What about Reach's Customization?

Games Halo Infinite
1

Alright, so earlier on in development, 343i indicated that fans of Halo: Reach’s Armor Customization would be pleased with Infinite’s system. This was exciting news for me, as I think Reach’s progression, personalization and overall in-game economy systems were the best the series has ever seen. I took their hint that fans of it would like Infinite’s as reassuring and didn’t think much else of it.

Until. Reach hit MCC, with a dramatically redefined progression and unlock system than was featured in the original. A linear unlock scheme as opposed to a cR accumulation/market setup. Even some of the armor pieces are literally different models than the originals (Recon and Commando Chest pieces, I noticed- although my pointing this out is more to see if anyone else noticed rather than to bash; I don’t necessarily like or dislike these models more than the originals).

I was rather disappointed in the new progression element. I understand they announced it beforehand, so it shouldn’t have felt like a blindside move, but I had expected Reach in MCC to either take the path the other MCC games did in leaving all cosmetics instantly unlocked for all players, or recreating the original cR progression system featured in Reach. The choice they made to invent a new system leaves me scratching my head. I don’t like that it’s a linear unlock scheme like Halo 4, and I don’t like the “Season” model it’s attached to- although I’m willing to admit this may be due to Fortnite connotations. I understand the implementation of a progression “grind” element to encourage engagement, even if I may have preferred they just let all players have access to all items in the nearly decade-old armory for the sake of simplicity and saving a substantial amount of time. Why not bring back the original model, though? Seemed perfectly “grindy” to me, and left more up to individual player choice.

In any event, this all leaves me wondering what they meant when they first insinuated that players who liked Reach’s Customization will like Infinite’s. Were they only referring to cosmetic/aesthetic design (i.e. the return of permutations and pouches?). Because if Reach in MCC is any indication (it may not be, admittedly, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to speculate on it), it would seem that 343 is testing the waters for “Season” based F2P sensibility cosmetic progression/unlock systems.

Although I certainly would be glad to see the armor design and art style nod back towards Reach, personally, that’s only half of what I loved about that game’s customization. The cR system was awesome, because it allowed players to prioritize and unlock armor in order of how important it was to them, individually. What armor you decided to unlock and rep actually said something about your personal style and taste, and I miss that tremendously. Linear unlock schemes seem to motivate people to just rock whatever armor gives them the highest visual status (highest required level unlock) instead of what they might personally like best (before anyone says it, I know Reach had rank pre-reqs in the armory and a lot of people rocked MkVI and the Inheritor Pilot helmet just to show off as well. Reach is just the game where I remember the most personality and variety of armor online.)

I think it would be a shame if 343i didn’t understand that a lot of us liked more than just the visual design of Reach’s armory. It’d be a real shame if we got back the visual coolness of Reach, but it was tied to arbitrary linear progression unlocks or to the roll of the dice like Halo 5 (I know they’ve said lootboxes aren’t coming back, so hopefully at least that isn’t something we’ll have to worry about.)

Thoughts? Does anyone else miss the in-game economy (cR system) from Reach? Do you prefer linear unlock schemas- if so, honestly, why? Do you think an in-game currency like cR can even coexist in today’s gaming industry, let alone in Infinite, where they’ve already confirmed microtransactions will return in some form?

Thanks for taking the time to read and contribute your thoughts!

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I prefer the cR system greatly, but so long as customization is on par with Reach instead of how restrictive it was in Halo 5 then I’ll be happy.

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they did say Reach’s system, not MCC’s system, so I’ll take that to mean it will be more like OG reach. I do also dislike the MCC reach’s system, it’s too linear, with some things you were able to get fairly quick now relegated to much higher levels in the season path.

If we end up with something in infinite akin to this MCC reach system, I’ll be upset, but I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

4

MCC’s whole take on ‘armor unlocks’ has been drastically different than every Halo that allowed you to cosmetically change your gear outside of just color changing like CE.

For instance; Halo 2A gives you three different Spartan variants and 3 different Elite variants. I care little for either sets as they don’t appeal to me. Of course, this is an improvement because in Halo 2 originally, you could only change species and color. Halo 3 was the first chance we had to actually change our Elites and Spartans. We were allowed to change their shoulder guards, their helmets, and their chest plates. Of course, most were locked behind achievements (busted my -Yoink!- off trying to get the Rogue helmet because I was awful at matchmaking back in the day) and the different parts were sort of limited, but everyone seemed fine with it.

