From a gameplay perspective I think 343 has done a pretty good job, and I do tend to enjoy the game more than I don’t.
The equipment is fun, useful, but not OP, most of the time.
The implementation of sprint works pretty well this go around.
In general, the weapons are pretty well balanced; just a few minor tweaks needed, but no completely game wreaking issues.
The guns/grenade/melee triangle is about as close to equilateral as we’ve had in a while.
The map designs aren’t nearly as bad as y’all like to complain they are.
I certainly do disagree with no collision and no friendly fire in social can be aggravating quite often.
Unfortunately the other good things about this game are few and far between. Almost nothing good can be said of the progress system and the UI, the ‘net code’ has frequent fits, and the microtransactions make me wonder if this is some mobile game whenever I look at the store. And seriously, almost every other Halo game has had better ‘live service’, on top of more content.
Here is my fear right now: The current vibe I’m getting from the community is ‘Infinite isn’t worth saving, let’s move on to the next Halo.’ If 343 does that, we could very easily end up with some H4 garbage again, or a not-so-halo like H5. 343 could make a new game that fixes everything wrong in H:I, but it won’t matter. They can’t get the gameplay right again, I struggle to believe that.
So, am I the only one that is still having fun with this game? I know I’m not the only one that is losing/lost patience.
Iv’e been happy with it apart from de-sync issue, no progression, lack of content etc which we all know, I don’t really moan about it as gameplay itself is pretty solid, just hope 343 can rescue it,
It just needs fixing and steady flow of content asap, iv’e taken a break until Forge comes
I agree completely, I think 343 should move on from Infinite but I think Microsoft dumped to much money in the new engine to burn it to the ground so quickly.
I really hope they don’t change the gameplay in the next Halo. This is the best most halo feeling game 343 has made. No way this game makes the 10 year plan they had lol didn’t Destiny 1 say something similar?
I agree that the foundation seems solid and fun, enough to entertain ones such as myself for a while. It has a lot of promise and potential too. It just needs more content mostly, and it’s not perfect in a lot of ways outside of gameplay that could use obvious tweaks.
Apart from all the issues and shortcomings that people have been righteously complaining about, I just can’t have fun in a T-rated Halo. I’ve forced myself to like it, but it’s a very underwhelming and boring game, to put it lightly.
Any game can have good gameplay. Star Wars Battlefront 2 had great gameplay for a star wars game. Battlefield perfectly lives up to an all-out battleground type.
But what makes games progress is progression. Even repetive search-and-destroy games, or MOBA games, still have content progression monthly even when you’re doing the same thing over and over.
Halo Infinite is just not doing that. Even I enjoy coming back to Halo Infinite just for a match. But even now, I’m feeling like playing Battlefield 2042 in its second season.
What’s truly wild is that this is a free to play game. They can easily scrap it and move on. With new maps coming out being forge maps… I’m like the community can make that.
This is truly the first Halo that feels absolutely balanced and great since the H2/H3 days. But it’s missing so much key Halo items and functions. It’s disappointing overall.
Well said, I love the foundation of the game, the gameplay is very satisfying for me. At the same time there is just so much content missing to truly call this a Halo experience. Here’s what I think Halo needs in no particular order (in terms of content): 1. More Weapons
Halo is a game of several diverse factions, yet there is a lack of content when it comes to weapons per faction. 2. More Vehicles
Halo Infinite has done nothing innovative when it comes to new vehicles. Not counting variants, there are currently 8 vehicles in the game. 5 of these 8 vehicles were featured in Halo CE (20 years ago!) and the other 3 were in Halo 3 if you count the Hornet as the Wasp (15 years ago!). To me, it is pathetic that Halo Infinite has the same cast of vehicles as a game from 2007. Actually, Halo 3 also had the Elephant, Scarab, and Prowler so we have less original vehicles in a 2022 game. Mind boggling. 3. Forge and Custom Games
This is coming and looks amazing. 4. Co-op Campaign and Firefight
Not having Co-op campaign is one thing, but if they knew they were launching without a co-op mode then why not at least have a firefight mode so you can play with your friends against the Banished? How hard is it to implement a co-op survival mode? Just another mind boggling decision by 343.
