I got tired of people saying Infinite has “No customization” and that it sucks compared to older Halo games in particular Reach, which is the game with the most customization in a single game (since MCC is a compilation, it doesn’t count since it would be unfair to).
So I sat down and did the math to see how much customization Infinite has, and compare it to Halo Reach.
I counted all the individual customizable pieces for each Armor set
When in doubt, I handicapped Infinite and gave Reach an advantage
I broke it down by Armor Totals, Attachment Totals, Everything (Armor, Attachments, Effects, Colors) Totals
Here are the raw numbers:
Halo Reach
21 Helmets (2x Attachments Each)
18 Left Shoulders
18 Right Shoulders
18 Chests
6 Wrists
6 Utilities
5 Visors
4 Knees
30 Primary Colors
30 Secondary Colors
6 Armor Effects
Infinite Mark VII
12 Helmets (3x Universal Attachments, DID NOT COUNT UNIQUE ATTACHMENTS)
19 Visors
13 Chests
13 Left Shoulders
13 Right Shoulders
2 Hands
2 Arms
6 Utility
5 Legs/Knees
5 Armor Effects
2 Kill Effects
56 Colors
Infinite Mark V [B]
11 Helmets (3x Attachments)
7 Visors
11 Chests
9 Left Shoulders
9 Right Shoulders
2 Hands
4 Wrists
2 Utility
4 Leg/Knee
5 Effects
2 Kill Effects
25 Colors
Infinite Yoroi
4 Helmets (1x Attachment each)
10 Visors
5 Chests
5 Left Shoulders
5 Right Shoulders
1 Hand
3 Utility
4 Leg/Knees
5 Armor Effects
2 Kill Effects
7 Colors
Your grand totals are:
Reach
88,179,840 Armor Combos
176,359,680 Combos with Attachments
952,342,272,000 Combos counting Everything
Infinite
64,560,768 Armor Combos
193,622,304 Combos with Attachments
6,667,691,520 Combos counting Everything
I highlighted the two most important numbers I feel - Combos with Attachments. This is because it’s the most fair comparison I feel; it doesn’t give Reach the advantage of Color selection, but it doesn’t give Infinite the Prosthetics advantage either. Giving Infinite the Prosthetics advantage would mean taking the last numbers for each armor and giving them x2, x4 for all of them.
I also don’t feel like counting Colors for Reach is fair, but I did so anyways. The reason being in that every mode except FFA, your color selection is meaningless because it is overridden by the Team Color making it functionally useless and the same as it not being there - but in Infinite it shows up in every game mode, which means it matters in every game type. So do I count something that only matters like…5% of the time as heavily as something that matters literally 100% of the time? Hence why I believe the Armor + Attachments number is the most fair, as well as not counting Prosthetics for Infinite.
Conclusion: Not only does Infinite have a lot of customization, but in a Normalized Comparison, Infinite actually has the most customization of any Halo to date at the end of Season 1.
I’d post the pic showing my work, but I’m not allowed to embed images/links yet.
The customization feels a lot worse than it is. And it is worse than the numbers say due to the price of all of it, but the armor core system makes it feel much worse than it is.
Thank you. I actually started doing some similar calculations a few weeks ago but gave up when I couldn’t keep track of what was available.
I’m already noticing so much more variation in customisation. I’m enjoying seeing what everyone is rocking pre-game. And it’s only going to get better with the new armour cores in S2.
As opposed to H5 where every Spartan and their dog wore black, grey, or white armour with red or green highlights.
Your math is pointless because it’s not about how many customizable options there are, it’s about how much freedom you have to customize.
We’ve been robbed of 2 core personalization aspects which all previous Halos enjoyed:
Customizable Emblem
Customizable Colours
Halo Infinite was supposed to be the new frontrunner and game changer when it came to cosmetics and earning these cosmetics, but it feels like we’ve taken several steps backwards, dropping down below Runescape 3 which lets you dye your armor if you wish.
Yea that’s right, I said Halo Infinite’s customization freedom is worse than Runescape 3. Sue me.
I could wear the same exact clothes every single day, but only change my sock colors. Is it a new outfit? I could wear a different color tie. I have the exact same uniform, but only change my socks and tie every day. 31 pairs of socks, 31 ties, 31 pairs of underwear, and 31 pairs of sleeveless shirts for all I care. I could even wear a goofy hat or sunglasses. I still look like everyone else at work.
The biggest offender of customization, besides coatings obviously, is the core system. Instead of torso, leg, and arm customization like Halo 3, 4, and 2A, we have a single body covered in fridge magnets like Halo 5 mixed with Reach, except unlike 5, we can’t even choose our body kit. Our options are limited by the core. It’s like we have to buy a different model fridge to put exclusive magnets on it. It’s dumb. Our customization is regressing. Our freedom of choice is being limited. Obviously I hate not being able to make a custom emblem, custom emblem colors, and custom armor colors, but the big issue imo is everyone looking roughly the same, besides the magnets we can’t even see at a distance.
Okay, now do the math with separate cores and see what it nets per core, you can’t do much customization at all unless you spend money or don’t have a job and can play this game for 40 hours a week.
I appreciate what you’re trying to illustrate, but the problem many have with the system isn’t the raw potential for possible unique combinations. It’s the way that the broader in game economy works, and how it feels to many longtime players a lot more restrictive than older games (Reach being the high bar there).
I think that comes down to the monetization and progression elements more than anything. 343 announcing that they were monetizing color choice with the coatings system in autumn of 2020 was really the death knell that set the tone for how a lot of players would see Infinite’s customization.
A system that used to allow every player to select any possible color combination from the start provided many players with an immediate and palpable sense that they could express themselves though their MP spartans, even before they unlocked any extra armor pieces from the default. Your argument that base color selection is basically rendered irrelevant by the fact that most PvP modes forced RvB on every player may be accurate for you, but clearly there isn’t unanimous agreement on that point in the broader community.
