1. Halo 5’s approach to making more weapons viable was admirable, but it came at the cost of uniqueness since they were largely focused on killing. Giving more weapons “utility” functions like the stun of CE’s Plasma Rifle would do well to add variety without making each gun a killing machine. Automatics in general could do with more support-oriented roles rather than fast TTK’s. While Classic Halo was guilty of homogenizing weapons to a degree, you still had that sense that each was good for a different purpose (aside from meme-tier weapons like the H3 Magnum or Spiker). Recently, they’ve gotten much more samey, such as having five precision weapons that only do slight variations of the same thing. The Carbine, Magnum, BR, DMR and Light Rifle don’t all need to be here, if they’re going to have such similar roles. Giving one or two of them more unique mechanics and reducing killtimes would go a long way. Halo 5’s Plasma Caster is actually a pretty decent example of this; while it can definitely kill, it’s geared towards holding down a certain space and denying the enemy from entering an area. That’s a pretty unique function, and it reminds me of how games like TF2 distinguish individual roles. More of that is great!
2. Possibly controversial, but Power Weapons can shift the focus from “half-mechanical skill, half-positioning”, to almost entirely positioning, since they are easy to use and have little counterplay. Often, the only reliable strategy against someone with a Rocket Launcher, Sniper, Shotgun, etc. is to avoid interacting with them. The game can become much more slow and defensive when someone has a Power Wep, which is odd as they’re placed on maps specifically to force player interaction. It creates a weird “speed up/slow down” gameplay loop where everyone fights tooth and nail for the big weapons, but then stops in their tracks because their opponent got a weapon you can’t safely challenge, so players don’t. This isn’t inherently bad, but it de-emphasizes individual skill in favor of cautious map movement and team-shotting.
It would be nice if there were modes without them, to offer a more fast paced and mechanics-focused playstyle. Even if it’s playing with half a sandbox, I think it’d be refreshing to see Halo emphasize the skill of the individual a bit more. Halo 5 actually did do this to a degree; as lame as advanced mobility was, it at least gave players some leeway in challenging someone with a Rocket or Sword. Also, 343’s Power Weapons like the automatic SAW, the charge-up Railgun, and area-denying Plasma Caster can be played around more consistently, since they don’t kill you instantly (unless someone pre-charged a Railgun as you’re rounding a corner). Overall, I believe Power Weapons limit player interaction, lower the skill requirement, and quash the ability of an individual to affect the match. I’d very much like to see what Halo can do in a setting without them. Curious what people think about this one, since they’ve been a staple since, uh, forever.
3. The trend of making Forerunner and Covenant weapons alien versions of Human ones is lame. This need for each faction to have counterparts of each-others’ weapons is largely responsible for the sameness I talked about in point 1. It’s not even like Reach, where Invasion necessitated some degree of equal footing, or Halo 4 where loadouts demanded a number of similar options. Halo 5 has no loadouts or classes, so there’s no excuse for a myserious alien civilization to have a glowing orange version of a double-barrel shotgun. Unless they’re meant to be similar because of Warzone–an idea I find pretty silly as the concept of REQ packs kinda throws balance out the window to begin with, doesn’t it? I really hope Infinite makes weapons more distinct, in terms of both aesthetics and gameplay, as the existence of alien weapons allows for much crazier possibilities than “Sniper but it glows”.
What do y’all think of these points? What do you want to see in Infinite’s sandbox?