I want to start this with the fact that I am enjoying the gameplay. I like Big Team Battle a lot, and while I’m not spectacular at all maps and with all guns, I’m enjoying the fun of playing with my friends who I haven’t gotten together with in years.
However, to get the bigger talking points out of the way, and make sure my voice is heard:
- Season Pass Progression is an obvious issue, that I’m seriously worried will hurt this game quickly if not resolved, or at least addressed imminently . I will not sit here and tell you HOW to fix it, I’m not a progression developer. I’m a 3D modeler. Not my wheelhouse. But it isn’t feeling good. It isn’t encouraging me to want to play more, because no matter how hard I play, how well I do, my progression is dependent on a couple factors.
- Having specific challenges that I’m able to progress during that specific match
- Those challenges registering that I have completed them
Having played for several hours, and running into the repeated issue of challenges not popping after I clearly finished their objectives, it’s getting frustrating that I then have basically done nothing to forward my progress, besides completing a match.
- The sheer amount of things locked behind yet another pay wall besides the BP is concerning, especially right off the back. But beyond that, my issues are mainly these 3 sub categories of this topic:
- The armor and cosmetic pieces that aren’t unlocked through game play or BP show up in the listings for your various stuff that is “unlockable”. When someone plays a game, and they open it for the first time, looking through what they can earn and get through a BP is pretty standard. And while Warzone certainly has a few operators and whatnot behind paywalls that show up in the lists, they are outnumbered vastly by what is earnable from merit or BP. That isn’t so much the case here, where it seems a 3rd of what I’m seeing is stuff either in the main store or the HCS store for sale. It goes back to that original take. It doesn’t FEEL good. Selling cosmetics isn’t the bad part. Having them in the main list when there are SO MANY of them that you can’t just get through playing, BP or not, doesn’t make a player go “can’t wait to spend my money on this game that hasn’t earned my trust yet!” it just feels wrong.
- Secondly, and I think this is something that will get a bit more support overall, is that we haven’t had a clear explanation on when or even IF some of these store items will eventually become part of the main rotation. 343 has been pretty transparent on a lot of things, but where monetization is fully implemented right now, and later down the line with campaign expansions, has not been one of them. I think if they had told the community before this early launch that so many things were not available for the player to acquire without spending a LOT of money for them, they would have been met with stiff, loud resistance and a less than excited launch.
-And thirdly, on a lighter, less economical note: It’s frustrating that some colors and armor pieces are locked behind certain armor cores. There has already been criticism for doing away with primary/secondary color customization in light of a more Destiny-esque system. I was willing to give it a shot, as Destiny is so plentiful and generous with its color palettes that you hardly ever are disappointed with your options. And I’m STILL willing to give this new variant a shot, given that we are not even a whole day in yet. Who knows how often the weekly challenge will give you good swag to don? But it is a sticking point already with many in the community. The fact that right now most of the cool color variants are in the HCS store is again: Not a “this is fun” feeling.
With those two main points out of the way (And sorry for the long spew, I just needed to get the words down right)
Issues I’ve run into playing the game have been mostly bugs. Graphical issues where the textures are messing up, and a warthog looks more like a jaggy, janky rectangular prism with a turret attached to the top. I’m a “new user” so apparently photo sharing is off, but its about what a lot of people have likely seen of the new battlefield graphical glitches. Spartans end up doing the same thing on occasion. It can be humorous to see, until its messing up sightlines and making navigation tricky.
I mentioned this before above, but challenges not registering a completion is a reoccurring issue for me.
Lastly, I would really like a couple things added:
- Being able to customize your spartan and ID while games load. It’s annoying that this cannot be done while things load up. I’m unsure about the technical limitations of this request, but it is a factor that all of my buddies have complained about at some point today.
- Being able to pull up challenges during a match would be absolutely lovely.
That’s it for now, I haven’t seen anything else groundbreaking.
I’m enjoying this game, and I’m excited to see how 343 decides to hold our attention for the next 6 months or so before a new season. Things will likely look much different between now and then. It will either be the population still playing, or the way the game plays. My hope is for the latter.