Infinite Tech Preview – PC Specific Feedback

Games Halo Infinite
841

None of the linked specific threads are working for me so posting my main feedback comments here (just see the “Something’s Missing Here” message on the linked site pages).

Initial reaction feedback:
General Game Mechanics - I do like the realistic feel of the running but seems like it needs a little tweak to make it perfect. The running in general feels a little clunky/not smooth.

Weapon Drills - Fun trying out the weapons (which sound and feel awesome) and I like the three different levels to it. I wish there was more space to move around in, and a little difficult with the angled field of view and having to be right in front of the little room to see any bots on the sides. For the long range weapons it would’ve been nice to shoot at targets that were further away.

Bot Slayer - The grenades feel a little OP. Feels like it should just take out the shield and then shoot to kill. I feel like the grappling hook should shoot further.

842

MOUSE ADJUSTMENTS!
Been enjoying the Halo Infinite preview so far, but we need refinements for mouse control. More specifically, scroll wheel inputs!
Input detection when scrolling up/down on the mouse wheel is way too sensitive. If you scroll too aggressively, the game will just auto-switch your weapon right back to whatever you were initially wielding at the time rather than pulling out the weapon you intend to switch to. And so you have to be very careful with how hard you spin your wheel.

This can be very frustrating for many other players like myself who are used to interacting with their mouse wheel aggressively. Games like “Call of Duty”, and “Battlefield”, for example, allow you to flick your mouse wheel as hard as you want and will switch over to your next weapon without issue.

I hope the team sees this feedback and makes these adjustments. This kind of thing really changes the playability of the game.

Thank you!

843

Please allow for mod support in the full release by giving players the info necessary to compile their own .pck files in Godot Engine to the specifications needed to run properly on Infinite (or by creating dedicated mod tools). This would allow custom sound effect replacements, skins, etc. to exist, allowing many client-side mods to be possible that would increase the game’s longevity and levels of personalization.

844

Not a technical review but i’ve played for about 2 hours today… man… that was bad.
All the weapons but the handgun feel underwhelming as hell, the TTK is ridiculous, you have to empty half a magazine or 2 fully charged energy weapons on any enemy to successfully kill them.
That sprinting??? feels like the player is just shaking his shoulders violently while moving basically at the same speed, at least give them some heavier footstep sound so it makes sense.
Unlocking armor pieces is ok, but unlocking color sets? Man i feel like they took waaaaay too much inspiration from Destiny 2, i’d go as far as to say it even feels the same.
By the way, “looking for server”… on a bot match?
I’m sure the campaign will be great, but that was a dissapointing ‘multiplayer’ experience.

845

I’m not sure if this is also on console, but there’s a game-breaking bug with the controller that doesn’t allow you to strafe at all. resetting the game doesn’t help at all.

846

The technical preview has been pretty satisfying to play through, but I got some Visual UI opinions.

The Shield color and outlines should be separate in terms of colors including the enemy dots on the map, it would allow for more customizations for the UI.

I think the outlines appear too big and it undermines the spartan in the way of saturating the spartan colors and look, in a visual standpoint.

It would be great to have optional to turn off the spartan outlines and leave the users with still the bubble to indicate friendlies or clan name, and I believe the Spartan’s stand out anyways. Or if possible an option to toggle red vs blue.

847

PC Specs: 2070 Super, 3700x, 16GB 3200mhz DDR4

So, optimisation is clearly missing in this older build and graphical options don’t seem to change much, if at all. I see almost no difference between ultra low and ultra high, both visually and FPS wise. Average 70% GPU usage at 1440p. Don’t get more than 70fps in the arena, 90 in the firing range. Setting the minimum frame rate to 144 sent my fps to an average of 95, it’s a temporary workaround and graphics are significantly worse due to resolution scaling down but I’ll take the extra frames and general smoothness.
I hope this is drastically improved before launch, it’s possible it already is in the up-to-date build you have.

