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ATP: Halo Infinite

Chukhopops

Member
H5 Campaign ranks higher than Infinite and ODST?????


giphy.gif
I preferred H5 because it has more variety, I really liked some of the environments and the encounter design, while linear was very well crafted imo. Also I liked the Guardians as an idea, classic sci-fi trope but done well.

ODST I just hated it, to me it’s not a proper Halo game but a spin-off into something different, many liked it but I found it incredibly boring.
 

Krappadizzle

Gold Member
The MP deseperately needs more maps. I really like about 90% of the maps in the game, but it's already at the point where we need another 5 or 6 in the rotation as it's getting stale. I was really surprised when the game had it's early MP launch that the game shipped with as few maps as it did. Figured, they MUST have a bunch getting ready for release proper and that never happened. I've kind of put the game down as a whole as I"m just bored with it, even though I want to play it. Almost all of my friends have quit altogether. The MP is very fun, it's just half delivered.

I wish they had waited honestly to release until at a minimum Forge was ready to go and the co-op MP was good to go. Loved the campaign, but I won't jump back into again probably ever until the the co-op is there.
 
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ZehDon

Member
Didn't take long before the hate started. This happens quite literally at ever Halo release. If I could get a nickel for the amount of Pistol conversations that happened between Halo 2 and Halo Reach I would be a millionaire. Seriously people complain about every nook and cranny of Halo. The game is great, the gameplay is excellent, and the game will continue to grow. It takes time to develop more, give them the time they need, it released in November and programming is hard.
They had six years and two prior attempts to get this right. This isn’t “hatred” this is an honest assessment of the game. The multiplayer is fundamentally broken, and the campaign is hollow. Sure, the core gameplay loop is solid. Everything else is absolutely sub par. Halo Infinite launched with the least number of features, the least number of maps, the least number of modes, and the most egregious monetisation of the series. This is currently a 5/10 at best, and it’ll take 343i another five years to fix it.
 

STARSBarry

Gold Member
I'm quoting Bloomberg here, and Schreier interviewed a number of 343 staff for that piece.

So yeah most would call that pre production instead of planning but I guess planning sounds more normal for people outside, so yeah 6 years of development.
 
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NinjaBoiX

Member
…monestisation is the worst I've ever seen period…
Can somebody explain what’s so egregious about the monetisation in this game? Isn’t it purely cosmetic and entirely avoidable?

I honestly didn’t even know if had MTX until I dug into the menus, it’s literally a non issue.

But then I don’t care that my avatar has a pretty new helmet or whatever.

🤷🏼‍♂️
 
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Jaybe

Member
Steam user reviews are at 68% positive for recent (last 30 days). I mean that beats battlefield 2042 but it’s rather dismal.
 

Pedro Motta

Member
LOL. Halo Infinite is an embarrassment hidden behind a green metacritic score. Give it a month, and what's left of the community will revolt.

I stopped playing the Campaign when they kept gating story progression behind "Take out 4 guns" rubbish, and on the way to the guns you run into blockages, that themselves were like "press 2 switches to open gate". This was their grand innovation: bloating the game with an empty open world because they simply couldn't make good single player campaigns so they gave up.

MP is on a downward spiral because: content is extremely limited, progression system is pure trash, customisation is the worst in the series, monestisation is the worst I've ever seen period, UI is garbage, network issues (like de-sync) are absolutely rampant, BTB has been broken longer than it actually worked, and cheaters are basically running unchecked - and due to forced crossplay, consoles have to deal with PC cheaters too now. The game won't die because it doesn't have a Battle Royale, it'll die because 343i launched a broken game with no content and charged AUD$15.00 for the colour blue.

343i absolutely dropped the ball. Again.
giphy.gif
 

ZehDon

Member
Can somebody explain what’s so egregious about the monetisation in this game? Isn’t it purely cosmetic and entirely avoidable?

I honestly didn’t even know if had MTX until I dug into the menus, it’s literally a non issue.

But then I don’t care that my avatar has a pretty new helmet or whatever.

🤷🏼‍♂️
The egregious nature of the monetisation stems from two things: Halo's previous games setting a standard, and the brutal monetisation of frustration at Halo Infinite's core. And no, you can't "avoid it" because they tied it into everything.

