tl;dr The all-inclusive playlists are bad and the battlepass progression is still far too slow. The game isn’t fun because of this.
As it stands I don’t know how much longer I will be playing Halo Infinite. The core gameplay is as enjoyable as ever, the variety and types of weapons are fun, and fights are very satisfying. However, this is the only part of the game I am able to enjoy. Because the playlists are combined there is so self-selection of players into gameplay modes they want to play and the result is that nobody in the objective modes plays the objective. I don’t even want to play some of the modes, not because I think they’re bad but because that’s just not what I want to do. I might enjoy CTF (which seems to be by far the most common mode), but this experience is mired by my teammates’ seeming conviction to avoid both the enemy and friendly flags or those who carry them. Why can’t I just play Slayer or queue into Oddball? Why am I forced to play a number of game modes I don’t want to play with a bunch of other people who don’t want to play them? It’s an awful feeling when you’re trying to win and your teammates interest is mainly in seeing how long it takes for the paint to dry.
Speaking of feeling awful, the battlepass changes that have been made are not anywhere near close to even remotely being similar to enough. I’m actually upset and insulted that you(343) thought that the changes that you made were an improvement. I feel that you have belittled my intelligence and have taken my time for granted. Whoever thought to greenlight these changes should lose their job and have their salary retroactively revoked for the entirety of their career at 343 and Microsoft. The greed implied by this progression speed is biblical, a masterstroke that Satan himself could never hope to top in all of his years of torturing souls in the blackened pits of hell. Who do you people think you are to ask for $10 when 7 hours in and I’m not even halfway through level 2 of the battle pass? Screw you. A 50/1000 XP bump per match is insufficient to adequately progress when through normal gameplay I am not regularly completing other challenges. It is WILD that you can be this stingy even though you have bucked the rest of the industry and chose not to put premium currency on the battle pass so that the next one could be purchased when the previous was complete. Get your -Yoink!- together. Give 5-10% of game score in battlepass experience. Give more experience for each challenge. Give more challenges that are likely to be completed with normal gameplay.
I’m going to play a bit longer because playing Halo is fun, but unless the fundamental issue of the playlists is resolved very soon I will probably uninstall the game and never come back to it. On that note, you will never see so much as one red cent from me if you don’t fix this battlepass. The cosmetic boat is leaving the station at season 1, if you don’t find a way to get me on it now then don’t bother later.