Otherwise, just a few other issues:

  • Spartan doesn’t always show in lobby area
  • Helmets weren’t changing after a few games, had to restart to get helmets/armor to equip and change
  • Some settings don’t save between restarts e.g. FOV
  • XP seems buggy, challenges such as “Practice makes perfection” which just requires you to play 4 of any match type, might say 2/4 or 3/4 even when I’ve played well over that
  • Joining a game mid-match will muffle most sfx besides voices, announcer and music
  • Some general latency and inconsistent hit reg

I’ve only had maybe 7-8 crashes which all seem to happen when trying to use the push-to-talk button, or when trying to rebind it (Just after button is rebound, game crashes).

Honestly though, looking past the performance issues, general bugs and lack of graphical polish/lighting effects, the gameplay feels fantastic, and the animations are quite fluid. I’m liking this blend of new and old gameplay styles. It’s missing the final Halo touch as it looks a bit generic/militaristic right now, and some of the more generic weapons (Like the Commando) could use some tweaking, but then again, we haven’t seen anything really from the Covenant or Banished. And of course, you have to remember this is a technical preview; a pre-alpha. You can’t base your opinion on Halo Infinite solely on this flight when we’ve seen like 5% of the game.

848

So far its working great, however i do believe there are optimization issues with pc as i had to go to the lowest possible graphics settings to play at 60fps with an nvidia 1060 3gb, i do believe that work on optimization for pc is needed however so far that has been the only issue

849

Constant crashes after newest patch, it crashes just when I start a match.
My PC rig:
RTX 2060
I5 9400F
16gb 2400 mHz

850

Been trying for 3 hours to get into a game and everytime it finds me a server it tries to load me in but it takes me straight back to the menu, if anyone has any fixes or solutions let me know. Been a wack testing so far!!

851

I know this has been stated a lot, but just adding my specs to the list:

The performance in terms of FPS is well… underwhelming. It does however really make me appreciate having a FreeSync Monitor.

Anyway, I struggle to maintain a decent framerate @ 3440x1440, changing from low to ultra and back barely makes a difference of more then 5-10 fps, even changing the render scale doesn’t help much. I’d assume the game merely hasn’t been optimized properly, still sad to see.

RIG:
6900 XT
R7 5800X
32 GB @ 3600 MHz

852

So far the only issues I have run into myself would be:

-Joining a game mid progress will muffle all sfx audio
-Joining a game mid progress may give the player the wrong personal AI. (probably retaining the AI from the previous player)
-Butlr personal AI’s model is missing it’s texture in the customization menu (as of saturday’s 7gb update)
-Picking up ammo off a rack while firing/reloading can cause the weapon to stop working. (will not fire on mouse press, switching weapons will fix it but is a death sentence mid firefight)
-Personal AI Voice lines will loop if match finishes mid voice line.

I wouldn’t necessarily call it a bug but having the feature to choose the Output device for Voice Chat would be greatly appreciated, For what ever reason the game is treating my monitor’s speakers as higher priority than my headset which was picked as the default input. Also being able to swap daily challenges like weekly challenges would be nice. Was stuck on play 6 pvp matches for a full day, unable to earn any xp due to finishing all the weekly’s already.

But overall, gameplay is fantastic, definitely going to be my new favorite multiplayer to play once it launches. Loving everything about it, from the fluidity of the movement to the gunplay and the new deployables, didn’t like them in h3 but having fun with them here. Haven’t had as much fun grappleshotting into enemies with the gav hammer since meat hook into chainsaw in doom eternal.

853

Pretty Great performance on a more lower end rig by modern standards

Running i7 7700, GTX 1080 8gb, 16G Ram, on a 4k 60 hz Display. using medium settings consistently getting 60fps
have noticed some UI issues after latest patch such as armor icons not displaying properly, and if you switch between menus to quickly you can get a black background with menu still overlaying. Frequent server disconnects are common, sometimes takes upwards of 5 tries to get into a match. Mouse and keyboard play feels really good and responsive. have noticed using Grapple shot my Spartan will more times than not rubber band to impact point at crazy speed then bounce back, and be killed by nearby opponent as if using that equipment can cause sync issues between server and client.