In prior Halo games, you had a progression system that was XP based, like a lot of games these days. Play more matches, win matches, do cool stuff in those matches, and you earn XP, and with enough XP, you levelled up. You progressed faster if you played better, and so for Halo fans who played a lot, they unlocked things at a good pace. This brought lots of customisation for your character just from playing the game at a steady pace.

Enter Halo Infinite. In the change to F2P, they shifted to a challenge system. Now, no more XP for playing better. Now you need 5 kills with a particular weapon, 3 killing sprees (5 uninterrupted kill streaks) in a particular game mode, or perform a difficult to achieve action like blowing up a flying vehicle with a Tank 4 times. Perform a large number of these, and you'll progress your Battle Pass enough to unlock customisation items.
That doesn't sound too bad, right? Now you add in everything else. That weapon you need 5 kills with? That's a random spawn. You might not see it for 10 matches, and when you do, you still have to compete with every player on the map to get it just to try to complete your challenge. That game mode you need to get killing sprees in? That's random - you can't pick specific game modes, so you might not see it for hours and hours. Driving that Tank? That vehicle is a random spawn that occurs during the last 120 seconds of BTB, a mode which doesn't currently work. When it spawns, it's the most sought after vehicle, and you have to pray the enemies flying vehicle has also spawned or you're shit out of luck. Because you can only have four challenges active at a time - and you can't pick them - if you get four challenges that are extremely difficult, you're now progression locked until the weekly reset.
Enter the monetisation system. You can swap challenges if you pay money. Not getting enough Battle Pass levels quick enough? You can buy Battle Pass levels. Battle Pass doesn't have the customisation items you want? Jump into the FOMO-ridden store where AUD$15.00 colours are locked to one specific armour, AUD$10.00 emblems need to be purchased once for armour, once again for weapons, and once again for vehicles, and slight changes in colour constitute entirely new skins because you can't select to colour specific pieces so 343i can sell vast numbers of duplicates.

All of this leads to the monetisation system incentivising 343i to make the challenges unenjoyable, to frustrate you into spending money to skip them. And these frustrating challenges leads players to game 343i systems to complete their challenges to get the customisation items they want. So, at the start of every game you typically see at least one quitter on each team. This player didn't get the randomly selected game mode they need for their challenges, so they quit. You get another quitter about 30 seconds in on both sides when players have checked what randomly selected weapons and vehicles have spawns. Don't have what they need for their challenges? No point playing, so they quit. At about the half way point of a game, you'll get another round of quitters when it's clear their side isn't outright winning. This is because they need wins for their challenges, so it's a waste of time to continue. On top of this, you end up with team mates fighting and competing for weapons and spawns for their challenges. And then we have the players camping to farm melee back attacks for challenges, players not going kills because they need to farm assists for challenges, players using weapons they don't enjoy for their challenges. After a while, this creates a pretty lacklustre gameplay experience in comparison to prior titles. Not because Halo Infinite is a bad game - it's core gameplay is solid - it's because of 343i's monetisation systems.

After the community outright revolted at launch, 343i added a reoccurring daily challenge that grants XP. To provides a small passive amount of XP to each game. Then after players started quitting, they shifted to making it provide more XP for the first six games to incentivise players logging in every day. This just created a swarm of AFKers looking to get the customisation that prior Halo titles provided for free, because the monetisation system 343i made is absolutely fucking terrible.

You can't avoid the impact of their garbage monetisation system, because they built the entire gameplay experience around it. Combined with the atrocious de-sync issues and absurd network connectivity issues, Halo Infinite is a pretty unenjoyable experience. And it'll take 343i years to un-fuck it.
 
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Wimbledon

Member
LOL. Halo Infinite is an embarrassment hidden behind a green metacritic score. Give it a month, and what's left of the community will revolt.

I stopped playing the Campaign when they kept gating story progression behind "Take out 4 guns" rubbish, and on the way to the guns you run into blockages, that themselves were like "press 2 switches to open gate". This was their grand innovation: bloating the game with an empty open world because they simply couldn't make good single player campaigns so they gave up.

MP is on a downward spiral because: content is extremely limited, progression system is pure trash, customisation is the worst in the series, monestisation is the worst I've ever seen period, UI is garbage, network issues (like de-sync) are absolutely rampant, BTB has been broken longer than it actually worked, and cheaters are basically running unchecked - and due to forced crossplay, consoles have to deal with PC cheaters too now. The game won't die because it doesn't have a Battle Royale, it'll die because 343i launched a broken game with no content and charged AUD$15.00 for the colour blue.

