First things first, I like this game a lot. I like most of what 343 has done with this title so I wanted to mainly focus on areas that I think could improve and just a few that were pretty bad.
Small gripes:
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I think Medals could be a little bit bigger and possibly back in the bottom left of the screen. The audio was beefy and felt good but the visuals just didn’t leave that same feeling for me. Something like Halo 3 or Halo reach when it comes to size and placement. Ps I love the new medals you guys came up with.
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Sidekick I think could use a little help when it comes to competing with a Commando or BR. In BR starts it won’t be a problem. But particularly on Bazarr most players just held up on the Commando/Br spawn because if you got one you were guaranteed to go on a spree because of how hard it is to finish kills currently with the sidekick. Breaking shields isn’t bad but that final shot becomes a pain because of extensive bloom.
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I liked the balance and design of the needler but the audio almost sounded muted. Not sure if it was a bug but it definitely didn’t have the punch that you expect from the needler sound.
Bigger Gripes:
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Friend and foe system needs some work. It causes issues with identifying how weak an opponent is because the outline blends in with the damage being dealt to them since they are the same color. It also mostly covers the spartan customization which I why I thought the change was made in the first place. I almost think that if you made the dot and color of the teammates and little brighter you could almost remove the enemy outline almost entirely. Anyone that isn’t marked by an Ally marker is an enemy. It would also allow for shield damage to show through significantly better.
EDIT: Saw an idea being spread around about not having an outline and just have a red name appear above the enemy. This could also be a possible fix for identifying enemies but I think we would need to test the changes to see if it works better. -
Almost all guns felt great to use. The 2 exceptions being the Pulse Carbine and Sniper. The Pulse carbines tracking was so inconsistent that trying to assist the tracking with your aim almost seem to backfire at times. Possibly removing the tracking from hipfire and making it an ADS ability kinda like the light rifle from H4/H5 could help. But I think the tracking would need buffed a little in this case. The only way to really use it was to combo it with a br or sidekick but even then, sometimes I would break their shield and wouldn’t be aiming anywhere near them and other times I would have the reticle right on them and most of the burst miss.
For the sniper, I must say the audio design is top tier. The sound of the sniper is one of the most memorable sounds from the flight besides the great music. But man, I would lying if I didn’t say that it felt awful to use. It felt sluggish and the scope reticle design was almost too big and was distracting. At first, I thought I just needed to adjust to the way if felt but I picked it up and ton during the flight and even on the last day it still felt like the worst handling sniper I’ve used in the series. I’m not well versed on how to make it “feel” better but it just didn’t feel good.
- Last but not least, the XP system/ Progression of the battle pass. I’m well aware this is a test and so this feedback will be how I would feel if that system stayed in place for full release. You guys mentioned you didn’t want Infinite to feel like a chore or job. I love the idea of that. Most live service games do feel like that. Only gaining XP from challenges makes that feeling even worse. Instead of being able to just play and have fun and passively level up, I have to specific things just to get a fixed amount of xp I’m aloud a week. Challenges are a good thing and if I want to level up faster they should be a great incentive but it shouldn’t be the only way to gain xp. Also, this causes issues where I can only level up a certain amount a week. It makes my time after those challenges are completed feel wasted. Of course I could just play for fun but getting no progression after challenges are completed for a week makes me not want to play until reset. Players time investment needs to be rewarded. XP only from Challeges hurts.
Don’t want to sound all doom and gloom so I wanted to reiterate that I loved what I saw from the tech test and can’t wait to play it again. You guys did a great job and I’m really looking forward to release. Hope you guys could make it through my points lol.