Halo: Infinite | 2021

[DEADWOODZ]

 

[Jason]

The last mainline Halo game was 2015, so presumably 343 have been working on this for six years now.

 

The gameplay is good, so no complaints there, but content wise... how the hell have they mucked it up so much? Six years and we got something like 12 maps total, 3 maps for BTB, co-op campaign up to 5-6 months after launch and Forge later.

 

Mind blowing really, it honestly is lol. Gutting as well as I am really looking forward some co-op Halo.

[DEADWOODZ]

Not done that much of the multiplayer, is there team swat and team snipers? I just get thrown into CTF or Oddball matches.

[Mister Pink]

Had a good day of some Halo today. Finally jumped into some ranked games. I'm shocked that I'm actually doing OK, and most of the time I'm finishing with more kills than deaths which is a huge achievement for me as I consider myself terrible at online PVP. There's a glimmer of hope for me. Had a good few games of CTF returning a couple and intercepting some as well as scoring high on kills. Perhaps it's a flukey day and I'll just bomb next time. 

 

My favourite has to be the big team map (High Power) although finally got to play the other maps that just weren't coming up for me before.  I think my favourite game is Stockpile. I'm really loving the maps and some of the verticality of them. Being able climb up on ledges and rocky parts is really handy. I do enjoy big, open play with long-range but I did enjoy the close-combat of Aquarius and Streets. 

 

Slightly off topic.. 

 

I committed a sin as well. I actually bought a multiplayer skin for my online character. Whatever Xbox are doing, it's working. I payed for the premium pass for Horizon 5 and I've bought some skins for Halo. Although I'm mostly against microtransactions in general, especially when they are implemented in bad taste - but I think some unique skins isn't all bad. I'm also just a happy customer. I think I'll buy this game and Horizon 5 in case I leave my Game Pass to run out for a bit. They're also games I want to own. I think they both have a lot of value in them and will for a few years. 

 

 

 

17 hours ago, DEADWOODZ said:

Not done that much of the multiplayer, is there team swat and team snipers? I just get thrown into CTF or Oddball matches.

Not yet, me thinks. But here's a good link to all modes/maps

https://www.ginx.tv/en/halo/all-halo-infinite-multiplayer-game-modes-per-map

 

EDIT: Let's take a moment to appreciate the details in Infinite's Recharge map. 

 

 

Edited November 20, 2021 by Mister Pink

[Testarossa]

I believe SWAT is being added pretty soon, it'll just be renamed to Tactical for what I'm assuming, political reasons. There's also a few more gamemodes coming at launch in December like Elimination and Attrition, as well as Fiesta variants.

 

 

[Mister Pink]

Haha!   that's one way to capture the flag

 

 

 

Edited November 21, 2021 by Mister Pink

[DEADWOODZ]

Straight chills...

Don't bother watching if your going in blind. I reckon the nostalgia is gonna be back for a lot of fans.

 

Edited November 25, 2021 by DEADWOODZ

[FullMetal]

Never been a big halo fan. I enjoyed some local multiplayer in the 360 days over at my friends their places and had fun. But never really got hooked.

Decided to check Infinite's multiplayer after COD Vanguard and Battlefield 2042 are mediocre at best.

This game might beat MW2019 as best AAA shooter in a long time. Thin on content, shamefully no filter to only play specific modes (I just want to be able to play Oddball or CTF back2back) but honestly for a free multiplayer experience this is fun.

Had such a blast I instantly bought the Masterchief Collection on STEAM lmao. Time to catch up on Halo.

[Jaysahnn23]

I have had a blast play Halo Infinite, haven’t had fun with a halo game since reach. It feels like the old halo games but modernized. It’s way more fun than BF 2042 which is a bit of a mess rn. The only problems I have is a lack of diversity of modes and t leveling up the battle pass. I’d say if you haven’t tried, give it a go.