Just starting with these would immensely improve the Halo Infinite experience IMO.
What is it about the rating that immediately marks the game as “not fun”?
I’ve always felt that the complaint about lack of blood was a bit petty. Sure, I would occasionally mess around and paint the walls purple and blue with covenant in H1, but that’s not what made that game fun.
From a narrative perspective I could see the rating being an issue. I would prefer the story of Halo to have freedom to go where it wants to, and not have the theme and feel of the story be limited based on some targeted rating. Especially since most gamers and parents don’t really have hard limits on specific ratings, just content. For myself, I don’t want excessive use of expletives or any sexual content in Halo, but the violence, minor gore, and “mature themes” similar to previous titles are ok with me.
I have fun with Infinite. I’m also running out of patience.
I’m fine with them fixing Infinite instead of dropping it like it’s hot to start production on new Halo. I don’t want to get nothing for a few more years.
Yes the game is good but the lack of content/maps and boring game types destroyed it. Its really depressing that 343 did make more maps because the maps are pretty good and nice looking. It just gets very repetetive to play more than 3-4 games per day. I really dont understand why they didnt make more maps.
It cant be that time consuming. More maps and content would have saved the game. When season 2 started with almost no new content the game died.
Sure, but in my opinion this is the single most important thing to get right. And I think H:I has it right enough.
There are exceptions, H:CE comes to mind, but I think this is true in modern gaming. Infinite technically has a progression system, but it is pretty bad and resets every season.
I think really successful games need both of these things and more. H:5 is a game with arguably good gameplay and a long term progression system, but it still fell short.
I agreed with everything up till this. My hope is that the complete infinite - deliver all content promised and expected of any other Halo title- and then, move on.
What I would like to see is Microsoft encourage them to actually treat the next Halo title the same as Sony would treat God of War or how Nintendo treats Zelda BoTW/ToTK. Halo should be their show stopper, not some F2P, “live service”, MTX infested, half baked title. It should be a box product with no Microtransactions and add in some DLC.
This is the IP that literally build xbox into a brand and paved the way for FPS across the industry.
For Xbox/Microsoft, it’s actually something worth taking a loss on as a brand. With Microsoft purchasing activation/blizzard, this title should go back to what it always was, if not some other developer will make a fun FPS game that uses the old school business model and hurt Microsoft profits on all their other titles - the market is seriously craving something like this right now.
If they move to a new title, they basically have 3 jobs
UnF2P/live service the game
Copy and paste completed/fixed Halo Infinite + new maps/sandbox items
make another new and enjoyable campaign following up on Infinites story, with JS in control (support co-op split screen)
If they did that and sold it for $60, Microsoft would literally dominate the industry as far as FPS’s go, and have no competition. If they don’t do this with their next title, then I think it will just be time to call it quits.
If 343 moves on from Infinite, I’m not buying the next game unless I’m assured it is a complete product. I liked Halo 4, but MCC and 5 eroded my trust. That seems more lenient than other fans who hated all of them. No matter how I cut it, 343 had more than second chances. My gut was telling me not to buy the campaign until co-op was out and yet I went against that and I bought it. At least I played the co-op flight. They either keep working on Infinite, or I’m done. Splatoon 3 has filled my annual shooter slot for 2023. I don’t have any faith in COD, Overwatch, or Battlefield. Halo used to be my go-to.
If Halo was meant to be a “party game with shooter mechanics nintendo would be proud of”. Well, it seems to me Nintendo is doing that job themselves for a while and I’m only now catching on.
Really, that’s not far off of what I would like to see. I’m not saying keep going with Infinite forever. I’m saying I hope 343 continues to focus on it and not cast it aside. Get this thing back on track! Since we can’t go back in time to stop the train wreak, the best we can hope for is for them to pick up the pieces and deliver on their promises.
Fix the game breaking issues.
Get seasons consistent and at a reasonable length.
1+ maps per season on top of community forge content.
New gameplay experiences with each season. Then add them to a rotational playlist or two, or integrate with existing playlists.
Get a long term career progression system in place
I still want split screen co-op
Maybe campaign content once a year.
