REACTION - Halo Infinite's Season 2 Content Plan Is Appreciated, But Feels Lacking

Slim pickings, Spartan.

By Jay Tee
07/03/22

Halo Infinite's journey to release was fraught with shifting expectation and ultimately necessary delays. The final release undoubtedly benefitted from the extra time in the oven, but sacrifices were still made. No co-op campaign at launch, a limited number of maps, and no Forge map editor. There’s a lot to be added, and news of Season 2’s upcoming content drop was welcome, but long overdue and perhaps a tad thin on the ground.

The radio silence from 343 has been quite jarring, given their open book approach in the run up to launch. I’m glad they’re publicly speaking about not wanting to overstretch the dev team, which highlights and helps to mitigate the prevalence of crunch at the studio and the industry at large.

But Season 2 will be dropping approximately 7 months since launch, and with only one new arena map, and one new Big Team sandbox, following months of infrequent updates and ongoing balancing issues, there’s a sense that 343 haven’t quite got a handle on the live service / post launch support approach just yet. Given the [now] excellent state of the Master Chief Collection, would it have been too big a task to port over a bunch of classic maps, to bolster the offering?

On the other hand, 343 have shown a willingness to absorb feedback from the community and acknowledge areas for improvement, even if it takes a minute to implement. This is clearly the first step on a longer road ahead.