Halo Infinite Is Underwhelming & Disappointing... (Part 1/2) 

Go to buyraycon.com/actman for 30% off your order! Brought to you by Raycon. This is part 1 of 2 videos on Halo Infinite's multiplayer and I had to make one on everything that's NOT in Halo Infinite before I could make a video on it's awesome gameplay and mechanics. I saw a post on reddit that did a great job of explaining why there aren’t more modes in Halo Infinite and why you can’t choose what modes you play. If you have an Oddball challenge, then you have to queue and wait until you get an Oddball match to try and complete. It could be argued that the lack of modes/playlists is by design to FURTHER lengthen the time it takes to complete challenges. Halo 5 launched with so little content because (in my opinion) it encouraged people to play Warzone, the game mode designed around loot boxes and overpowered weapons. So again, the fucking monetization is responsible for yet ANOTHER Halo games abysmal variety of content at release Reddit Post: www.reddit.com/r/halo/comments/r11nk7/not_being_able_to_choose_a_game_mode_is/

The core gameplay and mechanics are utterly amazing. They nailed the hard part, but they're utterly flopping with such simple concepts like progression and customization

why does 343 always think infection isn’t a core mode and every year we basically complain so much they have to add it

“If I can pay you money, then it’s not a beta” Someone needs to talk to the guys at star citizen. That shits been, and going to be in alpha for the foreseeable future…

"You were supposed to destroy the sith not join them..." This is what exactly ran through my mind when I saw Infinite's store, ridiculous prices, and available Spartan customizations.

The fact that there isn’t a progression system separate from the battle pass is a big problem

one thing i'll never understand about modern gaming. how one can have ever increasing quality of detail in art and yet ever decreasing quality in stats and options.

I miss the days when you unlocked armor through achievements, rank progression, and saving your credits like in Reach.

Imagine if they didn’t delay the game.

"Modern Gaming... kind of fucking sucks" Understatement of the millennium, right there.

Actman in stream : holy shit this is amazing Actman in youtube : it's bad

I think the lack of playlist options is all tied to the battle pass. They are purposely slowing down player progression. Some of the challenges to level up can easily be accomplished with the right game mode. 343 nipped it in the butt before it became a possibility.

What I hate about modern gaming is now when you see a game is coming out, instead of excitement, it’s more like “well…we’ll see.”

I miss paying for a game and getting a complete experience.

I don’t mind paying for the battle pass when the game is free but I hate that 343 is allowing players to purchase their armor. While Halo 4’s multiplayer wasn’t enjoyable it at least had a sense of accomplishment when players earned their armor like Venator. Keep the gameplay and include Reach’s progression system and Infinite would be perfect. Hopefully 343 sees the backlash and changes the leveling up system because the fact that someone in dead last gets the same +50xp as someone in first is hilarious.

Halo 3 and Reach were the absolute pinnacle of first person shooter multiplayer. Nothing will ever top that era in gaming

9:05 - The reason why they focus on player retention... is to have as many "attention events" as possible. Instead of "one big launch" and then just smaller updates, they want to have a "huge event" for each "piece" they can launch as this causes people to re-get back into a game versus losing focus. It's 100% intentional to keep people talking/thinking about it, instead of "well, players don't like so much content." They KNOW players do, and want to merely maximize the number of "new content" events for a game to get more eyes on it more often.... Which fucking pisses me off. I wanted halo 3 level of quality, content, and then have 60% available at launch to choose, and then the rest as unlocks and then have them release NEW stuff that hasnt been in halo / in past games, and then improve on the foundation. They apparently don't give a shit about halo being the face of xbox / microsoft gaming, and want to instead focus on max profits at the expense of game quality / player satisfaction. They can't even beat a 2007 game... fucking sad.

The “going outside” bit would have been perfect if there was a “well there’s too much content here” line.

Literally never get tired of listening to someone talk about Halo with the same level of passion that I and my friends have.

