Halo Infinite Multiplayer Beta Impressions
Halo Infinite is such a great change of pace in the multiplayer shooter genre. It gives so many new memories in matches and awesome feeling with weapons. There are some issues though.
Besides Gears of War, Halo is one of my favorite franchises on Xbox. I remember the first time I played a Halo game and that was Halo 3 on the Xbox 360. I played the campaign mode with my brother and with friends when they would come over. Then when I got Xbox Live, it was over! I could not stop playing for a long time and would get in trouble staying up late. I would get the same feelings I had since I was younger playing the multiplayer beta.
Halo Infinite’s Multiplayer is a breath of fresh air – in terms of gameplay and graphics. The last couple of shooters I have been playing were Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War and Battlefield 2042. I skipped Vanguard but did play a little of it when it had its free Multiplayer weekend. Compared to those two games, Halo Infinite has brought fun back into multiplayer shooters – and even some good balances.
The gameplay is tight and works well with both the Xbox controller and the Keyboard + Mouse controls. I really love the default aim sensitivity and the way the guns shoot and feel. Some of my favorite weapons are the Skewer, Cindershot, Shock Rifle, CQS48 Bulldog, Heatwave, and the Energy Sword. Yes, that was a lot of weapons I just listed, but it is because they work so well. I do have weapons that I hate, and I hope they get fixed. But maybe I am not using them right because I would surely see my character die by those weapons!
Getting kills in this game, especially multi-kills, is so damn satisfying. I would get some awesome kills back-to-back using the weapons I mentioned, especially the Energy Sword. You could also run without it being an ability like in Halo: Reach so that is a positive change. The equipment is my favorite, the best one personally is the Grappleshot. I mixed that with the energy sword, and I would feel unstoppable. Even mixing that with the CQS48 Bulldog because of the strong kick and damage it has when shooting someone up close. The Thruster is good as well, being able to dodge certain attacks or even use it to move faster around the map.
Sometimes though I do dislike my team because for some reason a lot of them do not play the objective. There was literally a time I held the ball in Oddball for 3 minutes because none of my teammates picked it up. Everyone is either checking out scenery or taking their time exploring random areas of the map or taking a vehicle to just give it to the opposite team. Honestly that’s fine though because I did the same thing when I started playing Beta, it was very exciting regardless of the small frustrations with my teammates.
It is also cool how the game matches we do get saved in the theater. Not all of them save, but to have majority of them is nice. Now even though I’m reliving the good Ole days doesn’t mean Halo Infinite’s Multiplayer doesn’t have its disappointments.
The Event System Doesn’t Make Sense
When 343 Announced that there would be an event for Halo when the beta dropped two weeks ago, I was excited. It was called Fracture: Tenrai, where they gave 5 different weeks to unlock the 30 tiers in the Event. It was just like the Battle Pass, but everything was free. You still had to do specific challenges to level up in the event, but instead of the challenges being highlighted blue – They would be highlighted orange.
The thing is the 30 tiers that were there, I initially thought that you were able to unlock all the tiers throughout those five weeks the event will be available from – but I found out I was super wrong. I ended up making it to the seventh tier and stuck there until the next time they have the event in January. It was also mixed in with the weekly challenges and it did not have its own separate thing. So, if you completed an event, you would have to complete a couple of weekly challenges until the next event challenge. I was annoyed to say the least because it felt good unlocking the cool armor without having to spend money on the battle pass.
The XP System has changed to a Challenge Tier System
To be honest, I do not really like the change that was made with the XP system. There were so many fun moments in the multiplayer beta that I had, but then when it went back to the menu – it would feel like I did not progress. Yes, the score is there within the match whether you got the highest score in the leaderboard or not, but to really progress in the battle pass system and events – you would have to focus on the challenges. No matter how good you do like going 30-1 in a match, or even getting a no scope double kill across the map – you’ll still only get 50xp unless what you did was part of your challenges.
