I had a post months ago about 343’s lack of co-op support. But to sum it up
Halo 4- Replaced Firefight w/spartan ops.
Halo MCC- Co-op broken on release. Still bad now. No crossplay co-op campaign. No Spartan Ops support.
Halo 5: Removed both local and split screen co-op in a co-op centered campaign. No other co-op modes on launch (until Warzone Firefight, but that still has 4+ people)
And now Halo Infinite. Co-op is delayed. Again.
My Gf and I wanted to jump into co-op together fresh and literally today, she said I could play the campaign now because its taking too long. She’ll wait for co-op to play with me. But now, I don’t even want to play it at all. I barely want to play MP now.
343, I want to like Halo Infinite. Really I do. The foundation is there. But the foundation isn’t being built upon and the steel is rusting. You put so much effort into season 2 and the fractures events making some sort of “story” that even to a writer, I forgot even existed. Meanwhile hopes for co-op feel like a withered husk in comparison.
Just as the title said, I would be less mad if co-op was flat canceled. You guys have shown that the studio either doesn’t have the skill, the time, the technology, the leadership, or the care to get co-op running. I don’t know which ones of these are true, or if it is a mixture, or all of them. If you guys just can’t make it work, the admit it and do something else, please.
I compared Halo Infinite’s launch and communication to ID Software often, and here I will do it again. Even Doom Eternal, with all of ID Software’s transparency and care they put into their masterpiece, admitted they couldn’t get Invasion mode to work, and instead gave us Horde mode and not one, but two master levels at once as compensation. Sure, it took more work and its hard to scrap something like that, but they owned up to it. Even the Switch version was delayed, but it took almost 2 years and they are just 1 update behind now. But they still were open about it when asked.
Maybe I wouldn’t be as mad if my GF and I didn’t make this promise and played the campaign solo. In any case, the track record for co-op is downright horrible. I feel ashamed that I pre-ordered on some false hope this game will work as intended this long after release. I feel sad for those who pre-ordered only to have their bonuses swiped away. I feel bad that the community grew so toxic that the community leaders refuse to engage with us as promised, or snap back at us.
After writing all this out, I don’t feel as mad. Just sad. I have this feeling that by the time we play campaign, its going to be disappointing. Either broken like MCC, or just fall flat. Like we waited over 6 months, for something that wasn’t worth waiting for. Like we could have spent our time doing something else.
Anyway. We’re long past the point of “should have’s”. Anyone else want to share their disappointment? Solutions? Alternatives to co-op campaign if they canceled it?