After doing a good bit of thinking and rewatching the gameplay several times, I’m still left with a ton of questions and a few concerns but I’m not as concerned as I was at the start
- I have always wanted an open world Halo game and the ability to just set off in any direction on a Halo ring and explore. I used to fantasize about this back on Reach when fooling around in Forge World and I’m looking forward to seeing what 343’s take on the open world genre is like. I do have some concerns though, such as how much variety there is in the activities you can partake in in the open world, as well as how varied the landscapes are. We’ve seen both the gameplay reveal and the minute-long campaign gameplay trailer 343 put out earlier and both take place in the same part of the ring. The original reveal trailer for the game, however, shows a dense forest, a desert environment, a beach, and more, so I feel like there will be some decent variety with the ring’s environments. Greenskull did an interview with 343 that sounds promising. 343 said that there are several different things to find in the world, including story content and things that will help you form new combat strategies. They also said that you can basically go wherever you see and that they struggle to think of somewhere you CAN’T go. This sounds very promising and is exactly what I’ve always dreamed of, but it will only turn out good if there is plenty to see and do and the world isn’t mostly empty aside from random groups of enemies and animals - I think I was overhyping myself and expecting a bit better with the gameplay as I like many others was expecting a more classic style of gameplay after several things 343 has said in the past regarding their vision and design direction for this game. As I watch the game more, it looks to me like a toned down and smoother version of Halo 5. I can live with Sprint but I’d have preferred to have no Clamber as this means that just like with Halo 5, the multiplayer maps will be built with that in mind and most likely have all these random ledges to climb up. The slide is okay too I suppose but it looks like at one point the player is using it as sort of this dash-like maneuver? We haven’t seen any other abilities yet and I am so glad that charge and ground pound are not returning, but is this all there is? Is there more that they just haven’t shown yet? - I was very concerned that the grappling hook was going to be a core part of the gameplay as after Chief uses the deployable shield, you can see the grappling hook automatically comes back as if you always have it. I didn’t want to see players flying around the maps the whole game but luckily it is just an equipment pickup like the shield and that makes me feel much better about it. I’m just concerned with how often they spawn, how numerous they are, if they’re on every map, and what other kinds of equipment are in the game. I also don’t particularly wanna see players throwing fusion cores at each other the whole game as it appears you can just pick them up and throw them without the grappling hook, but I don’t mind it at all in campaign - I of course expected 343 to show off several new weapons, especially since this is the first time we’ve seen the Banished arsenal up close and personal in an FPS game, but I was a bit disappointed at the lack of classic weapons shown. So far we’ve only seen the AR, the Energy Sword, the Plasma Pistol, the Needler, and my personal favorite so far, the BR, which looks like the classic Bungie BR. I’m sure a lot of the classic weapons like the Sniper and Rocket Launcher are in the game somewhere, and I get the feeling the new shotgun is just a Brute shotgun and not a replacement for the usual Halo Shotgun, but I was just hoping to see more familiar weaponry - While still on the topic of weapons, after watching the gameplay reveal multiple times, I feel like bullet magnetism is a bit too high. There are times where even ballistic weapons like the AR look like they almost kinda lock on to the target or something. I noticed this with the other UNSC automatic rifle and I’m hoping that this isn’t really the true case as it will make gunfights and headshots too easy. I also see people talking about Bloom and I can see why as it does look like it’s in the game but after watching certain parts of the gameplay several times, I feel like it’s just a crosshair animation and that it’s no more there than it was in Halo 5. I feel like we’ll just have to see more gameplay or maybe have to play the game ourselves to get the full picture on these two aspects of the gameplay - I can understand why everyone is concerned about the graphics of the game. I noticed from the moment Chief steps out of the Pelican (which I really liked as it’s a clear throwback to CE) that the game looks…weird. It does look kinda cartoony but even that doesn’t quite describe it. It just has a weird look about it and I will say that I expected it to look better than it does, but this could just be because we’re watching a stream and it may look fantastic when we see it for ourselves on our own Xboxes or PCs. I also think the choice of lighting could’ve been better. It’s like this early morning or late afternoon look and I think they should’ve shown a bright sunny day that really brings the ring to life. There’s also a screenshot of one of the Brutes in the Halo Infinite article 343 put out earlier and the Brute’s armor does look a little plastic-y or something but again, it may look spectacular in person. We’ll just have to either wait and see when we get it or see if things look better when 343 puts out more gameplay later on. I don’t think it looks necessarily bad though, just looks weird - A final concern I have is about the multiplayer, which we won’t know more about for a little bit. I’m concerned with how some of the design choices will translate into the multiplayer and we won’t truly know how good this game is overall until we’ve gotten a good taste of multiplayer and seen what the map quality is like, how much the abilities and equipment impact the multiplayer, etc. I will say though that based on what we’ve seen and how the game appears to be a toned down and smoother Halo 5, I think the multiplayer will honestly be good if: equipment is not too numerous and overpowered, bullet magnetism is toned down from what we saw today, Bloom is not actually in the game, and all these new weapons are well balanced in the overall weapon sandboxSo this is my takeaway from today’s gameplay. Honestly, at first I found the reveal offputting as I was expecting something different than what we got, but after watching the gameplay again, reading 343’s new article on the game, and giving things some more thought, I think there’s a lot of potential here. I have no idea if in the end this will be the best Halo game ever made so far, but if 343 play their cards right it could turn out pretty good. I was hoping for a bit more of a classic gameplay experience than this but 343 may have actually found a good balance of classic vs modern with this game
Overall I am still excited, moreso after rewatching the gameplay and learning more about the game, but my final opinion is that it’s still too early to have a final opinion. We’ve gotten a decent glimpse at what this game will be like and we’ve basically seen what style of gameplay it has, but truthfully it’s still too early to say if it’ll be good or not
Here’s to hoping it will be!