The first Halo Infinite weekend of the second flight has just ended and its left me mostly satisfied, but I do have some nitpicks with sound design.
What I want to do is start the feedback discussion early so we talk about the things we’ve experienced throughout our testing to have a more complete picture on what we think as a community, wants to change regarding Halo Infinite.
I’ll go first. I think the sound design for the reloads on the bullet weapons (i.e. the BR, AR, Magnum, etc…) have very clean and crisp sounds to them, but I think they are ultimately a little under detailed. To me, when I reload the magnum I feel like I hear the magazine sliding into the gun more than I hear the magazine lock in the gun. I kind of expect a more clear click or chunk sound when the magazine locks into the gun.
The shotgun, when you pump it sounds more like you’re displacing air than a spartan racking the pump as fast as possible to get it firing again. I expect to hear more of a slamming metal sound, or the springs compressing and decompressing when it loads and kick out shells.
The rifles, (commando, AR, BR etc…) I think have kind of a weak sound to them. When you reload a completely empty AR or BR for example, you don’t get that satisfying slam sound your gun makes when you slam the magazine into place, it’s very quiet and mute. And when you charge the loading handle, it sounds like it isn’t loading a bullet, just the mechanical sound of the charging handle itself. Anyone who’s handled a real life AR-15 for any reason knows the difference when charging it when it’s dry compared to when there are bullets in the magazine. When it’s dry, you only hear the charging handle, bolt, and the air being displaced. But when the magazine is full, and you pull back the charging handle, you can hear the bullet being picked up, and the bolt locking and loading. It’s much more of a tactile sound, more metal clanging together and you can hear that.
I know that 343 probably made the sound clearer to better hear the sounds of the fight, footsteps, enemy gunfire etc… and that these are subjective choices but I just find the sounds to be under detailed, and this is a nitpick. The firing noises, shield recharging noises? c’est magnifique.
I do find that mostly all the guns in halo infinite in general have very crisp clean sounds to them, but again I would like a little bit more punch, more detail in general. What are your thoughts?