I didn’t have problems with the game, I had a great time 
I absolutely agree that for all modes only allies should be outlined. Enemies being outlined is pointless and just makes players too visible. This goes for BTB as well.
Another issue in both arena and BTB is random weapon spawns. The fact that they aren’t synced and thus the two teams can end up with different weapons isn’t fair or balanced.
Closing thoughts for this weekend.
Aiming has never felt worse on console Halo. I have 5 games worth of muscle memory that has become a weakness. Please fix the aim assist on controller. Make it an adjustable option in the settings. Leave it to player choice, please. This is a huge game feel issue and kills the experience for me.
Lastly, can we get more weapons on the maps? It feels like there’s one of each and each player takes turns using a basic gun. I’m not even talking about power weapons. I mean basic variety of basic options like battle rifle, carbine, etc. I feel like 80% of my time is with the AR after being denied at 3 different weapon spawns that have been picked clean.
I’m still excited for launch and I wish you guys the best.
> 2533274874017324;1024:
> Closing thoughts for this weekend.
>
> Aiming has never felt worse on console Halo. I have 5 games worth of muscle memory that has a weakness. Please fix the aim assist on controller. Make it an adjustable option in the settings. Leave it to player choice, please. This is a huge game feel issue and kills the experience for me.
>
> Lastly, can we get more weapons on the maps? It feels like there’s one of each and each player takes turns using a basic gun. I’m not even talking about power weapons. I mean basic variety of basic options like battle rifle, carbine, etc. I feel like 80% of my time is with the AR after being denied at 3 different weapon spawns that have been picked clean.
>
> I’m still excited for launch and I wish you guys the best.
Yeah, weapon availability is an issue. In addition to weapon racks there should be extra weapons placed on the ground that never change.
Personally not a huge fan of vehicles in a 4v4 setting, they feel a little too strong and completely un-fun to play against/with.
Respawn timer is way too high by the time I respawn my whole team is dead and I’m not sure if you guys did it on purpose but we cannot switch to Performance mode on Console its stuck in quality
> 2533274921867877;1020:
> I think the gravity hammer lasts a long time and gets op in Recharge.
Plus it’s SLOW to swing, especially since it has 4 rockets on the back to make sure you can swing that sucker fast like any other Halo game.
I’m overall having a fun time playing Halo Infinite, but there are some things that really hurt the experience for me.
For starters, when I have fun in the game, its some of the most fun i have had in halo EVER., the control game mode in BTB being one of the best game modes in a halo game to date.
However, the fun is short lived due to some problems that I can narrow down fairly easily into two categories.
Awareness and TTK
AWARENESS: PLENTY of people, myself included, have commented on the laughable size of the radar. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, 18m on the radar is far too small and it needs to have its range extended to at least 20, but probably 25m like in Halo 3. Also, enemy footsteps are nearly impossible to hear. These two things lead to enemies magically appearing behind you OR, if you break the shield of an enemy and try to chase and finish the kill, suddenly you run into 4 other guys because you couldn’t see them on radar until it was far too late. Fixing these two things alone will give the player the power to make an educated decision on if they should chase that kill or if they should back off and take up a defensive position. FIXING THE RADAR AND FOOTSTEP SOUNDS WILL INSTANTLY MAKE THE GAME BETTER.
TTK: I mentioned previously that some of the guns like the BR, pistol, commando, and AR all feel okay, but the average time-to-kill for these guns is extremely high. For guns like the BR, I recommend upping the fire rate like in previous halo games. That gives the 3 rounds in a burst less space between eachother for the enemy player to dance around at range, less space=more % of the burst landed, more % of the burst landed = less ttk.
+1’ing a lot of stuff I’ve read but also heaving my opinion into the void
Radar felt too small, Without fail on fragmentation I felt like I was getting flanked more often than not while they were out of radar range, makes it very hard to try to outplay or position anything.
The ghost feels like the ghost ultra from 5. Kills INCREDIBLY fast and has good speed with or without boosting. Removing the EMP effect from the plasma pistol while they seem to be pretty common on weapon racks almost felt like I was being taunted. As it stands vehicles are WAY too strong if the only counter play are two weapons (shock rifle and skewer, could be forgetting something) and dynamos. Frags don’t totally upend them, plasmas and spikes work fine, I don’t expect them to always handle the job. The rockets need to level warthogs and ghosts. I also found that splatters, especially in the warthog, were way too easy to get. I’ve accidentally splatter my own team while breaking to pick them up (removed friendly fire but I can still run over my team? why?).