343i absolutely dropped the ball. Again.

It's funny to me there concept art and art book of Halo infinite showcases the world that they WERE TRYING TO MAKE, which looks way more ambitious then the game we got. I give the game a 7.3 but that's purely just off gameplay. But beyond that the world that they kept talking about is completely barren it's empty. I was looking at some videos of the art book of Halo infinite ....'



Its always about potential , and next time with 343i. As much as I like infinites campaign i'm actually glad i didn't pay for this game not a cent. My friend bought it for me after i won a raffle.

I give that score because it's incomplete, like all of there games they can never get it right THE FIRST TIME. 6 years they've been developing this and it's not in a complete state the game is super barren on the campaign side, there storytelling needs work and the multiplayer while great is predatory. I don't know if they lack the talent at 343i but there's no excuse too me why it takes them this long and the result is an incomplete game. But hey they made sure to have an online store where you can get cosmetics for 20$ they made sure to have that day 1. Its sad really because I don't think Halo as a franchise under their care is going to reach its potential. I mean gameplay wise , what theyve done with the books and EU is amazing but beyond that the game is decent to good at most , how long have they've been in control of the series again, like this isnt good.


Every time 343i does good they take several steps back. Joseph Staten lied or he played some version of whatever next content is, but it wasn't the mysterious space opera that i was expecting the way he portrayed it. It was still the dumb SOAP opera between chief and Cortana.

I think most of the community is being far to lenient on 343.

I think the studio lacks genuine good leadership and direction because how do you take 6 years to develop a game and its in this state.
 

SkylineRKR

Member
Great mechanics (the best Halo ever had) in a rather empty game with a story that actually didn't make much sense to me. I didn't know who the fuck the final boss was despite beating 4 and 5, and that guy from the prologue?

But the side missions are kind of fun, they're short and the moment to moment gameplay is flawless. It wears thin though. All you do is liberating captured soldiers, killing a VIP or capturing a base. The bases are legit good. You can opt for a sniper rifle, hookshot to the very top of a structure and pick everyone off. Or take a tank (shit controls though) and blast away. I like how you can approach everything.

The biggest letdown is the main campaign. It ends on a whimper and collecting the VIP weapons felt useless as you can't take them with you. At some point the game funnels you towards the ending, and does this in a very bad way with extremely repetitive level design and shitty flying enemies. I feel this has to be one of the shortest Halo campaigns ever. I cleared the entire map but I felt I only did a small few hours of main story in total. So not sure but I wouldn't be surprised if this is beaten within 4 hours.

I don't know where I should place this one. It has the best gameplay in Halo, one of the best FPS gameplay period for console at least. But the rest of the game just feels obviously rushed. Its like they copy pasted the majority of it to get something going. I think I'm going to rank Halo 3 and ODST higher, perhaps 2 too. Halo 3's vistas are still amazing imo, I tried that on xcloud after beating Infinite and the gameplay is obviously dated but the variety in locations etc is unbeatable. I swear the vehicle controls were better also (has to do with the terrain, Halo 3's sections are made for vehicle).

EDIT: Then I even forgot about the MP. Its awesome, the best Halo has been. But with another caveat; its also unfinished and rather bare bones. Forge is MIA. Yeah, 6 years in the oven and this?
 
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BlackTron

Member
I concede that Infinite is riddled with shameful problems, but its core gameplay is still Halo at its best so I'm willing to look past all of that.

They could have had the progression system that everyone wanted, but that wouldn't be worth anything anyway if the core game wasn't right.

343 is bizarrely slow and makes mistakes, but I don't think it's that easy making a game under Microsoft's meandering direction either.
 
Admittedly, my first thoughts before reading the replies was going to be, 'Oh great, another Halo thread where it is weirdly praised as being the best FPS when it really isn't'.

Instead, I was pleasantly surprised to see the rational responses which are it is a good game, but it needs some work and updates to get it going further. I am kinda loathed to compare it to the likes of Apex Legends or Warzone, because it isn't really in the same direct category, but nevertheless, technically speaking from an FPS point of view, I feel these games are offering more in terms of their gameplay and gameplay styles. Halo Infinite feels quite a simple game to play on multiplayer and I think that's fine. But, I do feel like it becomes stale fairly quickly.

