Personal thoughts on Tech Preview

Games Halo Infinite
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So, this is going to be somewhat of a mix, considering how I feel so far about multiple aspects of the Tech Preview. This is subject to change, especially when the game fully releases. Thoughts included are going to be towards weapons, equipment, movement and maps. I have yet to include anything about the bots, as I am waiting until I get to play against all four levels of bots. This is also going to be somewhat messy, as I originally started writing this on the discord for Halo, before a mod reminded me of this. I’ll have to give credit where credit is due… Well done 343, you guys are actually making me feel hope for this… Don’t dash it like Cyberpunk, Anthem etc…
Weapons:
AR: Viable, strong, a good starting weapon, allows the use of peppering enemies, either to kill them yourself, or to allow allies to finish them off. Decent ROF, good control, good ammo mag, and good backpack ammo cap as well.
Pulse Carbine: I do like this weapon, however, it feels like the Plasma Repeater from Halo Reach and the Storm Rifle, mixed with the BR, except in 5 round burst instead of 3 round burst. It also has tracking for the plasma, but it’s only in RRR, and it flies very, very fast compared to plasma pistol, but it’s very easy for it to veer away if aimed badly. Sidekick: Feels like the Gunfighter from Halo 5. I do hope they make a return to form Magnum, but for quick, snappy fights? This works. Bloom heavily hurts it, but if you can control it, it’s good.
Commando: this satisfies an itch that the BR and the AR couldn’t quite reach, and the DMR felt more suited as a more long range weapon. It’s accurate, but you want to find the middle ground between the BR and the AR for this to be the most use. It can headshot, so ensuring you aim at the chest and let the slight recoil pull it up towards the head… However, beware firing it too often on targets, as Bloom also heavily affects this weapon, causing it to go from ‘accurate’ to ‘I missed all my shots’ like the DMR in Reach was like. Plasma Pistol: No comment, but if you wanna use this to kill someone, Noob Combo works well. it also has the slowest of the plasma travel time, compared to the Ravager and the Pulse Carbine.
Ravager: Halo 5’s incineration Cannons somewhat remind me of it. It has two modes of firing, with charge time going between how many shots one takes for the ‘standard’ firing, which a quick tap of the firing button will do a two shot burst… But the full charge drops an AOE denial of fire… However, I feel the damage is kinda… Weak, plus it’s rather spread out, from what I see. Both firing styles, however, have AOE, travel time, and unlike any other plasma weapon, the rounds will drop over time and distance.
Gravity Hammer: MONKE GO BONK! A powerful, close range weapon, with decent AOE and range. However, the slow swing speed means that people can do a good 2 tap on you, if they are good enough, especially the Pulse Carbine, as that can 1 burst someone’s shields, leaving them open to a melee kill. However, this is dangerous… Because, well, you have to be quick enough to do this. If not… CRUNCH
Bulldog: A more aggressive playstyle, due to weaker damage but faster ROF than the OG shotgun. Having a drum mag as well makes it much faster reload, but if the OG shotgun comes back, it would mean it stands out as a choice between power weapons. Do you want more power, but slower pumps/reloads? OG shotgun. Do you want a weapon that’s more fast paced and/or suits your own personal playstyle? Bulldog
BR: Not much to say about this, it’s a 3 round burst DMR. However, unlike the Commando and the Sidekick, it does not suffer bloom, as far as I could tell, allowing one to brrt down enemies. However, it does have some innaccuracies, due to the way the reticle is setup, allowing some shots down range to miss, or due to the players aim being bad (I will not deny my aim is bad xD)
Sniper Rifle: I never realized how bad I was with the sniper rifle, until this game. It sounds beefy. However, I can’t hit a damn thing… And another thing. When it spawns in, you only get two mags, a total of 8 shots. There is potential for 8 kills or more with collats, but good luck hitting those heads.
Skewer: One of the things I’d love for this to do, would be to stick someone to a wall with it… Instead, it just acts like a sniper rifle. However, its greatest strength, if we can go off the MP reveal at E3? Is knocking around lighter vehicles. However, like the Ravager, it has travel time, and the shot will drop as well.
Heatwave: Who’s bright idea was this? No seriously, I love this thing! The concept of a bank shot weapon isn’t new, but the fact that this thing also can penetrate enemies as well? The horizontal shot is best at hitting multiple enemies, allowing allies to focus down on the weaker enemies… But, if you really need to kill someone, the vert shot allows a potential 2 tap if you land all six of the hardlight pellets. This weapon has potential as getting a lot of accidental double kills, depending on the sections of the maps its on. Needler: It’s strong, but weak at the same time. If you have a high value target to kill, this is it. however, it’s also easy to get out of the way and avoid meeting the grisly fate that is the Pink Mist. Visually, and sound wise… The deaths are… Sad. I want a return to form for this, like how the other halos had it.

