the line.
MP (progression, customization, shop, etc.):
- Should make coatings available in MP based on all the weapon variants found throughout the campaign (i.e. a BR75 Breacher coating for the BR75)
- Cross-core customization needs to be a thing (I think they may already be working towards this, but the AI have it, MCC has it, and we should have that freedom too - visors, helmets, shoulders, utilities, chests, knee pads, wrists, armor effects, etc. should all be usable between armor cores regardless of their base core)
- Allow us to equip multiple helmet and chest armor attachments at once - there are numerous attachments that can coexist on chest and helmet armor at the same time without any clipping issues - i.e. CBRN and various earpieces on helmets, or the pineapple grenades and various chest armors - let us combine multiple armor attachments at the same time where it makes sense (i.e. where there’s no clipping)
- Should be another chance to unlock the HCS coatings for those of us who couldn’t watch - I was busy throughout the tournament and couldn’t watch, so please make those coatings available again.
- Armor coatings should be applied per each piece of armor, and if we want the coating on all of the armor, we can just select it for each armor piece
- The paid battle pass could give you access to challenges that guarantee armor from the store - nothing should be earnable only with money except HCS cosmetics and voice-over packs, like how it was in Halo 5
- All coatings, regardless of how or where they’re earned should work on every armor core, every weapon, and every vehicle - this is how you advertised them - this is the whole point of the coating system, and yet their current state is anything but that with most coatings being for a single weapon or armor core, which is completely unnecessary and is just a waste. Coatings should apply to all weapons/armor - why make a coating just for the BR, or just for an armor set? Let that coating be applied to all armor kits, armor combinations, weapons, weapon combinations (i.e. charms and emblems), and vehicles
- HCS coatings like Spacestation Gaming, Cloud9, FaZe, etc. should all be usable on ANY weapon, vehicle, armor core, and we should be able to use the emblems and coatings that come with the sets to make our own unique weapons with charms and other customization - shouldn’t be limited to just the Mark VII armor for these great coatings, should be able to use them with ANY Mark VII armor, Mark V [B] armor, Tenrai armor, and any future armor cores.
- Coatings that apply to multiple weapons, vehicles, armor cores, etc. should be unlockable all at once, and shouldn’t be separate unlocks that just act as filler
- All emblems should work on every weapon, every vehicle, and every armor core, and should be unlocked all at once instead of being separate filler unlocks
- Adding coatings, charms, model change options, and emblem customization just like the UNSC vehicles/weapons for Covenant, Banished, and Forerunner weapons and vehicles - MCC and H5 to an extent did this, and so should Infinite - let me have the classic Covenant purple colors on my Wraith, Ghost, and Banshee, let me have a red Pulse Carbine, etc.
- There should be campaign challenges that reward substantial amounts of multiplayer XP, just like the PvP challenges do - MCC does this perfectly, having worthwhile challenges for PvP and PvE, and with Infinite’s MP being free while the campaign is $60, why not give players another reason to buy the campaign → more chances to earn XP. Can be something simple like ‘kill 75 enemies with CQC weapons’, a majority of the MCC PvE challenges could be copied and pasted into Infinite and would add a lot more variety into the MP progression, and would incentivize more campaign purchases and playing generally (Reach too had this and it was a great feature)
- Adding in coatings based on other franchise characters (of course not calling them by their actual names) - you already have coatings for Gundam and Iron Man, why not make some that are loosely based on Spiderman, Boba Fett, Gears of War characters, Doom, Samus, etc.
- Change ‘Quick Play’ to be just objective modes (no slayer) and change all challenges that ask you to “play # of games of CTF, Oddball, etc.” to be just “complete # of objective/non-slayer games” (this way it can also work in BTB too). Trying to complete these challenges is a pure roll of the dice (and a pretty low chance roll in some cases - I once played 5 games of Quick Play with a challenge for Oddball and didn’t get a single Oddball game), and that’s not how progression should feel - why would I ever keep one of these challenges when I could re-roll it and get something where I can guarantee I’ll be able to progress towards completing it? Objective modes need their challenges to be generalized and need their own playlist free of slayer
- Bring back Spartan Companies in Infinite - they were a great way to group up with friends, rewards for them aren’t necessary they would just be a nice feature - Halo 5 and Destiny 2 especially got this right - let the Spartan Companies provide additional avenues for earning rewards and progression, but not so much so that you need them to progress efficiently
- Store prices should be decreased by 25-50% across the board - I could pay $10 for 3, very high-quality announcers in Halo 5, but now in Infinite I pay $20 for one? Not a good setup. Other popular F2P games don’t have as high prices, and not only that, but you get more for what you pay for, and right now the Infinite store just feels like a scam to put it bluntly - $1000 for all the items in the game’s store? That’s not how a Halo game should be
- Add commendations to Infinite like in Reach and 5. They were a great way to have long-term progression and rewards for hard-core players - could tie XP, customization elements like armor, or other progression elements to them as rewards.