I’m gonna go ahead and say Act Man probably didn’t get advance access to the campaign from 343 because of his honest takes like this. I’m sure the last thing they want right before launch is a content creator doing anything but worshiping their product

Remember that this game was meant to come out LAST YEAR, if people didnt call out the problems there would have been a big chance this game would dead by this time and proclaimed to be another huge 343 blunder

I fear that the reason games don’t give players the freedom to play the game the way they want is because they can’t monetize something when they can’t control what we do or how we do it. The more choice they give the players, the less likely their choice will be to pay money for things they should already have.

well-said. modern game releases are a joke compared to only 4-5 years ago

I've been out of gaming for at least 7 years, nothing has changed it's getting worse. Why people clamour to get a game on day 1 I'll never know, it's guaranteed to be unfinished. For any new game you're excited about, you should probably add at least 1 year on to the release date in your own mind since that is when all the features and bugs will be sorted out. If everyone did this instead of wanting early access to beta test games for companies, the developers would sort themselves out.

There's no excuse for releasing games in an incomplete form. Again, games are pretty much the only product that you're allowed to release A. Broken and/or B. Missing key features, and it's just accepted as standard now. It's never acceptable, games should be released complete and in working condition or not released. This is why I hardly ever buy new games any more.

I can't believe that this game was supposed to come out a year ago. Just imagine how little content there would be then.

The Duality of Halo Infinite man... This game, at its core, is awesome. There's no doubt about it. It's gameplay loop is just so spot on. 343 took Halo's OG gameplay designed and modernized it perfectly. The game is just so fun to play, yet, the progression, and LACK OF MAPS, MODES AND WEAPONS (did 343 completely forget about Halo 5), makes this launch very underwhelming. But well, if the core gameplay is 10/10, lack of content can just be fixed with future updates, right?

Yes, Bungie's Halo: Reach is the gold standard for Halo multiplayer. When I bought Reach on Steam for the Master Chief Collection, I was sorely disappointed with the lack of content that was standard when Bungie was running the show... and don't even get me started on the horrific sound system. I promptly uninstalled it shortly after and haven't gone back. For me, Halo ended with Bungie's version of Reach. Everything after is a pale imitation of its former self.

Honestly one of my biggest issues is just that the UI is so cluttered and confusing. Why is it so hard to just put things out where it's easy to find them instead of nesting them in a 3-4 menus? The lack of lobbies is also a big question mark. To me, it seems like a lot of the decision making that went into the design of Halo Infinite was corrupted by the sheer volume of single match battle royale games, so questions of lobbies and game modes just completely smoothed over because no one thought to add them due to their absence literally everywhere else for the last decade basically.

What’s bizarre is that the art team heard our feedback from H5… and acted on it… so did the music, gameplay and sandbox team… So why wasn’t our feedback about H5’s lack of content listened to?

It seriously breaks my heart when they littleraly could have just copied any of the older menus and still have a better product than Infinite's matchmaking. Not to mention the options.

The 'Party Up' feature from halo 3 is the reason why I have as many online friends as I do. It was cool playing consecutive games with a random group because you could build chemistry or rivalries with those people and explore more of the game in different ways. It's sad to see that it hasn't really been implemented since. After playing the game, I feel as though the package has arrived but I'm still waiting for what I ordered.

I would love to see a breakdown of what the MP team have been doing the last 6 years. I cant figure it out, I'd be embarrassed to be part of this development team honestly, imagine being given thst much time and money and the best you can do isn't even a quarter of the content Halo 3 and Reach had. Hell, Halo 4 and Halo 5 were better at this stage.

It's really sad that we've haven't had a complete-package Halo game since Reach. What's really puzzling is the lack of a reason for NOT simply using the same system and UI MCC has currently... From what I can tell it's the same concept.

Just more proof these "live service games" are unfinished piles or crap.. miss the good old days where you go to the store, buy the whole finshed game, and even purchase dlc which is COMPLETE..

Hey Act Man, we’re going to need another update on this with the recent community manager posts about cheating in game, playlist issues, etc. It’s not looking good for Halo at the moment unfortunately.

Oh man, do we tell him about the news of: ▪︎ No new content ▪︎ And no new playlists Even on december 8th... God, Halo 5 MP seems to be repeated...

I think the best way to explain this game's current status is that it's better than Battlefield 2042 and COD Vanguard, but setting the bar that low doesn't do it any favors.

