Halo Infinite probably has the best balanced sandbox in any Halo. I would say this is due to the (fortunate) lack of a “utility spawn weapon” i.e. a midrange precision spawn weapon such as the BR or DMR that still beats most close range guns in close range. Infinite’s BR finally loses to the AR at close range giving us the decent AR while also keeping the BR in check so it isn’t an easy crutch for everyone to fall back on.
That said I would make a few changes that I think would help further:
Get rid of the shock rifle
its too easy to disable vehicles plain and simple
Shock grenades must directly hit a vehicle to stun them and upon hitting the vehicle it is destroyed
this prevents long easy cheap vehicle disables
Slow down and add more arc the skewer projectile significantly
this would widen the skill gap and help make it less oppressive to vehicles
Increase the fire rate of the bulldog, shorten its range just a bit, and make it full auto (no more pump animation)
if we aren’t going to have the normal shotgun back (which i am fine with) then the bulldog needs some love. This would help it be a better close range weapon as its way too easy to outgun at close range or just 2 hit melee kill them before they get the necessary shots off to kill you.
Lower vehicle weapon damage (specifically on the warthog and wasp machine guns and maybe the ghosts plasma shots) but also buff their health (to all vehicles in general, not every vehicle needs the same amount of health increased but i feel all need some increase)
this would help bring vehicles’ lethality down a bit but make them last longer. As of now vehicles don’t last any time as there are too many counters to them and they just don’t have the durability. That said since the other buffs I suggested would help vehicles we do need to nerf their damage so they don’t become OP. This is the first Halo i can think of where vehicles seem to be better on the lethal side of things but have abysmal health.
Rework the wraith mortar
the projectile has way too little arc and way too much speed. It should have a larger blast radius while moving much slower and have a more drastic arc to it. The wraith should not be a direct alternative to the scorpion but rather a different type of tank that requires a much different skill set.
Rework the hydra (to be more like the micro missles in Doom 2016 or Sidewinder in Titanfall)
as it stands now it is just a weak rocket vs people and way too cheesy against vehicles. So get rid of its tracking, lower the damage a good deal but make it full auto with a lot of tiny missles in each mag. This would make it stand out more from the SPNKR in terms of fire rate.
Lower the blast damage and/or radius of frags
they are just too strong right now
Add Oddball throwing back to the game
the one thing H4 nailed was oddball and passing allowed for some fun plays like clutch passes to teammates or interceptions to turn the tides. Maybe make the wind up longer but still allow us to do it
Buff Pulse Carbine shield damage
it just sucks right now and needs a buff
Turn on player collision
Undo the mangler nerf
it was fine before the nerf, now its just bad
This might seem like a lot of issues but honestly even if they don’t change anything Infinite still has my favorite sandbox (mainly because the BR is not just OP as crap). The gunplay and movement also feels amazing and i honestly love basically all the maps. Infinite has other problems but the sandbox is definitely the least of their worries and the best in the series.
Halo 5 had the most balanced sandbox. It was the only thing the game did right. None of the guns are worth using in Infinite when you have to sit through a 5 second animation before you can even fire the weapon and the aiming is too broken to use snipers well enough. Only the sword is viable because sprinting remains unbalanced due to being able to recharge shields, slide, and maintain speed while being shot. We went backwards with game design just for the sake of change.
See i would say 5 went backwards just for the sake of change. Sprinting and regaining shields isnt a problem as when you shoot someone they get slowed a bit and just don’t push if you think their shields are back up. Precision weapons were still busted as heck in H5 and i hated most of the sandbox, too much overlap for basically no reason.
I have a whole separate argument for H5 where i think it should have been its own IP as the gameplay is fun just nothing like what i want a Halo game to be.
Saying Infinite’s sandbox is perfect is laughable and shows how fall Halo has fallen to the wayside of other games. Imagine praising the most bland and generic sandbox ever where guns are only designed for killing and nothing else. Imagine praising a sandbox where a majority of the weapons are designed for room temperature IQ players and have such shallow skill gaps that every match is sweaty.
This. You either spray and pray the AR across half the map or hammer the trigger on the sidekick. Social is a complete nightmare to play because theres zero skill incolved.
Ranked kinda works though the laser BR rewarding bodyshots with headies is boring as well.
H5 did it just right. Magnum, BR, DMR, even AR… they all worked together.
Made it to onyx and have a decent KD while only being able to play once a week. So i wouldn’t say im low IQ…
Trying to say its laughable is laughable. You didn’t really argue as to how its not. Unless you mean it didn’t follow the same dang bland trash precision weapon meta we had been suffering from for 20 years🤔? Literally 90% of weapons didn’t matter as the BR/DMR would beat them most of the time. So it made the game brain dead. No thinking about map weapons and barely any about positioning as most of the time the BR/DMR had near infinite range with hitscan bullets (H3 is the only exception and even there the BR is too good).
I stand by what i said and your argument can be that you like barely having to think about what gun you use but i would argue that it is less fun to more people to have Halo that way.
My argument basically boils down to: Halo succeeded despite a terrible OP precision weapon meta and not due to it.
The over exaggeration of the ARs range kills me. It has an effective range window that starts at the top of short range and ends at the bottom of medium. Outside of this and other guns are beating you unless the other player is trash.
