Admist the new trailer and gameplay there are alot of mixed reactions from the community with very mixed messages and preferecnes. I figured we have to be quick to find out what it is we the community are looking for in a halo game, find out what is it that either pleases or annoys us, and then in a more understandable, more unified voice help 343 figure out how to be more positively recieved.
So before we move forward, I have to first state the purpose of this thread, who is it for, what it can/cannot accomplish.
Most of use are no strangers to the number of different preferences this community holds, and each of us are entitled to our own opinion. This isnt to bash one side or the other or to decide which of our opinions are better, or to figure out which gameplay elements and mechanics should or should not belong in halo. This is a place where we try to understand where each of us come from with our opinions, and attempt to reconcile these opinions.
This isnt a garunteed way to help 343 redirect the direction halo is upon now, but it is more so for us, the community to understand each other. I love halo, and im sure many of you love it too. Im not giving up on this franchise and I think a large part of this franchise is actually the community. Even if we get a game that doesnt please us, at least the community can be saved. And I believe as a longtime fan of what halo is to me, I hold a partial responsibility in the participation of dialogue between other fans, new and old. I want to see halo succeed. This thread is for those who want to see halo succeed.
So, without further a do, here are some of my criticisms/priases I have about some issues in the gameplay reveal that I believe can still be changed, and may not actually find their way into the final game. This is a demo, But still i just want to make sure these kinks are ironed out before the game launches:
1- first thing I probably noticed is there is a bit of comedy relief. Without a doubt that is what I believe was attempted to be achieved when echo 216 asked cheif if he was even listening and chief is like “I count 3 aa turrents” as the camera that was panned away from the cheif snaps back up to show he was looking out the window the whole time. Given the reaction of other streamers who have giggled or chuckled at this moment , that further solidifies my judgement on how this was supposed to be comic relief. I personally find it an odd way to introduce people to the gameplay but nonetheless I appreciate it.
2- the next thing I noticed immediately is the assualt rifle… its sound, its textures. I dont have any remarks on the model itself but as for sound and the texture of the ar, im not a big fan. I cant speak for most of the community, but from a personal standpoint, it sounds too weak, and its texture does indeed look like plastic. I dont mind the simplistic look of textures, but if it leads me to assume the material is something different than is intended to be projected I do believe that is an issue. I imagine it is supposed to be a metal of some sort. But anyways, im sure the texture can be fixed, and im looking forward for it to be updated.
Im a big fan of how the assault rifle sounded in halo CE, so I really wish it could return to that. However I dont mind if they changed it but it still sounded beefier.
3- Grass spawning and despawning in frame… and while we are at it, later down the line in the trailer, smoke spawining in and despawning in the distance. Im very sure im not the only one who saw this, but for me this was one of the things that made me really concerned. I sure hope this kind of stuff is fixed before the launch of halo, OR halo is delayed until these issues are fixed. They unfortunately break immersion. I know this is a demo and alot can happen going forward. But it does concern me that it looks like this this close to launch.
4- phantom suprised me, looks like its been pulled straight out of halo wars 2 without any visual enhancements as an fps adaptation. That to me is exteremely concerning. I am really hoping is placeholder for now. But i definetly want to see the banished phantom make an apperance. Just in a very visually improved way. Another thing about the phantom I noticed was its rather strange physics… it seemed a bit jittery to me… especailly for an aircraft. Id prefer smoother flight. Previous halo phantoms all had much smoother flight patterns and momentum that seemed intuitive.
5- the elephant in the room, sprint. Love it, or hate it, its in the game. I dont have much to say about this as I dont think its gonna be removed. From what it seems it doesnt give that much of an improvement in speed. I imagine this is for the purposes of avoiding that zippy twitchy gameplay modern first person shooters are known to have had for the past few years… while still providing the option to traverse areas quicker, albiet not that much quicker. I really wish 343 allows us to gun while running… but hey im just throwing that out there. I think the consensus in the community is that we want to traverse terrain faster, but keep guns up to avoid those breaks sprint currently create in a gunfight.
6- warthog sound also might be sounding a little too weak. It was also at this point I started considering that maybe the stream was having audio issues, but it seems that dialogue and other sandbox sounds seem to be working fine. But alas, im curious as to what the rest of the community thinks of this. The power slide is amazing thou, made me think the physics has really been upgraded.
7- and then i saw the warthog take a jump… and it seems that its moments were canceled in the air… making it stop rotating… which i found very odd. I sincerely hope this is not an indication of how physics works in the air for halo infinite. First it was the phantom and now its the warthog. I understand this might have been done so that the warthog doesnt tumble and flip and stuff , but you could fix that by putting the warthogs center of gravity lower i believe.
8- gunfights seem actually very halo. I think 343 focused alot on that. Kudos. What I mean by this is how gunfights play out in a general sense. Compare to halo 4 and 5. This halo demo did it better than those. But if you argue its not the same as halo 3, 2, and CE, you arent wrong. It is quite different, but I dont really mind different as long as the outcome doesnt depart too far from how we expect it to play.