[Mister Pink]

It's finally December than this day next week we will be playing Halo: Infinite story. I'm excited to say the least. This is really the first Halo I've ever anticipated and got excited for. I used to detest the series but over many years I changed my mind and have grown to like it. Infinite is just so much fun multiplayer-wise. I can't wait to actually have more fun with the grapple in a singleplayer environment. 

 

This video has actually a few things I didn't know were possible.

 

Also, from the comments: 

• Pressing up on the D-Pad will ping how many enemies are in a specific location for the rest of your team.  
• Pressing down on the D-Pad will scan the area for anything the player can interact with and can be useful to check if a weapon is available instead of going to physically check.

Edited December 1, 2021 by Mister Pink

[DEADWOODZ]

Well, the launch trailer dropped yesterday. Kinda looking forward to actually jumping back into a Halo campaign.

 

 

Edited December 1, 2021 by DEADWOODZ

[_iPhaze]

It looks and feels great but they have a lot of work to do. I am spending most my time on BTB. I hate how we are forced to play modes we don't want too but hey, they'll fix that I'm sure. Battle pass was feeling way to hard to level up too. 

 

Hell I even downloaded the MCC and am running through them all again. Classics. Feel free to add me, I'm on a lot. 

 

CWB iPhaze

[Jason]

Woof, sounds like the honey moon period is over. They're getting a lot of stick for the issues with the game and their excuses range from weak to damning.

 

Their reasoning for them not putting up new playlists starts with them needing testing etc, which is whatever, okay, not a great excuse (it should not be difficult to just do a TDM playlist in 2021...) but then they start saying they also can't add new playlists because of UI limitations.

 

.... wha?

 

The community managers big wall of text lists a bunch of things they are not happy with right now that all need, essentially, reworkin... so why the hell did they release the game then? Then they have the crappy monetisation model, then start throwing out "it's f2p, we need to make money" etc and all the usual tripe. It's a big old yikes. He also touched on fans asking what they were up to for 6 years and they basically summed it up to "you don't know, I saw devs working their arse off". Uhhhhh okay.

 

Six years of development and they launched a game missing maps and playlists and key features such as co-op story and Forge, and they designed the game in such a way where changing stuff live is basically not possible because of how they built the game.

 

343 are a mess. MS need to take Halo away from them or rebuild the leadership in that studio, cause it's no where near good enough for Microsoft's premier FPS franchise.

[Mister Pink]

I didn't see anything about that until I searched. And my suspicions confirmed.. Reddit, lol

 

OK, as I'm writing this post, I find an article in Forbes by Paul Tassi. 

 

Halo: Infinite subreddit locked for being too toxic. 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2021/12/05/the-halo-infinite-subreddit-has-been-locked-for-being-too-toxic/?sh=2170965f5677

 

This why I never spend time for gaming on Reddit. I often found the place to be really negative. I remember when I used to talk to my friend about gaming and he would always have these really negative takes on games. But he also got a majority of his gaming news from Reddit. For someone reason, I find that whole place really negative when it comes to gaming and I love Reddit. I'm not sure if the claims are true but Tassi says there were personal attacks from fans, threats and even doxing. Gamers and people on the internet can be a fickle and cruel bunch. 

 

For those interested. Some excerpts from the Halo community manager

 

Quote

“First, I’m going to stress again that I 100% understand and generally agree with the frustrations most are expressing even if I don’t agree with the attacks and ways in which some choose to express those feelings,” explained Jarrad. “Call me a perfectly balanced person, a liar, corp speak, etc. as you want, but I’ve never lied to this community and never will. And I’m not saying myself are 343 are a ‘victim’ in any way - that’s yet another narrative some folks here have chosen to apply. It’s my job to come in here, listen, frankly take it on the chin, and despite personally being very put off by the way in which many are expressing themselves, still ensure that we are advocating for players internally. We do that regardless of it being positive or negative and always will.”

On what info players are “owed”:

 

“I don't personally agree we 'owe' folks a detailed dissertation on 'what 343 has been doing the last 6 years' or 'who ever thought this was a good idea', etc.. We have had people working their asses off for years to try and deliver the best Halo game they can amidst very challenging circumstances. But, I will try to at least provide some context for those who are interested.”

