Dear 343 Industries
I’ll skip the bit about how much of a Halo fan I am, how long I’ve been one, and what Halo means to me. None of that matters. What matters is Halo Infinite, and Halo Infinite long term. I know everyone has opinions and thoughts on what’s best for the game, and I know there are plenty of posts popping up, but you did ask for feedback. My hope is if you see enough of the same stuff, you’ll take notice and (hopefully) act. Here are 2 big ticket and 2 smaller ticket feedback items for you:
MODES: Please consider splitting up the modes into at least the basic ones we’ve always had. If you don’t do this, people are going to quit matches and try to get into the modes they want. That’s going to hurt everyone playing. Nobody should have to pray to the RNG gods in hopes they get to play Slayer with some friends. That’s ridiculous. Speaking of ridiculous, why is SWAT missing?
PROGRESSION: Please consider awarding XP for winning matches/personal performance OR overhaul the entire Challenge/progression system to be more generic. If you want to keep the 100% challenge route for progression, fine. However, please change the challenges to be like “get X amount of kills”, “win X amount of matches”, “complete X amount of matches”. Challenges like those can apply to any match, any mode, and any playstyle.
The concept of challenge-only Battlepass progression is fine, but not when those challenges impact and influence the course of a match. These current challenges are altering the way people are playing. Prioritizing getting kills with X weapon over helping your team with whichever weapon you have? Leaving your team during a CTF match to go off and try and get a kill with a Fusion Coil? Do you want the matches to be authentic? Do you want them to be fun and competitive? If so, then the current model needs to go. Simply overhaul the challenges into the plain ol’ tried and true universally applied progression and you’ll see it works.
Plus, consider the business/revenue implications. There will be those of us who bought the Season 1 Battlepass and are just now realizing how ridiculous it will be to complete it. Fool me once, shame on me type of situation, so you’re going to risk losing us in the long run. Halo being Free to Play can be great for both sides, but this current system isn’t going to work long term. People will find out very quickly the battle pass, regardless of “it never expires” is not as great as it sounds. It would probably be better to have one that expires but there is a constant stream of experience earned from just playing matches and getting kills than to have one that never expires but demands you grapple onto a Banshee to earn progression points. It’s not sustainable long term, and that will hurt EVERYONE.
FIRETEAMS: Please consider having Fireteams stay together regardless of the mode. When I enter a BTB game, why am I not kept with my actual Fireteam? Why is the UI color designation being applied to random people that aren’t a part of the actual Fireteam from my lobby (the people I joined the game with)? Please either keep the Fireteam together OR have the system recognize and respect who my Fireteam is even if we get split up into different groups, and have those players reflect the Fireteam UI color setting.
HALO CREDITS: Please consider allowing Halo Credits to be gifted. It would be very convenient to gift someone Halo Credits or even a premium Battlepass, but currently we can’t.
Thanks for reading that over. I know this is a beta, I know that it’s something you can (and will) be working on as time goes on, but my worry is that if you don’t act quickly enough, it will be tough to recover. The year is 2021, and especially with Halo Infinite being on PC, there is no shortage of other games for people to play. All fans like me wan is for you to take an already incredible game and make it even better. Thank you for all your hard work and passion, and I look forward to what’s in store in the future. Thanks!