I must say I commend all the gameplay feedback that 343 has been able to follow so far. Movement feels great, the time to kill is great, the pacing is great, the core gameplay philosophy is great. Critiques with Halo 5 have been addressed…For the most part.
Infinite is more appealing than Halo 5 to me, but I can’t help but feel the weapons are too accurate, which makes them feel easy to use, less interesting and lacking in variety. I know this is entirely opinionated, but one of the biggest issues I had with Halo 5 was its laser-like weapon set. It made all the guns feel the same in the sandbox. All the guns had low spread, high range, and super quick projectiles. However, Halo Infinite actually seems to be doubling down on that on some of the weapons, with the Needler being faster than ever before. Gone is the need to lead your shots with the Needler and watch the bright glowing needles slowly follow your target before sticking to them and supercombining. You can now simply aim directly at your opponent.
The guns are substantially easier to use this way, which actually makes them feel less interesting. However, the Sidekick and Pulse Carbine get this right. The Sidekick encourages you to keep your shots paced, while the Pulse Carbine has those slower projectiles that make you need to lead your shots to ensure the projectiles hit the enemy. Definitely like the way those two were handled. Keeping projectile speeds, spread, and ranges toned down is important, as it makes the guns more interesting to use. While I personally look to the original three Halo games as reference for spread, range, and projectile speed, another 343 made Halo game, Halo 4, actually understood this too. Please look at Halo CE, 2, 3, and 4 as reference. A weapon’s spread can transform a weapon, and having that spread change with how much the player pulls the trigger makes you have variety within a single gun alone. This, combined with ensuring every weapon has its own niche, plays a huge part in the Halo feel.
I would suggest the following changes.
>ASSAULT RIFLE: One can fire this gun with the trigger held down all the time and score kills at Battle Rifle ranges. The gun is too accurate at long range and can be fired at full burst without much consequence. Decrease spread overall, and increase max error. Encourage short bursts at range, ensuring only CQC is full auto, unless the player wants to keep enemy shields from recharging and decides to blind fire for that. A little mechanic from the Halo 2 SMG, and Halo 3 Assault Rifle would be to rapidly pull the trigger in order to maintain that accuracy while firing fast. If that was featured in Infinite, I’d be very happy.
>COMMANDO: Currently feels too strong considering how simple it is to use to me. The gun seems to be a hybrid between the Assault Rifle and Battle Rifle, so I feel it would have to be both precise and able to be used in close range. For example, single shots could allow it to be used to headshot and accurately shoot at range. As you hold the trigger down, this error angle will increase, as the gun’s firing rate slowly gets faster and faster, until it becomes similar to the Assault Rifle. Kind of like how the Halo 3 turret slowly starts to fire faster as the trigger is held down. The gun has to be not as easy to use at range as the Battle Rifle, and not as easy to use in close quarters as the Assault Rifle. I’d like to see the gun go with the flow of Halo’s “close the gap” gameplay, and have single shots be really accurate for range, but as the weapon gets its trigger held down, it becomes closer to the Assault Rifle and able to be used in close quarters. To achieve this, I’d substantially increase max error and decrease rounds per second acceleration. At range, keep single shots by keeping the minimum error. Reaching max error should allow it to be used in close quarters too. This will cement its position as the in-between of the AR and BR. As the gun is headshot capable, keeping its shield stripping qualities toned down would be beneficial.
>SIDEKICK: Slightly increase spread and decrease range, so it outclasses the BR a little less, and make it easier to use up close to really hone in its closer range dominance position. I found that the AI has been able to actually outclass the Battle Rifle at the Battle Rifle’s designated ranges. I’d make it only just equal a BR at mid-range with very well paced and placed shots, but easier to use up close. Make it require enough pacing, that it slows mid-range time to kill down to BR level, and cannot be effective enough at further ranges than that, where the Battle Rifle would still be good.
>NEEDLER: Decrease projectile speed, then decrease required projectiles to supercombine. Make similar to classic Halo games to watch the glowing Needles track your target and explode them into oblivion. Make Needler projectiles glow more and be more easily visible.
>PLASMA PISTOL: Decrease projectile speed for standard fire, substantially decrease projectile speed for overcharge. Achieve that classic tracking look for the overcharge so you can watch in satisfaction as the bolt launches from the gun and tracks your target. It feels too stiff feeling, akin to Halo 5’s. Firing shots seems to require very precise timing to fire quickly. Make inputs register in a more forgiving way. Refer to the pre-Halo 5 games. Make less efficient on flesh.
>PULSE CARBINE: The idea of keeping things toned down, and having a slow dodge-able projectile speed is good, but something feels odd with its effectiveness in the multiplayer, though keeping projectile speed low is important to maintain dodgeability, especially for the campaign. What the gun needs is more predictable leading, in order to make it more reliable and compete with the other guns in the sandbox. The gun’s effectiveness should depend on the player’s understanding of the gun’s required lead. Might need stronger tracking? Additionally, as the gun is meant to be a shield -Yoink!-, a headshot bonus feels out of place and makes it overly effective on flesh.
As a footnote, I’d like to see a more diverse array of weapon purposes instead of just having guns primed to kill as all the guns seem to be currently. Have designated situational purposes to encourage more swapping and more weapon combinations. When a gun is a shield stripping weapon, have it be more of a shield stripping gun rather than be for killing. The Plasma Pistol is currently oddly too efficient on flesh.