“I did not really enjoy having to grind through 20+ games of Quick Play to hopefully get Oddball so I could hopefully win 3 times to complete a challenge. Or, <shudder>, having to get 10 Ravager kills. Is this week's Ultimate Reward of just an emblem really worth the grind? There's a lot of work to do - we are all in agreement there.” And on the promised, upcoming Slayer playlist, which will not launch until next year: “We would love to have modes and experiences that meet player expectations vs. the backlash situation we're in today. I don't believe anyone at 343 thought not having Slayer was a 'good idea.”

 

Regarding not having Slayer, I think this a good point.. from Reddit..

 

Quote

He explains it at length in the surrounding paragraphs. He's saying a difficult decision was made to deprioritize having a slayer playlist because they had limited time and too much work to do before launch. So, they chose to do other other features instead which they estimated to be more valuable given the time they had (I'm not saying that was the right decision, but what indeed happened and not a completely unreasonable decision to make given their circumstances). We don't have the list of features that 343 was considering cutting instead of slayer. But here's a toy example: would you rather have a crashy/buggy mess a la Battlefield 2042 with more playlists? Or the current state of the game: a considerably fun and polished (for a multiplayer beta) game that plays well with limited playlists?

 

It's a multiplayer beta, released early to us for free. It's needs to be refined. What's available is polished and nice. Aside from the XP system that they are revamping and have changed, what's available is great. More will release as the game goes on as was the intention of Infinite from the beginning. 

 

I don't know.. people are really enjoying the game but some playlists and modes are delayed or not available yet despite their being a year delay. I don't know.. If the resources went into making the gameplay great and refining it, that's fine. I can personally wait for modes to arrive. 2 of the 6 years of development have been during a global pandemic. I can't be so critical. Who am I to say what 343 should or shouldn't do. I don't know all the internal workings. The level of entitlement from some gamers it's atrocious - especially as it released early and for free. Like if they didn't release it early team death matches and playlists would be releasing 3 weeks later - and a little bit longer for Slayer/death matches.

 

Point is, that there is a way to be critical and give feedback and unfortunately "fans" were cunty about it. I don't think Reddit is representative of the views of the larger player base. It's like Twitter. People just want to be outraged but it's not really the representative of the bigger picture in how most people actually feel. 

 

Am I saying 343 are innocent? No. But I think the backlash is mostly childish and unwarranted. Certainly threats, doxxing and things like that are reprehensible. I appreciate people can be frustrated but these guys are throwing tantrums like babies. Like they are owed something from 343. 

 

 

 

 

[Jason]

12 hours ago, Mister Pink said:

I didn't see anything about that until I searched. And my suspicions confirmed.. Reddit, lol

 

It's a bit silly to dismiss criticism in this amount cause of the source. Reddit is where a lot of it has become centralised as it's become a the main discussion board for many, many games now. Developers, including 343, use it for feedback as well. Dismissing it when developers use it for feedback doesn't make much sense. There's A LOT of very respectful comments in that thread I read about their opinion on the state of the game.

 

12 hours ago, Mister Pink said:

Regarding not having Slayer, I think this a good point.. from Reddit

 

Slayer is deathmatch and the mode already exists in game. All people are asking for is a dedicated slayer playlist and 343's excuse is, frankly, worrying. They've threw up a load of reasons including them not being happy with the state of the menus. That's... ridiculous in 2021. We're now at the point where live service games are full flow and those type of games now are designed to be able to be tweaked by the developers without even needing patches in many cases. Rockstar in GTAO for example (a... 8 year old game?) can throw up new playlists and modes easy peasy, other games like Fortnite etc can throw up new modes very easily. Halo Infinite? They've built the game in such a way where it's difficult without making overhauls to systems they developed.

