Evolving Sword Combat

Games Halo Infinite
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How can we Evolve sword Combat? Halo has been Evolving Combat ever since its launch back in 2001. Energy swords have been usable by the players since Halo 2 back in 2004. But in the 17+ years that we’ve been able to use energy swords, we only have been able to perform one move: a basic swing.

What if we had more freedom and control over our energy sword usage? What if we had a manual lunge? Parrying and thrust? Light attack (prioritizes speed) and heavy attack (prioritizes damage)? What if we could block bullets, and absorb plasma damage? I think that all or most of these features could greatly increase the possible amount of gameplay scenarios. It would also be quite interesting to see some slightly more advanced sword mechanics in a first-person setting instead of a third-person one like most games.

TL;DR, Let’s think about having some cool energy sword skills and moves in Halo.

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I was listening to First Strike (I think) and was reminded about how the HCE swords exploded when dropped. And I thought to myself, what if we brought this back? But different.

Imagine, if you will, the energy sword was like a hot potato. You want it for the killing spree, but as it’s energy drains it becomes increasingly likely to explode upon use. It’s a mini-game within the game.

I never expect that to roll out. It was just a fun idea.

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Sounds intriguing. I was mostly thinking about the sword from a combat perspective, but that’s actually a pretty good idea too.

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Sounds too complex. I see Halo be is designed with simple mechanics used by the limit of player’s imagination. Why even add all these functions when we can already insta-kill every other non-sword player just to entice sword dueling when the majority (if not all) of games don’t have two sword duelers running around?

Also, the energy sword being an annoyance already as it is without the ability to deflect bullets and plasma being weak as it is.

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A reasonable claim. What I posted was a list of ideas so it seemed more complicated than it was.

to Evolve Combat

Yeah, even while typing up my post I thought that idea was the most off the rails. Maybe there could be the ability to cut bullets, hardlight, and other more tangible projectiles in half if you’re fast and skilled enough instead?

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There was a phrase I made a habit blurting out anytime I was killed by a smart-link sord lunge in H5:

If you’re gonna let them lunge from that far away, then you might as well let them throw it too.

Hold shoot to wind up a throw. And maybe it can be caught midair just like the fusion coils? Sounds annoying honestly, but it’s something.

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Lol nice phrase and idea. I might post this on Reddit just so that 343 can see it as well.

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Careful, 343 might listen and we’re all gonna regret the new sword sniping meta!

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Just to be clear, there already is a heavy attack and light attack mechanic for the sword. Regular melee is a fast attack with less range than the primary attack (no extended lunge range).

I do still think it would be cool to see more depth added to sword and hammer combat though. Especially since griffball will show up eventually

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What! Whoa, I thought my whole life that the melee button and shoot button with the energy sword do the exact same thing with no differences of any kind!

agreed

also to answer your username

I like chicken

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What do you mean by that?

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You already used to have more swordplay options.

Halo 2 used to have sword flying and BXR/BXB to stop swords. Melee tech was pretty advanced and niche.

Halo 3 and Reach had strong sword tournaments, where you could use a fast melee to block a lunge and stun the opponent, breaking their shield, allowing a headshot kill or immediate counter-lunge to win. You had to play rock-paper-scissors over whether the other player would lunge-melee-jump/dodge.

In Reach, you additionally could melee a sword lunge with your fist with perfect timing, you both lose your shields, but they’re stunned, so you can pop a headshot. You also had the additions of evade and armor lock.

You could also block swords with a hammer melee, and the timing was forgiving.

In Halo 5, sword tournaments were still good. You also additionally had thrust, turning sword fights into DBZ fights as long as neither of you jebaited the other person, and kept throwing the same rock-paper-scissors.

In those games, you never ran out of health, and could sword fight forever, if neither got the stab.

In Halo Infinite however, you have no alternate melee attack on swords and hammers. You cannot block without a sword, and the hammer block timing is very unforgiving with the slow animation and ping netcode desync. If two swords clash, you both lose shields and health, and one of you randomly dies due to desync. Sword fights do not last long and there is no strategy. Even worse, swords in Infinite are hypermagnetized, so you can’t even dodge by jumping or thrusting anymore.

If that’s not bad enough, the bulldog almost never will bulltrue like the OG shotguns, so I have no real hope for Infection.

Halo Infinite has the worst gameplay in Halo history, and the swords are just one of the many things I hate about it.

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Throwing swords across the map.

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Yea, it’s been that way since the sword appeared in H2 :grinning:. Usually it’s most useful when two players with swords are fighting eachother, because using the regular melee quick attack will give you a faster follow up swing. This will let you win sword duels against players who only use the primary fire sword lunge

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They did evolve it in reach and 5; but people complained, so they regressed everything. Halo limited in a nutshell.

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@xXx_Mhx_Air_xXx you beat me to it.

Halo 3 had some of the strongest sword combat and it really only involved two variations on the swing.

We don’t really need Killer Instinct levels of hand to hand combat, just a “rock, paper, scissors” approach.

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I see now. The real problem is those Halo “purists”. Halo was always about Evolving Combat, but these -yoink-s want stuff to remain the same. This is a real problem; we need to put it back to the Reach/H5 way.

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Considering how Broken and inconsistent Melee is in HI now, I can’t see Parrying, or other Sword related activities working at all.

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sad spongebob