Though Halo Infinite might be drawing folks back with its expanding map diversity and new customization options, the in-game cosmetics shop is still rubbing fans the wrong way. A recent skin intended to be a tribute to the very first Halo game, 2001’s Halo: Combat Evolved, is drawing a bit of attention not for its looks, but because it’s currently twice the cost of the entirety of Halo: Combat Evolved (see on Amazon).
Though The Master Chief Collection played around with free, live-service quirks like seasons and battle passes, Halo Infinite marked the series’ first full shift, with a free-to-play multiplayer augmented by microtransactions and season passes, to a live service title. That shift, among other things, hasn’t been very popular with the community, particularly where it concerns pricing of in-game cosmetics. That discomfort continues with the Mark V Halo: Combat Evolved skin, which feature Master Chief’s original armor design and colors.
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Buy Halo: Combat Evolved: Amazon | GameStop
“For half of the price of the new bundle” a Reddit thread on r/Halo starts, “you can buy the entirety of [Halo: Combat Evolved], the game it’s from, on Steam.” The bundle costs 2,200 in-game credits. That boils down to about $20. As you can buy Halo: CE for just $10 a la carte on Steam, that’s more than double the cost of Master Chief’s premiere game.
So in theory you could buy two copies of Halo: Combat Evolved on Steam, one for you and another for a friend to play cooperatively in one of the most influential first-person shooters of the 21st century. I assure you, that’ll be a lot more fun than a skin.
But the price isn’t the only thing that’s annoying. Were it so easy.
In Halo Infinite, player skins are divided up into “cores,” each core representing a certain style of armor from the Halo universe; the “Mark V [B],” for example, is based on the design from 2010’s Halo Reach. Each core has its own set of helmets, chest plates, shoulders, armor colors (referred to as armor “coatings” in-game), and more.
Frustratingly, you can’t customize the individual parts across different cores. That changed a little bit with season five; you can now use helmets, visor colors, and some coatings across different cores. The problem is that the Mark V suit isn’t a core, but rather an armor “kit” for the Mark VII core; you’re far more restricted in how you can customize the set. You can’t even stick the helmet on other designs. The gold visor is cross-core compatible though, as well as green coating—though about that…
While the Mark V’s specific armor coating is usable across cores, some players are pointing out that the certain shade of green is almost identical to the free green coating that comes with the game. Yes, the “Cadet Sage” armor is ever so slightly darker, but at the pace of action Halo Infinite usually goes, it’s not like this looks wildly different during gameplay.
So yeah, go play Halo: Combat Evolved if you haven’t. The gameplay is aging a bit, but it’s an essential first-person shooter campaign of the modern era if there ever was one.