The Halo franchise is one of the most beloved FPS games in all of video gaming history. Memorably, the first few games in the series revolutionized gameplay physics while also delivering a heartfelt story. The most recent installment, Halo Infinite, was supposed to be the savior of the Halo franchise. Its predecessor, Halo 5: Guardians, failed to live up to its high expectations due to its unpopular gameplay and lackluster story.
Halo Infinite was designed to bring the Halo community back to its roots. With everything going to plan marketing and gameplay-wise, people were excited. When the game hit stores with free multiplayer everyone with a Microsoft console tried it. Unfortunately, within only a few months everyone dropped it except die-hard Halo fans. Why? The game is missing all the content to keep a gamer playing regularly.
Here are the necessary gameplay features and game modes to improve the Halo: Infinite player count!
Better Character Customization
Ever since the first Halo was released in 2001 the options to customize one’s player have evolved. Halo 2 introduced the ability to change a whole armor set. Then, Halo 3 introduced changing your armor, your helmet, and even your alien race with a few different options. Halo Reach had the best character customization in 2010. Players could change helmets, arms, chest, legs, voice, and a few other special cosmetic features. These features could all be unlocked with in-game currency that you acquired by just playing. Halo 4 essentially had the same features but didn’t introduce anything new. Enter Halo 5 and we see a noticeable downgrade.
The only way to unlock gear in Halo 5 was through microtransaction loot boxes. This meant if you wanted a certain type of armor you had to pay real-life money. With this gambling mechanic, players could only hope the loot box they just purchased had what armor they wanted. Halo Infinite got rid of this method to be more customer-friendly but didn’t upgrade to a better system. The game uses the Battle Pass method, which is a new feature used in many of today’s online multiplayer games. The Battle Pass is a purchase made with real money but is far from a gamble. It is a system where you can see what rewards you’ll earn as you level up the Battle Pass. This means you pay a certain amount of real-life money and work towards completing the pass to unlock the rewards they are showcasing. Only people who purchase the battle pass can unlock these rewards.
Rewards in the Halo Infinite battle passes are standard customization skins. With little to no skins available to unlock for average players, this means if you want to customize your character to have your unique look and personality on the battlefield, you must buy the Battle Pass.
Compare this with an older game such as Halo Reach from 2010. This title allows the player to customize their character as much as they please without buying a battle pass. It’s clear to see a regression from this more generous system.
Halo Reach rewarded players with an in-game currency system that increased as they played. Some armor and customization features were too expensive for a lower-level player to unlock. This results in higher-ranked players having their own armor that complimented their proficient skill. Today in Halo Infinite the customization is at its lowest. It forces players to buy color sets that would be free with a past Halo, relies on the Battle Pass method to reward players, and straight-up omits features such as being able to choose the alien Elite race. These were staple points for the older games in the franchise.
No Co-op or Firefight
The Halo series was defined by the option to play with your friend next to you. This feature is gone in Halo Infinite. Every Halo game up until Halo 5 encouraged friends to play with each other on the same console. You could play a split-screen campaign with your best friend or go up against hordes of the Covenant in a survival-like game mode called Firefight. Halo 5 was marketed in a way that encouraged people to get an Xbox because of Halo 5. The developers pushed for a complete 4-player cooperative campaign but it didn’t support couch co-op. Only online play was made available. This meant if you wanted to play with a friend they had to have Halo on their Xbox as well. Halo 5 did have Firefight at least, but it was online-only like the campaign. Jump to Halo Infinite and we have neither. A game that started as a couch co-op-friendly game has made a 180. Campaign mode is designed as a straightforward, single-player experience. There is no Firefight for friends to drop into if they are bored of playing the same couple of game modes and maps on multiplayer. The Halo franchise was designed for players to switch between multiple game modes and Infinite prevents this. Once you finish the single-player story there is no need to replay it. There are only about 12 multiplayer maps and a few game modes with a boring battle pass that offers limited rewards. The game has little to no content and the lack of co-op game modes makes the game feel even drier than it already is.
Where is Halo Forge?
Halo Forge is by far the most creative side game mode a game could have. It is a fully-fledged sandbox mode within an FPS game. Introduced in Halo 3, Forge is a mode where you can create your own maps. Players had an option to choose a pre-made map and then add whatever they wanted for further customization. This meant adding weapon spawns, vehicle spawns, different props and structures, and any other object model found in the game’s code. Players had full control over what appeared on their map. Halo Reach advanced Forge to the best it could possibly be. Not only could the player add more attributes to their custom map but Reach introduced Forge Island. This mechanic allowed the creator to start on a blank slate with multiple empty islands to create a map. Halo Reach also had an option to post your custom map online in a community playlist. Any player could join someone else’s map and game mode. Halo 4 and 5 kept this tradition going and every Halo up until Infinite has had Forge. Like many games today the developers have announced that Forge will be added to the game post-release. However, we’re now 8 months past the release of the game and we still have no updates on Forge being added. Forge is necessary for the Halo community yet Infinite has failed to deliver on this promise. Forge would increase the player count significantly, allowing people to spend endless hours creating their own maps and game modes and then spending hours more playing those maps with friends. Instead, Halo Infinite continues to rely on online multiplayer and strays away from what made the Halo community creative.
Although Halo Infinite is trying its best with little to no support from Microsoft and a studio that didn’t even create the original Halos, it’s sad to come down hard on this game. This only happens when a fanbase has been crafted years ago by playing some of the most creative games created by passionate developers. Then to release a game that could be considered worse than an older model shows it is time for Halo fans to express their discontent with the current state of the game. It isn’t too late to save the game if the appropriate changes are made.
What features and game modes do you think should be added to Halo Infinite? Join the conversation in the comments below!
