343 Industries’ Head of Design has said that the development team at the studio will continue to tweak Halo Infinite‘s controversial progression system, with fan complaints continuing to mount.
Jerry Hook, the Head of Design at 343, took to Twitter over the weekend to comfort fans by saying that he is also “feeling everyone’s pain on progression” in the game. Speaking further about the system in Infinite, Hook said, “We are back at it next week and this will be top of my list with the team.”
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
343 announced just shy of two weeks ago that it was looking to make changes to the game’s Battle Pass system. Across social media, many fans had raised complaints about the slow progression in the game. These largely focused on the different challenges that players must complete in order to earn XP on the Battle Pass as well as the lack of XP earned from completing and participating in matches on Infinite.
Since originally looking into the issue, 343 has changes to the game that have helped to somewhat smooth out the experience. In doing so, the studio extended the timeframe for XP boosts to an hour and tweaked the way that XP is earned meaning that now fans are able to earn some XP by completing matchmade games.
Further changes to the game went on hold as the team had been on holiday for a portion of last week. On November 24, 343’s community director Brian Jarrard tweeted about the team’s absence during the holiday period. “Changes will take time and our priority this week is giving the team a much deserved break for the holiday after a long final stretch. Thank you for understanding,” said Jarrard.
Been traveling so slow to respond – but please know the constructive feedback is being heard loud and clear. Changes will take time and our priority this week is giving the team a much deserved break for the holiday after a long final stretch. Thank you for understanding. 🙏
— Brian Jarrard (@ske7ch) November 24, 2021
Unfortunately, during this time frustrations felt by players over Halo Infinite’s progression have not been helped by the ongoing Fracture: Tenrai limited event that launched for the game last week. Upon Tenrai’s release, it became apparent that players wouldn’t be able to fully complete the game’s event-based Battle Pass during the week that it was running.
Instead, those taking part in Tenrai are only able to complete a finite number of challenges during the first week of the event. This means that to gain progress and unlock everything in the event pass, fans will need to return to the challenge during a number of further Tenrai themed events across Infinite’s first season.
While Halo Infinite’s multiplayer mode is still running as a beta at this time, the community will be hoping that the team is able to well and truly sort out issues with the game’s progression before its full launch on December 8.
That being said, issues with the game’s progression aren’t the only factors negatively affecting the developer’s standpoint with the community at present. As reports from over the weekend have suggested that Halo Infinite’s multiplayer is suffering from an influx of cheaters, a number of players have taken to social media asking what 343 are going to do about it.
Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.