Changes are coming to Halo Infinite's multiplayer progression

Two weeks have passed since the release of Halo Infinite's multiplayer portion, and while the gameplay has received almost universal acclaim from both gamers and critics alike, the game's progression system has unfortunately stolen the spotlight due to its numerous flaws.

Halo Infinite multiplayer has adopted the free-to-play monetisation system, where the game itself is completely free, while the profit is being made by selling cosmetic items such as armour pieces, weapons skins, and various other decorations for your Spartan and their gear.

Another modern adaptation is the introduction of the battle pass system, pioneered by Valve with Dota 2 and adopted by most of the big AAA studios over the last couple of years, players pay a set amount of money for a seasonal battle pass with dozens of tiers and then grind their way through tiers in order to unlock numerous rewards.

Halo's developers promise changes to the progression system

The community has quickly realised that Halo Infinite's cosmetic customization is seriously flawed. Most prices for individual items are ridiculously expensive, and someone calculated that you would need to spend over 1000 USD to unlock everything in Halo Infinite - this includes only items available in the store at the launch of the game.

Jerry Hook, Halo Infinite's head of design, commented on the progression issues today, stating that the developers are "feeling everyone's pain" on the matter.

Yes I am still playing Halo and feeling everyone’s pain on progression. We are back at it next week and this will be top of my list with the team.

— jerry hook (@hookscourt) November 28, 2021

"Yes, I am still playing Halo and feeling everyone's pain on progression," Hook wrote. "We are back at it next week and this will be top of my list with the team."

While he didn't share any specifics in regard to their plans on how to improve the progression system, the biggest focus will probably be on how people earn XP to advance through tiers of the battle pass.

The battle pass system in Halo Infinite has been considered badly designed due to the fact that it is tied with the daily and weekly challenges system, rather than simply rewarding players for playing the game and winning.

These challenges usually require players to complete some specific tasks, leading to them playing the game suboptimally, focusing on a challenge rather than winning.

Objectives in Halo Infinite heavily rely on team play, and if just one player doesn't play for the objective in a 4v4 game, that essentially means game over for that team.

The general opinion within the community is that the current battle pass system would need to be redesigned and balanced around time spent playing and winning rather than solely on challenges, while the current challenge system should stay as a supplementary system, in a similar vein how the battle pass system works in most other games.

While 343 Industries is still being quiet about their concrete steps on how to make the system better, it's encouraging to see that they are working on fixing it, but for now, we will have to wait and see what solutions will they implement.

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Featured Image Courtesy of 343 Industries.