 

That's incredibly worrying for a live service game. It extends beyond playlists as well, the entire progression and cosmetic system is riddled with the same issues. It's all poorly designed for the player, and they have admitted it's poor since, but they can't change it because it's been built in such a way that it needs an overhaul to do so.

 

As for it being a beta... If the game was out in a year and this was an early beta test that excuse would hold water, and it's officially out in a week or so. I'm also of the strong opinion that if you are supposedly launching as beta, the moment you introduce monetisation into the game the beta is over, free to play or not. This also ties with the community manager touching on the "we don't owe you" part of their message. No, I suppose they don't owe anyone any explaination... but if they expect people to play their game and spend money in a F2P title, transparency is bloody important.

 

I will never excuse any attacks towards individual developers, that's not on at all, but it's a dangerous line of thinking to dismiss concerns and criticism because a select few went that far. The core gameplay is there, it's fun, the rest of the game? It's archaic. When you factor in the development time, the state of the game, core Halo features such as co-op campaign and Forge then it's very reasonable to come to the conclusion that 343 aren't good enough to develop what is meant to be one of Microsoft's crown jewels.

 

Edit: does sounds like some of that six years was spent in making the campaign, which is reviewing great so far. Looking forward to playing it in co-op when ever that finally launches.

[Mister Pink]

13 hours ago, Jason said:

It's a bit silly to dismiss criticism in this amount cause of the source. Reddit is where a lot of it has become centralised as it's become a the main discussion board for many, many games now. Developers, including 343, use it for feedback as well. Dismissing it when developers use it for feedback doesn't make much sense. There's A LOT of very respectful comments in that thread I read about their opinion on the state of the game.

I'm not dismissing the criticism but moreso the toxic nature of the criticism that almost seems to permeate uniquely on Reddit and seems to spread like wildfire. Like people whip each other into a frenzy of hysteria. That's why I mostly avoid for gaming on Reddit and spend most of my time here.  I've played a few games that bordered almost on people enjoying the absolute sh*tshow of some game not hitting 10/10 across the board. I get it. I've been sucked into it before. My point is that if you live Reddit-sphere of gaming many other people's grievances that might be individually small get blown up into these massive things. It's almost tabloid and sensationalist at times much like the reactions to genuine criticism turning into doxing and threats. I get that it's become the go-to platform, therefore grievances will be spilled there. But for me that doesn't negate abhorrent and really negative overtones of the place. 

 

Once there was a time you were upset about a game you might blow off steam to your friends. But it was kind of it. Or maybe on some forum like this. But now mass, global platform with a mega-subscriber base puts all the extremists in one place. I think the negativity highly condensed in once places as a echo-chamber effect. It's a bubble of voices bouncing off each other, with people feeling very vindicated and justified in their outrage.

 

And there are a lot of respectful comments too. I'm not denying that. And there is genuine criticism and failures of 343 but I'd never say it's as bad as the Reddit mob makes it out. 

 

13 hours ago, Jason said:

Slayer is deathmatch and the mode already exists in game. All people are asking for is a dedicated slayer playlist and 343's excuse is, frankly, worrying. They've threw up a load of reasons including them not being happy with the state of the menus. That's... ridiculous in 2021. We're now at the point where live service games are full flow and those type of games now are designed to be able to be tweaked by the developers without even needing patches in many cases. Rockstar in GTAO for example (a... 8 year old game?) can throw up new playlists and modes easy peasy, other games like Fortnite etc can throw up new modes very easily. Halo Infinite? They've built the game in such a way where it's difficult without making overhauls to systems they developed.

I don't think it's easy peasy.  I think one would be naiive if you thought any game development was easy peazy. I'm sure there's a lot of headaches and desperate "crunch" in the background to get those things out for Fortnite and GTAO. Just that you haven't seen all the trouble to make it work. It think releasing Infinite now as a multiplayer beta is just that. A beta. It's not the finished game multiplayer. What from what I can tell, 343 are on holidays. Now people are complaining they are on holidays. Next thing you know those same people would complain if there was crunch for employees. It's so bi-polar the messaging from gamers. 

