The game itself is fun, yes, but players like to be able to show off their spartans. To look unique in a universe that 343 themselves want our individual character to be a player in.
Not to mention, grinding for cool armor is also part of enjoyment for some people like myself. I can play games for fun yeah, but I like to have something I’m working towards. With the current landscape, I’m working towards a rank 100 on the Battle Pass at about the rate of a sloth racing Usain Bolt. Doesn’t exactly feel rewarding.
The difference between buying a map and by the way I don’t remember any of halos DLC maps being $20 or more I remember them being a lot cheaper than that and the reason why it’s different is because the armor kits are already in the game why do you have to pay for them you should be able to earn them from leveling up and playing the multiplayer because that’s how every Halo game has been but as soon as they add a free to play one they immediately litter in microtransactions no one’s complaining that some of the pieces are purchasable the problem is every single piece of gear is purchasable and they’re outrageous prices they’re way too high
The current problem with this format is that once you are done with all the challenges, then there’s no way to level up the pass other than getting 50xp from completing matches, or buying the XP boosts. And what do you get once you play 20 matches to get 1000xp and level up? A cosmetic item (coating or armor piece) that is locked for MK V core.
So of course it would be more better to have some reward for playing the matches, since the current reward for playing the game is just measly 50xp… You don’t even need to play well, just afk like most people are doing.
I myself am fine with the format that you can buy cosmetic items (as long as they are reasonably priced). But the fact that they are locked to certain cores and the plating is just a plain color, it’s not good.
Also the only way to get certain color combinations is to just hope that they add it to the game as part of the store or the pass. And the next pass is gonna come in half a year. They should have instead implemented the primary and secondary colors and cool patterns for the armor, which you could then unlock from the pass.
PS. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy playing this game but the after taste when you either lose or win, feels like it doesn’t even matter. You still get the 50xp… Yey? The game doesn’t feel rewarding at all when it comes to completing matches. The main focus now is to just complete challenges as the main objective.
You can play a game to have fun, but you have to equip the players with the means to do so.
Halo Infinite has a lack of content and choice. Right now we can’t queue up in specific game modes. I’m forced to play BTB on whatever game mode the Game places me in.
If I want to play Team Snipers or Infection, I can’t because it’s not even an option. Sure they might add those in later, but why wasn’t it put in to begin with? 2, 3, Reach, 4, they had no problem giving us all the game modes we expected and wanted at release.
This then ties into progression; being able to level up, earn cosmetics, and see a changing rank is huge in Halo. It gives you a sense of pride since you’ve earned the gear. There has to be a goal for us to achieve that is accessible OR there needs to be more content for us to explore.
Honestly, they need to add playlists very soon and they need a default progression system where you can earn things by just playing the game. You can still make bank off micro transactions without compromising Halo’s integrity.
Fortunately, I have done some calculations in relation to the number of armor customization combinations in the game.
The calculations that I have done are an estimate of geometrically distinct armor combinations and an estimate of the total number of customization combinations where coloring options are included (Emblems are excluded). The number of combinations has been divided into two main classed with the first contained all combinations (including premium content) and the second containing only free content (except for when unlock requirements hasn’t been announced). I have also included similar statistics for the Halo games in MCC and Halo 5.
Game
Geometric
Total
Halo: Infinite
287,170,560
235,977,891,840
Halo: Infinite (Free)
73,728
7,893,504
Halo 5: Guardians
9,282
12,464,928,000
Halo: Combat Evolved
1
558
Halo 2 (Spartan)
1
324
Halo 3 (Spartan)
217,904,544,000
1,788,560,497,152,000,000
Halo 3: ODST
16
14,400
Halo: Reach (Spartan)
234,928,512
7,935,205,824,000
Halo 4
797,509,648
6,015,346,082,190,900
Halo 2A (Spartan)
4,096
3,444,736
Halo 2 (Elite)
1
324
Halo 3 (Elite)
1,327,104
35,831,808,000
Halo: Reach (Elite)
8
50,400
Halo 2A (Elite)
81
68,121
Table 1. Number of geometrically distinct and total number of customization combinations for different Halo games.
