The overall idea of this post is I think the Commando Rifle may have been created and added to the sandbox as an “onboarding” type of weapon for players more familiar with other FPS titles such as Call of Duty or Titanfall/Apex.
I was playing the Halo Infinite campaign again and it occurred to me that while playing campaign I don’t really pick up the Commando Rifle. I’ll grab it in multiplayer, but in campaign its place feels redundant / weaker to its other counter parts (AR and BR). I have more success with the BR in long range, and am more comfortable with the AR in close range than the Commando Rifle in either scenario.
I was reviewing the Halo Infinite sandbox and discovered that while the UNSC gets two Auto rifles, the Banished Full Auto weapons available are the the Disruptor pistol and Needler. Unfortunately there is not a Full Auto plasma based weapon which has been found in every title previously. The Rapid Fire Pulse Carbine may be the closest, but it’s still technically burst. The only other Auto weapons are the Sentinel Beam (which is listed as Beam but you know what I mean), and also the Hydra which I wouldn’t count as Auto.
But I digress.
This all got me thinking about how I believe the Commando Rifle may have been added to the sandbox as a more familiar/traditional weapon for our newer players that are coming from other shooters such as CoD or Apex. The weapon even resembles the R-301 Carbine from Titanfall/Apex.
I play the game on Bumper Jumper (and have played on Bumper Jumper since 2007.) I feel this may be why the Commando Feels off to me sometimes. I went into the Commando weapon drill and updated my control scheme to default and immediately felt an improvement for the weapon with Left Trigger to Zoom. It really does feel like shooting the M4 from Call of Duty or another respective full-auto precision weapon we so often see in other games, but haven’t had one in Halo. Perhaps an argument could be made for a few of the AR variants found in Warzone for Halo 5.
Meanwhile using the BR with the classic click to the Zoom feels perfect, and I can’t really imagine not playing Halo on Bumper Jumper at this point (from a personal perspective.)
I think the Commando Rifle may have been created and added to the sandbox as an “onboarding” type of weapon for players more familiar with other FPS titles such as Call of Duty or Titanfall/Apex. Just something fun I was thinking about.
So i would kind of agree that the commando gets out performed by the BR and this is one of the reasons i say the BR is too good. It is by far the easiest ranged weapon to use and is practically the most useful. It needs a couple slight nerfs to make it not OP in comparison to other ranged weapons.
As for the aiming, using a stick to aim in just doesn’t work for me anymore. Halo is too fast paced to have that work. Getting descoped and having to press in a stick to aim back in is a huge disadvantage.
On top of aiming help i did have a control scheme that looks to feel like older Halos for the most part while also allowing for aiming in with something other than a stick. If you want to take a look it might be a newer control scheme you like.
Need help aiming in Infinite? (if it feels off to you try this set up for controllers)
I think automatic weapons in general are really underrepresented in Halo Infinite.
MA40 AR
This is a true automatic weapon.
VK78 Commando
Automatic sure, however it is obviously designed to be fired with controlled bursts due to bloom and recoil.
Disruptor
Shouldn’t even be considered automatic IMO it shoots very slow.
Needler
Fully automatic with a twist of homing projectiles and super-combine.
Hydra
Didn’t know this was even automatic until you mentioned it, but its the same category as the Disruptor.
The year is 2560 and we have 3 true automatic weapons. Imagine if they didn’t bring in the Commando we would only have 2… I agree with what you are saying about the Commando but the main issue I see with the Commando is descope essentially interrupts fire which is unlike any other FPS shooter.
On the subject of the Needler (and even Disruptor to an extent), I’ve found that these weapons are not sufficient to take out even an Elite Minor on normal difficulty without having to reload and use a second magazine. This is where I think the lack of a full-auto plasma weapon really shows.
Not that I want Elite shields to be weak, but in the past the Needler could take one out without reloading. And the Disruptor is a fine weapon to use against Brutes as they have no shields, but when fighting Elites with this weapon you’ll need to break their shields through other means first. So I usually just hang on on to a Ravager or Pulse Carbine combined with the BR.
Should a Full Auto plasma weapon be added in the future I hope it can be added to the campaign somehow.
If you have anything else bar a disruptor or plasma pistol, or maybe Mangler, the Commando still doesn’t compete as it should. It could be the lag/desync, but it is very hit and miss and just makes it way more frustrating to use than it should be.
