After transferring for a whole year Halo infinite, finally, with confident steps going to the release. On the weekend 343 Industries conducted closed technical testing of the online game mode. We took part in it and are in a hurry to share our impressions.
The technical beta invited the participants to play a classic slayer (4 x 4 team deathmatch). But this time only with bots, the assessment of the behavior of which was the purpose of testing. At first it was a little offensive that playing with real people would not work, but after a couple of matches this feeling, if not completely disappeared, then certainly faded into the background, since the bots turned out to be quite smart.
AI on the “ODST” difficulty (343i divided the bot drops into “Recruit”, “Marine”, “ODST” and “Spartan”) tries to hold positions, does not hesitate to group in pairs, but only picks up weapons from the map not very willingly – at least At least the most powerful examples, such as a gravity hammer in the hands of bots, were rare. The rest of the dummies turned out to be quite an adequate replacement for the average player from the Social-zone of matchmaking. At least my K / D ratio at the end of the matches was not sky-high, but was quite consistent with that in Halo 5: Guardians…
As for the cards, there were three of them in the beta: Bazaar, which vaguely resembles Dust 2 from Counter Strike in its design; Live Fire, which looks like it was hastily cooked up in Forge mode; and Recharge, which is a closed USNSC base, which you may have seen earlier in the promotional materials for the game. Unfortunately, the cards were rotated sequentially, so it was not possible to spend a lot of time on all of them, however, there are no cardinal differences in terms of game design, positioning and verticality from the cards of the fifth part. And most likely it’s for the best. I cannot scold any of them for obvious gaps in the balance sheet. In any case, now – after all, playing with real opponents will bring much more clarity at this moment.
Also in the beta, several new weapons were presented, as well as old barrels that were reworked to one degree or another. The most notable I found was the Skewer, a brutal cannon that shoots metal sharpened projectiles like stakes, instantly killing anyone with a single hit. At the same time, when firing from it, it is necessary to make a tangible correction for the projectile flight time. Brut’s Heatwave, when firing, spits out an even row of several plasma charges in a horizontal or vertical position (Isaac’s plasma cutter from Dead space).
The Ravager, which fires single bursts of plasma that inflicts significant damage, we saw at last year’s campaign show, as well as the human VK78 Commando and a new pistol (however, the new one is only visually, and very much resembles that of Halo 2). The old guns have also undergone a certain rebalancing. So, for example, the assault rifle gained in accuracy at medium distances and is quite capable of shooting an enemy armed with a pistol, which was unlikely even in Halo 5, let alone in the earlier parts of the series. But if such an increase in the range of the assault rifle is quite acceptable, provided the balance of the rest of the armament is correct, then the Needler, familiar to fans of the series, definitely requires changes in the characteristics. The fact is that earlier it was a weapon exclusively for medium distances. On the distant ones, he simply did not capture the target for aiming the needles, and on the near projectiles there was not enough space to aim and reach the moving target. Now, auto-homing successfully works almost close, rewarding the shooter with light frags. Let’s hope for community feedback and nerf already for release.
Some changes in the behavior of the character controlled by the player are immediately felt. Sprint no longer interferes with the regeneration of a fully discharged shield, which previously felt like some kind of tortured restriction. But what we have lost in comparison with the last part is some special skills, such as a shoulder strike in a sprint, groundslam, as well as a short-term dash, which previously gave another chance to get away from a shootout that was not in your favor. It should be noted, and more fleeting skirmishes. The TTK (Time To Kill) parameter has significantly decreased, somewhat bringing the feeling of the game to some Call of duty, where it is often difficult to fight back if the enemy starts shooting at you first.
In a limited version, character customization was introduced in the beta. Let me remind you that in the online mode, according to the trends of today, a system of battle passes will be implemented. Here, gaining experience for online matches, as well as for completing daily, weekly and monthly challenges, you will earn experience points for pumping a battle pass, new levels of which unlock additional elements of armor, its colors, visor color settings, weapon skins, and so on. … In terms of armor, you can expect even more detailed customization than in Halo: Reach – now there are even more elements to customize, including gloves. A positive point is the absence of ridiculous looks from Halo 4 and Halo 5who looked more like the main character of the film “Guyver“than the Spartans. But it is too early to rejoice – we have not seen all the variety of unlockable parts.
From the very announcement of the game, given the announced list of platforms, which includes the old man Xbox one sample of 2013, the question hangs in the air – how will the performance of the game show itself? We tested the version for Xbox series x, and no major problems, except for a few freezes, expected given the early build, were not observed. It is worth noting that the picture, although prettier from last year’s sensational presentation, differs little at first glance from that in Halo 5. On the other hand, firstly, this is still a network mode, for which developers often use a somewhat simplified visual series than in a single player game where artists and technicians can feel more free, and secondly, nevertheless, we have a beta version. Suffice it to recall how much the picture was different when testing Halo 5 and in the release version.
But for owners of the Xbox One and even the much more powerful Xbox One X, bad news. On both consoles, the beta worked, judging by the analyzes appearing on the network, only in 30 FPS… And if for the campaign this is still not a verdict, then the gap in the responsiveness of the game between the owners of the versions for Xbox One and Xbox Series X | S (where, I remind you, the engine produces 120 frames per second) is simply gigantic. And this will severely limit the capabilities of users of legacy consoles.
There are no special complaints about audio. The weapon sounds convincing enough (the gravity hammer has never sounded more powerful and juicier at all), and longtime fans of the series are already scattered in gratitude to the developers for the classic sound of the shield replenishment. For me personally, an alarming moment was the absence of one of the main mascots of the series along with the Master Chief – the very commentator who notifies the player about what is happening during the match. But this, most likely, again, is due to the fact that we are not facing the final product.
It is hardly possible to draw any conclusions now. The full picture will become much clearer, at least not before the open beta, where, I hope, we will still be allowed to play against real people, not bots. But it is already clear that the developers intend to please the widest possible audience by making changes to the gameplay in line with today’s industry trends, for a more painless adaptation of newcomers and, conversely, referring to the developments of the classic parts of the series to consolidate faith in the game among long-time fans.
Read also: What we think about Microsoft’s performance at E3 2023: GameMAG.ru editors’ impressions…
