Bungie had a clever way of making all the Halos have their own unique feel. This was portrayed mostly in the way you held your weapons, the way your weapons moved when you ran, the feedback from the way they fired, and the reload animations.
Halo CE’s reloads were heavy and complex, some of the weapons reloading differently if you spent the entire mag. Halo 2 sped up the reloads significantly. Halo 3 were similar to Halo 2 with a bit of Halo CE’s complexity thrown in. Reach took Halo CE’s idea of two reload animations per weapons and applied it to most weapons in the game; if you spent the whole mag the reload would take slightly longer.
For the way you held your weapons, CE and Halo 2 were pretty much low down on the screen, like you were holding the weapons at your hips. Halo 3 and Reach brought the weapons closer and aimed them more properly, allowing you to really ‘feel’ the value and weight of the weapon.
For weapon feel, I’ll focus on the Assault Rifle. This is purely about the feedback, not the sound it makes. Halo CE’s Assault Rifle was an insane enemy mower at closer ranges that could be burst fired to make it more accurate. The clip was huge and the reload was long, but fast-paced to not break the flow. The CE Assault Rifle was fun to use because of the sense of power and value in each mag.
Halo 2 didn’t have an Assault Rifle. The SMG is its replacement basic regards, but it also appears in Halo 3 along with the Assault Rifle, so I’ll skip over this game.
Halo 3’s Assault Rifle’s mag was cut in half, but the range and damage was increased. Also, its fire rate was slower. The Assault Rifle was made to be more strategic, encouraging firing on one target at a time and burst firing to get the most out of your mag. The reload was much faster than the old Assault Rifle, so even with a smaller mag, the weapon still performed smoothly.
Reach’s was similar in most regards except the weapon was tinkered to demand even more skill in burst firing and aiming with the radical increase in bullet spread. Also the reload made the gun feel more like each mag could effectively continue the spent mag’s job. The value of each individual mag was lessened, but the weapon was tweaked to make each mag work in immediate succession as you reload.
Halo 4’s was the same as Reach’s but the gun was made significantly more powerful. So now it’s closer to CE’s sense of power while retaining the need for burst firing and aiming at longer ranges. Other than the power upgrade, it’s exactly the same as Reach’s which kind of makes it blend together with Reach’s… which is what I want to talk about here.
Halo 4 borrows just about every weapon animation from Reach. Considering the weapon feedback is directly in the foreground of how you experience the gameplay, the result is it feeling a bit too similar to Reach. This is a case where change for change’s sake is good to apply; it gives the game its own feel and identity.
If you watch the Halo 3 ViDoc Et Tu Brute?, you’ll notice Bungie is using the weapon animations from Halo 2, even with the Halo 3 models. Those Halo 3 test plays look exactly like Halo 2, just from the way the weapons move. That’s how effective this stuff is.
In my opinion, Halo CE had the best weapon feel. Each weapon felt like it had weight with the way the moved and had value in each mag with the longer reloads. It feels great to mow down a group of Grunts with the Assault Rifle. The weapons gave you a sense of power, but also made you stay aware of the long reload times; a stop and go mentality you start to develop that makes the gameplay like a roller coaster that goes up and down.
I’d just like to say I don’t want Reach’s animations and weapon feel back for a third time. I really want 343i to take it upon themselves to make some new and interesting weapon animations that serve to give each weapon their own feel.