I can't comment on the campaign, but I am get the impression that it fairs much better than the multiplayer experience.
 

Krappadizzle

Gold Member
Admittedly, my first thoughts before reading the replies was going to be, 'Oh great, another Halo thread where it is weirdly praised as being the best FPS when it really isn't'.

Instead, I was pleasantly surprised to see the rational responses which are it is a good game, but it needs some work and updates to get it going further. I am kinda loathed to compare it to the likes of Apex Legends or Warzone, because it isn't really in the same direct category, but nevertheless, technically speaking from an FPS point of view, I feel these games are offering more in terms of their gameplay and gameplay styles. Halo Infinite feels quite a simple game to play on multiplayer and I think that's fine. But, I do feel like it becomes stale fairly quickly.

I can't comment on the campaign, but I am get the impression that it fairs much better than the multiplayer experience.
The MP is fantastic, has a pretty great weapon balance surprisingly, looks great, runs great. It just REALLY needs content. Like badly. And it's customization mechanics are awful. Halo Reach really nailed the personalizing/customization while still having that carrot on a stick to keep you playing, what Infinite is doing, is nickel and diming you, without technically nickel and diming you. It's most likely out of the devs hands and is almost assuredly a directive from on high, but it still sucks.

The campaign is awesome though, I really enjoyed it. It really feels like Halo while also evolving to contemporary design philosophies. I don't have much to complain about the campaign other than it doesn't have that FLOOD moment from CE that I was really hoping for. It's damn good, and I just wish there was MORE of it. That and the fact that co-op wasn't at launch. Though, tbf, for what I payed, a month of Gamepass, it's hard for me to complain too much about the campaign. I'll buy it in the future on sale after co-op and Forge are released, so it's a win for me really.
 

NinjaBoiX

Member
The egregious nature of the monetisation stems from two things: Halo's previous games setting a standard, and the brutal monetisation of frustration at Halo Infinite's core. And no, you can't "avoid it" because they tied it into everything.

In prior Halo games, you had a progression system that was XP based, like a lot of games these days. Play more matches, win matches, do cool stuff in those matches, and you earn XP, and with enough XP, you levelled up. You progressed faster if you played better, and so for Halo fans who played a lot, they unlocked things at a good pace. This brought lots of customisation for your character just from playing the game at a steady pace.

Enter Halo Infinite. In the change to F2P, they shifted to a challenge system. Now, no more XP for playing better. Now you need 5 kills with a particular weapon, 3 killing sprees (5 uninterrupted kill streaks) in a particular game mode, or perform a difficult to achieve action like blowing up a flying vehicle with a Tank 4 times. Perform a large number of these, and you'll progress your Battle Pass enough to unlock customisation items.
That doesn't sound too bad, right? Now you add in everything else. That weapon you need 5 kills with? That's a random spawn. You might not see it for 10 matches, and when you do, you still have to compete with every player on the map to get it just to try to complete your challenge. That game mode you need to get killing sprees in? That's random - you can't pick specific game modes, so you might not see it for hours and hours. Driving that Tank? That vehicle is a random spawn that occurs during the last 120 seconds of BTB, a mode which doesn't currently work. When it spawns, it's the most sought after vehicle, and you have to pray the enemies flying vehicle has also spawned or you're shit out of luck. Because you can only have four challenges active at a time - and you can't pick them - if you get four challenges that are extremely difficult, you're now progression locked until the weekly reset.
Enter the monetisation system. You can swap challenges if you pay money. Not getting enough Battle Pass levels quick enough? You can buy Battle Pass levels. Battle Pass doesn't have the customisation items you want? Jump into the FOMO-ridden store where AUD$15.00 colours are locked to one specific armour, AUD$10.00 emblems need to be purchased once for armour, once again for weapons, and once again for vehicles, and slight changes in colour constitute entirely new skins because you can't select to colour specific pieces so 343i can sell vast numbers of duplicates.