Before they updated how much XP you get from games, each game that you played would give you 50xp. That is little compared with how much XP you need to go to the next tier, which seems to be 1000xp each tier. So, if you were having fun doing different things in matches that did not correlate with the challenges – you would only get 50xp. Granted, you would get more if you did the weekly challenges (like 200-300xp depending on the challenge).
To me it would feel like I was not enjoying the game sometimes because I was focused on doing the challenges to progress the battle pass/event. It felt like they wanted me to play their way, rather than the letting me get the amount of XP I got from the cool kills I got or playing the objective well like in Oddball. Some challenges were easy, while others were difficult to get. Mainly because a lot had to do with winning certain game modes – but you couldn’t choose them because it was just one way to get them which was through quickplay. I would have to leave games when it started to see if I got the right mode which would be repetitive (like 3-4 games I needed to leave before getting what I needed). I remember one of my challenges was to win 3 Oddball matches, but I did not get an Oddball match in a long time until like 5 matches later. Even when I swapped challenges like getting a certain number of kills with the Chopper, I would get those challenges again in the Weekly Challenges or even for the Ultimate Challenge!
After getting up to the 7th tier of the event and even completing the weekly challenges, I did the ultimate challenge and got the Willow Tea skin. I was happy I got it but drained because of the focus on challenges. I was disappointed though because the event armor core called Yoroi was the one I thought I would be able to use the skin on, I was wrong about that. The skin was only for the default armor core given – Mark VII. I was so confused and thought it was a glitch. I would have thought the skin color from an ultimate challenge would be for every armor core you get; I wish that is something they update.
Since I did not pay for the Battle Pass, I am only getting the free tier items and not the armor that is offered when levelling up. At the start of the Battle Pass tiers, you just unlock colors which is nice. I can finally be green like Master Chief now and then get sniped 2 minutes later. The Armor pieces for the free tier are so far away, unless you get the season pass and you will get the ones readliy available. So far, I only got a Rare Visor called “Bryce” and a Rare Armor Coating named “Stone Green.” It was cool to get the anniversary things when it was available at the launch of the beta.
With how things were going, it was going to take a long time to unlock things, hence the name of the game – Infinite. They did update the Battle Pass progression as mentioned before, so there is a boost for the XP received in the daily challenges for the first six matches. The first match gives 300xp, the second and third match gives 200xp and the fourth, fifth and sixth match gives 100xp. After that it goes back to the original 50xp until the next day. It is a good change so far and I am looking forward to seeing more of the changes they add. I personally just wish there were more free things to give.
No Choices in Game Modes and In the Shop
Playing Halo Infinite is great, but you know what else would be great? If I can choose the game mode I want to play. The last time I played the game, I ended up getting One Flag (a version of Capture the Flag) three times in a row. All I wanted to do was play a little bit of Slayer and Oddball. It is weird to not have that option for online PvP but for custom games you can choose any game mode which is wild.
It is crazy to me that the shop is up and running in the beta, but I understand because it is a free to play game. I just wish there were a way to get credits without always having to buy it. One way they could fix it a bit is if you complete all the weekly challenges and/or the ultimate challenge, you get a set number of credits – enough where you can buy an item. Maybe when the campaign releases tomorrow, there will be an update to the multiplayer where things you do in the campaign can unlock some number of credits.
I’m not sure what 343 did but they were able to capture the fun and competitiveness in multiplayer. The feeling of playing with friends, new and old, reliving our crazy moments and staying up a little late has been nostalgic. Getting that no scope, a quick killing spree or going on a crazy ride to retrieve the flag – those moments and that type of freedom is what makes Halo Infinite fun. Even with its issues, 343 has shown us that Halo Infinite is just the beginning of a long road ahead of us. Out of all multiplayer shooters that have released this year, Halo Infinite became the best shooter thus far. I can’t wait to experience the campaign with my brother and see what lies ahead!