A lot of the changes we see in halo today are made because it’s ment to appeal to new players however the only players I see playing Halo infinite are the die hard fans and people who already play Halo to begin with. Even me and my friend. Me and him really don’t like the state of this game but we will still play because it’s Halo. That’s just how it is for a lot fans.
We all see the steam numbers. We all see our friends list and who’s playing Halo. Do we see anyone new playing Halo? New Halo streamers? Sure they exsist but it’s few and far between. I don’t think this Halo generated interest for new players. If anything I think this Halo drives new players away.
For one. As a new player in order to understand the story you HAVE to do some type of reading. Some type of watching of other media to understand where MasterChief even came from in the first place or what even happened in the game before. I’m talking strictly from a gameplay perspective. As a new player, never played Halo, doesn’t know about Halo plays the game and will not know core story details about master chief’s story. Edit: this is why Halo 5s story was a massive failure because it did too much and you had to read outside content. It should’ve been a blue team only story at the very least(not that fire team Osiris wasn’t cool it’s just that it was too much)
As a new player, you load in to multiplayer. There is a couple of modes to play. The new player can think all of them are fun but guess what, game performance gets in the way. At this point its been well documented that there are performance issues. This can drive any player away from any game.
As a new player you check out the HCS scene. In the first experience you see the game failing during a live toruanemt. This doesn’t happen all time and if it does it’s not the end of the world but in the eyes of a new player each experience is critical to wether they stay or not.
We all know new content will come. We all know forge will come. My question is. Where are the new players? Where is the new interest?
And if there is no new interest then why are changes made to Halo? Why is it free to play? Why does it have a battle pass? Why does it have seasons? Why is there such a push to cater to new players when veterans and Halo players have been here the whole time? Why isn’t Halo made sepfically for Halo players first? 343 knows what we like and to me they would make the most money giving the fans what they want instead of trying to please the masses. Halo isn’t a house hold title anymore. It’s a nieche product and the core fans is whats holding the game together.
A great example is forge. In halo 5 the forge creators were relied on heavily for playlists and content. The core fans keep Halo alive and a game should be made for them. Once that happens I bet there will be new interest in halo again. What made the old halos special was that the goal was to be a fun game. It wasn’t catering to anyone or anything.
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I mean the game does provide you the cliff notes version of the story via the visions. Plus they even said that in a sense the Weapon becomes the POV character learning about all this new stuff. So we know exactly why “What did she do that was so wrong” but the Weapon/new player doesn’t. You could make the case that Halo has broad enough tropes that you don’t need to have too much prior knowledge.
But, you’re right, I think if you didn’t understand the context you would be a little taken aback. “What, she conquered the Galaxy!” or the stuff with the Spartan programme gets touched on but then isn’t really done.
Plus so much of it is clear call outs and references to previous Halo games. In particular Halo 4. So a lot of the more nuanced characterisation and dialogue would just be lost on a general audience. Like when the Weapon says “surely a part of you must admire the grandeur of this achievement; you’re not a machine.” That means very little to somebody who hasn’t played Halo 4. Alternatively when the Chief goes to collect the Weapon and says it might be a Trap; that’s a reference to the Breaking when he last saw Cortana. Indeed visually Foundation level looks a lot like it with lightning and how the Weapon is a glowing blue light at the end of the tunnel.
I think the issues more general. What makes a non Halo player want to pick up a single player game? Why do people buy Doom and God of War; other big single player games? What do they have that Halo Infinite doesn’t? For me the games lacks:
- A compelling conflict/villains. Not a small raiding party and a few floating squids. All talk.
- Big cinematic moments and set pieces
- Variety of environments, enemies and combat encounters
- Visual flare.
- Stuff to do.
I also don’t think the Weapon and the Pilot are strong enough characters to carry the series. Cortana even bluntly says “this isn’t an ending” but it kind of is. They give you a copy who you have very little attachment or investment to and is too much of a Committee decision to reset the status quo. It’s not like Kratos looking after Loki. The Weapon as a prop in the Chiefs grief over Cortana is great and all. But now we’ve wrote a line under that: what else is there exactly? I felt very cold at the ending and that clearly wasn’t what they were going.
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I think one of the biggest things for me is the visual flare. It doesn’t need to be transformers level action but I want to see what master chief does in the books. You know. Acrobatics. Flips. Fist fighting. Just more action in general and a bigger threat too. There doesn’t seem like much at stake in halo infinite. It feels more like an episode rather than a movie if that makes any sense
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I know, none of the Halo games were quite that uneventful.
Halo CE - You discover this galaxy destroying Parasite and destroy the ring before it can escape
Halo 2 - Earth invaded. Covenant Civil War. High Charity Destroyed
Halo 3 - Beat the Covenant and stop the Gravemind
Halo 4 - Halt the Didacts destruction of Earth
Halo 5 - Cortana takes over Galaxy. End of Elite Civil War
Halo Infinite - You kill a Brute Chieftain and a Squid Lady who warns you her people are free now. You then watch some flashbacks for another game that has no bearing or relevance on the central conflict. Okay….
Probably the first mission is the most impactful part where you destroy one of the Banished ships.
It tried to bring in the fortnite crowd, and if it worked and didn’t try and rob its players blind for the cosmetics it might have.
Infinite has failed. Its failed hard.
13k players on steam right now and dwindling. Even MCC has 5k players. It was only a couple of weeks ago at 40k players the diehards were saying it will climb again.
Honestly, if this doesn’t spur microsoft on to give 343 a severe shakeup, nothing will.
There are no excuses, the management have to go. The PR guys that blames the playerbases for everything falling apart need to go.
Start fresh.
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Well if they were trying to bring in the fresh new M&K crowd, they failed miserably and we all know why.
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