Hi 343, after playing Halo Infinite’s multiplayer for 2 days by myself and with some friends, I got here feedback that I wanna give so you guys can take it into account and make changes to the multiplayer before December 8. Here we go:
1. Progression System
Right of the bat I will begin with the #1 biggest problem with Halo Infinite’s multiplayer, the Progression System. It has several problems, mainly that XP progression is slow due to it being tied to challenges, and there is no other way to get XP without doing those challenges (or spending real money on XP Boosts, which I am not a fan of). There are several ways to fix this:
- First solution is simple and most important, make separate game mode playlists.
In order for us to complete the XP challenges more efficiently (as you want us to do), we need playlists that revolve around one game mode type, not around multiple game mode types. For both 4v4 and 12v12, we need a specific Slayer only playlist and a specific CTF only playlist. For 4v4 we need specific playlists for Oddball and Strongholds; and for 12v12 we need specific playlists for Stockpile and Total Control.
Now, do not get me wrong, I do not oppose having a specific playlist that has all game modes in its rotation pool, but at the same time I don’t want it to be the only playlist option. Do what’s currently implemented in Halo MCC and Halo 5 and give us several playlists, with some having only one specific game mode in them, and others that have a variety of game modes in one single playlist.
We need both so we can, not only do the XP Challenges more efficiently, but also to just have fun because me and my friends were frustrated at not having a simple Slayer playlist since we usually enjoy that game mode the most (followed by Oddball or even CTF), and we want to have options for what game modes to play and not just rely on a rotation wheel to choose the game mode we’ll play.
- Second solution is to reward players with a specific amount of XP at the end of matches depending on performance.
The easiest way I can think of to reward players for how they did without making it too easy for players to breeze through the Battle Pass progression is by simply rewarding players for finishing matches from start to finish. Make it so that, say the team that won the match gets 10 XP, and the team that lost got 5 XP (just throwing random XP numbers here for both team, others may have their own amounts in mind). This way everyone can get something out of playing the match while also giving an incentive for teams to actually win the match. Challenges alone will not do it to progress through the Progression System (especially if there’s no separate game mode playlists for players to do the tasks they need in order to progress through it), we need separate options to gather XP, and a simple XP Rewards System after Match Ended is the most important one to have.
- Third and final solution is remove the paid XP Boosts.
This is something that frustrates me to see as it makes the Progression System feel at times like Pay to Progress rather than Play to Progress. I have no problem in spending some money to unlock the locked Premium items in the Battle Pass, and I also have no problem in spending a bit of money on a few specific cosmetic items in the Store given this is a Free to Play multiplayer; but paid XP Boosts is where I draw the line. I want no monetization system that makes it Pay to Win in some way, even if it’s paying to progress in the game’s Progression System. Make it so that we only need to spend some money to unlock the full Battle Pass, and a bit on some unique cosmetics in the Store.
Note: And obviously don’t get greedy on the prices, make the prices reasonable for players to spend on.
2. Weapon Balancing
So far most of the weapons seem to be reasonably balanced but there are some that do have issues:
- The Plasma Pistol needs a buff.
This weapon needs a buff asap. The tracking shots with the charged shot can easily be dodged just by walking left or right, and with the pistol missing its ability to disable vehicles, it has to do better against Spartans. So buff the tracking for the charged shot, and also buff a bit the normal shots as those are also not good enough against Spartans.
- The Hydra weapon also needs a buff.
The weapon is weak in its Tracking Missile mode (requiring like 5 or 6 shots to even kill 1 Spartan), and the regular Firing mode, while adequately strong, will not be good enough with the reload animation being slow that it makes the weapon a nuissance to carry. Buff the weapon’s Tracking Missile mode damage, and make the reload animation faster.
- The Bulldog is not strong enough to be a competent shotgun for close quarters combat.
It needs a slight buff to its damage output as it ain’t as good as the regular Halo shotgun, in fact even the Mangler is better for close quarters than the Bulldog.
- The Dynamo Grenades are definitely very strong against vehicles.
My advice to fix this is to reduce the time of the vehicle disability so it isn’t too strong against vehicles.
- The Sniper Rifle might need a bit of zoom tuning.
Who knows if this is a only me and my friends issue, but we feel the 5x zoom for the Sniper Rifle is a bit too zoomed in, being awfully close to 10x zoom. I suggest making the 5x zoom a bit zoomed out and have 10x zoom fill in on the very zoomed in view.
3. Vehicles
- Heavy vehicles take awhile to spawn.
In my matches of BTB, we rarely saw a Wraith or a Scorpion in battle, we mostly saw Warthogs, Ghosts, and Choppers. I suggest finding a few ways to make the heavy vehicles show up in the BTB matches somehow. Maybe just have one heavy vehicle per team at the beginning of the match and the other heavy vehicles are acquired through Pelican airdrops.
- Vehicles in Halo Infinite, particularly the Banshee, Wasp, Wraith, and especially the Scorpion need a Health buff.
They get destroyed rather easily, so increase their Health.
That’s all the feedback I got. I didn’t mention more maps needed as I know we will get more maps when Season 2 arrives, so this one by default will be addressed. The main points of criticism for Halo Infinite are the Progression System and Weapon/Vehicle Balancing.
I hope you take this feedback into account 343 so Halo Infinite can be a much better game to play by December 8. You guys already have the core gameplay and more well done, it’s only these issues that I listed above that I strongly believe need some necessary tweaks and fixes.