Liam Prichard 12/4/21 Liam Prichard 12/4/21

I have some issues with Halo Infinite Multiplayer

So to preface what you’re about to read, my next article will be talking about the gameplay of Halo Infinite Multiplayer, this is going to be focused on the issues surrounding stats, progression, customization, and microtransactions.

So let’s dig in!

(5-10 minute read)

So to preface what you’re about to read, my next article will be talking about the gameplay of Halo Infinite, this is going to be focused on the issues surrounding stats, progression, customization, and microtransactions. So let’s dig in!

Stats and Medals

Every game you play you will acquire medals and other stats of various types that will be displayed to you at the end of each game.

“What’s wrong with that?” I hear you ask.

Nothing at all, I am a stat whore up there with the best of them. The issue I have is I have to look on somebody else’s website to get my Halo Infinite stats? What the hell is that all about? You can see your stats on https://halotracker.com/ but apparently nothing official, not on the Halo Waypoint app, and not even the menus of the game itself. Why? Just, why?

Ok, so that’s the small one out of the way, now let’s address the pelican in the room…

Progression, Customization, & Microtransactions

In Halo Infinite Multiplayer, you get items throughout the battle passes, which have both free and paid tiers. In the free tier for the main pass, you will have access to around 22 cosmetic items, not including stances (2), ai modules (2), or the countless challenge swap and XP tokens. So that’s 22 cosmetics in 100 levels of 1000xp per level. Matches give you 50xp, and challenges, which are limited each week, give between 200-300xp per challenge on average and can take a few games to accomplish. This means you’re gaining levels once every 5-10 games depending on your ability to finish challenges quickly. To put that into time, it’s probably around 1-3 hours per level, on average, depending on the speed of your games and the rate you are completing challenges. So for the sake of argument, we’ll say this averages out to 2 hours per level. Therefore we can consider the battle pass at least around 200 hours worth of gameplay for 22 cosmetic rewards. However, if you pay up the £8 for the premium tier you can get around 95 cosmetic items in that same timeframe. Which, honestly, is pretty much on par with what other games offer.

Now I hear you cry at the back, “This is the same as CoD or pretty much every other battle pass right?”

Well, yes it is. But there’s one key difference, there’s nothing you’re unlocking in the background. In CoD you unlock levels on your weapons for better attachments and on Rocket League it fires out free cosmetics at pretty much an item per game. These systems keep you busy, you can explore them because there’s always a new shiny thing to look at.

In Halo, we are waiting to even use the confusing customization system, when you do unlock something it takes you 5 minutes to find it because the system is alien to you. This is probably something that can be overcome in the future when we’ve had a healthy dose of content, but for now, it’s frustrating at best.

Also, why are weekly challenges finite? And if they are going to be finite, can you at least respect my time enough to give me them all at once as Rocket League does? Instead, you get up to 4 challenges at a time so that you’re constantly micro-dosing XP and consuming the maximum amount of time for bare minimum rewards.

This isn’t the only place I think they could learn a thing or two from Rocket League…

Customization is lacking. It’s difficult to navigate because it’s currently broad in categories but thin in content. Though I don’t necessarily disagree with giving players options, I do take issue with a system that has clearly been chopped up into as many tiny pieces as possible so that it can be sold back to the players. This is of course nothing new for the modern shooter but in other games (such as Rocket League, CoD, Overwatch, etc…), where you get a consistent stream of cosmetics and gameplay items by simply playing, as well as the battle pass, amassing hundreds of items in just a couple of weeks. Halo’s approach looks to be a slow burn before really having any substantial customization options, I think this has heavily contributed to the backlash over progression.

Below you can see the wide variety of customization options, most of which are locked of course. Highlighting the need to give some easily obtainable options for players so they can get to grips with the system.

This brings me to the last part of this issue…

The microtransactions are a disappointing sight. Not because this isn’t the standard now, because it definitely is. And I don’t think it’s implemented in a particularly predatory way either, by any modern standard it isn’t that offensive at all. There’s no pay-to-win bullshit and I could definitely get behind a season pass if they do want to monetize it in a way that offers a good variety of content to players.

But as far as microtransactions go, my personal opinion is that Microsoft doesn’t need a microtransaction system in a console and Game Pass selling title. This should be the XBOX Holy Grail, a loss leader that drags people in by the millions. Giving the press the opportunity to nitpick is shooting yourself in the foot.

One counterargument that I could see for this is that the Pro League cosmetics (assuming the proceeds go to the teams and leagues) are a good thing. I do agree, but that’s just one tab in the shop so I’m going to take an educated guess that this shop is not there to solely fund the Pro League and its teams. I have not been able to find much information on what these deals entail, so we’ll leave that open to speculation.

Conclusion

Fortunately for 343, these issues are sitting on top of arguably one of the best multiplayer shooters of all time and definitely the best Halo in a decade. 343 have even publicly addressed the concerns about progression, which is good. But only time will tell if these issues are resolved. The good news is this is all optional, cosmetics will have no bearing on your performance, which is good.

I don’t think anybody would moan about a season pass either so that can be in there too, pack it to the rafters with content, put all the pro league teams cosmetics in there, and give an equal cut to all teams. Make it a no-brainer and totally pro-customer deal, this is Halo. It’s not some scrappy indie studio that needs the development funds, this is an industry-leading team with the backing of a trillion-dollar company and the face of their gaming division.

It’s a shame that this stuff is an issue, but the good news is you can pretty much ignore most of it and indulge in what is one of the best multiplayer sandboxes we’ve seen in quite some time!