All of this leads to the monetisation system incentivising 343i to make the challenges unenjoyable, to frustrate you into spending money to skip them. And these frustrating challenges leads players to game 343i systems to complete their challenges to get the customisation items they want. So, at the start of every game you typically see at least one quitter on each team. This player didn't get the randomly selected game mode they need for their challenges, so they quit. You get another quitter about 30 seconds in on both sides when players have checked what randomly selected weapons and vehicles have spawns. Don't have what they need for their challenges? No point playing, so they quit. At about the half way point of a game, you'll get another round of quitters when it's clear their side isn't outright winning. This is because they need wins for their challenges, so it's a waste of time to continue. On top of this, you end up with team mates fighting and competing for weapons and spawns for their challenges. And then we have the players camping to farm melee back attacks for challenges, players not going kills because they need to farm assists for challenges, players using weapons they don't enjoy for their challenges. After a while, this creates a pretty lacklustre gameplay experience in comparison to prior titles. Not because Halo Infinite is a bad game - it's core gameplay is solid - it's because of 343i's monetisation systems.

After the community outright revolted at launch, 343i added a reoccurring daily challenge that grants XP. To provides a small passive amount of XP to each game. Then after players started quitting, they shifted to making it provide more XP for the first six games to incentivise players logging in every day. This just created a swarm of AFKers looking to get the customisation that prior Halo titles provided for free, because the monetisation system 343i made is absolutely fucking terrible.

You can't avoid the impact of their garbage monetisation system, because they built the entire gameplay experience around it. Combined with the atrocious de-sync issues and absurd network connectivity issues, Halo Infinite is a pretty unenjoyable experience. And it'll take 343i years to un-fuck it.
Fair enough, but none of this matters one jot to me. I don’t care at all about battle pass, progression, skins, daily challenges, etc. I’m not interested. That’s not the point of the game for me.

And you absolutely can ignore the monetisation, I do it every time I play. As I say, I genuinely didn’t even realise it had MTX’s until someone pointed it out.

I just turn it on, click “quick play” and have 5-10 minutes of fun.

You should try it.
 

Jaybe

Member
Fair enough, but none of this matters one jot to me. I don’t care at all about battle pass, progression, skins, daily challenges, etc. I’m not interested. That’s not the point of the game for me.

And you absolutely can ignore the monetisation, I do it every time I play. As I say, I genuinely didn’t even realise it had MTX’s until someone pointed it out.

I just turn it on, click “quick play” and have 5-10 minutes of fun.

You should try it.
Some people want a bit more than 10 minutes of fun from their choice multiplayer game. Halo’s MP falls apart the more you play. Desync, game leavers chasing challenges, people not playing objectives chasing challenges, BTB not working, cheating due to forced cross play/not anti-cheat, they add up.
 

NinjaBoiX

Member
Some people want a bit more than 10 minutes of fun from their choice multiplayer game. Halo’s MP falls apart the more you play. Desync, game leavers chasing challenges, people not playing objectives chasing challenges, BTB not working, cheating due to forced cross play/not anti-cheat, they add up.
Fair enough, I appreciate that some people care enough about what colour their armour is or whatever to go through these laborious challenges. But maybe that’s why they’re not enjoying the game as much as they’d like?

But to call the monetisation “unavoidable and the worst ever” is just patently untrue, I play regularly and don’t ever touch the store, to the point that it had to be pointed out to me.

And don’t get me started on the battle pass stuff. People really pay extra money to get more bars to fill up, so they can put on a different coloured helmet that they can’t even see while playing? I don’t think I’ll ever get the appeal of that, especially when it apparently leads to such frustration.

Just play the damn game and have fun with it, I dunno…
 

Batiman

Banned
Still hooked on MP. I started the campaign and was loving it. Played about 5 hrs and got my save erased. It’s my own fault as I knew about the quick resume glitch and just hoped it wouldn’t happen to me….

TBH I don’t care because I’m still excited to run through the beginning again.
 

Jaybe

Member
Fair enough, I appreciate that some people care enough about what colour their armour is or whatever to go through these laborious challenges. But maybe that’s why they’re not enjoying the game as much as they’d like?

But to call the monetisation “unavoidable and the worst ever” is just patently untrue, I play regularly and don’t ever touch the store, to the point that it had to be pointed out to me.

And don’t get me started on the battle pass stuff. People really pay extra money to get more bars to fill up, so they can put on a different coloured helmet that they can’t even see while playing? I don’t think I’ll ever get the appeal of that, especially when it apparently leads to such frustration.

Just play the damn game and have fun with it, I dunno…
I don’t touch the store and am in the same boat as you, it’s more of a both things being right. For people causally playing, the game works well and is fun and it’s easier to look past the technical issues and the way monetization changes how people play. But for those that will play it as their main MP, that may want to go full in on it, there are glaring issues that need addressed outside or the cost of mtx and battle passes.
 
