Halo Infinite: A campaign video shows an aspect that is already driving fans crazy

Halo Infinite

A short video from Halo Infinite showed off an aspect of the game that is already driving fans crazy, who can't wait to try it straight away. Which? The possible acrobatics with the grappling hook, which look really spectacular.

Posting the clip on Twitter was the youtuber Mint Blitz, specialized in Halo. He will probably have received the Halo Infinite code from Microsoft, as well as permission to publish short films that highlight various aspects of the gameplay, such as the one below.




Watching the video it is impossible not to notice the spectacular stunts achievable using the Master Chief's grappling hook, with which the youtuber grabs a vehicle and throws himself with force towards a group of enemies. We already have a foretaste of what we will be able to do by using it in the finished game. Let's say this tool alone justifies the breadth of the game's open world.

Who knows, maybe there will be real online competitions in the use of the Halo Infinite grappling hook. Meanwhile, we remind you that Halo Infinite multiplayer is already available as free-to-play. On December 8, 2021, the single player campaign will be launched on PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X and S.

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Halo Infinite’s Cosmetic Customization Needs More Work Than The Battle Pass

Halo Infinite

343

Most of the debates about Halo Infinite in its current form stems from issues with the challenge-based battle pass, whether it’s too slow, or restricts gameplay too much by discouraging objective play. It does seem like a somewhat easy fix however, once 343 starts giving more XP past just challenges, and simply ties it to performance/score/objective completion.

But more complicated to untangle is what Halo Infinite has done with its cosmetic system, which promised a sprawling suite of customization with millions of potential combinations. So far, it seems way, way more restrictive than that, plus arbitrarily segmented in very weird ways.

So, what are the issues?

The entire core system, where attachments and helmets are locked to specific armor cores feels overly restrictive. While I understand some attachments wouldn’t work on some pieces of armor from a purely geometrical sense, it’s bizarre to not be able to use any helmet on any body, or to buy something like the Tenrai sword belt and have that only be accessible on a single event-based core.

Worse than armor pieces being locked to cores, there’s no explanation as to why coatings have to be locked to cores when all of them should simply be universal. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a shader/dye system quite this restrictive. This is also true with visor color, I just realized.

Halo Infinite

343

There’s just zero reason to separate out coatings into different listings for armor, weapons and vehicles. It’s just extra padding. The same goes for emblems which are split the same way. It’s just a way to pad out battle pass slots by 3x.

Halo Infinite

343

Speaking of padding, an event battle pass that’s timegated and 50% challenge skips and XP consumables feels bad, because those slots could be used for more cosmetics. Instead, of course, the majority of the event cosmetics are sitting in the microtransaction store, including ones that were used to advertise the “free event” in the first place.

Separating things like shoulder pads into two separate unlocks is absurd. If players want to use two different shoulders for asymmetrical customization? Fine. But they should be unlocked at the same time instead of, you guessed, being used as extra padding for a pass.

I will leave microtransaction store pricing alone at this point. I have seen some pretty goofy examples (the $15 samurai belt) but it’s not that much different than other games, and I don’t think it’s the most pressing cosmetic issue. Maybe the volume of cosmetics offered there over what you earn in-game, or sometimes the quality (the esports coatings are better than pretty much any earned coating I’ve seen).

I will have some additional cosmetic things to discuss when the campaign is live, but I can’t quite go into that yet. But I have some thoughts about how that’s tied into multiplayer cosmetics as well, and some improvements need to be made there.

It’s just not a very good system. Many of the issues feel like pretty obvious ways to add unnecessary padding to the battle pass, but others make less sense, like how core-focused everything is, and why there can’t be broader use of accessories, helmets and coatings past what we see now. Unlike battle pass XP, I do wonder how much of this is baked into the game and cannot be changed without serious effort, but I suppose we’ll have to wait and see.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and its audiobook, and The Earthborn Trilogy, also on audiobook.