I start the match by hopping into the passenger seat of a warthog driven by a 14-year old with a monster addiction. He drives as fast as he can down the road, swerving around friend and foe alike as the chaingun operator open fires on anyone with a glowing red outline. I am doing what I can with my AR, but its hard when your driver is channeling Ken Block to get to the flag. Once we are there, I jump out and grab the flag, as is my duty as the shotgun rider, and hop back in the passenger seat. The driver chugs another White Monster and guns it. We make it to the middle of the map when a SPNKR rocket hits us port side and blows us into the giant hole in the middle of the map. Life is bliss. Halo is fun again.
In recent years, I have found myself becoming detached from multiplayer games quicker than I ever have before. Rainbow Six: Siege is a mess right now, I feel greasy even mentioning Overwatch until Bobby Kotick is gone, Call of Duty is... Call of Duty, and Battlefield: 2042 decided it hates being fun. Maybe in a few years these opinions will change but for right now when I want to just sit down and play a few matches I'm going to pick Halo.
Lets start from the beginning with the first gun you hold in your hands when a match starts.
The Assault Rifle, which has traditionally been tossed out for a power weapon as soon as possible, is actually useful this go around. Many players throughout the history of Halo try and get their hands on the Battle Rifle as quickly as possible because of its versatility in both long and short range. That isn't really the case anymore. If you hit every shot, the AR can chew through your shield and health in about a full magazine. With a consistent stream of lead hitting headshots, you might have enough left to start on someone else before pulling back with a grenade-aided retreat. The BR can kill in four shots. Three to the shields, one to the head. Hearing that, you might think the BR is still king, but in actuality in close quarters the AR is going to win 3/5 times. The community is divided on this issue, and every other things that different about the game from Halo: Reach, but I think its a positive change that hasn't really changed the dynamic gameplay of finding a power weapon on a stand you really like and going to town with it. The change has simply made everyone dangerous. No longer is getting caught with just an AR a death sentence.
That change among many more has lead to a better sandbox. My favorite addition bar none has been the grappleshot. There is something incredible about grappling onto an opponent with their guard down and back smacking them before they even realize they were being tailed. The grappleshot has also evened the playing field against those who manage to get inside a Banshee/Wasp/Ghost and run the table against everyone around them. Annoying Banshee-God who has your ticket? Stop, think it over, and go find a grappleshot to jack his ride. See a Scorpion blowing up any hope you had of winning the game by taking out your warthog doing mach 4 to get back to base? Grappleshot them and make them hurt.
Speaking of vehicles, the Scorpion and Wraith are rare sights on the battlefield. Towards the end of the match, you might be graced by their presence once or twice, probably when the game has already been decided. I would like to see them spawn early once, and maybe again at the end if there is still time. Throwing some chaos into the match early will help get the ball rolling and probably lead to some interesting interactions. I would even throw them in at the beginning once in a while and let them duke it out.
All in all, the gameplay is the best its ever been. Now I'm going to grab the long hanging, wormy, rotten low hanging fruit everyone else has smacked around like a unicorn piñata and get a few hits in myself.
Who ever is the progression guy at 343i really messed up big time with this one. There is no more leveling up as the only thing you have to work towards is completing the seasonal battle pass. Progression is painfully slow and based completely on the completion of challenges that reset weekly. Because of the immediate backlash, a "daily challenge" to play a match has been added that resets after every game. Its only 50 exp, so it only goes so far, but it at least shows 343i is listening. Season 1 is going to last 6 months and include many Fracture events.
These Fracture events, like the ongoing Tenrai event, have their own 30 tier battle pass to complete and their own unique challenges based around the recently added legacy Halo Fiesta game mode. Those challenges also apply to the seasonal battle pass but not vice versa. It has already been stated that we won't be able to complete the Tenrai Fracture for its first appearance but it will be making 5 more throughout season 1. The reason why we won't be able to complete it is because they artificially halt progress on it by limiting the challenges you can complete in each appearance. That is a head scratching decision in and of itself. That seems to imply that if you miss out on round 1, forget getting everything in subsequent appearances. Maybe that is not the case, but it sure seems like it. Will we then see the items players couldn't grab during the Tenrai event pop up on the store to buy? We will have to wait and see to find out.
After Season 1, each season will only last around 3 months. Maybe they anticipated this and planned on making it easier to rank up the battle pass in Season 2 and weren't expecting back lash this early, or maybe that was something that needed more cooking but they couldn't wait any longer. I'm not going to assume further because if that was the case you would think they would have stated this immediately. Instead, they decided to release this awkward, stiff, and expensive progression system that makes other free-to-play games hide their face in shame. It also makes me miss loot boxes. At least those could be earned just playing the game and could give you a legendary skin every now and then. I have a decent collection of good skins on Overwatch and earned about 90% of them (a few seasonal skins drew me in like a bug zapper).
I understand the game has to make money somehow, but this system just feels like a scam, especially considering the price of cosmetics in the store. Valorant has managed to get away with $20 dollar gun skins and $80 bundles of skins but it isn't Halo and Halo shouldn't be like Valorant. The battle pass alone is $10, not including the more expensive bundle that comes with tier skips. Halo is a huge brand that is going to make 343i and Microsoft a lot of money. That is a given, especially with how good the game is. They didn't have to squeeze us for every penny to do so. Drop the price on cosmetics, clean up the progression, and I might even be tempted to buy something off the store whereas if it continues in the shape it is now I won't buy the next battle pass. More will be lost sticking to their guns here then gained and I do truly believe due to the backlash they realize this but only time will tell.
Overall, I'm addicted to Halo Infinite. The gameplay is so solid I am absolutely sold on them waiting a year and giving it a good shine. This makes me more excited for the upcoming campaign drop on Dec. 8th. Until then, I will be plinking away on the challenges, grinding the battle pass that seems to have no end, and trying to enjoy my time with the game in spite of the progression system.
Comments