 

And I agree with you about 343 seemingly making it hard for themselves to rectify things that seems baked in to the development. I think the XP system and progression was baked in so adding dedicated Slayer immediately would mean the other modes get buried and neglected by players that need to do other modes to get challenges and throws off the whole balance. Or something like that. I could be wrong. 

 

13 hours ago, Jason said:

As for it being a beta... If the game was out in a year and this was an early beta test that excuse would hold water, and it's officially out in a week or so. I'm also of the strong opinion that if you are supposedly launching as beta, the moment you introduce monetisation into the game the beta is over, free to play or not. This also ties with the community manager touching on the "we don't owe you" part of their message. No, I suppose they don't owe anyone any explaination... but if they expect people to play their game and spend money in a F2P title, transparency is bloody important.

 

And yeah, you might have a point regarding monetisation. If it still in beta then perhaps they shouldn't be charging. But then again, I bought a player skin and was and I am still enjoying the modes that are there and am happy with my purchase.  So, really I prefer the option. I know I'm playing an unfinished product. Not only am I playing an unfinished product, I'm playing it one month early than originally anticipated. I have to give mad disclaimers to my clients when they ask to see unfinished work. It's incredible. Even when I tell them that it's not representative of the final product some of them complain like it is the final product. It blows my mind  

 

13 hours ago, Jason said:

will never excuse any attacks towards individual developers, that's not on at all, but it's a dangerous line of thinking to dismiss concerns and criticism because a select few went that far. The core gameplay is there, it's fun, the rest of the game? It's archaic. When you factor in the development time, the state of the game, core Halo features such as co-op campaign and Forge then it's very reasonable to come to the conclusion that 343 aren't good enough to develop what is meant to be one of Microsoft's crown jewels.

I think pandemic really has had more of an effect that people will give it credit for. I'm also thinking building a massive AAA game 4 years into the project's dev time from home isn't ideal. 4 years in for a game this big is normally crunch time. What actually is happening is the opposite of crunch time. It's people working from home. That's setting people up on high speed and secure networks. If anyone has ever done a course in change management or project management they'll know how hard it is move a whole workforce and split them up and have what was once a team-based environment where you can engage socially and professionally with colleagues to working remotely is incredibly challenging. People have less sociability. Less face-to-face interaction. Are facing mental health crisis's and just generally trying to adapt to such a massive change is really hurts productivity. 6 years dev time during a pandemic may as well be 5 years in normal times and 1 of those years is a delay. 

 

I think when we are out of it, people in hindsight will be more forgiving. Those modes will release. Co-op will release. Dedicated slayer will release. It's all going to be there. It's just a staggered release. A staggered release of a game when it's final two years including the delay was produced remotely. This is unprecedented. 

 

Yes, live service games aren't new. Yes, Rockstar can put out new content on GTA Online but they've been doing that consistently since 2013 pre-pandemic. So at least when they release content remotely they've done it a bunch of times before over the last 8 years. And let's not forget GTA Onlines's abomination of a launch too. 

 

What's unprecedented is a AAA company building a game with the final 2 years of development done remotely. And I'm not sure why gamers aren't more displaying a bit more compassion. Like they are going mad over a beta that released 1 month earlier than expected. I get there are genuine criticisms but some context; it's free, it's in beta, it's early access and the things requested are coming and not too far away either.  

 

Sorry for the essay 

 

[Jason]

34 minutes ago, Mister Pink said:

I'm not dismissing the criticism but moreso the toxic nature of the criticism that almost seems to permeate uniquely on Reddit and seems to spread like wildfire. Like people whip each other into a frenzy of hysteria. That's why I mostly avoid for gaming on Reddit and spend most of my time here.  I've played a few games that bordered almost on people enjoying the absolute sh*tshow of some game not hitting 10/10 across the board. I get it. I've been sucked into it before. My point is that if you live Reddit-sphere of gaming many other people's grievances that might be individually small get blown up into these massive things. It's almost tabloid and sensationalist at times much like the reactions to genuine criticism turning into doxing and threats. I get that it's become the go-to platform, therefore grievances will be spilled there. But for me that doesn't negate abhorrent and really negative overtones of the place. 

