What ‘baffling decisions with the gameplay’?
Strongly disagree. After years of everyone shrieking that Halo was ‘dead’ and the fanbase had moved on, launching F2P was a surefire way of getting a large player base, and then keeping them hooked with the gameplay. And it’s worked. There’s more PC concurrents on Infinite than Battlefield 2042.
there’s no evidence that it’s ‘gone crazy with microtransactions’.
Imagine buying and playing Doom and Doom Eternal for $60 for essentially Single player alone, but drawing the line at a massive Halo campaign for $60.
I don't understand what you're trying to argue here. I'm over it as 343 just doesn't seem to get it, but I'll waste my time to list a few things.
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no 1-50 yet again.
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no base exp progression system like the other games. But, oh thanks for the 50xp whether I win or lose... Doesn't even incentivize the slightest bit trying to win.
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challenges that direct people away from the goal of winning/team play toward stupid unrelated tasks. One big reason ranked is garbage.
-bad ban system again. Why did this never seem to come up as a problem when I played Bungie's games? 343 trying to implement a solution for something that wasn't a big problem to begin with.
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no lifetime stats at all.
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sprint added in yet again.
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bloom added again
-scope glint on BR's? dafuq. 343 loves making Halo less competitive. Even the sniper glint should be removed. Was the bullet trail not a good enough mechanic?
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not separating playlists. 343 has always been shit with deciding rules and playlist configurations, even in MCC it was terrible until they finally put in place the browser. Now I have to play random gametypes in ranked, why? I can't play just Slayer, FFA, Team Snipers, Swat, Doubles, etc. Also, they still gonna forget about Invasion? They wanted their stupid monetized gametype warzone to replace Invasion but it was a bust.
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no player collision. Antithetical to Halo's core gameplay and creative fun. Should be in the game no matter what.
-no friendly fire. Again, part of what makes Halo's gameplay flow the way it does is having friendly fire. You have to engage in a smart manner to be successful. This should be standard in every mode.
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maps suck. Per usual 343 can't make good maps that flow well
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random power weapon spawns. This is garbage and Halo is about weapon control and getting good at it. BTB really suffers because of it.
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player outlines shouldn't be there. There was nothing wrong with the red v blue and shield lighting up and popping as a system. Needless change that is worse than the original system.
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customization completely locked behind pay walls. First free helmet you can unlock is at level 81. Personally I don't care about customization, but it was a core feature stripped for monetization, just like MP was.
That's off the top of my head, I'm sure there's more I can't think of right now.
Well, going F2P was a step in the right direction. We’ll see how the next few months shake out.
How can you say F2P is a "step in the right direction." That's only the case if you're a suit raking in the bonuses. Keep supporting this crap if you want the whole AAA industry to turn into the mobile market.
$60 in the past got you:
Halo CE - Campaign and local MP
Halo 2 - Campaign and MP
Halo 3 - Campaign and MP
Halo 4 - Campaign and MP
Halo 5 - Campaign and MP
Today
Halo Infinite - Campaign
Oh, but the MP is free you see? Only if you're too dumb to realize they made this change entirely to swindle the player. Experience gain is a snails pace even compared to other F2P games. Take MP out of the normal package and monetize the shit out of it so you can make even more money at the expense of the player and the game's integrity. They even marketed "be your own spartan" expect that's only possible if you pay since everything is behind a paywall now. Man, that really is a "player first" focus.
Not to mention how stripped down the game is just so they can drip feed content over years. The game should have shipped as a full package as it has in the past. There's no excuse for releasing sequels with far less content (just like 2042 did) especially with a long delay. The progression systems in-game and all customization have been made worse for the sake of piñata-ing customers. The game is worse off for it and certainly won't last 10 years as planned the way it is.
