Everything you need to know about why I bounced off Halo Infinite shortly after launch can be encapsulated in a single word: crossplay.
I’m an ardent, long-time fan of the franchise, but it’s profoundly aggravating that I can’t opt out of it, not least because at its best, Halo’s multiplayer – whilst not without its issues – remains incredibly good fun. I’ve long considered it one of the fairest of its ilk, a game that awards not time spent but skill, effectively levelling the playing field. It’s you, it’s them, and it’s standard loadouts and a handful of special weapons and equipment items – camo, overshields and the like – that periodically spawn in around the map.
Forcing PC and Xbox players to crossplay together, however, flies in the face of that, and it’s so frustrating that six months after release, this still hasn’t been addressed – frustrating players on all sides, apparently. PC players are unhappy that console players have aim assist. Console players complain that, in fact, it’s PC players that have the advantage, not least because of access to cheats like wallhacks and aimbots. No one’s happy, and still, no one can opt out of it, even though the shooter’s free-to-play multiplayer modes were released back in November.