I’ve been analyzing the multiplayer gameplay for a few weeks and seem to have reached a few conclusions of my own. I would not speak on anyone’s behalf other than experience anecdotes that casual player friends are sharing with me.
#1 and most important is the “combat dance” loop.
Part of it is severely broken. Between the melee system having issues, server desync and lack of collision, it breaks part of the consistent gameplay and combat loop that many of us love.
#2 Players following incentives given by 343
This one is not so obvious, but prior to the Sprint in Halo debate, running from combat with no intention of reengaging, was way more difficult to do. In Halo 5, thanks to players being used to it in other games, you will find that FAR more people simply try to run, evade or disengage from people that they do not get “the jump” on in firing first. Fortunately, in Halo 5 your shields did not recharge during sprint so there was a tradeoff.
In Halo Infinite? Your shields recharge while sprinting away from combat! This provides people an extra incentive to simply run away, disengage and break the combat loop where they feel they have the disadvantage. This behavior in non-slayer objective games to me, is toxic. Players are caring far too much about a singular death, to help their KD at the expense of playing the actual objective.
I’m interested in hearing people’s arguments, but to me, these players are not good teammates and are simply not fun to play with. Sure, we can choose not to chase them, we can tell them to play the objective, but it is sweaty, over serious, and just generally unhealthy for the community, in my opinion. I have a group of friends that I finally got to play Halo more again, and they are enjoying Big Team Battle and SWAT more than other modes we typically enjoyed. For me, I just want to have fun in Quick Play and BTB so badly, but the sweat is real and I cannot just turn off my brain and have that casual fun. It breaks my heart.
Working to stay optmistic but I’m not convinced any of the latter will be addressed. If not, back to the MCC.