The player base has dwindled more than I could ever have imagined. It’s both fitting (if one is being cynical) considering the bad choices and misinformation 343 has given, but also it’s completely detrimental for our endgame hopes of having this title be functional and good (can’t fix these things without players and money coming in). 343 is in a bit of a pickle and admittedly, I think at the least some trepidation on the fans part is warranted, considering 343’s very rocky track record over the last decade. I hope they succeed (for my own selfish purpose of having a game series I love be relevant and thrive), but if they don’t acknowledge their mistakes (at least internally) and also don’t take dramatic action and course correction to get back on track (expeditiously so), then yea, I believe this specific Halo title will likely never truly recover and be what it absolutely could have been (core of the game, as I’ve stated before, is truly awesome).
I am waiting to see the nuclear warheads being fired in the chat.
Honestly, Halo Infinite getting so many things right is one of the harder parts of it. Halo 4/5 are easy to ignore because they aren’t remotely Halo. Infinite’s gameplay gets back to a lot of that Halo feel (even if fun physics are missing and a few other gripes).
The issue for me is that Infinite does some core things very right, but almost everything else wrong, making it hard to stick with. The art style was looking pretty good at launch, but since then they have done nothing but add obnoxious skins and fracture armors to the mix. The challenge system has affected gameplay by incentivizing teammates to chase challenges instead of objectives and team work. The focus on eSports balance has hurt the fun spirit of Halo.
I want to like Halo Infinite, and at its core I do, but there’s so much detracting from it that I have little reason to play it when I can just hop on MCC and play CE/2/3/Reach without any of those issues.