854

So far I have loved this technical preview, aside from bugs and such (which is expected) the direction of game play is well paced, and exciting. Grappling has added a fun new interaction to the Halo universe. Equipment is a great way to add dozens of layers within the game, so I am excited to see what else is in store for that. Weapon mastery challenges are one of these things I didn’t know I needed. Playing these challenges is a refreshing break, and I often come back to try to best my own personal high score. I hope in the future I will be able to see a leader board of who globally or even just of my friends have scored the highest on each mastery challenge.

The bots are cracked. Perfect grenade placement every time.

Map design became one of my favorite aspects of the game. I feel as though maps across many game titles, are overly complex and require perfect map knowledge to not be shot from 10 different angles every second. These maps are simple and smart and allow for casual players to play a competitive style map without feeling overwhelmed. Lots of detailed customization for game play, such as enemy highlight color, zoom magnification sensitivities, custom button mapping, etc go a long way for me. The game becomes more personalized.

Problems - Connecting to a game almost always takes 3 tries before I am actually connected to a match and not sent back to the menu. Game struggles to maintain 60 fps even with low settings. Constantly crashes during loading screens and especially when loading into a bot slayer game and occasionally will happen when going into weapon mastery challenges. Bots are very weird, either they all run into a group at each other, or they are Halo 3 TSquared level. Perfect nade placement, and even across map assault rifles with perfect accuracy. Beginning of the game is the same every time, there is little to no variation in how they roll out in the first 15 seconds of a match. Equipments, specifically the drop shield are far too often scattered across the map. I believe 1 shield per drop would be enough with how often they spawn and how quick the cool down to throw another. Maybe increasing the respawn time on some of the more powerful equipment would help because I felt as though with equipment such as the grapple I was able to pick it up often enough where If I wasnt spamming it I might not run out before I can stack more. Which allows for outrageous movement, this is very fun, but might become abused. The grav hammer was inconsistent and a little wonky as times I would one shot someone 15 meters away then I only break shield when they are 10 meters way. Occasionally when getting into melee fights, the enemy and I would rubber band off each other pretty drastically, going through each other on melee, then bouncing back in front of them. The Harpoon looks and sounds cool, but when I shoot it I dont see anything come out, and it feels unsatisfying not even seeing what im shooting. Then if I miss I am not even able to tell if im behind or ahead because there is no visual of where I shot relative to the enemy. Customizing body prosthetics has a hard time saving and or showing the current changes I make to the Spartan. My button mapping resets every time I close and load the game as do other game play settings such as sensitivity and toggle options.

Despite any bugs, I have never enjoyed any early access content as much as this since the Halo Reach Beta.

855

One more bit of feedback that I wanted to get off my chest.

Not sure how neccesary the pre game cinematic is that goes through each teammate. Bringing back the old school lobby system that counts down into the game and the map would be better in my opinion, you get to see peoples calling cards, who is on your team and who you are matched against before the game has even started. Just seems weird having this pre game cinematic that just takes up so much time and is obviously quite buggy at the moment.

I suggest keeping the post game cinematic and include important top stats below for each player, and their calling card above their spartan.

Scoreboard is also confusing. Need a more simpler layout with the most neccessary information (score/kills/assists/death/damage/objectives/power weapon kills/avg time life)

856

Rig includes:
Ryzen 3700X
RTX 2080 Super
16GB of DDR4 3200 CL16
Running at 1080p@60hz

Gameplay-Specific Feedback
Bots are pretty great as opponents depending on the situation. At times, probably as a result of underoptimized code, they go a little a dumb. At other times, they make the Sidekick seem like a good weapon and have god-tier grenade throws and bounce tricks. I think we need to find a happy medium in there, which might emerge once the product is finished and the code is polished. They’re decent opponents all things considered.