When talking about the lack of game modes, I think it's worth remembering this game was delayed a whole year. Just what game would there even had been back then? Just boggles the mind

I think it's hilarious that 343 constantly capitalizes on Reach nostalgia but never attempt to match Reach on any level. We're now being sold Reach armor, in fact we're being sold pretty much all customization. Without battle passes, what you can customize is basically a visor, one chest piece, and a helmet? It's hilarious that they think they'll maintain a population if they lock the fun things like customization behind paywalls and not providing basic game modes. They said there'd be no fomo type things, and yet with the fractures event, fiesta goes away as well, sooooo, modern day gaming indeed. I know I'll be playing the campaign for a while, but the lack of customization, game modes, ability to choose game modes, bad progression system still. I honestly doubt I'll play this game as long as I did the other Halo games. Maybe I'll keep playing MCC...which is a sad statement when a new Halo game is out

The battle pass and progression really turned me off to the direction Halo's multiplayer is headed and I can't shake this feeling that the story is going to be lackluster. I hope it isn't, but these past few years of games haven't given me much confidence.

I love how despite all of the major flaws in this game, its the most fun I’ve had playing a shooter since probably Battlefield 1

"It's free to play quit complaining!" Yeah, that's a valid excuse for any game that's not triple A, they've had plenty of time/resources and experience to get this done. I'm tired of the excuses everyone keeps giving, gaming is never gonna get better if we just bend over backwards and let them get away with all this bs. I wish the rest of the game was as good as its graphics and gameplay, cuz clearly there was alot of effort put in and it is amazing, but it's plain idiotic how they've done this 3 times in a row.

They MUST return game chat and player lists in the lobbies. Being able to check out what other players have done with their characters is what makes personalisation so enjoyable.

It's depressing that all this happened a year ago. It's been so long since I played halo infinite that at this point I'm just waiting for Halo 7 to release

I’m with act man, I want to know why games can’t be finished when released. And when did gaming companies start this trend of not finishing games

The game itself is really fun, but the #1 thing me and my friend were excited for was team doubles. We've literally playing team doubles together since we were 8 now we're 22

Theres a huge glaring problem with the customization because they said it would be free battle pass and they said they were "player first" it's very disappointing bc most of the customization is practically locked behind a paywall. I wish the customization was atleast like MCC

I remember buying Halo Reach on launch day in September 2010 and being absolutely overwhelmed by the ocean of content in the game available for only $60. Campaign, Firefight, Forge, Online Multiplayer, Custom Games and Theater were all there, and all of which seemingly had limitless options for players to customize their gaming experience to conform to how they wanted to play the game. With all of that content for that price, it was like Halo's equivalent to The Orange Box. It was wonderful, and it all worked flawlessly on day one without one single issue. A game releasing in that fashion today feels like a pipe dream, and it's not only depressing but surreal to see how dramatically industry standards - as well as how the industry values it's customers - have not only dwindled but seemingly driven off of a cliff. EDIT: I paused the video to write my original comment, and you literally make my point at 18:58.

I hope we also get a fire fight mode. Was fun fighting waves of covenant(it would be banished now) with my friends.

Yes. Thank you for covering the stats. I think it is incredibly underrated and a very important part of any system that is expected to have any longevity. People need stats and leaderboards with a lot of filters. People will quickly feel like its ground hog day if they cant track meaningful progress or changes. Sometimes people want to be #1 on the leaderboard for kills with the gun everyone hates.

Getting our voices heard! PLEASE READ: First step. Makes poles for your subscribers to vote on. In terms of issues. Second step. Elaborate the data with a video. We need to be organized. Tell your other RU-vid partners to do the same. Your basically giving 343 the hard data they need to fight. Couple of good poles: Who likes the progression? Who thinks the store is overpriced? Who has purchased things at the store? Whos willing to boycott the game? Who IS boycotting the game? These are golden nuggets man. Tell all your RU-vid partners to do this and with enough data we'll see if we can scare those stupid executives. Good luck spartan! OG Post: robert morales

Modern day gaming is becoming too greedy and low effort, we need another gaming crash to wipe out these awful game publishers and send these executives to early retirement.

I’m 99% certain at this point that the reason these games launch with so little content is so they can have constant updates to stay in the headlines while not having to work as hard. I don’t think they already have the content developed and are withholding it, but they can put the same overall effort but stretch it out over the course of an entire game’s lifespan rather than just at launch. I hate this games as a service model.