The coatings system has its advantages, but it did away with that sense of freedom (for players who valued it) entirely. Add to that the constant advertising in-game for armor sets and other cosmetic items that are unobtainable through any other means than purchasing them with real world currency? It just makes total sense that this would leave a sour taste in the mouths of a lot of Halo fans who have traditionally been able to unlock an entire game’s armory through simply (if persistently) playing. Jerry Hook addressed this point (trad. retail model vs live service) very succinctly in the December “Happy Halo-days” community stream.
As the system adjusts over time to better accommodate players’ level of demand, and players acclimate over time to the fact that things aren’t ever going back to how they were before, a lot of the buzz around this will die down. 343i didn’t take the “boil the frog” approach with the changes Infinite made to legacy Halo’s broad customization philosophy, so they’re being excoriated for them.
You should probably include campaign and firefight for Reach in your calculations since you are comparing Reach customization which is 100% free to Infinite which is mostly paid for.
The point is there is no incentive to play the game and unlock anything
You have to buy it
And its embarassing
Who the f wants cat ears on a spartan
The fact thats it not red vs blue is beyond me to
Why whreck something that works
Heck b4 twitch streamers started whrecking the industry there was red vs blue episodes.
So many of then
But no
Lets wear cat ears and look lik3 a goof
I instantly know a newb as soon as i c cat ears
You know its not a halo og and some 10 year old that doesnt wear a mic and communicate in ranked
Kind of makes me wonder. Is the illusion of unable to customization colors and emblems, blocking the amount of armor content there is in the game? Meaning if we could at least change out colors, would it look like we had more content now? m
It’s all pointless when you can hardly unlock anything at all.
We cannot even change colors to whatever we like.
Reach alone in MCC absolutely slays it. I can actually change colors. I can actually equip different pieces however I like. I can unlock things even by playing campaign alone. I am loving the Blackguard Carrion Crow helmet, my Spartan is basically a black plague doctor now. And I absolutely love it.
In Infinite I am stuck with the default Spartan. I choose orange from the limited pool of colors available. Pink was not there, which is what I wanted. All I remember unlocking was maybe a pose and maybe 2 visors? Can’t even remember. It was so little anyways.
There’s no illusion : Being unable to do what you can previously on a fundamental level is just less, not more.
Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if what they replaced the system with was good but was it good?
Did you enjoy unlocking the same Emblem 3 times in a row when in the past you unlocked it once and could mix it and customize its primary and secondary alpha to make a truly unique icon?
Do you enjoy using the same nameplate as anyone else, which only has preset colour themes?
Do you enjoy needing to pay money to be even a little bit unique?
Idk if I can speak for the human race, but I feel that its basically coded into every individual to want to feel special and unique. Creating a system (coatings) which prioritizes the majority (based on market numbers or user data) instead of the individual is just ridiculous and anti-consumer, considering you are marketing it in a cosmetics arena.
To put it simply, what’s better for user experience?
Using for example an Orange and Seafoam combination because you like it.
Using the Orange and Seafoam combination because that’s the only thing the developers decided you can have in a small range of options.
You rob choice, you rob customization freedom, you rob user experience.
Being unable to do less is just dependent on what its giving. I see 343i direction on coatings to be less creative. In the past, 20 years, Halo has actually has the same color customization insisting of primary and second parts, with visors. 343i just stricting that with premade coatings is the problem, I just see the solution as creating better patterns and designs, not going back to orogonal customization.
And no, I dont feel a problem with paying for my Spartan to be “a little more unique”. Many successful F2P games do the same customization function, sold on a shop. As I said, its whats sold to us. Maybe the only “how its sold” is just better progression. As those “other F2P games” have an in-game currency as well.
The way I see it, there can be a good combination of both, based on successful games like Warframe for example.
Coatings : Prints, Camos, Designs, Motifs, Patterns, Lattices for your armor
Colour : Base colours all for free, you can select what part of the armor wants to be what. Sell additional hues and colour spectrums (Warframe does this for like 2 - 4 bucks per palette)
I can’t see how they decided to marry Icons - Nameplates - Backdrops into one single suffocating experience. They should just revert this to how old games did it.
What’s crazy is that the coating system IS better. 343 just fumbled it for money. Had 343 just sold patterns then let players choose their colors, we’d have so awesome and unique spartans.
Whenever I talk about this I use Scorpion Punch as my example. It’s black and red. Maybe you don’t like black and want purple and white. Ok. Or how about blue and yellow? Heck, they could have even just had like 5-6 different presets of each coating (like the emblem palettes) and that would’ve been less restrictive.
Then they could have added textures as another thing to customized. You want it shiny, dirty, dusty, scratched? Plasma burns? Energy Sword cuts? You got it.
Coatings really are the next step in Halo’s customization, but they screwed the pooch.
am i missing something? You said 952bil everything combo with Reach and only 6bil with Infinite.
Sorry dude this math is pointless.
You have to have all those armor pieces unlocked to be able to do any of this to start with which is either locked behind a paywall or a FOMO event.
It’s not about the numerical amount of combinations. Do those combinations actually mean anything? Can you see your weekly ultimate emblem underneath your chest attachment? Does your attachments change color with each coating?
People should be able to create their identity in the armor customization and the core system prevents that. Hell, even paid HCS coatings and armor aren’t customizable. I hear that’s changing in season 2 tho
factoring in the means of monetisation and how excessively split up some of the systems for customisation are in Infinite and it results in the vast ocean of customisation into feeling like a giant shallow lake, not as vast as it could potentially be, making the customisation in turn feel lesser than it should be compared to what came before.