Battlepass
Simply put: It is a very poor design, a very bad idea and a very bad deal, all in one. I don’t agree with it. No one should. Here’s my take on it:
A Very Poor Design
Heroes of Reach. Very nice ring to it. Clearly pulling at the nostalgia in my heart. Except Reach did progression right. I made the mistake of purchasing the Battlepass before knowing what I was signing up for.
Each tier in the Battlepass requires you to accumulate 1000 XP before you are awarded 1 cosmetic item (usually) and progress to the next tier and item. Each game (regardless of performance or game mode at time of writing) ‘reward’ you with 50 XP. That’s 20 Matches for 1 tier. Each match running you anywhere from 5-10 minutes (off the top of my head) maybe even longer with ties.
&#%$ that right? So, most people would opt to complete Challenges. Most of which have extra caveats to them. Some examples:
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Kill Spartans in [Game mode] matches. (Can’t choose game mode.)
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Hijack/Destory amount of [Vehicle] with [Ability] (Not all maps have vehicles. Vehicles that aren’t at spawn, are randomly inserted in the middle of the match. You may not have the ability to complete challenge without corresponding equipment.)
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Play specific game mode amount of times (Can’t choose game mode.)
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Complete any game mode amount of times (these kinds of challenges appear MUCH less frequently as you have direct control over its completion.)
By deliberately limiting the control of your capability to complete the challenges, your progression into the battlepass (that you payed for) is also limited. In limiting your progression, you must play more to achieve what you want. A lot more.
Or, you can pay for XP boosts and Challenge swaps. 343 and Microsoft have conveniently created a solution for the problem they created! How generous of them, right?
My opinion: Higher base XP reward per match (100?), Additional XP gain for good performance (objective play, K/D, Accolades), Opportunity to gain credits, Challenges should be optional not obligatory.
A Very Bad Idea
At least to me, 2 very important things suffer directly due to this Battlepass. The Multiplayer and its players.
- Multiplayer
When the battlepass is as dreadful as it is, the only thing you’ll be primarily focused on are the challenges and not the match you’re in. Because, why should you be? Whether you do well, or not, win, or lose. You get 50 XP. A pittance within itself. Completing the Challenges however, is what yields the real rewards.
This results in an alarming number of players (including me) blatantly ignoring the objective of a given match. Why? Because it’s Challenges first, Game second or you get nowhere. This shift in focus makes the experience more frustrating than fun. Which should be the games focus but would end up losing players instead of keeping them.
- You, The Player
Everything I’ve written has been subjective. To include this:
I can’t tell anyone how to feel, but from what I’ve seen, read, and experienced it would seem that most people are frustrated with this Battlepass in Halo. Not that the multiplayer is bad, on the contrary its fantastic in many ways. It’s just that everything other players and myself would want, all these things that used to be free in previous Halo titles, are now behind a pay wall. Want more armor? Pay. Want more XP? Pay. Need to swap a challenge? Pay. Want Battlepass items? Pay. Colors, patterns, and palettes?! Pay. The other frustrations are free though, at least there’s that.
It just leaves me asking what am I paying $60 dollars for? I’d rather not at this point.
A Very Bad Deal
If you stick with the free battlepass you’ll get about 66 items. 40 of which, are XP boosts and Challenge swaps. What? If the grand majority of cosmetic items are locked behind the ‘premium’ battlepass, what good does giving Challenge swaps and XP boosts do? So they can get to the next one faster?
Got $10 to spare? Great! Now you get to deal with the aforementioned frustrations of completing battlepass challenges, ignoring game mode objectives to fail said challenges, and play game after game, challenge after challenge. Only to move along at a snails pace. So, I hope you have a couple months in time to spare to commit to play Halo. Or rather, commit to completing its absurd ‘Challenges’ all because we just want a little more out of our Spartan (or on it) as well as Halo.
My opinion: I can’t fault a company for wanting to make money. It is what they do after all. Instead of chasing a trend, why not find an alternative that people can embrace and accept instead of reject and hate? Regular customization progress options alongside ‘premium’ ones? Instead of charging $20 for an armor set?
TL;DR: The Battlepass and store are so badly designed, overpriced, and poor in content that its effecting the other aspects of Halo as a whole. Make it better, make something new, or get rid of it.
Thank you, very much, for reading.