The things that spoilt the main campaign for me was the objectives in the main missions, they were all very samey and a give a real sense of a lazy, copy and paste attitude. The amount of objectives that had the same fetch Power Cores was ridiculous. I was getting bored by the end in all honesty. The open world is drab too, frankly I look at what other studios are doing and one in particular who’s about to have a major release next month on both new and old hardware and it says a lot.

That’s my main complaints and it’s a shame because I liked a fair amount of other things about it like the gun play, Chief and AI interactions, the music and awesome sound effects. The multiplayer is fun too.
 

ZehDon

Member
Fair enough, but none of this matters one jot to me. I don’t care at all about battle pass, progression, skins, daily challenges, etc. I’m not interested. That’s not the point of the game for me.

And you absolutely can ignore the monetisation, I do it every time I play. As I say, I genuinely didn’t even realise it had MTX’s until someone pointed it out.

I just turn it on, click “quick play” and have 5-10 minutes of fun.

You should try it.
You can chose to not interact with the monetisation systems all you want, but the players who do will actively decrease your play experience. Thus, you cannot avoid it. Sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but if you're only playing 10 minutes every other day, do you honestly think you're in a position to comment on the entire state of the game and tell people they're wrong? I'm sure it's a blast if you're not digging in like I tried to.

As for the "worst ever", I absolutely stand by that assessment. I have never in all my time playing multiplayer games seen a full fledged AAA game release with a monetisation system that actively incentivises the players to not play the game correctly, damaging the overall game. 343i were happy to release a system that promotes terrible gameplay. I have simply never seen a developer harbour that kind of blatant disregard, borderline disdain, for their own game before.
 
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Vaelka

Member
I really hate how they insisted on giving the AI clothes lol, I never thought of Cortana as '' naked '' she was basically made out of circuits...
They just look like people speaking through holo not like AI imo it's very odd and boring.

I vaguely remember this in Halo 4 too with another AI who for some reason was wearing oldschool WW2 pilot gear or something it's very bizarre to me.
It also feels like a very lazy way to '' humanize '' them which was never even a problem.
 
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Graciaus

Member
You can chose to not interact with the monetisation systems all you want, but the players who do will actively decrease your play experience. Thus, you cannot avoid it. Sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but if you're only playing 10 minutes every other day, do you honestly think you're in a position to comment on the entire state of the game and tell people they're wrong? I'm sure it's a blast if you're not digging in like I tried to.

As for the "worst ever", I absolutely stand by that assessment. I have never in all my time playing multiplayer games seen a full fledged AAA game release with a monetisation system that actively incentivises the players to not play the game correctly, damaging the overall game. 343i were happy to release a system that promotes terrible gameplay. I have simply never seen a developer harbour that kind of blatant disregard, borderline disdain, for their own game before.
I agree with you overall that it promotes bad gameplay.

But people have always played Halo that way. People would quit at the start if it was a map they didn't like. People would quit when they were losing. People would quit if they didn't get the sniper at spawn or just betray you for it. They would ignore the objective to get kills.
 
I'd give the campaign a 7 or 7.5. It is a good game, but like I've said elsewhere there is a lot of unfulfilled potential here.

Yup that's how MS operates in world of GAAS.

Look at Sea of Thieves or even Halo 5 now for staggering amount of content now. Or even Destiny 2.

Infinite has potential to be generation defining game.
 

ZehDon

Member
I agree with you overall that it promotes bad gameplay.

But people have always played Halo that way. People would quit at the start if it was a map they didn't like. People would quit when they were losing. People would quit if they didn't get the sniper at spawn or just betray you for it. They would ignore the objective to get kills.
Sure, but one player every handful of games. Now it’s a handful of players every single game. I know which one I enjoy more.
 
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BlackTron

Member
Fair enough, I appreciate that some people care enough about what colour their armour is or whatever to go through these laborious challenges. But maybe that’s why they’re not enjoying the game as much as they’d like?

But to call the monetisation “unavoidable and the worst ever” is just patently untrue, I play regularly and don’t ever touch the store, to the point that it had to be pointed out to me.

And don’t get me started on the battle pass stuff. People really pay extra money to get more bars to fill up, so they can put on a different coloured helmet that they can’t even see while playing? I don’t think I’ll ever get the appeal of that, especially when it apparently leads to such frustration.

