Halo Infinite's first season has been an awkward mess

pcgamer.com:

Halo Infinite's abnormally-long first season is about to come to a close. On May 3rd, Season 2 will roll in with two new maps, three new modes, a new battle pass and a mercifully shorter runtime of 3 months, hopefully giving Infinite a much-needed shot in the arm. 

It's probably not contentious to say that, in the run-up to Season 2, the mood in the Halo community isn't great. Infinite might be a solid shooter, but its first season has been hit with setback after setback after setback. Even I, the site's resident Halo buff, fell off the game hard after only a month. 

So how did we get here, and what can Season 2 do to win over lapsed fans?

Halo Infinite should have arrived on a high. Reception following the game's two technical multiplayer tests was glowing—here was Halo, refined into the strongest iteration 343 had so far delivered, featuring playful equipment, balanced weapons, tight maps and an aesthetic that finally ended the tyranny of overdesigned greebles.

But it didn't take long after the game's release for fans to start asking: is this it? Despite arriving a full year after its once-planned 2020 release, Infinite's multiplayer felt shockingly thin. Staple modes like King of the Hill, Assault, Fiesta and even free-for-all Slayer were missing from the launch lineup, and Infinite shipped with the smallest map pool of any Halo to date.

Over the season, 343 would slowly roll in modes like Fiesta and FFA as time-limited events (though would eventually make them permanent). But that selection still felt thin, especially considering Big Team Battle was straight-up broken for much of the season. Limited playlists also means you had little control over what map or mode you were playing—and while we'll get into what that