What continuously blows my mind about 343 and every Halo mp theyve released is how it never launches with all the modes etc. Bungie used to release complete games every time did they not? If im wrong and I probably am overlooking something, like maybe forge for REACH, please explain in a reply. So how the hell can 343 take all this time and never have a complete game released? At least when it comes to mp modes. The last time I remember playing Halo mp every day and actually enjoying it was when I was late to the world of Halo with the purchase of Halo 3. Ever since then I havent even enjoyed mp enough to play it after trying Halo 4, which is the last Halo I ever bought a copy of as well. I just can't believe that Phil Spencer or Matt Booty or whoever the hell is in charge, has allowed 343 to handle their flagship title the way they have for 3 mainline entries with every single one being a shit show from the start. I think the biggest travesty was the Halo 5 campaign. That writer shouldn't be able to write children's books about farting let alone one of the biggest franchise's in the history of franchises.

Great video Act Man. Also what Halo soundtracks did you use for this video I forgot the names of them. But you do make great points about this game. I feel like maybe Halos MP should've been delayed a bit longer due to it missing modes, and such.

The issue that impacts me the most is the lack of co-op campaign, you're telling me halo, one of the best co-op games to play with friends, isn't gonna have what is probably the best feature that has been in all halo games during the launch?

TAM: *_"BUNGIE was able to make HALO: Reach IN A CAVE! WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!!!!"_* 343: "Well, I'm sorry.... I'm not BUNGIE."

"It's like modern day gaming kinda fucking sucks" quoted for relations on feeling

It’s just…no team slayer? Team snipers? Doubles? Shotty snipers, swat?? No forge(CUSTOM GAMES????) until SEASON 3??? Like wtf. No coop campaign. Like how can you mess up the easy things. You got the gameplay right HOOWWW

So many people are excusing the current progression and battle pass because 343 will “fix it later after hearing feedback”. They had an entire franchise to look back on. They know what good progression looks like. They chose to make it this way to incentivize spending. You don’t “accidentally” make your game a soul sucking grind. It was obviously planned ahead of time so later updates would look better by comparison.

_“It's not the notes you play, it's the notes you don't play."_ - Mustard Chief 117

Honestly, I agree. For some reason every time I throw a nade It does zero damage, but when the enemy throws their grenade, it insta kills me no matter if my shields where full or even at 75 is percent. It’s just weird

18:56 to 19:03 is always my arguement. Bungie set the standard many years ago adding items to the game for the community to grow and it all released day one. 343 devs hav better and faster technology today, and plenty of game options to add, yet they choose not to....

Thank you for bringing attention to these issues Act Man, especially while progression & customisation have been the big topics of discussion right now. It's incredibly disappointing to see so many features outside of the online matchmaking and academy broken or simply lacking in content. I am glad Forge isn't out yet because it would of been a trainwreck in the games current state. I hope somebody at 343 sees this because it is a great video.

Honestly, I just hate the fact that you don’t get Xp for kills and playing the objective, like I dislike how you can only do challenges to get Xp and rank up, like I can drop a 20 bomb, without doing any challenges and not get any Xp. Like I think it’s really annoying that you aren’t rewarded for doing well in the game even if you aren’t doing challenges.

15:55 You guys found yourselves in a good ole “don’t cross the streams” situation there.

Is very clear why they didn’t give us lots of options for multiplayer. They made certain challenges incredibly grindy in order to encourage buying challenge skips. A lot of those challenges are centered around getting kills with difficult to get weapons. If they added modes where you start with snipers, grav hammers, etc. They wouldn’t be able to sell challenges skips as easily. I’m guessing Fiesta served as a analysis on how much more casual modes would affect the challenge progression rate. Tying progression into challenges and essentially challenges only was purposeful and insidious. It actively limits their ability to give us the content we want.