Those were the weapons I used… Now…
Now for the equipment. Grappleshot: Spidaman, spidaman… This thing is a blast to use. Well done 343, you guys should be proud of this. using it for escapes is intense, especially when you’re low on shields/hp. using it to grapple items is good (rarely used, I felt it was better utilized personally for escapes, movement, and grappling towards enemies, especially if using the Hammer). It has 3 uses, but can be added to, if you managed to get yourself the Grappleshot spawn in time. The most I saw, personally, was 4. But that was because I happened to only have 1 shot left… Amusingly, you cannot grapple the grapple towards you… Ironic.
Dropwall: Like the Bubble Shield in Halo 3 and Halo Reach, except you can shoot through it. It also gives you the medal for blocking nades tossed your way. However, it has a surprisingly long activation once thrown, about 2-3 seconds. It is better off used as a preemptive use, instead of as a reaction, due to the activation time. I’ve died more times than I want to admit due to the slow activation.
Overshield: The fact one can hold onto this item, like the active camo allows for great custom games potential. This also means that it can be dropped upon death if it isn’t used… Which it is very, very easy to die using it. However, I feel that once I used it, I took more risks… Which also, in a way, led me to dying faster. I found myself pushing harder into enemy lines, especially if I had a teammate backing me up. It made for quite the more cinematic experience however. One last thing… It also causes a screen effect. visually, I feel like I’m underwater due to it, as it sort of ‘molds’ around my vision, making it harder to see. I like it though.
Active Camo: Don’t sprint if you use it. You’ll end up making yourself visible. It also makes sounds odd, and again, a visual effect is on display on your screen while it is active. It’s just near invisibility… And much harder to spot.
I’ll have to include a part 2 to this post, as it appears to be too big! D:

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Part 2 of the post!
Movement: How did 343 manage to make the movement in this game feel like both Halo 3 and Halo 5? Sprint feels good, like it’s not super fast, but it feels good, and you can reload while sprinting. Sliding is also interesting, as one can pick up speeds on slopes, much like Apex Legends and Titanfall. Clamber is a thing, but I only ever use it to safe myself on one portion of a map, and that is on Recharge, for where the main power weapon will spawn.
Maps: This one is gonna be a doosy to write… Live Fire: A smaller feeling map, perfect for an arena, with an odd layout that does not feel symmetrical, which is very nice. No grapple on this map, and no gravity hammer or ravager weapon spawns on this map. The map feels both open and enclosed, especially in the middle parts of the map. To the left or right of both spawns, are wide open locations, with one side getting just the dropwall, while the other ends up getting both a dropwall and the overshield or active camo spawn. The top middle part gets the Sniper or Skewer spawns, and just below it, and with a quick drop to it as well, is the Heatwave or Bulldog spawn. Overall, it’s a decent, if old looking map, but the way it plays is very good to newcomers, and for those who are older players, especially Halo Vets, it’s oddly a map to feel at home with.
Recharge: Now this map… It’s beautiful. All weapons and equipments are on this map, as it’s also much larger, and more vertically inclined than Live Fire. Despite taking place in what feels like a dam, this map is more empty space to move around in, with various areas. To get to the power weapon is even more dangerous, because if you get killed grabbing it, there’s a chance it will just fall into the water, despawning. The map also has the grappleshot involved, which I feel works well into the design of the map, but one can still move around it decently well. In fact, using the grapple can very, very easily land someone in hot water, allowing the grapple to fall into enemy hands, as well as grenades and any power weapons.

