This post will not be filled with inconstructive whining like most posts on the forums right now. Instead, this post will contain constructive feedback about the sandbox of this game. We need the Spiker back, and here’s why. The Spiker will take the role of an armor-stripping, aggressive SMG that is used for an aggressive playstyle. But what do I mean by armor-stripping?
I completed the campaign on Heroic and noticed that the “armored-up” enemies like Chieftains and Hunters were the most annoying enemies to fight because they were so bullet-spongey, and there was no way to combat them effectively without wasting grenades and BR ammo. In the hands of a player, the Spiker will fix this problem. The Spiker will absolutely destroy Hunter and Brute armor, kind of like how the Pulse Carbine destroys shields. This will weaken those annoying Brutes and Hunters, making them easier to kill. The Spiker will also be useful for killing unarmored targets, as well as enemy vehicles.
In the hands of the Brutes in the campaign, this gun will work wonders for the “fun factor” of the game. The days where every Brute wields either a pulse carbine or a vk78 will be gone. When I played the campaign, I often found myself hiding in cover because 10 Brutes had a pulse carbine, and if I got out of cover I would be instantly shot down by volleys of plasma fire that immediately destroyed my shields the second I got out of cover. I also often found Brutes wielding human weapons, weapons that are balanced for competitive play like the vk78. The Brutes need an automatic weapon that is not as annoying as the pulse carbine or the vk78, weapons that create a very unfun experience when used in large numbers. It feels like the campaign is as sweaty as the multiplayer sometimes, and that shouldn’t happen. The Spiker will change that. The Spiker will be most effective at close range, and Brutes wielding it would try to get in close range to the player. Brutes firing the gun in little five-spike bursts won’t really do much to your shields, so you can go out of cover and play the game normally when every Brute in the area is using it, instead of being shot down by volleys of plasma fire like when Brutes wield the pulse carbine.
But when the campaign turns from annoying to laughably easy is when you have a vehicle. Remember those Brutes with the pulse carbine? I splattered them all with a Ghost in the span of five seconds. This also shouldn’t happen. If the Brutes have a weapon that can tear through vehicles, this problem will be fixed.
In Multiplayer, this gun will take the role of an SMG. An aggressive, spray and pray type gun. Great for destroying shields and slicing people up. The Spiker also takes down vehicles like a boss, just like in the campaign.
A few other things:
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I do not have a problem when Elites use the pulse carbine. Normally, Elites are too few in number for the pulse carbine to be annoying. Brutes, on the other hand, need a different gun, simply because there is normally 8 or so Brutes in one area in Halo Infinite. 8 guys with weapons that can destroy your shields in a heartbeat is really annoying.
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The Spiker will use the Halo Wars 2 design. I loved that design.
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Yes, the Spiker’s melee will do more damage.
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The damage type will be Kinetic, just like the Mangler.
I hope you liked my idea. Infinite’s sandbox really needs something like this to prevent the game from getting infuriating. I hope something like this actually gets put in the game. As of now, this game is grossly unbalanced. A weapon like this will do wonders for game balancing.