As the title suggests, given the declining population and open disinterest by the developers to make something that resembles a Halo game or even support their existing project, would you even pick this game up?
Witnessing a franchise when boast a stable population exceeding a million people have almost the entirety of it’s player base be alienated by an incompetent company is one thing, but watching this continue for over a decade is depressing. Personally, I have no problem with the developers wanting to create their own project, but relying on the name of a previously successful franchise to sell it seems exploitative. It also shows a justified lack of faith in their work which has proven understandable in every instalment.
Although a new and much smaller population has appeared after the alienation of the former population, I am aware of an admirably optimistic number that left the franchise years ago and returned. Of which, many were baited by the iconic art style that reminded them of Halo. So with that subject in mind, if the art style was different, and Halo was not written on it, would you have even downloaded it in the first place?
I would have. Character-driven sci-fi FPS games are generally my go-to, and they’ve been fairly thin as of late. The last similar game that scratched my itch was Doom Eternal and not a lot before that aside from MCC. So, even if it wasn’t a game with Halo in the title, I’d have picked it up.
I still would’ve picked it up. If not for the weighty responsibilities and expectations that the name “Halo” understandably bestows on a title, Halo Infinite probably would’ve been the best AAA release of last year.
(That’s not to say that the feature-incomplete status of the game would’ve somehow been acceptable in this alternate timeline, though. I still would’ve been disappointed all the same about promised features not being in the game.)
Could depend on what I heard about it. But even if I did pick it up, I’d have dropped it nearly immediately too. As of now, Infinite is just not fun for me to play alone. Too many issues, both technical and gameplay, that get on my nerves, and after a while, I realize that I’m playing a game that I’m not really having that much fun playing.
The only reasons I stick with the game are:
It’s Halo (main reason);
I want to like this game;
The Campaign is my favorite across the whole franchise. The grappelshot is fun as hell, the gameplay is top notch, and I generally feel like I can do a lot more with the options I have than I ever previously could in any Halo. I feel like a Spartan.
This game is still in its infancy, and is bound to get a lot more content. This is pretty much a repeat of both Halo 5 and Destiny 2. Both started out poorly, but got substantially better over time, the latter of which being where I’m spending a lot of time on (some of the most fun I have when raiding).
I made a sort of vow where I would buy the season pass if I reached a high rank. You may ask “But why buy the SP if you don’t enjoy the game?”. First, I’m grinding through Bot Bootcamp, since it allows me to rank up without being infuriated by the issues aggravated by the true PvP experience; Second reason is because it has the armor that my Reach Spartan uses, so it’s kind of a given.