Halo infinite
Before we jump in, I want to give a BIG congratulations to the 343 team for hitting the 20 Million player mark!
This is a huge milestone for Halo and 343 to hit that mark two months into the game’s release, especially with the drama surrounding this game. You see, Halo was originally scheduled to be released in November of 2020 and was set to be the title paired with the launch of the new Xbox Series consoles. There was a lot of hype building around the return of our beloved Master Chief. In e3 2020, 343 released their first look at gameplay of Halo Infinite and WOOO BUDDY did the internet let them have it. The game was getting blasted for it’s dated graphics to the point where you could put a side by side comparison of Halo Infinite with Halo 3 and you couldn't tell the difference. Halo 3 came out in 2007.. To 343’s credit, they took the heavy criticism in stride and announced a full year delay on the game shortly after. I was happy with this because people will always forgive delays if it is a good game, but gamers won't forget games that are released too early and are unplayable. 343 reached out to The Coalition who are responsible for the Gears of War series, and are touted as some of the pioneers in the graphic fidelity aspect of games. 343 got to work and went quiet for most of the year, until e3 2021, where we finally got to see if it was worth the wait. AND MY GOD IT WAS! The game looked gorgeous and also felt like they were going back to their halo roots with how the combat felt. For the months following the new reveal they released test flights for the multiplayer. The flights ran smoothly, the controls felt responsive, and the essence of halo combat felt like it was back and better than ever. The hype and excitement for Halo Infinite Multiplayer was at an all time high and we hit the ground running when multiplayer released in November. So after a couple months of Halo Multiplayer under my belt, I feel like I can finally say what is desperately needing to be said. Dear 343.. WHAT THE FUCK
Now before you go about thinking I'm here to just trash Halo Infinite, I want it to be known that this criticism comes from a place of love. At the game’s core, it is an amazing game with stunning visuals, responsive controls, and the first time it has felt like a true halo game in a long time. As someone who has played Halo since 2001, i’ve seen the good the bad and the ugly, and want nothing more than to see this game succeed. The gaming industry is a healthier place when Halo and the Master Chief are at the top of their game. It is why all of this becomes even more frustrating because it feels like 343 shot themselves in the foot and can’t stay out of their own way.
Let's kick off the frustration train with what I personally think is the biggest head scratcher of them all, and that is the offensively low amount of maps and playlists. The game launched with 10 maps, which doesn’t sound bad until you break it down. 4 of those maps are large scaled maps for big team battles, which for me is a game mode I don't touch because it's just a rat race for who can get to vehicles first. So that leaves us with only 6 maps to play on with no idea when more maps are coming. I don’t understand how a developer can release 20 multiplayer maps in Halo 5, and then in the next game have half of that. I don't even care if they port over iconic maps from past Halo games, because the game mechanics in Infinite feel so good that it would be AMAZING to play Infinite on iconic maps like midship, lockout, and Ascension.
Not only is the game dying to have more maps to play, my sanity is also dying with the lack of playlists this game offers. At launch they didn't even have a team slayer playlist and claimed it was because they wanted fewer playlists to stress test their servers.. Which is ironic because team slayer is hands down the most popular playlist of any multiplayer game and would be a great way to.. I don’t know.. Stress test your game?! They added slayer a couple weeks after launch, but what makes it so frustrating is that they have only one ranked mode.
The reason why this is so frustrating is because when you play social playlists you get matched up with anybody so you can have lobbies mixed with stupidly good players and players who have never played halo. It leads to a lot of games having the outcome of either getting rolled or rolling the other team. With Ranked, the more you play you get an MMR score or a Multiplayer Matchmaking Rank. This allows you to get paired with players a little closer to your personal skill gap and leads to more competitive games. Halo Infinite only has Ranked Arena, which is a randomized playlist of team slayer, CTF, Strongholds, and oddball. So you basically have to cross your fingers and hope that you get the game mode that you’re wanting to play, but there's the very real chance you can play an hour of ranked arena and never get a team slayer game.
It blows my mind that they do not have at the very least a ranked slayer playlist, because what happens is these players queue up for ranked arena but treat each mode like team slayer because all they want to do is frag out. You end up losing because half your team is playing slayer while the other team is running your flag back to their base.