 

Once there was a time you were upset about a game you might blow off steam to your friends. But it was kind of it. Or maybe on some forum like this. But now mass, global platform with a mega-subscriber base puts all the extremists in one place. I think the negativity highly condensed in once places as a echo-chamber effect. It's a bubble of voices bouncing off each other, with people feeling very vindicated and justified in their outrage

 

That's all fair and all but the alternative is... not listening to community feedback. They along with many developers use social media and reddit as official methods of communication with the community and feedback. Sadly the world is the way it is and there's gonna be d*cks, there's no excusing that behaviour and they should be banned from the community or reported to the authorities if they are engaging in things like doxing and death threats etc. But yea again, this is how they gather feedback and it's dangerous to start ignoring it cause of the bad stuff that goes on.

 

Again it boils down to transparency, they "owe" players nothing, but if they expect people to play and support them then they need to be transparent and communicate with the community and reddit has become one of the most popular official ways of doing that.

 

38 minutes ago, Mister Pink said:

I don't think it's easy peasy.  I think one would be naiive if you thought any game development was easy peazy. I'm sure there's a lot of headaches and desperate "crunch" in the background to get those things out for Fortnite and GTAO. Just that you haven't seen all the trouble to make it work. It think releasing Infinite now as a multiplayer beta is just that. A beta. It's not the finished game multiplayer. What from what I can tell, 343 are on holidays. Now people are complaining they are on holidays. Next thing you know those same people would complain if there was crunch for employees. It's so bi-polar the messaging from gamers.

 

AAA game development is long and tricky, absolutely. But you can't look at these live service games as a microscope because if you do you start to ignore and in many ways support the absolute clusterf*ck of bad decisions that is part and parcel with these games now and it's getting extremely tiresome.

 

These types of games have existed for many many years now and developers have learned many lessons in how to develop and support them, yet time and time again developers release their next big live service game and it's one step forward and two or three steps back. Games are tricky to make, yes, but that doesn't mean we should expect less than the standard of these types of games in 2021. Infinite's back end sounds like it's from the 360/PS3 era where they needed major patches to change anything which these days is just archaic.

 

As for the impact of the pandemic, yes it's a huge thing that has had a huge impact on game development across the industry. So how are AAA developers and publishers dealing with it? By delaying games until they're ready. Again I don't buy the beta excuse as they have monetised the game and the only form of progression, so that's out the window. F2P makes no difference in what you should expect regarding standards, so that's not really relevant to the issues here. There's bigger games that have launched in much, much better states during the pandemic.

 

To put it simply, 343 for whatever reason have once again created a mess. The actual gameplay is a lot of fun, but it's backed up by a mess of a progression system which is heavily tied to the games monetisation which includes selling things that are never a sign of a healthy game such as exp boosts and battle pass challenge swaps - all not helped by the reports that they gutted the battle pass before release so they can sell what would be high demand cosmetics on the store, cosmetics that are very restrictive in terms of what armours you can use them on. Then you have just a general lack of maps, a poor selection of playlists and core features not being in the game for potentially 6-12 months.

 

Personally speaking I am sick and tired of the ol' "they'll fix it" stuff when ever launches like this happen which is all too often. Just... delay it until it's ready. Do proper beta tests where they can actually go in and change stuff before the game is live as that makes things way more difficult. Infinite could've been so much better if it launched when it was ready.

[Testarossa]

First impressions of the campaign is that it's pretty solid. Only done a couple of missions but I'm already liking this narrative over Halo 5's. The open world is a bit confusing at first glance with all these activities but I think I've gotten used to it. Oh and the gameplay, it's so damn good. The sandbox is really the best it's been so far, with all the equipment and weapon choices.