Weapons part 2:
How’d I forget about grenades!
Frag: just your basic frag, just be careful, this thing can and will bounce much farther than you expect.
Plasma: Have you ever wanted to give someone blue balls? Would you like to? The grenades will have a slight bounce to them, at least on the Tech Preview, as I have had stick kills where I felt I should not.
Spike: It’s good to see this returning, however, it has a much longer feeling fuse, as well as the more entry/area deny aspect to this grenade. It also can stick to enemy players, allowing for kills that way. It also releases spikes on detonation, which bounce around once or twice, allowing to weaken or kill players who weren’t near the explosion. However, the way the spikes do bounce around is entirely dependent on where the grenade lands.
Overall thoughts:
I went in with worry and fear that it’ll turn out like Anthem or, Cyberpunk etc. But… after 7 hours of play time, a good portion of that with a fireteam of randoms I met for today, I felt satisfied. Movement, gunplay, grenades, equipment… And even though it is a tech preview, it feels surprisingly polished for the gameplay loop.

However, for me to get into the tech preview in the first place, I had to wait for the… whatever the hell happened the day before, which honestly, had me rather worried. using the Nvidia 1060 3gb I had, I had to go into the files and rename the Nvidia file in a particular section to allow me to play… Which, honestly, not sure why that’s a thing, but okay…
After that, the only UI that I don’t really like, has to be, well, just the general menu UI. The UI in the matches works flawlessly, at least to me. I don’t feel like I’m getting bombarded with useless information, nor am I having a hard time with reading what’s very nicely and plainly set up.
The matches also sometimes kicking me out, or if one of the fireteam members got booted from the game (only on Live Fire, Recharge worked well for him) was rather annoying… And especially as it would automatically put in random players instead of the fireteam that was stuck waiting at the menu.
Overall, out of 10? 8. A solid 8. There was enough issues that I experienced that lowered it, but the gameplay loop was so strong, plus the fireteam that I was playing with allowed it to be so high.

343I. You guys have some massive boots to fill, when it comes to Halo, and Bungie’s legacy. Keep up what you’re doing for Infinite… Don’t let yourselves become like EA or Bethesda etc. Don’t fall from grace like Bungie has with Destiny… Rise above, give us hope that this game will be good… Because I want… I need this to be good.

And thank you, 343I. If it turns out that Halo Infinite could be potentially the last Halo game… in the words of Johnson… Send us out… With a Bang.

