Overall, I think the foundation of the game is really good and it definitely encapsulates some of the core essence of the older Halo titles mixed with a bit of the newer additions that 343 added over their past few iterations on the series. Definitely a good mix for all types of Halo fans. However, there’s a few things that are kinda screwing up the play testing for me, the primary thing being that I’m playing on the original Xbox One which runs the game at 30fps. That’s not an issue with the game, I just wasn’t lucky enough to get a slot for PC, and that may be the root of many of the issues I’m about to mention.
For one, the assault rifle feels a little strong. It feels like it can outgun precision weapons in mid-range encounters, which I don’t think really fits into the game. It doesn’t take as much skill to use as the BR and definitely not as much skill to use as the Sidekick, yet it still puts up a very strong competition with those guns at further ranges than I was expecting. At times, I don’t even see the point in picking up a BR if I already have an AR.
The precision weapons themselves feel really hard to hit shots on too, and I’m not sure if that’s just my controller settings, or the fact that I’m playing on 30fps, or if I’m just terrible at the game. I’m aware that the hitboxes in this one are a lot more strict and that bullet magnetism and aim assist has been toned down significantly, but I’m missing some pretty easy shots. In Halo 3, I felt like I had some pretty good aim, I would hit 4 shot kills consistently, but in Infinite I’m just a potato. It’s not even worth it for me to pick up a precision weapon when I can just use an assault rifle and clean up kills at similar or greater ranges than I would be able to with the Sidekick or BR. Maybe 343 needs to up the aim assist and bump up the bullet magnetism just a bit? Especially with spartans sliding and clambering everywhere, it just seems really difficult to compete without a little bit more help from the game.
Also, I feel like the grenades have just a bit too much range in this game. I always feel like I’m far enough away from it but they manage to unexpectedly blow me up regardless. I’ve also been blown up through walls on numerous occasions, which is probably just a bug but that’s still pretty frustrating and I hope at least that gets ironed out before launch.
For the last of my complaints, the hit registration is sometimes very unfair. I’ve hit people with the skewer and saw the spike sticking out of their body but they didn’t take any damage from it. I’m sure that’s only a problem because this is a buggy unfinished version of the game that we’re testing, but again I hope it’s not an issue in the full release and I doubt it will be.
Even though there’s only a couple of maps with a few weapons in play, the sandbox is awesome. It feels like there’s so many new things that happen on each new game I get into. All of the new weapons and abilities are really cool. They all add something to each match and I always want to pick them up and figure out how to use them. You can make some really unique plays with them and they’re satisfying to get kills with. The vehicles are really cool too. They move at mach-10 around the map but I don’t feel that they’re too strong. They fit very well into the sandbox.
Whenever I’m able to play Infinite on PC with better performance, hopefully a lot of these complaints go away. Even still, playing the game for the first time regardless of its quirks has given me a lot of confidence that Infinite will eventually be one of the best games in the Halo series.