 

There obviously a few improvements to do still, obviously you have no co-op, forge, but as well there's the inability to replay missions, no theater mode in campaign, the tedious, tedious progression system and monetization, as well as the lack of content in multiplayer and the dedicated playlists. But hopefully it'll get there soon enough. I know 343 have been getting a lot of flack lately but I think they'll do things right in the end eventually. This game is so close to perfection, but these issues need to be solved ASAP.

[Mister Pink]

Sorry I can't respond fully but I hear what you are saying Jason. I'm not disagreeing with the state of AAA gaming and the "we'll fix it later" mantra. Unfortunately, it seems that it wasn't so much 343 but Microsoft putting pressure on them to release with the launch of the consoles. It's not an excuse and I'm sure each project is unique but Microsoft needed their flagship title out with the consoles. Even if it delayed by a year. I'm sure 343 felt vindicated in front of Microsoft when the fans complained about the original reveal video. I'm always of the mind developers want to do their best work. It's usually executives making decisions that hamper development. Thankfully Bethesda I'm sure aren't under the same constraints. Even any of the other studios. Unfortunately for the 20 year anniversary Halo has to release. And it can be any developer making it; 343, Bungie or someone else. They'd still be under that MS pressure to release as it's Halo. 

 

 

Looks like Halo: Infinite was really, really big and ambitious and it was scaled back. 2 thirds of content cut? Wow. It's big already. It must have been massive. I wouldn't be surprised if we see some of that content come out in later expansions. I actually feel a bit sympathetic for 343. You want to make this infinitely big next gen Halo and win the fans over and MS is saying "this must release by 2020." You're stuck between a rock and hard place. It can't be easy. And, in the end Microsoft delay the game by a year and the game is still unfinished at release but ends up scoring high across all the major media outlets. MS might still feel a bit justified in pressuring 343. 

 

I've worked 18month contracts for global companies like this. One being a large search engine among other things, and it's a pain. Nobody got promoted or taken on permanently. Not sure why Microsoft were so restrictive. Let 343 do what they need to do to get the job done!

 

It looks like Joseph Staten returning was the hero in turning Infinite around and a lot of the success of this game relies on him. 

 

___________________

 

Anyway, I played the intro to the story. I'm impressed by the graphics.  Some of the detail and animation on those grandiose automatic doors is spectacular. The grapple is so much fun. Overall good experience. This might be the first Halo where I'm probably more interested on online now haha.  I'll replay the co-op campaign when it comes out. 

Edited December 9, 2021 by Mister Pink

[DEADWOODZ]

Any idea if it has a photo or theater mode? I've not started the campaign yet.

[trip]

10 hours ago, Mister Pink said:

Some of the detail and animation on those grandiose automatic doors is spectacular.

Totally.

 

 

I only have a few hours in and I must say I'm enjoying it.  Story and graphics presentation.  Who knew?

[Mister Pink]

Game Awards just started.. we should get more of a trailer for this..

 

 

[Tacymist]

Very early into my playthrough, I just got on the surface of Zeta Halo, but so far I'm liking it. I don't suck as much as I was expecting having played so much FO4 and 76 in recent years. In those games I just let VATS do the aiming for me. But I'm getting some nice headshots, my performance is embarrassing, but only mildly. 

 

 

[Mister Pink]

Seems to be a recurring conversation I've been hearing about playing Infinite, whether it being online or even in singleplayer as @Tacymist alludes to; "I don't suck as much as I was expecting to." I include myself in this conversation. I'm not a Halo guy until recently. I'm not an online shooter person by any means but I'm not too bad online, so far. I'm not playing ranked. Granted, I'm aware I'm probably playing against loads of newcomers to the game. Even so, I'm at the higher-end of average and not hanging around the bottom as I thought I would. I think it's a testament to the quality of the shooting mechanics and balance of the game. 

