A week ago, Xbox celebrated its 20th anniversary with a livestream. Fans didn’t expect much from it due to the announcement that no new games would be announced there, but they were pleasantly surprised. Over 70 backwards-compatible games were added to the Xbox’s library, and 37 existing games were also added to the FPS Boost program. However, the biggest announcement by far is the surprise release of the Halo Infinite multiplayer beta, weeks before the campaign. This was a shocking development, but fans wasted no time in jumping into Halo Infinite to enjoy the latest installment in Microsoft’s flagship series.

343 Industries has released its best Halo game yet, and the fandom is having a blast. The free nature of the multiplayer also means that people who would have never tried Halo before are now giving the series a shot, and thoroughly enjoying themselves. However, there are a number of issues becoming clear thanks to this beta, and the community hopes that some changes will be coming at launch. For one, the experience progression and microtransaction elements are not balanced in a satisfying or appealing way. However, more importantly for those playing the game, is that all of the playlists do not allow players to choose what specific game mode they want to play, something 343 needs to change by the time the full game launches.

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The Problems With Halo Infinite’s Current Multiplayer Playlists

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By default, the multiplayer of Halo Infinite features six new and old modes, consisting of Capture The Flag, Oddball, Slayer, Stockpile, Strongholds, and Total Control. CTF, Oddball, and Slayer currently feature a few different variations, while the other three modes are static. There are also currently seven regular multiplayer maps and two Big Team Battle maps. This is a decent amount of content for a game planned to develop more over time, and the current Custom Game mode and upcoming Forge mode promise plenty of player control. Unfortunately, that control isn’t where it counts right now.

At the moment, there are four primary playlists that players can load into from the multiplayer menu. Of those, Bot Bootcamp is an outlier, being a training mode where players can form Slayer and CTF matches with bots. The real meat can be found in Quick Play, Big Team Battle, and Ranked Arena. These playlists are the extent of the choices the player has over Infinite's multiplayer modes. Individual modes are randomly selected from a given playlist’s offering, and if the player doesn’t like what they’re given, their only options are to see a match through or quit. That’s not a great prospect, but when someone plays Capture The Flag and Oddball with bad teammates all night when they just want Slayer, dipping until the desired mode appears starts to sound more appealing.

Giving Halo Infinite Players What They Want Is Important

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A free-to-play multiplayer game is meant to be something that players can simply pick up and play whenever they want to. Ideally, they’d enjoy the game enough that they would then spend money on it, either to support their own enjoyment, or as a show of gratitude.

The way Halo Infinite is set up right now does not support either of those goals, and 343 Industries needs to treat the “full” launch of the game as a reset point. The monetization and progression need to be overhauled, and perhaps more importantly, playlists need to be filterable for individual modes. There can still be a random element involved in what map is selected and which variant of a given mode is played, but nonetheless, players need the chance to just play Slayer if that’s what they want.

The main reason why Slayer keeps being brought up in examples is that, right now, it’s the only mode getting the “individual playlist” treatment. The Fracture: Tenrai event running right now brought with it a 4v4 Slayer variant called “Fiesta” that disables map rules and spawns players with random weapons/equipment. It’s not tuned for competition, but it gives players a chance to consistently get into Slayer matches and test their adaptability.

Many players are reporting their enjoyment of the mode, and it will likely be missed when it’s gone. Putting up playlists that focus on individual modes will let Halo Infinite players capture the fun they want out of the game, and will help 343 Industries see what modes deserve support and which ones should be retooled. Hopefully, the campaign launch will be the perfect time to implement these changes.

Halo Infinite launches December 8 for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.

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