Launching a live service game can’t be easy. It’s hard to remember any games-as-service launch where everything went as planned but normally, as the game updates and time goes by, things get more stable. Unfortunately the release of the second season of Halo Infinite hasn’t been all that smooth either.
Our Halo expert Nat Clayton previously said the first season was a bit of a mess, and I had hoped the second would pull it out the bag. But even the head of creative for Halo Infinite, Joseph Staten, has said that the release hasn’t gone to plan.
In a tweet spotted by Eurogamer, he said: “Hey Spartans, this week has been bumpy. That definitely wasn’t our goal. We are indeed taking your feedback to heart, especially regarding map jumps and speedrunning. We’re reviewing options and will have more news to come.”
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Players have been upset with the removal of tech like map jumps with the second season. Unintentional geometry within maps that make technical movements possible and even important at high level gameplay, making all the difference to competitive advantages.
Additionally speedrun tactics have been patched out, like using the Pelicans to fly across maps rather than running across terrain. Pelicans are simply not pilotable anymore, which has confused and upset fans after this was a highlight for many. Additionally, speedrunners often rely on bugs in-game to achieve the fastest times possible, some of which have been patched out with Season 2.
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The comments under the dev tweet express quite a lot of frustration with the game’s current condition. Some complain that fans’ wishes aren’t being heard, others even posting some questionably broken gameplay.
But it’s only week one of Season 2. With the acknowledgement that things haven’t gone quite to plan, fingers crossed that maybe we’ll get some quick and hard changes to the game to compensate. And if that doesn’t go to plan too, well, at least 343 Industries has added our favourite Microsoft helper Clippy into the game. One day maybe they’ll even transform him into an AI, wouldn’t that be swell?