A look at vehicles throughout the Halo series

Games Other Halo
1

Halo 1:

Vehicles were invincible but could be toppled with grenades easily. This often caused them to crash and leave the driver vulnerable. At the same time though they had very good firepower. Losing a vehicle wasn’t the end of the world either, you could always fight to get it back due to them being invincible and never despawning, so neither drivers nor infantry were harshly punished.

The tank was the exception to the rule, but the driver was vulnerable through the cover of his seat, meaning you could snipe him out. Rockets and grenades were enough to take them out because they were all land based (except the banshee on the PC version).

Balance:
Weak but common.

Halo 2 and Halo 3:

Although vehicles were destructible they were still very durable. They couldn’t be toppled over as easily anymore, but this was replaced with the ability to board them and kick opponents out. Although the tank was no longer vulnerable to sniper fire you could still punch enemies out and take the tank for yourself at the cost of damaging the tank. Halo 2 had a homing rocket launcher and Halo 3 had a missile pod/spartan laser to make up for the addition of aircraft.

Balance:
Strong but not as common.

Halo 4:

Boarding and power weapons are no longer necessary to destroy vehicles. There is little to no strategy involved, you just spam firearms at them until they blow up or you use the plasma pistol and plasma grenades. Being in a vehicle is very short lived, there is little reward for actually acquiring one.

Balance:
Both weak and uncommon.

2

Totally agreed. The vehicles are incredibly weak in Halo 4. A pistol can destroy a tank if you shoot it long enough. It’s pathetic. Especially on Exile, you’re lucky if you last more than a minute in the Scorpion Tank with everyone spamming you with the DMR across the map. Vehicles need a major boost in health. They are almost pointless at this point.

3

True they are easily destroyed but they are plenty powerful. The guass hog cleans up on exile and if someone is skilled in the banshee they can keep it alive by flying around the top.

4

imo Halo CE vehicles were the best. Although I think they could have used a damage buff, overall it was the most fun & well balanced vehicle vs on-foot encounters.

Ever since Halo 2. Vehicles have become overpowered damage-sponges that require specific weapons in order to take them out. I hate vehicles now.

5

They should be powerful and common for big team and powerful and uncommon (but there) for Team Slayer, CTF, etc. Vehicles should always–ALWAYS–be the top dog. And they’re not. Ever. Mantis is slow and huge, vulnerable to everything, especially because the machine gun on it sucks and the stomp attack seems to do approximately nothing unless you are host. The Ghost is pathetic, even if you do manage to survive long enough to hit someone at full speed, they’ll probably shake it off and hijack you. The Warthog is completely underpowered with the Plasma Pistols, grenades, and the DMR (which goes for every vehicle) and a weak, innacurate, and quick-to-overheat chaingun. The Banshee could maybe last a minute, if it camped the back of the base. Scorpions and Wraiths, on the one and three maps they’re on (respectively) are about as much of a threat as a Warthog should be. Needless to say, there isn’t a Falcon or Hornet.

This is atrocious. Did 343 learn nothing from Reach? The DMR (and all non-power weapons, for that matter) are far too powerful. If you took a high-powered rifle to a modern tank–hell, a jeep–it would laugh at you and shake off the tiny bullet-mark. The Ghost however–an alien vehicle made of armor far superior to our own–might break if you right it a strongly worded letter. Whose idea of balance is this?

Who looked at Warthogs and said, “Overpowered, make them really easy to flip, really easy to kill with spawn weapons, and give them an overheating turret!” Who looked at the Ghost and Banshee and said, “Overpowered, make it not splatter anythinng, ever (except teamates!), give it limited boost, and make it take roughly a clip of DMR ammo to kill.” Who looked at the Scorpion and said, “Overpowered, make its bullets slow and have gravity affect them!” (For that matter, who looked at the Wraith and said, “too iconic, make it’s mortars red!” or the Ghost and said, “wouldn’t it be cool if it sounded like it was straight out of the Jetsons?”)

Part of the problem is, the maps are too cluttered. I miss the days when the maps were wide open expanses with no obstacles, and infantry found there cover well out of the driver’s way instead of right in the middle of it. Think about it, Sidewinder/Avalanche, Sandtrap, all the greats–they had outer rings or horseshoes or whatever that were wide open, and the infantry stayed in an inner area…if they wanted to. Sandtrap and Avalanche had big enough driving areas that if you walked out there, there was a good chance you would live to tell the tale. It was so much better for all involved than this “Oh noes, vehicles are killing infantry! Let’s give them some place to hide” places rock in the middle of the road “There we go!”

6

Agreed, as a big vehicle fan I can’t help being upset watching people completely disregard the warthog because it, as are most vehicles in Halo 4, is garbage.

It’s been down hill since Reach. When we gave the vehicles its own health stats the vehicles instantly became something no one wanted to use.

7

> Agreed, as a big vehicle fan I can’t help being upset watching people completely disregard the warthog because it, as are most vehicles in Halo 4, is garbage.
>
> It’s been down hill since Reach. When we gave the vehicles its own health stats the vehicles instantly became something no one wanted to use.

If vehicles simply must have their own health (which I wouldn’t consider a problem) there should definitely be a definitive way to monitor how much health you have–no more “Well the Warthog looks pretty bad, but I have full shields so–single DMR shot from across the map, BOOM”–and there should be (but not necessary I suppose) a way to heal vehicles, be it an AA, healing pad, what have you.