Infinite Tech Preview – Social Arena

Hey again 343. More feedback from my time playing this morning. Feedback is strictly from Series X (not PC)

Overall, I’m 100% enjoying the direction and feel of the multiplayer. There are definitely bugs to squash and graphical things that need to be ironed out, but, i’m sure you are aware of these things and working towards getting them ironed out before open beta / release. Feedback below.

Graphical:

– Menus: Graphical glitches when swapping settings with the shoulder buttons was a bit jarring. I noticed this only happened when the menu was opened for the first time and you visited each section of the settings but then it would seem to settle down. I also noticed it happened occasionally when you sat on certain settings, such as Controller and Video, for periods of time.

a. Graphical glitch basically the game flashing white for a split second.

– FOV Slider: I tried adjusting this to the max and noticed not only how tiny it made the reticle but also how much easier it made it to aim guns. I’m not sure if the smaller reticle is an intentional side effect of the FOV slider but everything felt way more accurate and easier to aim with a maxed out FOV compared to the default.

Social:

– A mute button would be nice to mute people in lobby instead of having to turn off voice comms for everyone in the settings. Voice comms are fine but some people would have feedback coming through their headsets or be raging the whole time and not being able to mute those people felt kinda lame.

Gameplay

– I think the out of ammo indicator needs to be higher up on the screen (top center vs bottom center). If possible it would be nice to have an option to choose where it is.

– I felt the radar needs to have a higher tracking distance. We can move so fast in this game it often doesn’t feel like it helps because someone will be shooting you before they show up on radar.
a. If Sprint wasn’t a thing I’d say the radar would be perfect but we just move too fast to make it useful most games.

CTF Specific

– I might be blind but I didn’t see any indicator showing you returning the flag other than the audio queue. It would be cool if there was a bar on the screen.

Weapons (doesn’t include all weapons)

– AR: Pretty strong. Wouldn’t say its OP because you need to maintain good aim but it feels like it outclasses many other guns like the Commando and BR at everything except medium/long - long range.

– Sidekick: Feels good but maybe needs a little more damage. Definitely feels like a good companion to the AR. However it felt like after I’d get someone’s shields down it took 2-3 extra bullets to finish them off with a headshot. Unsure if its bad aim or that’s how its intended to be.

– Commando: The recoil and ROF make this challenging to use at anything other than medium/long range. I felt like it maybe needs a slight rate of fire decrease to compensate for the kick from each shot. If the ROF was lowered I feel the kick it has would be justified.

– BR: Felt like this gun needs a little more “oomph” - It was hard during engagements to know how many bursts I needed to put into someone to finish them off and it was also hard to know if I was getting headshots or chest shots. It would be cool to see more feedback from the enemy you’re shooting to know where your bursts are landing.

– Rockets: It felt like having 4 rockets was a little much. Fun to have but pretty strong. Maybe 3 rockets is the sweet spot? I don’t know.

– Bulldog: I didn’t like it at first but started to like it more and more as I used it. I like that you can hold down the trigger for full-auto on it and felt that 3 bursts for a kill was a good amount, however, I feel like at super close range it should’ve been 2 bursts.

– Heatwave: I wish like the Bulldog you could just hold the trigger to fire. Otherwise, I think this gun is in a good spot and really like that you can adjust the spread to either vertical/horizontal.

– Gravity Hammer: I think the kill radius on it is large enough but it feels so slow to use. If you miss your first slam its very hard to get a second slam off before someone kills you unless their aim isn’t that good.

– Skewer: Loved it. Ammo economy felt great. The travel time felt great. Don’t change it!

– Needler: I couldn’t trust the tracking on this thing. Felt like it was only good when you get the jump on someone at close range. The ROF feels really slow.

– Plasma Pistol: The shield drain felt right but tapping it for damage didn’t feel good. I could never get a kill with it. Perhaps that’s how its meant to be though, just charged for shields.

– Pulse Carbine: I felt that the projectiles need to move faster. In 1v1 duels trying to lead shots into enemies didn’t feel fun or rewarding.

Grenades:

–Loved the grenades. The only thing that felt a bit off however was trying to throw them long distances. I thought the power was spot on though as is the ability to bank them off ramps so that they pop up in peoples faces. Great job!

Equipment:

–Grapple Shot: Love it

–Deployable Shield: Love it.

–Repulsor: Never got a chance to use it as it was supposed to be used but understand its for batting away grenades and rockets. Could be cool.

–Active Camo: Boy this feels strong. I’m glad you don’t benefit from it while sprinting.

–Overshield: Felt fine. The white glow was pretty intense but I guess it works for telling the enemy that you’ve got Overshield. Hah.

–Grav Lift: I want it :frowning:

Melee:

– Getting melee kills feels too sticky… like your weapon butt is covered in glue and after you get the melee kill it takes too much time to recover.