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Part 3, where I try to guess the aspect of the sandbox the weapons and power weapons sit in, however, I will not be talking about the Sniper, Plasma pistol or the Skewer, as I have not used them enough to get a good enough feel for them, or talking about them lightly.
AR:
This is your standard to compare every other weapon to. You are meant to upgrade or sidegrade to other weapons. It’s neither truly powerful, or utterly useless. It’s good for the opening engagements, and can and will earn you kills. ROF, ammo capacity, both in reserve and in mags, range, and accuracy, it’s a good base starting weapon.
Sidekick:
Like the AR, it’s the standard to compare everything else to, good to trade up or side grade for depending on your spawn, location, or how the match has been panning out. The main aspect of it is that you have 12 shots per mag, but you have to control how fast you fire this handgun. Bloom both helps and hinders you. During engagements, you will find that it’s like the AR, you’ll end up using both of them to wipe up your enemies, or to engage with. It’s neither truly powerful or utterly useless.
Needler: A nearly immediate upgrade. This is a great early game power weapon to grab if you can grab it. It has decent range, decent ROF, decent ammo reserves, but the ammo in the mag is rather low, especially if you miss a lot of your shots. the Super Combine for it is again pretty good on HVT and single targets, depending on what you need… But, in more than a 1v1 scenario, you are in for a world of hurt.
Bulldog: I feel like one should play this as aggressively as they can. The reload speed, the ROF… Sadly, the damage is not a one shot, but a good two shot weapon. This is an upgrade, but the range feels weak, but I am okay with this. This is one you want to get in people’s face, the design of the reload and ROF entirely support this philosophy with it. However, I am not happy with how it physically looks. But I’m not going for looks, I’m going for the weapon placement in the sandbox.
Commando: This weapon sits between the AR and the BR for how it feels. It’s a nice weapon, held back by two main aspects. ROF can be fully automatic, or rather rapidly tap fired. However, that’s not a downside, the downsides is low mag ammo count, at 20 rounds, and the weapon bloom makes it rather skill based. This is a weapon that both rewards and punishes players.
Pulse Carbine: This, oddly, feels like it counters and works with the Commando. This is weapon kills in a 2 or 3 burst, depending on how good your aim is. This 5 burst plasma rifle hits hard, and will do extra headshot damage on an unshielded target. However, it does not instantly kill a player, unlike weapons like the Sidekick or Commando. It takes 10 shots at head to fully 2 burst an enemy down, and 2 bursts in general… However, with enemies strafing, jumping etc, this is actually rather hard to do. The plasma does hone in on RRR targets, but the moment one of those five plasma shots get off, it’ll go straight. There’s also a slight recoil, raising the weapon’s barrel, causing it to potentially miss if you’re aiming badly. Overall, this weapon feels like a good power weapon. It sits in the same field as the Commando, where it has good strengths, but the drawbacks make it from being too strong of a power weapon. A player can get off 4 bursts, before the weapon overheats, meaning that yes, that’s potential 2 kills per overheat.
Ravager: Now, this is where we get into a category of Power weapons, where I’ll categorize them as ‘Support’. This is one of those. It offers both killing potential, and area denial potential. You can 2 burst someone down, but you have to aim the shots, because bullet magnetism, does it exist? Why yes, it does, just not for this gun. Now, the uncharged shots burst like Halo 5’s Incin cannons, with some mild AOE explosions. This is potential to kill enemies, but not completely. It seems to take two bursts to kill enemies, but that’s not the main aspect of this weapon. The charged shot, alongside with the uncharged, will also drop over time. However, the charged shot will actually bounce off enemies, but it’s when it lands on the ground, that it’ll activate this other aspect.
Hello fire. This weapon is again, part of a ‘support’ power weapon, where it’s a unique aspect to the sandbox. This AOE fire will spread out, and burn an area with plasma, before dissipating. The damage and how it hurts seems to be a bit… Hit or miss, but again, this is Area Denial, it does not feel like I should be using this to get kills, but to stop pushes or slow down pushes, such as CTF captures etc.
Heatwave: This also belongs, at least to me, in the Support Power weapon. Due to the Pierce and bank shot aspect of the weapon, getting more damage out to allow your allies to get the kills feels more suited to the use of the weapon, at least if you’re using the Horizontal aim. The moment you go from that to Vertical, you are going on the attack and going for kills. The 6 pellets are more focused, allowing one to more actively cause more damage to a single or two lined up targets. If you have to delete one target, this is a good 2 shot if you use the vert shot. The ability to swap playstyle on the fly makes this very much a unique support power weapon to me.
Gravity Hammer: This is a power weapon with heavy drawbacks for heavy power. We’ve all become used to this weapon throughout Halo, since its proper inception in Halo 3. The major drawbacks, is the slower swing speed, right off the bat, no pun intended. Getting killed while using this feels both harder and easier than any other Halo game… But while you use it, you feel like a god. If you get in range of someone, you’re more than likely to get a kill. However, the range with this one, is the other killer. You are in range for melee. You want to rely on quick attacks, such as the mobility offered by the grapple, or ambush tactics. Closing the gap to your target becomes your only goal while using this weapon, and that’s if you can get to this weapon in the first place. In the current map for it, Recharge, it is in one of the most dangerous areas, as a missed jump or killed in midair on the way back will prove to be both fatal and the loss of a powerful weapon. This power weapon is one of the best of the Power Weapons, like the Sniper and the Skewer, with the Skewer and the Sniper having their own massive drawbacks to using them for their power and control of the battlefield they have.

I’ll probably find more to chat about with the way the weapons play into the game’s sandbox. But for now, this concludes what I feel about what the weapons feel like, in the way they affect the sandbox. Now, it comes down to us, the playerbase, to truly utilize these weapons to their fullest potential. They all have their strengths, their weakness. And they all equally deserve the attention. Good luck my fellow Spartans, let’s see how you all use these in the future.