Here are my initial thoughts on the multiplayer beta so far.
While there’s a lot here, I want to say that I’m loving Halo Infinite multiplayer.
I hope that these are seen as constructive criticisms and feedback and not a rant.
I think that the game absolutely feels like Halo again. I didn’t get that vibe from Halo 5 and to a lesser degree Halo 4. But Halo Infinite is scratching that Halo multiplayer itch.
Thank you to the Halo team for your efforts so far. I look forward to playing the campaign and playing multiplayer for years to come!
Weapons
- Needler - I think that there’s room for improvement at range. Currently you have to be somewhat close to use this and it loses out too often to other weapons.
- Reticle for all weapons seems to be not as noticeable as in previous targets. Hard to see when in range for needler, sword lock etc.
- Sword lock doesn’t work correctly. Too often I have to engage closer than expected based on the lock and lunge I remember from previous titles.
- Gravity Hammer is inconsistent, I have been in engagements where I hammer up close and some how enemy survives. Other times I’m hammered at what seems to be too large of a range for it to have an effect.
- Plasma grenades need magnetism turned up. I’m not having any luck with these when in previous titles (see Halo 2/3) there were plenty of grenade stick moments that were epic.
- BR is perfect, don’t change a thing to it.
- Hydra is pretty ineffective - this was my initial thought, but I’m coming around on this one. I think it could use a buff
- Weapons are ineffective against vehicles - I find often that enemies in vehicles are surviving grenade blasts and shots when in the past they wouldn’t. Seems like vehicles allow for players to absorb too much damage. See warthog rocket turret. I shot that think point blank with a banshee and the enemy on the turret survived a long volley of fire and killed the banshee.
- Sometimes plasma nades go through enemy. Maybe a network latency thing, but it’s happened enough for me to think it’s more than that.
- Grenade plant doesn’t kill tanks
UI and design aesthetics
- Medal icons are still to monochromatic. Go back to halo 2/3 designs. Medals should stand out from one another. Refer to splatter medal or grenade stick. From the grave medal should go back to ghost design instead of dumb gravestones. Somethings don’t have to change. Some small things like medals should stay consistent. Iconography consistency across generations of halo games should stay the same.
- UI doesn’t show your current season pass level - I think this should be more accessible. Currently I think I can only see it when I go into the season pass
- Need a button to show current challenges while in a match. Should be a one button quick view. Kind of like how you can toggle the carnage report. Unless I haven’t seen it.
- Hitting b and retuning to main menu didn’t cancel matchmaking. The UI at times seems to be unwilling to take input when wanting to cancel a game search. Sometimes after a match the UI glitches and says searching for new game like it kept me in the queue but it’s just broken. Typically it has me exit and I have to hit a button to search for a new game.
- Potential bug - Player customization of armor didn’t load on initial spawn, loaded after I was killed
- Weapons on walls should have brighter illumination to draw more attention to them. Making these more prominent will help all players especially new ones learning the maps.
- Bug - Theater mode tabs are numbered incorrectly tab 2 of 1
- Match history doesn’t tally wins and losses
- Lore button on armor does nothing
- Moving weapon spawns on a map makes it hard to master the flow of a map
- Names of guns should remain instead of clearing after a sec or two
- Ghost explosion animation sucks. Go back to halo 2 design
- The poses at the end of the match are dumb. Mix them up with other things. Funny moments in Halo history. Halo memes. Idk, something other than standing at attention or parade rest. Wave the team flag.
- After match carnage report doesn’t show longest streak
- I like the highlight of teammates. Good situational awareness
- Please bring back mark of shame emblem - it’s my favorite emblem
- Allow players to place emblems on more than one location on armor. Sometimes armor attachments obscure the emblem
- Recommend adding weapon of choice back to carnage report
- Overall UI seems to be unwieldy. I felt that Halo MCC had a better navigation flow. I think there’s a lot of work that could be done in this regard. Especially for showing unlocked pieces of armor mods. I find these hard to locate. See helmet attachments. These shouldn’t be located under a menu when you inspect the helmet. Place stuff like this on the main armor page.
Playlists
- There’s no slayer only playlists in quick play, or ranked.
- Playlists don’t have option for console only
- After a match you don’t stay in the queue for the same game lobby.
- Should offer party up option like in Halo 2/3 to allow teams that want to stay together to keep playing. It’s too hard to try to message requests to other players because by the time you do, they are in another match. Relying on mics to tell people to party up after a match doesn’t work as more often players are not on comms. This may be a limitation with xbox live party system, but it would be a great added feature.
- No map voting. I’m not too concerned with this one but it was a nice feature in older titles. If quick play hits on oddball for the fifth time in a row, it would be nice to veto it if the team isn’t feeling like that gametype or map.
- Need to add shield pop to enemies. It’s still not evident enough to let you know to press an unshielded enemy or to retreat
Gameplay
- Ranked matches, why don’t we have two weapons to start the match? Promote learning map and getting good. Somewhat a small nit to overcome at first. I do like the BR start though. Don’t change that.
- At times the respawn time feels too long. Not sure if this is due to having played other games where it is much quicker
- Why can’t I pass the odd ball? This was a cool feature in prior title (I think Halo 4 introduced it). Maybe it’s just enabled in grifball but I think that passing the oddball to another teammate would be a good addition to that gametype or perhaps as a variation to the base gametype.
- Melee with oddball is too weak, should be a one hit kill. I feel like it was in the past. Punish people for getting too close to the carrier. Maybe I’m misremembering this but I felt that it was more powerful right now it takes two hits to kill people with the ball.
- Enemies spawns sometimes right behind you. Seems a little off like it should choose a different spawn location, may need to review calculations for spawning. This has happened a few times.
- Forward facing melees sometimes don’t register
- Shouldn’t allow spawns in line with sniper tower spawn sucks to spawn and have a sniper trained on you. See fragmentation map
- Maps like streets and aquarius are too similar. There needs to be more maps.
- Brute chopper is a damage sponge, grenades don’t seem to have enough effect against it
- Why isn’t over shield and invis part of fiesta
- Drop wall is terrible. Bring back bubble shield
- Long load time on big tram battle
Rewards and Progression
- 20th anniversary rewards were underwhelming. The only think I truly liked was the I Love Bees emblem that I can put on everything.
- First time grappling onto highjack a banshee, it didn’t give me the grapplejack medal. Thought this was a missed opportunity but it did pop up the 2nd time I completed a successful grapplejack. Maybe a bug?
- Dead horse topic but I thought I’d weigh in: Progression is still too slow should also take into account time spent in game. What’s the purpose of long play sessions just to do challenges or to have fun the way you want to play. Shouldn’t make progress dependent on certain playstyles some challenges are good to have but ultimate goal should be to reward players who are also stating in game and having fun. How about rewards for in game medals. Being top scorer in match?
- Some challenges are beyond you control. Stop an enemy streak. You might not encounter this for awhile and I’d it’s the only challenge you have for the event your progress is limited. The list of challenges should be fully available so you can do any at any time
- If players don’t buy battle pass what is on the table for them other than playing the game
- Sucks that for special armor core you don’t have more colors available
- Armor unlocks should apply to all armor sets.
- Why can’t you have multiple attachments on you helmet
- Should give extra XP for leading in kills or objective otherwise what does that individual score mean