So this is my first post here considering I don’t normally go on forums too often but I couldn’t help myself with this one. I welcome anybody to openly discuss and feel free to agree or disagree! These are just my little thoughts on the matter.
I just started playing the Halo: Infinite Tech Preview and I must say that it’s one of the best betas I’ve had the pleasure of trying out. Of course it has its imperfections but it goes without saying considering it’s still in development. I’ll start by talking about what I love about it so far:
PROS:
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Sliding - A very good way to integrate into modern gaming. Definitely adds for movement like avoiding and attaining kills. While this kind of branches away from Halo’s roots, I’ve realized that after Halo 4 and 5 we’ve definitely entered a more evolved version of the game itself while still being as great as we remembered it. - A.I. - This was just a plain awesome idea to add a bit of an engaging, unique Cortana-like character to your own spartan to personalize him/her however you’d like. Out of the four available ones, I’ve definitely found myself liking “FRET” the best, as its quirky personality is really cool. “BUTLR” reminds me of Captain Price/Simon Riley a bit. “CIRC” sort of has that news anchor voice that’s full of confidence and a ray of sunshine. I’m sure everyone can agree that “LUMU” kinda reminds them of “GLADOS” from Portal. Overall a pretty dope addition! - Grappling Hook - I enjoy me some Apex: Legends, and I find that movement becomes a really intense (as a Pathfinder main), engaging way to make combat a bit more interesting. I think it was a nice idea. Goes back to what I said about digressing from Halo’s roots a bit but there’s something I can’t help but enjoy about it. - Pinging - A lot of my friends are also PC players, and I’ve noticed that one of the things they would bring up a lot was that they meant to ping something and ended up performing another action. This is a really innovative quality of life feature, especially for more strategic modes like Capture the Flag and such. Very well needed and I’m sure will also prove helpful in more competitive modes like SWAT in the future. - Atmosphere - Halo players are some of the most passionate, awesome group of people you can find. Of course we’re all going to run into some interesting characters, mic spammers and among other crazy things, but overall it’s amazing to see how excited and enthusiastic everybody has been so far about Infinite’s upcoming release.CONS:
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No Aim Assist - This feature has always been implemented regardless of what game it is in regard to console. As an Xbox One player, I find it a lot more challenging and at a notable disadvantage against a PC Player who has access to a more accurate aim. Console players rely on aim assist to help us balance that type of mechanic difference. I would hope that this feature gets implemented by actual release, as it will make it a lot more convenient. - Guns, Grenades and Abilities UI - This is a very minor inconvenience, but one that kind of bugged me as I played it. I’ve been used to the User Interface having the amount of ammo and grenades on the top right of the screen. It is now at the bottom right of the screen. There’s something about having to look down that kind of does it in for me for some reason. I’d prefer if it were kept the same way it was with every game that came before, but this one is very likely just a gripe of my own. - Battle Pass - Doesn’t really fit Halo’s style, if I’m being honest. I don’t mind it all that much and I’m hoping that if they decide to go through with it that they’ll make it easy to obtain rather than through microtransactions, but just the concept as a whole doesn’t really fit the culture of the game. I think a good way to get armor and permutations would be doing it the way Halo 3 and Reach did, where you have to do certain challenges to unlock certain items or use in game credits after each match to unlock them. (I am aware of the fact that they exist within Infinite’s beta as well but I would like to see this executed a little differently) - Map Size - The maps from what I’ve noticed are a bit small, but I have taken into account that the earlier Halo’s maps did suffer from the fact that there weren’t enough close-quarters maps. I’m assuming 343 kept this in mind when designing them and I’m sure there will be more on the way, but so far I think Behemoth may be the better out of the others I’ve played on. - Announcer(s) - This one’s a bit strange. I’ve noticed that the traditional voice of God in Halo (thank goodness Jeff Steitzer has returned) is only around a few times. A lot of the time the game switches from the A.I., to a random spartan commander, to the announcer. This could be an issue on my end personally but I feel like this needs some regulation. Personally, I adore hearing the traditional announcer’s voice and would love to hear more of him, but I don’t mind hearing the A.I. from time to time either, as it is a really nice implementation to personalization of one’s character.
Side Note: I’m not entirely sold on the spartans themselves speaking in-game, but I have yet to conclude whether or not I like or dislike this. However, I think it’s a lot better if they remain quiet, or at the very least add some personality options regarding their dialogue so make it more customizable to the player.Overall, I am pretty satisfied with the beta so far. I truly believe that 343 Industries are setting out to do the best they can with the masterpiece that Bungie once gave us and this tech preview certainly does that fact justice. While there were a lot of complaints about gameplay and campaign in the previous games, to which I can very much justify and understand, one can definitely tell that 343i are implementing whatever possible to take our feedback and suggestions into account. That is very admirable in its own right and I’m glad to be part of this.
I may consider adding more of my thoughts in the upcoming few days of the preview if you guys would be interesting depending on how this topic discussion goes. I would absolutely love to hear your thoughts, whether they’re in agreement with mine or not. I like being open-minded and convinced to see other views. Thanks for your time! And much love to 343 Industries, you guys are killing it and I hope this feedback (along with all the players that submit it) will help in making this the best game it can be!