Just play the damn game and have fun with it, I dunno…

I play the game exactly the same as you do. In fact it was several weeks of playing before I even looked at the screen to change my color from the default grey, and even more time before I actually understood the whole system. I'll never pay a cent on it and simply don't care.

That doesn't change the fact that the game was structured in such a way that will negatively impact player behavior on a wide scale, so it's impossible not to be affected. The way the game is designed will funnel people into playing a certain way.

Example, I mostly used Halo 1 PC for the campaign while playing hundreds of hours of multiplayer on the free trial. The free trial only gave the gametypes I found most fun, CTF and Slayer on Blood Gulch. The retail server list was full of games like all rockets on Battle Creek or Blood Gulch with nothing but tanks everywhere. For this reason my "instant fun" was more reliably delivered via the free trial because the full version allowed more annoying behavior.

Infinite does more than allow such annoying behavior, it incentivizes it with its bad system. Basically it's difficult to play as a team because everyone is more focused on their stupidass challenges than working together.

You can say "well maybe they should play the game differently". Have fun trying to change human nature. Better off having a game that's not designed to take blatant advantage of it.
 
Multiplayer is fun, and like some of you have said, I won't be paying a dime for cosmetics or battle pass, and it doesn't bother me that it is there. I find that most of my team mates are playing good enough and I do fairly well over all. For people who consider themselves serious, competitive players, who are complaining about team mates chasing challenges, you should be forming your own teams of like minded players, just like any other multiplayer game. Then it should be very easy to stomp all of the teams you come up against which should be full of those challenge chasers that are ruining your teams.
 

Leyasu

Banned
Amazing MP and overall decent campaign.

But, the stench of 343s mismanangement is all over it.

No co-op at launch
Empty world
Copy pasted missions etc
Pitiful amount of maps for MP
Stripped down customisations because they either want to corral people in to the store battle pass or they didn't have the time to finish it. Personally I think both.
Horrendous forced crossplay
No region sever selection meaning high ping unplayable games
Fucking stupid challenges that force people to follow them if they want to progress

They need to get to grips with this sharpish if they want to preserve the community
 

NinjaBoiX

Member
You can chose to not interact with the monetisation systems all you want, but the players who do will actively decrease your play experience. Thus, you cannot avoid it. Sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but if you're only playing 10 minutes every other day, do you honestly think you're in a position to comment on the entire state of the game and tell people they're wrong? I'm sure it's a blast if you're not digging in like I tried to.

As for the "worst ever", I absolutely stand by that assessment. I have never in all my time playing multiplayer games seen a full fledged AAA game release with a monetisation system that actively incentivises the players to not play the game correctly, damaging the overall game. 343i were happy to release a system that promotes terrible gameplay. I have simply never seen a developer harbour that kind of blatant disregard, borderline disdain, for their own game before.

I play the game exactly the same as you do. In fact it was several weeks of playing before I even looked at the screen to change my color from the default grey, and even more time before I actually understood the whole system. I'll never pay a cent on it and simply don't care.

That doesn't change the fact that the game was structured in such a way that will negatively impact player behavior on a wide scale, so it's impossible not to be affected. The way the game is designed will funnel people into playing a certain way.

Example, I mostly used Halo 1 PC for the campaign while playing hundreds of hours of multiplayer on the free trial. The free trial only gave the gametypes I found most fun, CTF and Slayer on Blood Gulch. The retail server list was full of games like all rockets on Battle Creek or Blood Gulch with nothing but tanks everywhere. For this reason my "instant fun" was more reliably delivered via the free trial because the full version allowed more annoying behavior.

Infinite does more than allow such annoying behavior, it incentivizes it with its bad system. Basically it's difficult to play as a team because everyone is more focused on their stupidass challenges than working together.

You can say "well maybe they should play the game differently". Have fun trying to change human nature. Better off having a game that's not designed to take blatant advantage of it.
I hear everything you’re saying, both of you.

But all I can say is that from my experience of playing it casually for an hour or so a couple of times a week, I’ve never encountered any of the problems you guys have.

“People leaving the game mid-match” - rarely happens in my experience, and even if it does, that happens in any MP game

“People focusing on their own game rather than the team as a whole” - ditto

“Disconnections” - double ditto

“Desyncing” - I don’t even know what you mean by that tbh

I will say that it’s kind of annoying being kicked back to the lobby after every game, that’s my only gripe with it to be honest.
 

iHaunter

Member
343 is doing their best to kill this game.

