So I’ve seen a good amount of bashing on 343i’s new take on Infection in Halo 5. A new article and video have been released on Gameinformer for those unaware, here’s a link.
So here’s the key changes 343i has made to Infection:
- The starting weapons are no longer shotgun and magnum. While the shotgun remains, the pistol has been replaced with the AR. - Power weapons are on the map. It’s no longer shotguns and pistols as the only weapon for the humans to relay on. - All zombies have a pestilence-like armor affect on them. Alpha zombies will be invisible. - Humans have access to all Spartan Abilities, while Infected only have Thrust, Smart-scope, and clamber - Last squad standing. - Last man standing now has unlimited ammo, increased reload speed and takes two hits to killNow, many players are upset that the AR has replaced the pistol. And that’s understandable… until you read why the change was made and then you realize “Oh, that actually makes a lot of sense.”
Here’s what they said about the new loadout:
Landskov: “That was another point of contention. Most modes that we’ve released for Infection in previous games do have pistol starts, but they also didn’t have “our” pistol. What we really noticed in playtests was as infected, you could kind of get boxed in on your spawns and this would happen almost immediately because you’ve got a bunch of players, if they decide to set up correctly, all have pistols and can headshot you before you really make it too far out there. Where, if you have limited pistols on map – first it makes people actually move on the map and kind of go for new weapons. It turns out people prefer pistol over things like sniper, more shotgun ammo, or other power weapons throughout the map, because it is so good for lining up headshots when we have no shields for infected. We really, really wanted to increase the movement around map and also decrease the frustration players were having who were getting head-shotted over and over again.”
In short, the pistol is far to overpowered to be allowed in the hands of ten people when they are up against two enemies that has no shields and only an energy sword as their weapon. It’s an understandable change and one that I am glad they made.
And for those who will still whine about wanting a classic experience, you have custom games AND classic Infection would be Shotguns and Energy swords for everyone but only green team could use the energy swords and red team could use the shotguns. Don’t say classic unless you mean classic.
There’s also been some controversy over the presence of the spartan abilities in the game mode, people saying they want a classic experience. But here’s the thing, Infection has evolved with each game it’s been present in, it takes advantage of the new additions to the game.
- In Halo Reach the humans could sprint and zombies could evade, later changed to unlimited sprint for Alphas in Alpha Zombies. - In Halo 4, the Flood had active camo, thruster packs, and Promethean vision while the humans had the hardlight shield, hologram, and active camo. - Halo 2 Anniversary went back to the Halo 3 formula only because Infection was a custom gametype made from Slayer back in the day, it didn’t have an official gametype in Halo 2.You can have your “classic” experience in custom games, 343i has not screwed up Infection by allowing players to use the new features in the gametype. Though I feel as though the zombies should have more movement options available to them. Maybe not turn on Spartan Charge but ground pound wouldn’t hurt.
Alpha zombies will also have active camo on at all times. I’m neutral about this. I like the idea and the challenge it’ll add but at the same time I think the camo should only last until the Alphas die for the first time, then it disappears. I don’t know maybe I’m wrong. Here’s what 343i said:
Landskov: "They’re partially invisible and play a little bit stealthier. What we’ve noticed with alphas especially, is they do a really good job sneaking up on people over-relying on their radar. The alphas can take advantage of that at certain places, but I would say we don’t notice too many changes in player behavior, except in the beginning part."
Another big one is the presence of power weapons.
Hivemind. It had power weapons and armor ability pick-ups and it was fun. That’s all I have to say.
The biggest issue you should all be having is the new last man standing traits. Sure we’ve always had the overshield which made it two hits to kill. But we also have unlimited ammo and increased reload speed. This has the potential to become a huge issue. While I don’t mind the presence of unlimited ammo, I think the increased reload speed might be a bit of overkill.
In short, don’t knock the damn thing until you’ve played it. If you don’t like it then, you can always play custom games or fight for change.