“None of these decisions make any sense.” That’s honestly the theme for the whole company at 343 for me. Like, don’t get me wrong. They clearly prioritized the core gameplay and campaign over everything else, and it payed off. Infinite feels like a true to successor to Halo 3 and Reach. But this company’s decisions are just so bizarre and baffling. And a lot of times they LITERALLY provide NO REASON for those decisions. They just make the decision just for the sake of it. For example, like when they decided to remove Jeff’s kill announcements from BTB. Sketch talked about it in a video and literally said something along the lines of “everyone has noticed Jeff’s announcements are missing in BTB….BTB is a little different in halo infinite”……… WHY?! It doesn’t make any sense to take out something like that, that is literally a core part of what makes Halo….Halo. And they have made so many decisions like that and have given similar responses (or no response) which you have clearly pointed out in this video. And I’m not trying to be super negative either! 343 has done a kickass job with infinite! They have really revitalized the franchise. I just don’t understand some of the decisions like removing Jeff, not being able to choose which game type I want to play, etc. And I don’t understand how Reach had way more stuff at launch and had half the development time. Infinite has had double the development time. Just doesn’t make any sense. 343 just needs to keep us in the loop a little bit more and explain the rationale behind their decisions.

I just can’t believe we went away from pre game lobbies and game modes that were just honestly FUN. I really miss playing juggernaut, infection and action sack in reach. That game really had the community build their multiplayer up.

You wanna know something crazy about your trouble with custom games during the Halo Infinite Launch? I remember the Halo 3 beta was supposed to be limited to multiplayer on Valhalla, Snowbound, and High Ground, but people found a way to glitch into making custom game lobbies. The Halo 3 beta accidentally and unintentionally had a more stable custom game mode than Halo Infinite did at its “launch”. That is tragic

Bruh literally everything is so accurate, hopefully 343 reaches out to you like other creators man, you give so much helpful info that could help them make the game a complete master peace, you also should’ve been considered as one of the candidates for playing the campaign early and give feedback, like you argued, and I believe they would benefit massively from your feedback and videos

The worst part of this conversation is if the game releases like this on dec 8 and it suffers a lot of people leaving the game early, all those streamers are going to control the narrative and claim it’s because of no battle royal. They are without a doubt are going to use Halo Infinite’s current issues to propel their issues with the game and cheer that they were right, when they couldn’t be more wrong.

You hit the nail on the head, man. Everyone is mad about the store and I'm like "why can't I just see my stats in Waypoint or anywhere else? Why is it just a fucking ad for the battlepass, when all I wanna see is my K/D?"

Man I love how Act Man has constructive criticism, and it's casually hilarious at the same time xd

It’s the problem with that, differents playlists means that one mode might be unplayable because it has not enought peoples to start a match. In BF1 Apocalypse DLC, the air assault mode was alive for around 1 to 2 weeks, then it became hard to even play on it for 1 game.

"Modern Gaming" has the problem of babying people too much. They don't have post or pre-game lobbies because someone MIGHT say something mean. They don't show stats because someone might get discouraged about being "bad" instead of getting better. They don't allow big power weapons or vehicles as often or grant power to the oddball or flag carrier because that would mean someone gets to have "more fun". It is the slowly homogenizing, bland, vanilla gaming experience everyone has so someone doesn't have a slightly negative experience. Because that would mean less engagement according to their souless corporate executive/psychologist rats.

I agree. My biggest takeaway is why did you spend all those years perfecting MCC to just not include any of the basics into this game? If it is design, that's pitiful. If it is you didn't have time, what have you been doing for 6 years? It's not like your the largest or most funded studio of one of the largest tech companies in the world.

What i really appreciate is just how much actman cares.

Release part 2 please, I’m excited to see what you think, but this video is perfect and draws attention to issues that are overlooked by the halo community

Halo Infinite has some of the most solid gameplay mechanics I’ve ever seen in a shooter, but it’s so frustrating to see the blunders that this game has made

It's not a beta for the multiplayer, it's a beta for the microtransactions store to see how much 343 can get away with charging players for the colour blue.

Honestly, the customization is where I shake my head. I loved Reach's customization and I was happy to see it back in MCC. It's just overall really well done. The Armor Cores idea isn't a terrible one. It can work in games where you have multiple characters/classes to play around with, where you want each one to feel unique. I feel more like I have to wear separate suits even if I don't like the look. Not to mention the fact that armor pieces are locked to specific armors is kinda disappointing. Like damn, that Buckler would look nice on the base Armor Core they gave me. But nah. Can't wear it. Not compatible. I'm not even gonna mention the Armor Coatings. They're terrible and made with scummy money grabbing intentions. I mean, was it really not doable to just have one Spartan wearing one set of armor that I could customize fully? Was that really too much. Or should I mention the inflexible armor kits? That's just foul. What do you MEAN I can't make a Jun/Jorge/Carter Hybrid Frankenstein of armor? PLEASE!!

