What was meant to be the greatest release in 2021 turned out to become the biggest disappointment for big fans of the Halo franchise. Since the initial annual delay was announced in 2020 to polish the game’s graphical fidelity there have been announcements of how the game was to have a customization that was far superior to what gamers previously had with Halo Reach and Halo Five. Instead players promptly discovered this was not the case when 343i released the beta flights. Instead players were greeted with an aggressive monetization system that locked all meaningful customization options behind paywalls. 343i ignored the communities feedback and upon the official release the monetization system remained. Since release the game has had several controversies and issues that continued to have the community question whether or not the company has their interest in mind. Steam charts show the game’s population is steadily declining, thought this doesn’t mean other platforms are showing the same pattern as the statistics for Xbox console and PC have not been released.
The drop is a result of highly priced items in their shop and the recent patch that broke Big Team Battle. With Big Team Battle being nearly unplayable as players are unable to find games there’s less to do in Halo Infinite. The lack of game modes and maps along with a broken ranking system is causing players to lose interest. One of the biggest complaints is their customization armor core and coating system that greatly limits how players can customize their Spartans.
Currently players have far less ways to customize their Spartan than ever before, and if they want more options than what’s freely available, they have to pay for it. This means that for their free-to-play Halo Infinite Multiplayer edition the players have to purchase bundles for up to $20 to get more armor pieces. The game also released without Co-Op or Forge which is a big part of the Halo experience. The community can only hope for positive changes now that the developers are back from the holidays, but due to 343i’s dismissive behavior towards the majority of the players feedback the skepticism remains. That being said 343i will have their work cut out for them going forward as the new year gives them the opportunity to redeem the franchise.