The AR is slightly too strong. I find very little reason to pick up the BR, the commando, the ravager, the bulldog, the plasma pistol (can’t emp, can’t beat an AR, reduced to charged noob combo utility), the pulse carbine, basically anything that isn’t a power weapon. All of those guns, aside from the plasma pistol I think are generally in good places in the sandbox, maybe the BR being a little too weak to handle the commando due to what seems like a large spread. The AR just need to be brought down to a place where there are clear disadvantages aside from range. I don’t see why the AR needs to outright win against the BR or Commando when those are map pickups and have higher precision requirements and aim requirements in general. Also, having a precision weapon combo (AR + Sidekick) indirectly gives the AR more power already now that you have a fast to draw, fast rate of fire, precision weapon at spawn. In that regard, the BR + AR is almost always a worse combo than AR + Sidekick. In my opinion, the BR should enable players to feel ok with dropping the AR and Sidekick, sacrificing some close range reliability, and gain the opportunity to use the BR + a utility weapon like the bulldog, plasma pistol, ravager, etc.
The death cam has a jarring transition that makes it hard to quickly gather what just happened. Just an animation gripe.
This is a bug but I still wanted to share it here. Lots of animations are still not interpolated over 60fps. Most notably clamber. You can also see this with a few weapon reloads like the rockets. Looks really bad when you’re playing at 120fps and up. I’m sure this is already known.
The aim assist in general I actually found pretty good. It seems to strike a balance that most users should be ok with cross input queuing. With that being said some weapons, such as the commando, feel extremely difficult to use effectively on controller. It just doesn’t feel sufficiently sticky to hit 7 shots.
all this being said, I really like the foundation of the game. I think some small balance adjustments will go really far. The 3 major feedback pieces I would boil this post down to:
- The AR is too strong relative to the sandbox, in TTK and accuracy.
- Vehicles are too powerful in multiple ways and counter play has been reduced. Vehicles can splatter easier, kill faster, live longer, and many staple weapons that could handle vehicles before are severely nerfed against them. Please restore EMP functionality to the plasma pistol, make the rockets deal serious damage, nerf the guns on the ghost and make it easier to shoot the driver in the ghost. To me, the ghost is not a one man warthog, it’s a scout vehicle with inaccurate but serviceable weapons. It doesn’t survive by outgunning on foot spartans, but by outmaneuvering or disengaging.
- Buff radar range, it feels terrible to be shot by someone who seems close by and they don’t appear on radar.
- I’m not a fan of the sniper glint. Not sure why this was added but I never felt like it was needed in the previous 20 years of Halo games. In fact I have noticed it actually makes it a bit harder to snipe back at your enemy. I know other popular games have glint but like I said, I’ve never felt like Halo needed it. - Why is there no friendly fire? I always liked this about the older Halo games. Not because I want to shoot my team mates, but it makes sure you carefully place your shots and grenades. It’s Halo. - I’m not sure if this is different to other Halo games but it feels like it takes too long to get out of vehicles. Perhaps I have just been playing too much Warzone but it has caught me out on a few occasions. - The Needler sounds a bit underwhelming
- I’d prefer not to have the power item spawn announcements or UI. I think perhaps Halo 4 and 5 also had this but in the older games I always liked that you had to be paying attention to the timer and have the map knowledge to keep your advantage. I know these announcements and waypoints make the game more inviting to new players but it just seems like easy mode to me.
So far, it’s been a lot of fun and looks great. I agree with the posts about extending the range of the radar. It seems a bit short right now and frankly not very useful. I would love to see some alternative fire modes on the weapons. Keep up the great work, excited to see what’s next!
I propose thay the Sidekick has a very slight reduction in shield damage per hit (apparently you can’t say S-h-o-t which is a total different issue in the forum for Mature rated franchise) it seems to have more shield damage than almost any other kinetic weapon. Shield damage reduction should balance it’s ttk with the AR the main starter weapon in the game.
Would like to see more visual/audible feedback upon taking damage as others have said. Currently there’s hardly an indication that you’ve taken damage.
> 2535418685285508;1026:
> Personally not a huge fan of vehicles in a 4v4 setting, they feel a little too strong and completely un-fun to play against/with.
Agreed. A competent ghost or warthog unit completely runs the sand map in 4v4. Weapons deal almost no damage. The plasma pistol is surprisingly not worthy of pickup and deals no damage. Even a coordinated team gunning effort makes no difference to a vehicle. The relationship between small vehicles and infantry is not balanced.