Hopefully plan on having more feedback for you but it definitely feels like you guys are well on the way to nailing the multiplayer this time around. Good work so far 343!!

> 2533274914015789;236:
> Points i think need changing:
>
> Colour of enemies and teammates - back to red and blue very simple colours and understanding your teammates makes it easier.
> UI needs to be simpler - simple idea of score, weapons, radar and ammo
> With sprint, radar needs to be larger 18m is too small. 25m should be minimum.
> Hit markers for long range pistoling.
> The maps are sufficiently large enough for BR start in my view

100% agree on BR comment. AR makes me flaccid.

> 2533274816617981;240:
> For CTF, I don’t like how “at home to score” is turned on. I think that setting is best for competitive play, not unranked play. When playing unranked, it’s not very fun to bring the enemy flag all the way home and then end up losing it. (I know this is how it was in Halo 5 but I didn’t like it there either. I think it’s better for ranked and unranked to have different rulesets.)

It’s always been that way. At least from what I can remember from H2 and H3.

Feedback from a Halo veteran.

  1. AR range is wayyy to far. It’s just an AR spam fest and there doesn’t seem to be any reason to use anything else in the current state.
  2. BR seems very lacking. I don’t even pick it up since it’s so hard to actually kill someone when the AR is so strong.
  3. Strongholds as a game mode is awful. I get it helps appeal to the COD crowd, but it sucks. Stick with territories or KOTH imo.
  4. Controller aiming seems off, not sure if it’s aim assist or I haven’t found the right sensitivity but sometimes it is just impossible to land shots.

Overall not bad. Will definitely play on full release but I really hope the AR gets nerfed or I won’t be playing that much since I hate the spray and pray.

Found a couple bugs here and there related to ghost melees, a reload glitch where my gun reloads again after picking up ammo from a dead Spartan, helmets and other cosmetics wouldn’t be swapped or attached unless I closed application and logged in again, and some things wouldn’t load in the game (such as prosthesis). Other than that the flight has been smooth and gunplay, audio, movement has been good. A small complaint I do have though, is the gravity hammer and how it should have a beefier sound (similar to that of Halo 3).
I really can’t say much about customization as I believe it’s good where it is right now. I will miss the old RvB colors but this new form of customization with coatings and armor pieces is overall a really a great way for player expression, and I can’t wait to customize my Spartan when the game launches with more pieces and sets and coatings.
Weapon balance I believe is good, minor nit picks here and there with damage related to the BR or ROF with the commando, but in general everything feels usable. The AR (IMO) is balanced and y’all did a great job with it. Sidekick is a blast to use (not too OP but in the right hands it’s very deadly), the BR feels good (as it shouldn’t be good at all ranges and thankfully it isn’t a jack of all trades). As someone who has played a variety of FPS games over the years (COD, Battlefield, Doom, Halo), I definitely feel like this Halo will appeal to newer audiences as well as be just as fun as previous Halo’s for older veteran players.

So far I think the game feels pretty good but there are 2 issues to me that stand out.

  1. Melee registration is awful.
  2. Grenade spam is out of control. The amount of grenades available on the maps needs to be significantly reduced.

Outside of that I’m having a great time so far and am pretty optimistic for the game based on this preview.

I agree with a lot of the points about the aiming with the pistol. I just started to think I lost all my skill haha.

But perhaps controller input makes it harder

> 2533274920746598;246:
> So far I think the game feels pretty good but there are 2 issues to me that stand out.
>
> 1. Melee registration is awful.
> 2. Grenade spam is out of control. The amount of grenades available on the maps needs to be significantly reduced.
>
> Outside of that I’m having a great time so far and am pretty optimistic for the game based on this preview.

Agee with this!

Also nade registration!

I’ve spawned inside a wall twice with no way to get myself out so I had to quit match… also the grenade animations look real cartoony. And add a little blood will ya!?

I love the AR! It feels viable and competitive in mid range, really like using it. Needler feels really underwhelming. The commando also feels hard to land shots with consistently.

Just want to add my voice to the whole sprint conversation.
Right now I think its perfect and I absolutly not want it how it was in Halo 5, where you could not regain shield while sprinting. I hated that feature, Like even if I won my fight, I still felt punished and unable to quickly relocate. It made me hate the game and stop playing it after about just a week.