- Adding a career rank system like all prior Halo games with unlocks at each rank to take pride in (make them decently substantial, not just emblems) - doesn’t need to have a crazy max rank that few will get to like H5 or Reach, just something reasonable to take pride in achieving that takes a bit longer than the battle passes and that outlasts them, while also giving comparable rewards
- Should be able to check challenges mid-game like with MCC
- Should be able to progress on ALL weekly challenges at the same time like in MCC and Reach - shouldn’t have to wait to finish 4 at a time and only progress towards those 4 - this is just an artificial limitation to force us to play more and doesn’t belong
- XP boosts should only count for in-game time, simple as that, and they should stop counting if you DC during a match
- Certain Reach character armor kit armor pieces (like Carter’s Commando shoulder) can’t be equipped outside of the Armor Kit for Carter, and that needs to change
- Stances/poses with weapons in them should have the option of letting us use ANY weapon we want in them - i.e. the Stalker Rifle instead of the Sniper Rifle for those Sniper poses, or the Battle Rifle instead of the Commando in those Commando poses
- Every item, except for HCS content and announcers/voice over packs should be earnable just by playing the game - this includes armor coatings, emblems, weapon/vehicle models, armor pieces, armor sets, etc. The customization in this game feels more limited than previous Halos because so much of the actual content is locked behind a paywall, with only a portion of the armor actually being earnable by just playing - this is unacceptable. Whether it’s returning armor from Reach like HAZOP, or returning armor from 4/5 like Anubis and Soldier, or new armor all together like Tenrai, or the Cat Ears armor attachment, it should all be earnable by just playing the game, just as in ALL previous Halo titles. Monetization should be a fast track to getting what you want, not the only way to get something - other games understand this, Halo 5 understood this. You have more than enough content to incentivize people to just buy all that they want to not have to grind for it, but instead you’re locking a substantial chunk of the content behind a paywall, and that’s wrong.
- Per-match performance-based and win/loss-based-XP should be added as in previous Halo titles (I think they might already be working towards this)
- Let us customize the location of our emblem on vehicles, weapons, and armor like in other FPS like CoD, and let us have the emblem in multiple places on our weapons, armor, and vehicles
- Preset emblems and nameplates are fine, but custom emblems and nameplates should be an option too, and we should also have more options for our nameplates rather than just preset color palettes. Having the palettes is fine, so long as we also have the option to have our own custom color palettes as well.
- Armor Kits should be modifiable, and we shouldn’t have to unlock most components of an armor kit before unlocking the whole thing in the battle pass - that’s just drawing out the progression and using the components as filler to make us play more to progress further - that needs to stop.
- More daily challenges aside from just playing games would be good i.e. “complete a weapon drill” or “complete an objective in the campaign”, just adding more daily challenges for any mode aside from just completing matches gives players more incentive to play a bit each day, and adding more challenges to the Academy especially gives players more reason to utilize this great feature. As of right now, new and old players alike aren’t incentivized to use the Academy to ‘learn the ropes’ of Halo, all the XP is in multiplayer, so they’ll just jump straight into that without taking the time to learn the basics when they could be incentivized to try out the tutorial and weapon drills if there were ways to earn XP from doing those things on a daily basis, if there ways to actually progress the battle pass while doing those activities - “earn 2 or 3 stars on a weapon drill”, “complete a tier 3 weapon drill”, etc. would all be great challenges that would add incentive for more players to use those features.
- If possible, challenge progress for games where you DC should still be recorded (unless you DC by quitting a match)
- Not sure if this challenge has already been addressed, but “win 3 ranked matches” shouldn’t be a challenge - should’ve been one of the tougher ones that got scrapped - winning one is alright but with how inconsistent matchmaking is, with how intense competitive is by default, and with how ranks are based off of performance more than wins you may go 5+ matches without a win but still perform well - this challenge just isn’t sensical, especially for solo queue players - should be changed to just “complete 3 ranked matches”, save the win-based criterion for XP payouts post-game, not challenges.
Halo 5’s weapons all featured unique ADS displays depending on the weapon and faction it belonged to, and I would love to see this return (albeit without the improved performance it gave the weapons) - add back Halo 5’s unique ADS HUDs for the Covenant, Banished, and Forerunner weapons rather than just having them all be the generic UNSC style ADS HUD