Everytime i hear the arguments against the AR it always boils down to the person just wanting to be able to use “any mid range precision weapon here” at all times and not ever have to worry about how close you are to people. The BR has finally been put in a good spot to where it is amazing at medium range but can be kept in check at closer ranges. It fits into this sandbox instead of sitting on top as the “Utility weapon” which was so boring and made a lot of the arena shooter mechanics less important as picking up a gun didn’t really matter except in very niche circumstances as the BR/DMR/H5 Magnum could cover every situation but the very niche ones.
Infinite fixed this problem and i love it. The gun play in general feels very similar to Destiny which is a great thing as 5 felt jerky and just not fluid (and yes i know how to mess with my settings, most of it probably comes down to FOV but still nothing I did in H5 made it feel smooth to play, i also have a good set up so thats not the issue either).
If Infinite could give us armor that unlocked in similar ways to Hayabusa, Helioskrill, and H3 Recon it would have near perfect multiplayer outside of its technical issues.
Thing is: you don’t have to pick up the AR
Half the range it we are good.
Theres no skill in deciding when to use a weapon that requires no skill to use at all.
You said it yourself: if you want simple gunplay, go play cod or destiny. halo always stood for precision weapons, long killtimes and use of accuracy. That’s what an arena shooter is about.
What meta? you mean the meta where people use guns that reward skill and encourage a skill gap?
This is blatantly false, maybe from an outside perspective through MCC you could argue this but in actuality it’s untrue.
So power weapons and utility weapons don’t count? the shotgun doesn’t count? the sword and hammer and bruteshot don’t count? you’d rather have a braindead meta focused around guns with zero skill than a sandbox with depth in all elements?
Games with less depth naturally have less players and lose players much faster, plus the generic factor means players are much less likely to stay.
And my argument boils down to: You don’t understand Halo and what made it popular and are just another precision weapon hater due to surface level observations of Halo’s sandbox.
Arena shooters allowed for the diversity of weapons that were found on the map where other shooters had metas from OP guns. Halo started as a unique arena shooter in which you had to think before entering an engagement and hope your weapons were suited for it because you can only carry 2 weapons and don’thave access to a weapon wheel like most arena shooters. Thats where the skill came in, how do you handle it when you aren’t well equiped and planning to make sure that you are.
Spawning with long range super easy to use precision weapons (and yes they are very easy to use) took that skill away. You no longer had to put much thought into what gun you had because the BR/DMR could basically do it all. Infinite fixed this by buffing other guns and not leaving the BR just OP.
Having a utility weapon absolutely devolves into other guns barely getting used. Play ranked and you’ll see it. Even in Infinite, outside of super niche circumstances no one uses anything other than the BR unless you have to reload or are out of ammo. Same thing when you watch pros play. It just gets very old using the same gun all the time especially when its just not hard to use.
The BR:
-Has no recoil
-Near hitscan bullets
-near perfect accuracy
-A large mag (can kill mulitple spartans per mag and more than most guns can per mag)
-good zoom
-no bloom
-long range
-no penalty to hip fire
-your targets are big, relatively slow, and easy to spot spartans
How exactly is this thing supposed to be hard to use or show any skill gap?
You mean 343 made the BR braindead so everyone uses it lol, oh yeah plus it’s ranked so people want a gun with even a minor amount of skill…
Untrue
Keep crying about Halo’s core identity
The AR:
-Has little recoil
-Hitscan
-A large mag
-Non-descopable ADS
-Little bloom considering the firerate
-Very long range for a bullethose
-No penalty to hipfire
-your targets are big, slow and easy to spot spartans.
How exactly is this thing supposed to be hard to use or show any skill gap?
also funnily enough removing recoil from the BR would make it harder
Compared to past Halos this one has the weakest vehicles and its not even close. They need buffs unless you are arguing you just hate them and want all vehicles gone i can’t see any reason not to help them out.
If you nerf the AR at all it goes back to being absolutely useless. So why not just argue for taking it out of the game completely? Its range isnt even that much, its easy to take cover if they are shooting you from range and i already stated it only has a small window where it is the most effective gun. Basically every weapon has a window and you just don’t like that the BRs isn’t massive in comparison.
You are actually arguing that you want it to have less of a skill gap and people not have to consider how close they are to someone when using it.
The AR has never been useless and nerfing it will not make it useless.
Still too much pressure
And at close range where you can’t get away you are a free kill because it does so much damage for such little skill.
No, I dislike weapon windows entirely. People like you are why the sniper has bloom as weapons need to have preferred combat range and the mindset has ruined Halo completely.
AR has always been the gun you immediately drop for literally anything else. H3s AR was the worst version we got and even as recent as H5 i would just instantly switch to the Magnum or BR because the AR isn’t worth using comparatively.
Having to watch your positioning is a great skill to have and not wanting it in Halo just makes for hitscan easy to use laser death matches and to me thats no fun.
Maybe thats why i love PUBG and don’t care too much for other Battle Royales. Positioning matters much more than just having slightly better gun skill (in those games there is way more skill gap with guns than there has ever been in Halo with any weapon, thats not a bad thing, i argued that skill should come into play with weapon choice and positioning and Halo has relatively easy to use weaponry no matter the weapon when looking at other shooters).
If you don’t want to have to worry about positioning or range at all go play an On Rails Shooter, it does all the moving for you and all you have to worry about is a single skill in aiming