 

I'm playing normal with the campaign and not NGL, I do get bit overwhelmed at times. It's nice that it feels challenging but some how I just manage to get by. It's pretty suspenseful in that regard as I feel I'm often always on the cusp of dying and then some how I manage it. Anyone playing on hard difficulties? What's it like? 

Spoiler

It's nice to rank first in an online game every now and then. This was one of my best games.

 

 

Also, got a nifty kill in CTP. 

 

 

 

Edited December 11, 2021 by Mister Pink

[trip]

I'm liking the cute chatter from the creatures after they kill you.

[Testarossa]

Just finished the campaign on Heroic. Won't get into spoilers but it is pretty solid. The gameplay is fantastic, I think this is by far the best Halo sandbox there's ever been, I love the new additions they made like being able to throw fusion coils and especially the new grappling hook, even if the range is a bit limited, and the story itself is really captivating and will definitely make some veteran fans happy, though I feel it might be hard to understand for someone that's new to the franchise. I have to give another shoutout to the music, it's so "classic Halo". especially since they reuse a lot of leimotifs, styles and songs originally done by Martin O'Donnell and company in the old Bungie games, everything paired together feels refreshing and new, yet also familiar to those old games. Not to mention they probably have a few things under their sleeves for the future, which I'm excited to look forward to.

 

 

 

[Tacymist]

Uninstalled it. Haven't touched it in a couple weeks now, was in a mood to get back into it today and it ended up crashing while I was taking over another base. Now I had to start all over taking over this base again. So far that's all the campaign has been was taking over enemy bases. I'm sure there is more to it, but I just haven't had the interest to explore this open world to find out any of the interesting bits. I just have a total lack of interest in playing this time around and that has never happened before. 

 

I want to experience the story, so I'll get back to it eventually, but maybe in a few months, or longer. I dunno. I said the same about Cyberpunk and that was back in December 2020, still haven't finished that one. Maybe one day.

 

Anyway, I really like Halo, been playing it almost 20 years now. Always been big on the campaign, but this one's not doing it for me and I think it's the open world. As much as I like open world games, they don't all have to be that, Halo doesn't need to be that. And shouldn't imo.

 

Ugh.

[Mister Pink]

As you all most likely know, Halo will have a live-action TV series produced for Paramount. Although we've had teaser trailers, the first official trailer is coming on Sunday. 

 

https://www.halowaypoint.com/news/silver-debrief-a-new-beginning 

Teaser..

 

 

We have a Halo TV Series thread to discuss over there.. 

 

Edited January 28 by Mister Pink

[Punkd]

There was a rank reset (in the middle of the season) today in halo infinite. Now during my placement matches i had to play competitive matches in teams with 3v4 mostly or even 2v4 ... sometimes my team had only 3 players right at the beginning of a match, sometimes we lost the 4th player several secs/mins after the round started ... this is a f*cking joke from 343, atleast the placement matches should guarantee a fair matchup -.-

[Tacymist]

So I gave it another shot, actually have been playing the past week now and am enjoying it more. I only play campaign, I won't touch mp until they add back Firefight. I don't care about pvp, I just want to do some pve with a team and have a little fun. Warzone Firefight was super fun and I want that added to Infinite.

 

Anyway, I beat the game. The only thing left is to gather what collectables remain, which I'll start doing tomorrow. Some of the open world is pretty nice, it lacks variety, but I noticed some of the big starships in orbit do move around which was cool. They light up at night which is pretty. The open world itself is beautiful aside from all the hexagonal pillars, I've been a critic of them from day 1 but they are better textured compared to the 2020 demo, so there's that. I only hope in future dlc's we move away from this damaged part of the ring and go to a more intact area without the pillars everywhere and with more biomes. 

 

Deserts, snowy tundras, beaches, that rocky Utah looking area from Truth and Reconciliation, a sentinel wall featuring a containment breach. I can only hope this and more is in the works.

 

One more thing though...

 

 

This happens. Every time. C'mon 343.

 

I lied, there's another thing: The artstyle in this game is terrific. The best since Reach.