> 2535421108515819;4:
> 1. TIMERS: Eliminate weapon/equipment timers and AI heads-ups from ranked play. Talented players will do just fine using their own map awareness. I don’t mind keeping these features in during social matches.
>
> 2. STILL TOO MUCH DIALOGUE. Give us the ability to toggle off each personality (AI, announcer, chatter, Spartan commander, etc.). Additionally, let us select what types of dialogue we hear. Example: I don’t care that my AI sees headshots in my future, but I do want to know that the overshield spawned.
>
> 3. IN-GAME SCORE? What’s its purpose? We only gain XP through completing battle pass challenges. You might as well get rid of the screen clutter by getting rid of the points we score and even medals since they don’t contribute to XP either.
>
> 4. OPTION TO TURN OFF INTRO CAMERA PAN. Watching the cringe animations at the beginning of each match and poses at the end immediately strips these “Spartans” of all credibility that they are professional supersoldiers. Punching the air before a gunfight? The I’m too cool to take this seriously guy?
>
> 5. I turned the music off. I love the new campaign tracks and remixes, but the Infinite MP does not feel Haloish at all. Give us a new theme to choose from with each season.

I’m pretty sure the challenges are mainly for the battle pass I don’t think we actually level onnthe playyest because if you noticed we’re all lvl 1 and I haven’t seen anyone above lvl 1

Okay so I just joined a match and this guy had his mic on with an aircon blowing, it was a horrible sound and I couldn’t mute anyone!!!

Also I went to leave the game and this weird green box cursor moved around the screen bit didn’t even let me select anything let alone move down in the selection menu to leave. Had to restart the game.

And compared with last time aiming just feel so off and laggy, Soo sole people mentioning Aussies, is there a server issue. Last flight played better, bit I guess that’s bits hey not poeple so much be network stuff and also my paddles on the back of my controller didn’t work.

Same as some other comments, Xbox series X and it’s not very smooth. Been playing BO cold war and that game while has its quirks, but runs very well. Hoping you can optimise this more guys, I have a series X on preorder but with this shortage a lot of people will still be one older xbox. In my opinion if you play multiplier, a smooth frame rate is the highest priority, not graphics. Maybe give people the option to turn certain graphics off? Some other games do it.

When split seconds count the frame rate needs to be high, you can all the details and creative flair you like but if I can’t hit the target well, I simple won’t play this multiplayer. Regardless of how much I love halo.

Lots of grenade spam, especially in 2 v 1 situations… it takes away from gun skill in situations that you could get out of by having better aim than other players. I think a simple fix would be making it so that you only spawn/respawn with 1 frag grenade. This will also help encourage players to seek out grenade pickups throughout the map.

Side note: reduce the lights around dropped grenades, it makes it seems like they’re “live” and about to go off.

Side side note: award xp based on score / medals per match.

I agree with what everyone has said on XP. Challenges need to be bonus XP and you get per match. The fact is I go multiple matches with no XP and it feels BAD. Also if I do well it does not matter. This also feel bad. All in all this system was very poorly thought out and feels horrible to the player.

That being said the game is really fun to play. I am really enjoying it.

Really random gripe. The repulser looks ridiculous. It is WAY to big for the spartan arm. It is almost comical.

Matchmaking seems to be not working a lot of the time , when I go to the multiplayer tab it just says like this https://gameclips.io/Mareli7696/6ce8368b-126a-4aba-b170-b81de45c7f6c

> 2533274920499931;212:
> The gameplay feels cheap and awful this doesn’t feel like a step up from halo 5 it’s not even on the same level what happened ? Also the announcer sounds too much like lord shax from destiny crucible

I agree, It doesn’t feel like a step up from halo 5 at all. It feels more Halo 4K. Halo 5 plays faster, more fluid and much more balanced. I really miss the loud bassy announcer in infinite too. Those AI voices are too childish.

I noticed sometime enemy team in Arena matches are invisible.
I got teamed and there was no one around me and there was no damage recognition on my end.
I just simply died and the death cam showed me that the whole team was around me.
Not sure if it was connection issue or glitch.

I personally have experienced any bugs in social Playlist but in the training mode the bots are pretty buggy. On spartan difficulty I noticed that they would just stand where they spawn sometimes aswell as just shoot randomly at nothing and that happend with the bot on my team aswell as the opposing team. I also personally think the difficulty should be adjusted for the lower 2 because the bot shoot right at you and miss and I get that it’s supposed to be easier but with hiw they are I don’t see anyone being able to enjoy themselves see as the bots have worse aim than the ai on and previous halo campaign And the sensitivity need to be able to go higher than it does it makes the game feel kinda clunky for me atleast

The pacing is all over the place the movement speed does not correlate with the time to kill and the weapons the BR is the most iconic gun in halo yet it’s not even a default weapon that is a horrible thing on top of that the BR is very under powered and the commando’s recoil is all over the place.

The spawns are very messy and the frame rate between maps is very inconsistent. The maps also do not correlate with the pace of the game because some of the maps are either very large or very weirdly structured with a lot of tight long passages.

Overall the game has a lot of issues and i have not seen that much improvement from the last flight and with very little time till launch i don’t think a lot will change is i doubt 343 will listen to the community and actually implement these changes, it also seems that they focused way too much on battle passes customization and monetization rather then game play and sandbox elements so they can make as much money as possible with the free to play system their going with so be ready to have micro transactions shoved down your throat.