The Sidekick and the Commando both feel really unsatisfying to use. The Sidekick is ineffective at medium range without consist headshots, taking 7 to kill, and feels extremely inaccurate at the ranges where Halo pistols have typically been meant to perform in. Also, its aim assist tuning is garbage, magnetizing very poorly at close combat ranges. Feels like the bots perform very well with it because they’re auto-aiming in a crude sense. The Commando seemed to have no heavy recoil deviation in the original E3 2020 demo, but its strong recoil was genuinely surprising to encounter in a Halo title. The fact that it can be provided by the same racks that also hold Battle Rifle seems to imply that the Commando is supposed to be BR-adjacent. This is hard to reconcile against the fact that it’s a 3x zoom weapon that kicks like a mule (stand still, expend the magazine, see how high the climb has sent the barrel). Its body damage is pretty bad, so it can’t even really be used a close-to-medium-range replacement for the AR (which is more stable). I tried using single shots with measured trigger pulls, and using it like a DMR produced some interesting results (more consistent headshots), but I don’t feel like that was the designers’ intent. When a Halo game features a weapon that’s as difficult to control as some of Destiny’s worst offenders, I start to worry about the whole ‘oh this is my best long-range option on the map because of a pre-game dice roll’ thing.

The Bulldog feels real bad compared to previous iterations of the iconic Halo shotgun, to the point that, I feel like this gun is meant to set up melee finishes. I’ve tapped a Bot with two shots at typically-lethal ranges and been forced to finish the encounter with a handy punch to the skull (also the range at which melee magnetizes is pretty short this time around, it feels). I understand that the damage per cartridge is meant to be offset by the higher cyclic rate on this weapon, but we either need a tighter pellet spread on it or more damage per pellet. /shrug

The Heatwave feels like it has the potential to be a great weapon in the hands of a virtuoso, but right now I’m not feeling another super-technical weapon after the single tube grenade launcher that’s been haunting us since Reach. Three hit direct body kill is decent for how weird the weapons dual fire modes are, but it feels a little gimmicky right now.

Ravager doesn’t do enough damage/has a weak payoff for its charge time and feels like a setup gun for your teammates or a prelude to a melee finish. It’s got range if you arc the shots so what’s the follow-up if you nail someone down the field? Not sure what this thing’s role is in the sandbox other than a possible successor to the Concussion Rifle or Plasma Caster. Feels like a gimmicky campaign weapon.

Assault Rifle is great, feels like it does in prior game, maybe increase the damage per round ever so slightly.

BR feels great, leave it alone, shot grouping spread feels fine and fair, the only precision weapon in this that doesn’t feel bad to use.

UI Feedback
Applying literally any kind of armor accessory needs to be simplified. You can press the equip button in the general selection menu (e.g. Coatings), and the selection won’t occur; you have to select the item to view it’s info/lore page and then hit the equip button to get a meaningful change in what texture’s being applied to your Spartan, or what model, etc. etc.

The main menu is not very intuitive, and the combination of ‘I need to confirm three times to get into matchmaking’ with ‘so many assets are absent and the matchmaking bar is tucked away at the bottom of the layou’ just makes it seems very alien. There’s no Halo energy, there’s no Halo simplicity, and I look forward to it being finished so I can see what the UI artists’ intentions are for this whole thing.

Performance Feedback
So, I’m really disappointed that I’m not running a stable 60 on my architecture, with extremely similar frame loss at all settings levels (I’m vacillating between 45-60 at Low, Medium, and Ultra, it doesn’t even matter. Drivers are the most recent Nvidia point release from 7/19/21. Not digging this, it absolutely effects my in-game performance when I’m trying to steady the Commando and I can’t track a skipping target.

857

> 2533274839950285;828:
> Aiming on MnK feels horrendous, please look into it if there is a chance. Anyone else feel the same?
>
> Twitch

This is my biggest issue with the flight by far. It’s a combination of multiple things.

  1. The lack of consistency between aim sensitivity from hipfire to scoped in. I’d like this to be 1:1, and currently I have to mess around with multipliers to get it kind of close but it just isn’t. This makes it incredibly difficult to build up any type of muscle memory.

  2. I saw someone else comment this but there seems to be some weirdness with just aiming around in general. The post I saw described it that they couldn’t draw a perfect circle, and that it feels like it’s trying to follow either X ↔ or Y :arrow_up_down: but never a combination of both. :twisted_rightwards_arrows: I’m not sure exactly what it is, but it’s just off.