Social Arena is way to sweaty for a casual mode, BTB can sorta get “sweaty” but that’s due to how congested the map is and gamemodes that clump people together. This might be because there’s no ranked mode currently or people are trying to get every last ounce of the tech preview, but if social arena ends up being this sweaty at release, it’ll be damaging for the casual crowd as a whole. I’ve been playing with my mates through out the preview, some have little experience with Halo, some are completely brand new, and with the amount of sweat they have encountered in matchmaking has impacted their perception of the game negatively. They just wanted to have a fun casual experience but instead they became stressed out and ultimately turned away from the game, imagine how many other new players have experienced this and felt the same. If this does become an issue at release I honestly don’t know what would be the proper solution, maybe balance the starting weapons better so they serve roles as utility weapons and not have the ability to cross-map someone or something to make the experience not so competitive. Social arena should be a mode where you can turn your brain off and relax and have fun with your friends, feeling stressed and on edge is the exact opposite feelings you should be feeling when playing a social game.
I want to start with the things I liked.
PHYSIC
Having increased the basic speed and replaced spartan abilities with only some equipments on the map was brilliant. There is a lot of dynamism. The gameplay is fast and frantic, but also less random and more rational. I find it the right meeting point between classic and modern.
There is little difference between walking and running, it feels like an always run. It’s good. I bet that even removing the sprint, the flow would not be affected much indeed, everything would be much better. I like being able to recharge shields while running, as well as having auto-climbing. Maybe the slide is a little too long.
I would reduce the grenade launch speed because it is difficult to use them in very close combact. Maybe, the radius of the Dynamo and the flames of the Spike can be reduced.
EQUIPMENTS & GAME MODES
I found them quite good. The fact of not having them available at start by choosing the loadout means that the gameplay is not too distorted and the flow more dynamic.
Drop Wall: I found it well balanced. Maybe you should make its activation faster.
Treath Sensor: useful and strategic in being able to launch it from a distance.
Repulsor: What I liked least. I found it of little use.
Grappleshot: My favourite, very fun to use it. I have to admit that in training mode, with infinite ammo, being able to use it without limits was -Yoinking!- fun and adrenaline-pumping. It can be an idea for the next Fiesta modes.
I Hope you called the Social Arena mode because there will also be an HCS Arena, with more competitive settings.
This could allow, in the Social Arena, bolder choices that would make the gameplay even more fun. For example, with new types of equipments, even of great impact like the super abilities in Destiny (don’t be scandalized), but always to be taked on the map.
In competitive settings, however, they should be limited, both in number and in type, choosing the least invasive ones so as not to distort the skill too much.
MAPS
About the small and medium-sized ones, the one I liked the most (aesthetically and as a gameplay) is Recharge. I don’t know why it reminds me of the atmosphere of serious FPS Arena like Quake. you should make more maps like that.
Live fire it is undoubtedly nice to play, even if aesthetically I find it too poor in details. Reminds me of the style of H5 in maps like Eden, Empire… with too white walls with no fantasy in the textures. Not my favourite art styles.
Bazaar is the one I like least. Too open environments, and too much CS / CoD style. I hope there aren’t too many like that.
Behemoth she’s very beautiful. I hope it was a mistake to put it in the Arena, imho it’s too big for it. I would see it well in BTB.
Fragmentation This remake of Valhalla is is gorgeous.
Now, the things i liked least.
SANDBOX
I hope you will consider increasing the overall AIM assist / bullet magnetism, and separating the input devices in all playlists.
Often, for me, this game is not funny, it’s just frustrating. Especially when I use MK50 sidekick. It’s too hard to take headshots and perfect kills. I found it really hateful. Fortunately, the new Assault Rifle is very good so you can choose to use it and not the Sidekick.
I think the TTK is good. It is lower in many weapons, but given the speed of the gameplay I think it is fair. Maybe some minor adjustments should be made.
I would slightly decrease the range of Magnum and AR to ensure that the BR can be effective even on medium-short distance.
VK78 Commando is a potentially beautiful weapon. In order not to dominate the BR you have exceed a little with the recoil. Imho it is appropriate to make it more docile and increase the time to kill.
Pulse Carabine: Given its name, I expected this weapon to fire like the covenant carbine but with pulse bullets. Instead it piss plasma embarrassingly. With actual aim assist / bullet magnetism, the bullets tracking is broken. This weapon is actually useless.
CQS48 Bulldog: Nice weapon, it sends adrenaline. But I wish that by shooting the enemy at colse range, he would die.
