I've never actually finished a season of a live service game before. (I was only able to finish this one thanks to the fact that Infinite lets you replay seasonal battle passes whenever you want, one of the multiplayer's best features.) So I'm not too sure what to write here. Am I supposed to review the battle pass itself? Or just the time when the season was live? I have no idea.
So I'll just do both.
As a battle pass this is...pretty whatever. I never really cared when I unlocked anything, and felt mostly indifferent the whole time. My friends and I spent most of the time just making fun of the arbitrary rarity rating. I cannot tell you the number of times we all laughed at "legendary shoulder pad". At the end of the day though, I'd describe the battlepass as just sort of boring and monotonous, mainly just not worth mentioning.
However, the season itself, was an absolute dumpster fire. The first six months of Halo Infinite multiplayer were riddled with bugs and design choices that baffled everyone. From the STILL present desync, to the two months where big team battle just didn't even work, to the game constantly unselecting the AI voice that I chose, the game was, and still is, a buggy mess.
But the design decisions are what really made this season a pain to play through. The ridiculous challenges that didn't respect any players time, the way xp could only be obtained through said challenges, the way the game didn't let you choose what specific game mode you wanted to play, or how you don't even have the freedom to choose your own color pallet. There was just...so much fundamentally wrong with the launch of Infinite, which is why my friends and I stopped playing it for a year. And while some of these problems have been fixed, it doesn't do anything about the horrendous first impression that season one gave all of us.
Overall, I think it's just really sad to see Halo following industry trends and nothing more, like a desperate kid in high school trying to be cool. This used to be the series that defined first person shooters, and now it's just a lack luster live service title, and that's just really sad. There's still a ton of fun to be had with the gameplay itself, but as a live service title, season one was a massive disappointment. I'm expecting the other seasons to be improvements, but not by much,
So I'll just do both.
As a battle pass this is...pretty whatever. I never really cared when I unlocked anything, and felt mostly indifferent the whole time. My friends and I spent most of the time just making fun of the arbitrary rarity rating. I cannot tell you the number of times we all laughed at "legendary shoulder pad". At the end of the day though, I'd describe the battlepass as just sort of boring and monotonous, mainly just not worth mentioning.
However, the season itself, was an absolute dumpster fire. The first six months of Halo Infinite multiplayer were riddled with bugs and design choices that baffled everyone. From the STILL present desync, to the two months where big team battle just didn't even work, to the game constantly unselecting the AI voice that I chose, the game was, and still is, a buggy mess.
But the design decisions are what really made this season a pain to play through. The ridiculous challenges that didn't respect any players time, the way xp could only be obtained through said challenges, the way the game didn't let you choose what specific game mode you wanted to play, or how you don't even have the freedom to choose your own color pallet. There was just...so much fundamentally wrong with the launch of Infinite, which is why my friends and I stopped playing it for a year. And while some of these problems have been fixed, it doesn't do anything about the horrendous first impression that season one gave all of us.
Overall, I think it's just really sad to see Halo following industry trends and nothing more, like a desperate kid in high school trying to be cool. This used to be the series that defined first person shooters, and now it's just a lack luster live service title, and that's just really sad. There's still a ton of fun to be had with the gameplay itself, but as a live service title, season one was a massive disappointment. I'm expecting the other seasons to be improvements, but not by much,