While I understand calls for patience, I’m glad people are getting impatient about this. People shouldn’t go out and scream on the streets about the five years we’ve been waiting for this game, but we should at least be willing to understand why we’re impatient.
Its been five years, and we know some to little about this game. Not enough to make a pre-order purchase, thats for sure. From the last community post it sounds like they’re still getting their new plan in order, and while I understand that they’re shook up by the pandemic and probably aren’t having a swell time building the game on their home devices(assuming what we saw in July…), the pandemic’s only been around for a good six months. Maybe they were in the process of polishing the game up, and that was vital to the game and so on/so forth, but for the most part we don’t know the full story. But I do know that its been five long years, much longer than the several months they’ve had to go through on this game, and with that I would’ve assumed we would’ve seen something more than what we’ve seen: a chunk of audio recordings for Infinite, 3 cinematic trailers(with only one to do with the story), 2 gameplay trailers(one including the 8m premiere), three musical tracks from the game, tiny pieces of info from over the years, and some fair bit of concept art.
I’d hope for more from a AAA big budget studio that holds one of the “definitive reasons to own an Xbox” while they’re on the home stretch, and now are left with a rough launch window and old plans to reorganize.
I really want to believe this game is going to be good, but there’s red flags littered across the game and its development that just don’t make me feel confident when I should be. My sympathy for the developers can only go so far, because
it’s been five years. And if we can’t even get a screenshot or two of the game’s mechanics in action, I’m going to remain cautious about putting my faith into 343.
At least, till we get some more consistent news drops about the actual game(weather, lighting, gameplay, fidelity, etc.), but that seems like a fair bit away. I think its fair to at least ask for something more substantial from the devs, as long as we aren’t shrieking our lungs out obscenities towards the heavens. There’s so much more they could explain to us, and I can’t see a good enough reason as to why they didn’t talk to us.
Edit 9-28-2020: Something else that I’ve thought about, especially with Superman Kenobi’s post about this topic, is 343’s lack of confidence and certainty in Halo Infinite. I think the worries people have of this game are absolutely not being helped by 343’s lack of direct information on this game. They show us something big, and after receiving some backlash and delaying the game, we haven’t gotten much since. We shouldn’t have to be worried about Halo if we didn’t think that something we didn’t like was going to end up being the final product, and even if its too late to change the very core of the game, that doesn’t mean the fans can’t still offer feedback on those core mechanics and provide ideas to improve them. A fair bit of people aren’t fans of enhanced mobility, and that crowd probably will feel the same as they do for Halo 5 for Halo Infinite. But that doesn’t mean that, if there were to be a beta, or flighting program, or even just some more information on the game’s mechanics, we couldn’t provide some info that’ll help the devs get a clearer picture of a better Halo Infinite. Not as if Halo Infinite is good or bad, cause we really don’t know for sure(but could make some guesses from the premiere of the state of the game), but feedback would regardless offer the devs some insight into more perspectives on the mechanics than just themselves.
343 doesn’t owe us anything, that’s a given. A game studio the size of 343 with the backing it has doesn’t owe us anything, and never will. But if the most consistent thing about 343’s current communication with us for the past five years about Halo Infinite has been Megabloks and prop leaks, then I will be baffled if they expect us to pre-order the game or buy it day one without a second thought of where you could better spend your money.
If we could get something consistent that yells in our faces that we can be assured that this game will be good, that 343 is certain that this game will be good, then I’m sure we would be satisfied until the game comes out, no matter how long. I’m not asking for a flighting program, as much as I believe we should have one. I’m not asking for a beta, as much as I hope for one. I’m not even asking for a trailer every now and then, not for a release date, not for a small ONI Archive-like update on the universe as much as I hope for one. Just a few screenshots and a few paragraphs about varying parts of the game(story, mechanics, etc) on a regular basis, like the monthly development update for MCC but smaller, is all 343 would probably need to do to quell the fanbase’s concern. That said, given the recent Community Update post, I think they’re trying hard to get something together for us. I wouldn’t know their plan, but whatever it is, I think this’ll die down once it shows up. Unless its one big drop and we’re left starving until the next one, then we’re gonna get antsy all over again.
We’ll just have to wait n’ see, really. Maybe 343 takes what we say here in consideration at least.