As it can be seen in Table 1, the game with most geometrically distinct customization options to the player (Elite characters excluded) is Halo 3 followed by Halo 4, Halo Infinite (premium content included) and Halo Reach. If the premium content is excluded, Halo Infinite will land on a 4th place (out of 9). If we instead look at the total number of combinations, a similar pattern will occur with Halo 3 at the top followed by Halo 4, Halo Reach and Halo 5. If we instead remove all premium content from Halo Infinite, it will land on 5th place (out of 9).
Super cool chart! I’m really surprised Halo 3 is the highest, I thought Reach and 4 would surely have more. Unless its MCC Halo 3 then that makes sense
Yes, coloring options are included in the total. However, I didn’t include armor emblems in Halo Infinite (or any other Halo game).
The game with most coloring options was Halo 3 with 27,000 (30^3) followed by Halo 5 with 3,600 (60^2). Halo 3 takes the lead only due to having 3 independent color choices compared to 2 for most of the other Halo games.
Something else that should be noted is that I did not include Visor Colors, Armor variants that only affect the coloring and the number of geometrically distinct combinations and Armor. However, these options got included in the total.
Halo 3 is only in the lead due to the large quantity of post launch content that has been added. On the other hand, Halo 4 has consistently been above Halo Reach despite the fact that Halo 4 hasn’t received as much post launch content and a similar trend could also be observed with the Xbox 360 version for these respective games.
But shouldn’t the total be way less with Halo Infinite (free)? All I’m getting is just 145,152 possible combinations (if you level to 100 from the battle pass). Like how did you calculate the 8 million?
I’d love to play to have fun, but 343 is intentionally leaving out game mode selection because of the way the battlepass challenges are designed. They want FOMOers to burn through challenge swaps on a weekly basis to swap out an oddball/ctf/control point/etc specific challenge after failing to get queued in those particular games.
Instead of gambling addicts being punished for needing their dopamine hit off of the rng of lootcrates, we are now all punished.
Imagine playing soccer outside with your friends, for fun. Now slap a goal-based progression system on top of it, where you’d get new soccer related outfits and accessories by doing certain things whilst playing soccer with your friends for fun.
Sounds innocent and fun right? Now imagine being able to PAY your way to the top of this progression list, instead of PLAYING. Also, progression is tediously slow and broken. Now, ON TOP of the Battlepass, there’s also a little store next to the place where you play soccer with your friends, where they sell you different soccer related outfits and toys for insanely high prices.
That’s where we are today. With Halo Infinite.
Oh yeah, it’s free, playing on the soccer field is free, but the little economy surrounding it? The progression surrounding it? Not free, but imbalanced as heck.
Games can be simple fun. But once they add in these schemes and challenges and goals and sub-goals, where you WORK/PLAY towards progression, the FUN part becomes complicated. And adding or pushing people to spend actual money to basically cheat, makes everything sooooo much worse.
It’s not over cosmetics it’s over the fact that there are literally none in the game that you can get for free and they are way overpriced the prices are why everyone is irritated not the cosmetics the cosmetics are great I really like a lot of them but I am not paying for any of them not until their prices go way way down because I’m not paying for something that is a tiny little digital item see if it’s the game and it gives you all of those cosmetic items along with the campaign yeah that’s worth the 60 bucks because in the long run you will be getting your money’s worth but a single helmet or a keychain to go on your guns being $10 to $20 is outrageously overpriced and you will not be getting your money’s worth no matter how many times you say it was worth its price it’s not stop defending the overpriced cosmetics that’s the reason why a lot of developers will just continue doing stuff like this because people will defend it and say well why does it matter because it’s overly priced that’s why it matters you’re literally letting them get away with charging you $20 for a color that should be free because it’s a color
I am smart enough to know this is the standard business model these days for shooters and smart with my money to not spend on 20 different skins that I will never even use I’ll happily take the free maps instead
I’ll happily take the free maps instead