To add insult to injury, 343 had to pull CTF from the map, Behemoth, because the spawning spots were broken. To give perspective, Halo 5 has Ranked Arena, SWAT, SLayer, Free for all, elimination, 2v2, and duo arena. Halo Infinite just has Arena.. Please for the love of god give us more maps and playlists.
Next on the list of things that could have been avoided, we call up to the stage the issue with Desync. Desync is where the server does not register exactly where you are on the map. This translates to you being behind a wall but the server thinks you're standing out in the open. So on your screen you’re standing behind cover, but on your opponent's screen, you’re squated out in the middle of nowhere and next thing you know you’re seeing the respawn timer on your screen when you thought you were safe.
To give you all a better visual of what that can look like, check out the link in the description to see a side by side visual of desync. This has led to a ton of games where I am shooting an enemy in the chest and none of those bullets register, because the player is actually 3 meters to my right, but on my screen he’s right in front of me. You cannot be a competitive shooter with esports tournaments and have desync issues like this. Oh, and there’s no word on when it is getting fixed, other than the statement that they are looking into it. If the lack of maps and playlists wasn't enough, this issue quickly became the straw that broke the camel's back.
These glaring issues are going to be what causes players to fall out of love with this game and it's so unfortunate because at its core the game is fantastic, but 343 finds ways to make you hate it. These mistakes are fixable and aren't rooted in the foundation of this game, but the longer they take to address these issues, the more difficult it becomes to win those lost players back.
The last part of criticism that this game deserves is the convoluted battle pass and customization system. 343 sold us the idea that the battle pass will never expire thus giving you the ability to complete the battle pass at your own pace. They also said that you’ll unlock battle pass levels through challenges. In my head, I'm thinking “okay, the challenges will likely be “get a double kill” or eliminate 10 spartans”. But when this game was released, they created challenges that were borderline gatekeeping.
Most challenges were so specific that it felt like they were forcing you to play halo in very niche ways. For example, get 10 shotgun kills in fiesta. So you’re telling me if I want to level up my battle pass, I not only have to find a specific gun within the game, but also only be able to complete the challenge playing a specific game mode?! I’ve never played a game where the progression system was forcing you to play certain game modes to unlock items.
Nothing about their progression system is performance based, so you can have a 20 and 3 game but since you played on team slayer and not on fiesta, guess what you get no XP towards your progression. Why did this game become about completing pointless objectives versus rewarding you for winning or playing well in a match? There is absolutely nothing rewarding about losing 3 games in a row playing a game mode you don’t want to play, all for 250XP? It takes 1,000 XP to level up one rank so you can see how that can make you want to pull your hair out and stop playing.
Add to the fact that they do timed events with new gear, but you can only unlock the new gear by playing a limited time game mode. So once again, if you want the cool new gear, you have to play a game mode that they’re forcing you to play instead of just letting you unlock them across any playlist. Oh, and that game mode you were forced to play? That will be gone once the timed event expires too, so if you loved the game mode haha too bad!!
I would be okay with this system if they simply didn’t force you to play certain game modes to unlock them. I don’t care if i have to eliminate 10 spartans to complete a challenge, but don't make me do it only on Big Team Battle.
Lastly is the lack of customization options for your characters. You have the option of three different armor sets, with each set having their own unlockables. The kicker is that you cannot mix and match these item sets, so there's a very real chance that you'll be unlocked armor items for a gear set you dont want to use. Isn't that fun?!
Overall, this game is one of the best shooter experiences at it’s foundation but once again 343 industries can’t get out of their own way. They dropped the ball with the launching of Master Chief collection, Halo 5, and now Infinite’s multiplayer. This is a game that I want to love SO much and have been playing it this long because the gameplay is that good, however I often find myself ending my sessions short because of these issues I listed above. The fact that the gameplay keeps me coming back even with these frustrations gives me hope, but for right now, Halo Infinite is going on the shelf until they fix desync and add more maps and playlists. I plan on checking into this game every month or so to see what improvements they make and I promise you I will scream from the mountaintops when it is time to hop back into this game. Until then, there’s plenty of other games to play that won't cause unexpected hair loss.
Are you as disappointed as I am with how 343 has handled the launch so far? Sound off in the comments and let me know what you think! This has been Josh Robinson with Joystick Gamer, thank you again, and as always.. Stay Gaming Out There