Now we move onto Reach which added like 10x’s the amount of changes you could make. You had the ability to change your helmet, your shoulder guards, your chest plate, your tac pads, and your knee guards. At least, as Spartans, as an Elite, you could only pick from several presets (Minor to Officer which was a preorder bonus I believe). This was the first time we were given the reigns to do what we want and everyone loved it. Which is why 343i tried to carry this over to Halo 4, they just went about it in a different way. Instead of unlocking each piece by simply leveling up, they wanted you to make you feel like you’ve earned it. You could literally earn any piece at any time given enough determination (if I remember that right).

Now, however, they’ve all been crammed into one game and so all of our customization possibilities have been severely limited and I’m not quite sure why. For Halo 3 and 4, you can only choose from presets. You can no longer mix up your Spartan with say a Locus helm with a Pathfinder chestplate and Stalker shoulder guards with Soldier legs. Now you pick sets and I don’t really care for that because I liked making my Spartan feel like it was something I made to fit me as a player. I’d honestly hoped that with Reach coming to MCC, that they would tidy up the customization and expand it a bit.

So I can see why you’d be worried, but the fact of the matter is; they talked about Reach fans being happy with Infinite’s customization layout far before they actually considered putting Reach on MCC. It just happened to be high on the fan favorite’s list of things the community wanted when they had some free down time. So I wouldn’t worry too much.

5

All fair thoughts, I’m just confused about why they implemented their new system on Reach MCC instead of making it something either truer to OG Reach (CR System( or something truer to the rest of the MCC (Everrything unlocked).

I don’t want to be worried about Infinite, but I can’t help but feel like sometimes 343i almost understands something many of us love and miss from the old games, and just barely miss the mark with something like Reach MCC or Warzone Firefight from Guardians, neither of which quite live up to their pedigree. Not too worried yet (since we haven’t seen anything), just wanted to try to get the conversation on their radar if possible.

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> 2533274861158694;5:
> All fair thoughts, I’m just confused about why they implemented their new system on Reach MCC instead of making it something either truer to OG Reach (CR System( or something truer to the rest of the MCC (Everrything unlocked).
>
> I don’t want to be worried about Infinite, but I can’t help but feel like sometimes 343i almost understands something many of us love and miss from the old games, and just barely miss the mark with something like Reach MCC or Warzone Firefight from Guardians, neither of which quite live up to their pedigree. Not too worried yet (since we haven’t seen anything), just wanted to try to get the conversation on their radar if possible.

Perhaps there’s some kind of limitation we’re all unaware of? Or maybe it’s more of; 343i wants to do what Bungie did, but feared they’d come off as trying to copy them? Or even quite possibly, it surely is just them trying something new and missing the mark just the slightest every time?

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@AgentMaryland93 343i certainly does have an impressive track record of almost making awesome things happen with this series. I think some of it is a complex that they don’t want to be thought of as Bungie Jr. for sure.

It’d be interesting to hear if there is a technical or logistical constraint that affected their decision to do Reach’s progression/armory the way they did. I think it’s more likely that they were just trying to be unique and didn’t expect that many of us wouldn’t care for the new approach, though.

However, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m jaded and cynical with this series. I think 343 really does want to do right by Halo, but sometimes watching them try is pretty confusing

8

I don’t like MCC’s progression system for Reach. It would’ve been better if there were no seasons and they replaced the word ‘tier’ with ‘rank’. I haven’t played the original Reach (sadly) but I feel like a currency system would be good. Maybe replace Req points with cR and have packs to buy for gameplay changing things like Req packs in h5 (power weapons, vehicles, loadout weapons, etc.) while cosmetic things are bought like in Reach.

9

They’re almost certainly doing a seasonal, ‘battle pass’ progression system.

10

Agree with OP. I’m hoping for the credit system. Anything is better than slot-machine unlocks, but forcing a linear progression is not the way to go either - for Halo armour at least.

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Battle passes are all the rage right now for games, so they will most likely do that. I would prefer the credit based system of course, it felt the most rewarding and kept me going with wanting to unlock the latest armor pieces.

If they do end up going with a battle pass type mechanic for armor unlocks, I wish they would have some sort of XP gain to help unlock stuff in the main campaign. MCC Reach campaign gives pretty much zero credits/XP for progressing, which is unfortunate.

12

> 2616376926395163;11:
> Battle passes are all the rage right now for games, so they will most likely do that. I would prefer the credit based system of course, it felt the most rewarding and kept me going with wanting to unlock the latest armor pieces.
>
> If they do end up going with a battle pass type mechanic for armor unlocks, I wish they would have some sort of XP gain to help unlock stuff in the main campaign. MCC Reach campaign gives pretty much zero credits/XP for progressing, which is unfortunate.

If you remember that first year you’d know exactly why they didn’t allow xp/cR from Campaign.