I think this game has a lot of potential. I love the look and sound of it. But I think in its current state, it’s unbalanced. I just want to give my tips for improvement so that it matches up to what I envision as a perfect new installment to Halo. So I’ll touch on general items, weapons, equipment, vehicles, and even a customization idea.
General
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The most important change needed for this game is nerfing the sidekick HARD. It is so powerful that it doesn’t make sense to pick up any other weapon, totally neutralizing the sandbox. The only exception would be the rocket. Without this change, I don’t think Infinite will be able to align with classic gameplay enough to bring back veterans OR differentiate itself from other games enough to attract new players. The strength of the sandbox determines the strength of Infinite. - For team games – need to have solid colors. This setting has to at least be an option like the classic/new armor toggle is in MCC. I understand outlines are there to bring more visibility to customization but there are so many problems with them. Have the reach loading screens to see people’s spartans and put their pictures in the stat reports post-game. That way, I can play and more easily know who’s who, when shields break, and before or after the game I can see how much longer you’ve played than me judging by your blue/yellow helmet. - I toggled off the personal AI but they still talk – can I get a total mute on that please? I want an option to hear guns fire, teammates talk, and the natural sounds of the maps without a random voice piping in. If the personal AIs looked and behaved more like they did in HCE-H5…they’d be significantly cooler. - BXB ruins close combat. I think that was a bug though. - Can we increase the despawn timers on guns and bodies? I loved that classic games could have rooms full of these for a good while. Also if you died or killed someone with a power weapon, it didn’t disappear in 3 seconds so there was time to get to it after a kill or respawn. - Need player collisionWeapon Changes
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Sidekick: Way too overpowered. I would recommend slowing down fire rate to H3 speed and/or decreasing the damage per round fired. - AR: I love that this assault rifle is a threat. The AR was useless in past games. Damage output is spot…Long-range accuracy to be nerfed. End result - a very effective close- to mid-range weapon. You could but wouldn’t need add a melee to kill like past games. - Skewer: A 1-shot sniper—that’s not different enough. Change it so it is easier to hit BUT have the spike drop faster. Then it is all about skill and judgement with a big payoff like a brute’s spartan hunting bow. Also, have it pin people to walls—for the medal: bulletin board! - Bulldog: This feels useless against every other gun in it’s present stat. It’s too slow without much damage. Differentiate it from the classic shotty and have it shoot slugs long-range semi-auto or shoot buckshot full-auto. - Heatwave: Similar to the bulldog, it is hard to kill with this. Buff damage for a 2-shot kill when vertical reticle. - Hammer: Evolve this hammer. I like how this hammer is different enough from the sword. But the heatwave gave me the idea to have 2 types of strokes to toggle to-from on the hammer. (1) A vertical stroke that kills anything in a narrow long-ranged line in front of you and bumps you into the air. (2) A horizontal stroke that smacks through multiple people with limited range but you only break shields or something. Becomes a multi-tool for different situations. - Rocket: Increase blast radius and deepen the sound compared to the sniper. - Plasma Pistol: I love that you can vent the plasma weapons at will. For this weapon specifically, increase it’s tracking and allow it to EMP vehicles. - Pulse Carbine: I don’t have any feedback for this just because I don’t know what to do with it as it’s been useless in like every situation. - Ravager: Considering how the charged bolt fire circle thing can only really break shields, make the charging time shorter. Burst fire is great. - Sniper: I love the sound this baby makes and how it ragdolls people. No-scope is definitely off though and it also just feels too hard to use compared to past games. Add an additional magazine. - Shock rifle: Considering the low damage output, it needs to be easier to get a hit. The whole chaining damage idea didn’t seem to come across. - Battle rifle: I like it. Love the reticle, the scope, and feel.Equipment
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Threat Sensor: I only saw it in BTB and only got to use it a handful of times. Not much data to give an opinion. - Drop Shield: Aside from getting a boom block which was very satisfying, this thing felt super underpowered. It needs to come out faster and be more durable. I always replaced it when I found a different piece of equipment. - Grapple Shot: This is fun but I kept having moments where the grapple would just stop and my guy would toss a grenade. Maybe just a bug. - Grenades: I like that the spikes are a bit more different from the plasmas. Dynamo nades are sweet—like toned-down power drains. However, tossing nades felt super off. Frags bounce all weird and have extremely varied detonation times. Stickies would dramatically change flight path to stick someone. And can we get a bit more drop on them so you’re not throwing fastballs all the time?—that makes it easier to plan a throw at different distances and toss grenades onto elevated platforms where someone might be hiding.Vehicles
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Warthog: Make it tougher to destroy. Standard weapons can’t deal crazy amounts of damage. There’s enough equipment and power weapons enough to deal with a hog. - Ghost: when it blows up, it sounds just like a hog/goose. Make it sound like one of the H2 ghost explosions that’s all weird sounding.Customization Idea
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I would love some achievement-type armor items that distinguishes a player for their skill, not time played.
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Here’s an example as if we were talking about H2: Imagine a Tartarus-style shoulder plate with a jackal head mounted on it that you earn from like 50 consecutive snipes on legendary H2 snipers without dying. That would be hard to do and I would have mad respect for anybody that pulled it off. - In multiplayer – you could get some other trophy armor like a band of spent rifle rounds on your forearm from getting a kill with every bullet in a sniper rifle – 8 kills with 8 rounds (no misses, no ammo pickups). That would also be really hard and anybody who pulled it off would be a legend. - It would also be cool if those trophies could be additional pieces or coatings so you could basically have whatever armor set up with those just placed on top idk.