The UI is horrific.

I can't imagine what this game would have looked like a year ago. Feels like a fucking BETA. The actual GAME is fun... everything else.. jesus christ does 343 suck.
Last I played, you still couldn't choose what mode you want in MP. :messenger_tears_of_joy::messenger_tears_of_joy::messenger_tears_of_joy:
 
I have never in all my time playing multiplayer games seen a full fledged AAA game release with a monetisation system that actively incentivises the players to not play the game correctly, damaging the overall game.
Destiny 2 had/has players doing the same shit, right down to weapon type used or modes to play etc. It's a developer control mechanism to force population pools where they want them focused. It's shite, just as you say, and has an adverse outcome on game quality simply to pump numbers up.

EDIT: they did the same crap in Apex there for awhile too. Bloodhound's running off to follow some carrot on a stick when the other two squad members were left holding their proverbial. It was compounded further by having to play 3 games to achieve what you needed as Bloudhound. So one carrot fucked up games for 6 other players across 3 games. Probably one of the worst things I have seen Respawn implement.
 
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THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
For the most part this halo delivered. Where I think the single player faltered a bit was they could have had some epic indoor sections with cool things happening and better graphics, but instead actually where very similar to the repetition and barren walls of previous halo games. I still give it 8.5-9 personally but I could have been a 9.5.
Mayne the single player add on will do this?
 

ChoosableOne

ChoosableAll
I was bored because there was like 3 active maps when I played it. There was no sense of progression, which I usually don't care that much. Weapon variety was scarce. And I'm not a fan of taking guns from the wall too. But it was very fun game to play so maybe I give it a second chance one day.
 

dem

Member
I gotta say... as fucked up and buggy as the game is...

I still love playing multiplayer. Attrition was fun as fuck.


Btw.. am i the only one who despises the menu music? It's like musical depression.
Put something more upbeat in there to get me hyped up for a game.. christ.
 
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intbal

Member
Started this on Gamepass on One X.
Played about 4 hours. Deep inside a FOB after about 30 minutes of combat and reaching a checkpoint. Quit for a while to get something to eat.
Came back and "Continued". Game resets a half hour prior to all that fighting I just did.
Uninstalled immediately.

Absolutely awesome game. But I'll never return to it if they don't implement an actual save system.
 

STARSBarry

Gold Member
I agree with you overall that it promotes bad gameplay.

But people have always played Halo that way. People would quit at the start if it was a map they didn't like. People would quit when they were losing. People would quit if they didn't get the sniper at spawn or just betray you for it. They would ignore the objective to get kills.

OK your so close, but just think about this a bit harder. So yes before this system players would do this, and still do in games. However in Halo players are actually insentivised by the reward system to do things that often run directly counter to the actual objective of the match. A system designed by professionals to try and engage the player base via use of FOMO and other tactics is actively designed to reward you for doing the oposite of helping your team win.

So yes there are people who are just assholes or that only play to pad (or deflate given how its been revealed ranked works) their stats, however Halo actively rewards them ingame for doing so, that is significantly going to increase the amount of players doing that... I was one of them until I went cold turkey and quit. Why would that not be something you would try and fix?
 
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SkylineRKR

Member
Started this on Gamepass on One X.
Played about 4 hours. Deep inside a FOB after about 30 minutes of combat and reaching a checkpoint. Quit for a while to get something to eat.
Came back and "Continued". Game resets a half hour prior to all that fighting I just did.
Uninstalled immediately.

Absolutely awesome game. But I'll never return to it if they don't implement an actual save system.

Yeah this is a good point. Sometimes the game saves, i see in in the corner of the screen, but then it propels you back like 15 minutes or worse. I also had an auto load right before hammer impact which meant I died every fucking time. It was funny enough, but its kind of busted.
 

anthony2690

Banned
I feel a lot of these "hardcore" halo fans just haven't accepted they've moved on from halo and instead off acting like a normal reasonable dude and enjoy other stuff, they focus all their time and far too much effort on hating everything halo related.
 
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I feel a lot of these "hardcore" halo fans just haven't accepted they've moved on from halo and instead off acting like a normal reasonable dude and enjoy other stuff, they focus all their time and far too much effort on hating everything halo related.

Well that isn't going to rub any Halo fans the wrong way now is it.
 
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