I have had mostly negative opinions of infinite but this will be more specific criticism than general hate for 343. So to get it out of the way I’m in the anti-sprint, anti-F2P, anti releasing games unfinished, yada yada yada etc, camp. I played the first flight against bots as well just for context.
TLDR: overall I don’t think this game will attract and keep many new players interested. I think it will also fail to bring back former halo payers that 343 pushed away with halo 4 and 5. this game is riddled with design compromises that I think will fail to satisfy all but the most loyal fans who buy into 343’s changes. Also the many copycat concepts and features won’t attract new players either. Why would they leave their current game for a game with an inferior imitation of concept X?
Gunplay: This game feels like it was made for M&K first. I’ve had to do wayyy too much tweaking to make it feel anywhere close to good and it still feels wack not PUBG on console bad but still really bad out of the box on default settings. I think there is too much of halo 5’s gunplay DNA in this as well. It’s like they are trying to emulate CoD or apex legends gunplay but it’s so much worse than those 2 games. infinite seems to have the tightest hitboxes of all the halo games which would be a good thing if the gunplay wasn’t so weird. Cross play is going to be an absolute uneven nightmare for console players.
Graphics: still looks worse than games from 2018. I can’t believe they are really sticking to the cross gen 10 year plan. It’s a terrible idea to have this game be supported and updated all the way through 2031 for 2013 hardware. Just wait in a few years when some other multiplayer game leverages some newer innovative tech that infinite will be incapable of doing later on.
Physics: probably worst in the franchise. Unacceptable to not have player collision and the worst explosive physics effects in all the halo games. It’s frankly unacceptable. I mean really the gravity hammer doesn’t have a gravity effect?
TTK and pace: like Halo 5, infinite’s pace is too quick. I think this is a fundamental issue since 343 took over the Franchise. They’ve had the view that halo should be fast like CoD or other older arena shooters. The problem is what made halo successful and what differentiated it from other arena shooters was similar core mechanics and philosophy but slowed WAY down. Halo’s pace in the bungie games was dictated by tactical decision making and planning. Whether in FFA or in team games. This is the root of the difference in opinion of the classic vs new halo camps. All I can say is how many people showed up and stayed for halo 5? Not many. And infinite is largely making a lot of the same mistakes as 5.
Maps: I think the 3 maps on offer aren’t very good. Especially bazaar. Most of bazaar is wasted spawn area space and the middle of the map is just a bland 2 fort esque camp dynamic.
Live Fire is just mediocre nothing special or that interesting but also not terrible.
recharge is actually a good map but is ruined by awful spawning. After playing with live players instead of bots I’ve noticed spawns are horrific on recharge. Lots of spawning right on top of opposing players.
sandbox: I think the sandbox and many weapons are very badly balanced. It’s not really a secret that 343 must hate the precision meta as they’ve constantly increased the effectiveness of automatics in all their games. Infinite takes it way to far. You can cross map with an AR, strike one. You can ADS (smart scope) with AR and basically every weapon, strike 2. The commando just doesn’t work. It’s way to good. It’s a low skill weapon (once you figure it out) that can demolish anything short of a rocket, long range sniper or shotgun up close, strike 3. I’m not a fan of elevating automatics to be on par with precision weapons. It’s like they listened to the smallest part of halos community who have been complaining about weak automatics since halo 2 and designed the whole multiplayer around them.
Bloom: awful way to balance all of these poorly designed weapons. We have a sidekick that can fire very rapidly and drop people in seconds. So 343 adds tons of bloom to make it difficult to get the headshot. Instead they could have just put in a slower firing magnum. I don’t get their obsession with making pistols viable against main weapons. It doesn’t need to stack up to an AR or BR.
Equipment pickups: mostly useless except for the grapple hook and repulsor. The hook by the way will probably be deemed OP after more time with the game.
Drop wall: there’s a reason bungie didn’t put the deployable cover in normal multiplayer maps in halo 3. It sucks that’s why and so does the drop wall. Its not very effect and probably worse than the deployable cover. Should have just brought back the bubble shield.
target sensor: just a garbage tier pickup. The radar jammer of infinite. Sure it can help a little bit but it’s mostly useless as it’s easy to figure out where people are in halo. This isn’t battlefield.
repulsor: it’s solid. Not much else to say.