  3. As Charlie alluded to in your clip, and I’ve seen others share this as well, there appears to be straight up input delay happening, which obviously will throw shots off.

Particularly for me the sniper feels horrendous because it is affected by all 3 of these factors at the same time, while also zooming in too much on it’s first zoom. I’ve played Halo for 20 years and have been a good sniper in all Halo games. This is EASILY the worst I have been at sniping in a Halo game. I can barely hit any shots when I’m trying to flick my scope onto an enemy. I can only sometimes snipe someone if I set up my crosshair in anticipation of where a bot is going to walk, and then I pull the trigger early enough where it won’t be thrown off by the input delay.

What gives me some hope is that playing MCC on PC aiming and performance feel completely perfect. So clearly they’ve demonstrated an ability to configure this stuff properly.

I have many other thoughts, but overall this game is making me fall in love with Halo all over again and if they can figure out PC aiming and performance I’ll be over the moon.

858

Things I like:
Weapons/Combat
Aiming feels good on both mouse and controller
Arena FPS style weapon/power up pickups
Battle Rifle is pickup weapon again
Ledge grabbing
mobility and jumping

Things I don’t like:
Not enough blood and spark particles when landing shots
No option to turn off hitmarkers
No playable elites? Don’t fail me 343
No fullscreen option?
No nvidia reflex?
Pistol sound is weak
bring back the classic shotgun
low frames on high end system,I have everything on low with resolution scaling, barely maintain 100fps on 1080ti, should easily be 144 on release with medium high settings

Bots:
They seem alright, easy for me to get long kill streaks on them. I would rather have them be underpowered vs overpowered, I think right now they are too weak.
They bug out sometimes and don’t react
They do a decent job staying together as a team

859

idk what all has been said, but I have a few experiences. Some of these occur randomly so I can’t always replicate them.

I’ve had grenades go off and create a blinding effect like a flash bang.

on the second map near the generator I occasionally lose audio moving from the second floor to the corner where the overshield would respawn.

After the update my Spartans model in the background was out of focus. If I scrolled through the different assets they wouldn’t apply to my model. When I was playing with my friend, when I would alter my look it would choose default the Spartan on the home screen.

playing with my friend he was always “offline” despite being online in the pc Xbox app. I could never join him. Only he could join me. He would also get in games without me. The game would state one of us was still searching for a match. Same situation would occur for other players. It would show five players connected but one grayed out. We theorized teams of people were joining the same game, and weren’t being filtered correctly prior. So a team of two would get paired with a team of three.

After the update, if you check the score it appears that another squad attempted to join. There will be eight gamer tags with four of them grayed out.

overall server connection issues. The only fix is closing out the game and restarting it. I’d mostly be unable to even search for a match if I tried to search from the previous games queue.
Also the battle pass stopped accruing points after the daily challenges. The only way to level was buy buying levels.

860

Cons:

  1. Performance needs improving. If people are struggling with performance for multiplayer matches. Can only assume the performance will be worse for the campaign where the areas and semi open-world parts will be of much bigger scale then a singular MP map.
  2. Where’s the blood splatter/decals? If you are going for the original Halo tone then atleast some blood splatter makes sense. Even if there’s a toggle on/off blood option in the settings for those of us who want it.
  3. Really slow loading. Don’t want to look at black screens for a minute or more.
  4. Voiceovers for the Spartans sound too teen like. Not the voices of hardened veteran soldiers.
  5. Sprint seems pointless. Either buff it, to make it more useful or just scrap it.

Pros:

  1. Music. Exceptionally well done.
  2. Customization for Spartans and weapons. Also exceptionally well designed.
  3. Variety. From what I’ve seen thus far I can deduce that there will be plenty of variety of weapons and vehicles which is what I like to see.
  4. Bot AI is impressive. And the ODST ones actually challenged me a lot. Will be interesting to see how well bots do in maps with vehicles in them. (Hoping driving AI has improved)
  5. Visuals have improved a lot.