The list goes on, but I don’t want 343 to turn their backs and just rely on forge and store updates while they start all over (Again! For the 3rd time!)
It’s a whole lot of little (and big) things, not just the blood, and all of them combined make for a really boring experience where you can’t feel any battles going on in a map.
The bullet decals are very small - almost invisible - and disappear within 2 seconds, before anyone (and even you) can see them. That’s probably to prevent people drawing anything offensive on the walls, otherwise I can’t imagine the reasoning.
The dead bodies are non-lasting, they disappear really quickly, and don’t seem to be affected much by explosions (if you remember older Halos, an explosion could send them flying high and many meters away). I assume it is that way to prevent t-bagging and more graphic violence.
No chatting with the enemy team or others in Slayer, and even the team chat is unintuitive and disrupts your gameplay because it opens up a big chat box while you’re playing (instead of just a new line to quickly add your text below others’ messages), so very few people -if any- are using it. This game was not meant to be social because the devs probably want to avoid as much negativity and toxicity as possible, in a T-rated game. But along with toxicity they’re killing all the fun, witty and useful messages that could emerge. In all the years that I’ve played Halo, I’ve exchanged many useful links with other players (software etc.), game tips and advice, witty comments and silly trash talk, social profiles and e-mails, and even stuff that you wouldn’t expect to read about in an FPS game such as food recipes and holiday recommendations.
Multiplayer Announcer sounds less ferocious and serious than what I was used to hear. I sometimes felt that the announcer sounded somewhat comical in HI, so I was surprised to see that it is still the same guy - Jeff Steitzer - who’s making these voices.
There are lots of toned down and underwhelming visual and sound effects, and I can’t think of any good reason for that other than wanting the game to be children friendly. For instance, the explosions are not impactful. A good example is the frag grenade. It doesn’t sound like a satisfying BOOM, it doesn’t produce lasting smoke (instead it’s all silly sparks) or any smoke at all, it doesn’t scorch the ground and of course there are no lasting scorch marks either, and it doesn’t send you flying away. Most of the other visual effects are underwhelming and non-lasting.
So I’m fighting in maps where people are not chatting and interacting, and passing by areas and rooms where recent fights took place but there are no traces left, no blood pools, no bullet decals, no dead bodies, no scorch marks, nothing. Even when being an observer from a distance, I don’t see any blood coming out, I don’t hear any serious booms, I don’t see any smoke, any impactful explosions - it’s all sparks and flowers.
If all that weren’t enough to make me yawn, there are plenty of other bad decisions that add to the boredom which I am not sure if they are due to the game being T-rated or because they are just development shortcomings and… bad decisions. Such as vehicles being unable to do the stunts they once did (ghosts and warthogs can’t even climb up a short ledge/pavement, ghost wheelies are now useless, you can’t exit the warthog’s gunner seat at any angle, banshees are slower, can’t fly in circles, can’t take sharp turns etc.), no player collisions, map boundaries killing you etc. No need to also analyze the game’s biggest problems and shortcomings (desync, lack of custom game browser, content etc.) because there’s a roadmap for most of that stuff and eventually they won’t be problems anymore, but they do add a lot to the underwhelming experience that I am describing above.
Good point here. The competitive purists often say that each weapon should be unique in it’s role and no weapon should infringe upon another weapon’s role. While this is generally true from a competitive standpoint, is it really that big of a deal? You can easily customize the weapons on maps to suit competitive play. From a social perspective, who cares? From a campaign standpoint, it makes no sense.
I figured more would have been released by now, or at least announced as coming in future.
Forge does look impressive. Custom games has been pretty broken since launch and it seems like 343 is relying on forge’s scripting capabilities to make up the difference. That is a bit of a bummer in my opinion since most casual players are going to be intimidated by the scripting and never set up a few simple game types like vip or race.
The core mechanics, the core gameplay is very good.
But there are big issues like:
desync
lag
matchmaking issues
progression, rank system that doesnt work
unreliable hit detection
Another problem is the lack of PVE or other game modes. When there are only Arena and BTB modes, then this modes should be very reliable, the netcode must be very reliable.