Gravity Hammer: It’s a little OP. Please decrease the range.
FINALS CONSIDERATIONS:
I think it’s been a big step up from Halo 5, but, you don’t have to make the same mistake you did with it. If you make a game that is too difficult for 90-95% of players, just to make 5% of onyx-champions happy, you will always see a low population online as everyone will flee to more accessible games.
So, increase AIM assist / bullets magnetism, separe controller from m+k in all playlists, and returns to making convenient to use rifles as primary weapons.
In social playlists you could try with more equipments, even different from those seen. In HCS it is fine as it is. I hope with BR start though.
While I’m actually really enjoying the game, and it is undoubtedly the best halo game in years even in this unfinished state, I’ll leave my feedback as to what I think would make the game better. I have plenty of nice things to say but the list would be too long. The following is my opinion.
- Biggest issue in the game is aiming with a controller is somehow messed up right now. It has nothing to do with the reduced aim assist, it’s more like it’s slow and unresponsive. Like there’s some kind of delay. It feels like the deadzones on the controller, even when set to 0, are still too high. I’ve gone through tons of settings combos and still can’t figure out what’s wrong. Meanwhile the Modern Aiming system on the MCC is nearly perfect and I have all 6 games on the collection dialed in. - Frag grenades are really powerful in this game. Seems they fly out from your hand too fast, the fuse is too short, and there’s virtually no cooldown when throwing them one after another. The explosion radius is probably ok though. - Adding to that, I think lit plasma grenades should be brighter and make a more noticeable sound when they’re about to blow. Sometimes I don’t even notice when I or my vehicle has been stuck until I’m already dead. - Friendly fire and player collision should be on. The lack of friendly fire is definitely making the grenade spam issue worse. - I think average ttk is just a bit too short. Shield strength seems mostly ok (I think?) but I think your health underneath could stand to be increased by 10-25%. It would keep all the headshot weapons the same ttk on a perfect but punish players who miss heads. Right now it’s pretty easy to just body shot people with the BR or pistol. - On that note, The assault rifle seems too good. It shouldn’t be useless like it was in certain halo games but it shouldn’t have so much range and accuracy. I also don’t think it or any other non precision guns should do headshot damage. The plasma pistol on the other hand is basically completely worthless. Ideally, the differences between kinetic and plasma damage should be played up with the new damage type system, making the assault rifle less capable at tearing down shields but better at mowing down damaged spartans. Which would also gives players more of a reason to use the plasma pistol and plasma carbine. I also think the tracking on the plasma carbine could stand to be slightly increased and same goes for the overcharged shot on the plasma pistol (I don’t mind that it can’t emp vehicles anymore, but the overcharge should be useful for something). Also, since the plasma pistol is a pistol, you should be able to switch to it faster than normal like the sidekick. - There is no reason the motion tracker should not be at 25m for campaign and social modes. I don’t care about competitive, but the maps are bigger now and people move faster, we should have the full 25m motion tracker. By the time you spot a red dot on the current 18m motion tracker, you are likely already fighting the guy. Crouched and camo’d players are off the tracker so another 7m really shouldn’t be a big deal. Also while I’m at it, we should be able to tell whether someone is above you or below you like in Reach. - The HUD, why is so much crucial information crammed into such a tiny spot in the lower right corner? We should be able to see exactly how many of each grenade you have at a glance like in halo 3. I’d like the option to size up certain elements of it as well. The motion tracker, medals, and the grenade/equipment section I find a bit too small. It’s already hard enough to tell which symbol represents which piece of equipment. In general, more options to customize the HUD would be nice. - I really like how the gravity hammer isn’t just another sword in this game. I do think it should actually be able to send things flying, including yourself if you jump. Also the sound effect from the slam should be more sci fi. - It’d be really cool if people and aliens killed by the skewer were pinned to a wall or something. - There should be a cool whistling sound when the projectiles fired by the needler fly by. - Nitpick: The projectiles fired by the rocket launcher and needler seem to travel way faster than in the older games. Before, it was hard but you could sort of dodge them if you saw it coming and did it right. The needler also used to be a strictly medium range weapon, where the tracking did not go into effect at long or short ranges. Ain’t the end of the world though.
I can’t get in multiplayer stuck at loading screen and there’s only 3 hours left of flight what can I do
Weapons despawn way too quickly. Hopefully this is just for the flight and not an issue with the final game
I would like to see map objects like Fusion Coils and Mounted Machine Guns to respawn during the matches.