Halo Infinite has to compete with other first person shooters like Fortnite, CoD, Apex Legends, Destiny 2, et cetera. Even to a certain degree with the much smaller Splitgate, that essentially copied Halo’s sandbox and added portals and made the time to kill a lot shorter.
But what all those games have and Infinite does not have is items to earn! Besides the battle pass or the occasional FOMO event Halo Infinite only has ONE weekly reward. And for the next few months all those items are weekly rewards from season 1 or 2 that many people have already earned.
With only 1 item to earn each week and 20+ items being sold in the shop, the true endgame is the shop. Something that is incredibly sad for a video game. It is essentially 343 telling us to NOT play the game, but instead work and use the money you earn on Halo Infinite.
In CoD you earn skins/camos/coatings and attachments when you use your weapons.
In Destiny 2 every single match you play can earn you a potential god roll of whatever weapon or armor piece.
Splitgate offers daily, weekly, monthly and seasonal rewards. Even logging in every day and not even playing earns you items.
Now I don’t play Apex or Fortnite, so I don’t know what exactly you can unlock by playing those games, but I know you CAN earn items.
Now some people would maybe say that you just need to play the game for the enjoyment of the game and not for rewards. But what if you enjoy multiple games? You’re more inclined to play the games that give you a sense of progress. And Halo Infinite doesn’t provide that.
Multiple solutions:
- Loot pools. Many games have this. It is essentially already in Halo 5 and this system is very good to implement in a live service game. Loot pools can be expanded every single season and is a good system for earning items and rewarding players for the time they put into the game. For seasonal events or fractures different loot pools can exist. Those loot pools can be expanded every year and that way people playing the Christmas event this year can also unlock items from last Christmas event for example.
- Linear progression with ranks and credits. Essentially Halo REACH’s system. You play the game and you rank up. Those ranks unlock items and the credits give you the option to buy items you’ve unlocked. Now this system is maybe less ideal for a live service game, but could still be implemented. Items can be added to the list of potential unlocks. And here can Infinite’s rarity system be implemented. Blue items can only be unlocked at lower ranks, purple on middle ranks and yellow on the highest ranks.
- Multiple weekly rewards players can choose from. Now the whole system of weekly rewards is not ideal i.m.o. because after you unlocked the weekly reward there’s no more sense of progress unless there is a FOMO event or you haven’t unlocked everything from the seasonal battle pass. But multiple weekly rewards you can choose from AT LEAST gives you a reason to play every week.
In a way, the possibilities for Halo Infinite are essentially……… infinite. The whole armor coating system can be used in a way where you can earn colors or materials and that you can use those to create your own coatings. Just look at the coatings for the HCS teams. All the materials that are used. Armor that looks shiny metallic, matte metallic, even plastic looking. Under suits that look completely different from each other. Also of course weapon coatings for getting kills and/or winning games.
Besides this, everything that is sold in the shop should be earnable by playing the game. That’s pretty much a no-brainer and I cannot believe this hasn’t been implemented after a full year.
SOMETHING needs to change in Halo Infinite when it comes to earning and unlocking stuff. That much is clear.