I hope we get an Invasion mode eventually, with your pick of either elites or brutes when you are on the banished team

We wait 6 years for infinite to come out Then we wait 2 years for the multiplayer to meet our basic expectations.

“Impossible perhaps the archives are incomplete” lmfao shit had my dying.

Love your commentary on the competitive matchmaking options in Reach being the gold standard, but I think what made that game the gold standard was the cooperative matchmaking playlist. I fucking loved playing Grifball (even if it completely fucked my k/d ratio), and action sack was one of my all time favorite modes. Like, I remember coming home from a shitty day at work one time, firing up action sack, and the game was a forge-created version of skeeball, with golf balls the size of your character, and the weapon was golf clubs (same size and abilities as the grav hammer). Objective was to hit the ball up in the cups, and team with most points wins. That shit was soooo goofy and fun that I was laughing my ass off and completely forgot about how shit my day had been. And honestly I feel like sometimes the developers forget that sometimes I just want to blow off some steam after work. Anyways thanks for the great vid!

I was having fun with halo infinite too, and was actually thinking of it more as a beta and didn't realize this is technically the "Day 1" release. You know, when you look down at your legs, you still see the friggin missing half of your upper body that you're not supposed to see in first person view. Also I'd love the MCC style, hold aim/toggle behavior. I've gotten used to needing both. For some reason, the PC verison of infinite only supports toggle or hold to aim.

I had a tutor whose son helped work on Halo Reach. I ended up getting a key to the closed Halo Reach beta. It was incredible. Ah the memories.

As soon as I saw the battle-pass, I was like “Ah s**t here we go again,” because this is what I’ve come to expect from gaming these days. They want you to grind endlessly and barely get anywhere so that you give in and spend money. Can we just leave this s**t in the past please? I would much rather have to work for my unlocks with a fair progression system, like Ghost of Tsushima, which released a multiplayer mode for free and no micro-transactions to be found.

"guys they're gonna have a huge content drop on dec. 8th!" it's next year and still nothing. great.

So many years of searching (not that I was actively doing so) for Unreal Tournament 2004. Thankfully that last release happened so I can see it and realize what probably happened in the past but whatever - I know I love that game and I was waiting for it's best version (hopefully that one after fix).

"a halo for 10 years" Well, given that in 3 days it managed to make me want to go back to Halo 3...

Reach's customisation and unlocks are IMO the pinnacle of how you implement that sort of thing, I want to unlock armour pieces at my leisure, and truly design my Spartan dolly my way and know that mine is, for the most part, unique to most. In Reach, this is just me, I liked to tell a story when customising my Spartan, especially for the fact that that's also how you looked in the campaign; I was amazed that I could add prosthetic limbs straight out of the box in Infinite.

Theater mode is also really buggy and broken. A lot of times it won’t give me the option to load up a match and view it. The controls are kind of weird too, sometimes it will randomly decide to switch perspectives to another player. I also had an issue where I couldn’t watch from my perspective, my character was a blue t posing spartan and I could see it from other players perspective but not my own.

I think what bugs me the most about Halo Infinite is that, to me, the weapons both sound and feel like they don't have much impact. I think the core gameplay is mostly fine, but a friend of mine brought the same thing up when he finally installed the game too. I never mentioned how I felt about the sound effects to him and he said the exact same thing as me.

My theory for the inability to choose more specific mode playlists is that 343 wanted to make it artificially more difficult for players to complete battle pass challenges. Like you can’t win 3 CTF matches if you can’t get into a CTF match. Therefore, you’re more likely to purchase level skips out of frustration.

Halo vs COD pre 2011: "which one is better?" Halo vs COD post 2011: "which one is worse?" It shouldn't be this way. Technology is more advance and understood now more than ever yet older games worked better and had more. No excuses!

Cool video man and nice editing the actman :]

My biggest issue is the Audio problems. I want to be able to indicate audibly that an enemy is running around me. But there is no indication whatsoever aside from radar which doesn't work if their weapon isn't firing. Hence I can get run up from behind and backslapped and have no idea it was going to happen. Even if they are deadass sprinting at me. It's an issue I cant stand and with how OP melee is, I cant play the game until its fixed.