I was super hyped to finally play the game, but after 2 hours I feel quite disappointed…
The first problem I have is with the sound design. I don’t really know if it’s the weapon themselves or the general mixing, but I’m having trouble to differentiate which gun is being shot in the area. Also none stick out to me. I remember picking up the Light Rifle in Halo 4 for the first time and immediately falling in love with its sound. But here, nothing stands out. However the music is excellent.
The second is that the game feels too fast. I prefer when Halo is more slow and tactical, and it’s really sad that nowadays devs think that FPS = fast. I am mainly a Campaign player with very little PvP experience, but I saw several other old players have the same complaint.
I absolutely love the Grappleshot, but… Why are smart-scope, sprint and sliding in the game ? They feel like they’re here just because every other FPS has them, instead of being in the game to serve a useful purpose. I’m glad that sprint is so slow that it’s useless, because I think that it’s quite uninteresting in most video games, and slide seems very out of place in Halo. I’m sure that esport proplayers will show off to everyone how good their skills are and how it makes them super agile, but I don’t see the appeal.
There’s also a few little things that I really don’t like, like the AR using Reach’s design, the Commando looking like a futurish CoD gun, the Pulse Carbine being a burst weapon (seriously 343, give us Halo CE’s Plasma Rifle), or the Bulldog being ugly, unfun and replacing the beautiful classic Halo Shotgun. Also I hate the coating system, since my armor is always purple and turquoise and I can’t use this particular color scheme until it is added (if it ever is) and blocked behind a paywall or grind. I also hate the new HUD, everything is shoved into a tiny corner. Explosions look very weak, there should more effects after, like smoke. And why is the crosshair centered ?
Some positive points: I love the music in the menu, the visual direction looks great, the Grappleshot is a welcome addition for its vertical movement, and I’m not having trouble with the outline system.
A few months ago, I read many comments about how Infinite will end the divide between fans, but today I see a lot of people praising this game as a return to classic Halo, and at the same time others explaining that it’s still a very modern FPS à la Halo 5 / CoD, with some fans being happy about this, and ohers not. Seems we’ll be forever divided, if we ever were united.
I personally will wait for the Campaign before deciding if this game is a true Halo title worthy of my time and money, or if I’ll just stick to MCC.