I really don’t want to be curmudgeonly but i’ve etched out that niche over the years. This is the most hopeful i’ve been for a 343 game to the point if it receives the fixes I don’t think the population will drive off a cliff in the first 6 months. Cross platform and free to play are big boosts but lets be honest here.
In regards to single player the campaign gameplay in H4 was not good, it was less than average compared to other shooter campaigns let alone Halo. A good chunk of the fanbase hate the prometheans, their bland appearance, their lack of personality, their lack of good dialogue, their unfun weapon sandbox, their behaviour and their sponginess. The Covenant weren’t flash either. Many can disagree but I think the same of H5. Given both games gameplay isn’t all that fun and the only footage we have of Infinites campaign was a PR dumpster fire it doesn’t look very promising. When compared to the campaigns of CE, 2, 3, ODST and Reach they’ve fallen flat so that’s a hump Infinite has to get over. ODST and Reach firefight were a great addition to PvE style gameplay to which Spartan ops and Warzone firefight don’t compare. The single player and co-op experience in 343s games is pale compared to prior offerings.
With regard to multiplayer I like these Infinite maps, I still think the ones we’ve played are a notch below the top 10 maps in any older game, hopefully the full line-up challenges that, I don’t think too highly of what 4 or 5 put out map wise. Vehicular physics in Infinite so far seem pretty rough and that was also the case with 4 and 5. When contrasted against the older games the only game that had worse vehicular physics and feel was CE. Halo 2, 3 and Reach were all great games when it came to gametypes and gametype customisation, by comparison many gametypes don’t see the light of day anymore, which dampens custom game options and offers less variety for MP. Then there’s still the potential some legacy playlists get the H5 BTB treatment and forgotten and pushed to the side.
The user interface is a huge step-up but in terms of fluidity and ease of access Reach has it beat. The excessive audio and visual noise is a pretty big complaint for Infinite moving forward. HUD and medals are also both something that aren’t too hot and while they aren’t the be all and end all they are still important and are tolerable but not all that likeable. Hopefully Infinite improves on file sharing as that’s been a step back from Reach too.
Then when we think about all the issues people had with the flights that either need to happen (aim fix) or many people want to happen (friendly fire, collision etc) that may or may not change at launch there’s still things to consider. Balancing the PC userbase and the Console userbase will be a challenge as MCC did not get it right.
The biggest issue though is that with 4, MCC and 5, they all released broken or with a significant issue and weren’t fixed until many months after release when the population tanked already. 343 speaks of learning lessons moving forward after each game, leaving glaring issues that modders could fix in a week or two cannot happen like it did with those games. This will kill the population and potential of the game, and with a PC audience it would be a PR death sentence given the higher standard and mod-ability of PC games.