What is your preference and reason for your choice?
I personally like lots of variants and the Halo 5 team did a great job with creating all sorts of weapons and vehicles. Plus, the lore attached to it is cool bonus I know there’s an argument to be made about too many variants tripping over one another, but it’s super cool to see all sorts of animations and behaviors.
EDIT: Responses below have made me realize I didn’t frame my answer properly. I am a fan of most of the non-loadout weapon and vehicle variants because there’s a lot of cool stuff there. But, some like the below mentioned Warthog variants are repetitive and unnecessary so I wouldn’t like to see them all return. So, to amend my initial preference, I’d like to see a slight reduction in the number of items but want a lot of variety. Turns out I left it as an open question so I’ll also add like another user did below that I would like 80% or more of the armors removed.
I think the number of variants could be toned down.
There was no need for multiple variants of UNSC vehicles at the same levels of strength. ONI and Hannibal are one thing, but Tundra, Urban, Forest, they’re all the same.
The different variants of UNSC loadout weapons were also a little overboard. Like, Longshot and Sentinel have alot of overlap. Silencer and Sound Dampener could be rolled into one. Putting Covie and Forerunner sights on the weapons seemed unnecessary to me; I can’t see the functional benefit they have over standard, human sights.
I think the different tiers for REQ weapons was mostly nice, even if the most fun weapons were also the rarest. But for alot of REQs, the tier 2 variant was just a larger mag and a higher rate of fire; hardly that creative, really.
Personally i was not a fan of 95% of the req vairants. They clogged up ui and very quickly became annoying rather then good for the game. When i get a needler cert in H5 its not “Yes i got THE halo neddler” its “oh another needler…”. And there is also the issue that getting used to weapons is harder when you have 5 sniper rifles with diff recoil stats etc. I liked the idea of legendary wepons like the prophets bane and ce magnum but in practice they just slaped on power ups to a lot of them and called it a day. The weapon shouldnt need a artifical power up to feel special. The prophets bane is actually not a reskin and has a cool unique model BUT YOU CANT EVEN SEE IT when you use it. A few of the req vairants were p cool like the sword worthog but for the most part i hope we go back to just one of a kind. Id rather have one new weapon or vehicle in the game over 100 vairants/reskins.
I’d be fine with variations if they toned it down a notch. There was a lot of junk crammed into the REQ system, like having 7 different types of Mongooses just for the sake of cluttering up packs. A lot of the weapons were really cool, but I’d say max it out at 1 or (at the very most) 2 additional variants per item. Having to choose between 4 versions of the same weapon in the middle of combat is a pain.
I like variety but I think there’s something to be said for a simpler, easier to understand selection of weapons. Personally I am hoping Halo Infinite does away with weapon variants, and turns the fun ones into their own weapons. For example, instead of having a Carbine variant called the Blood of Suban, there can just be a Needle rifle.
Learning all the variants in Halo 5 and memorizing how they perform differently is a daunting task for a newcomer, especially when many of them are a simple forgettable upgrade, such as the Fury Storm rifle just not overheating as fast as the normal Storm rifle. I also feel the same way about the amount of attachments for loadout weapons, and I’m hoping Halo Infinite doesn’t have customizable loadouts anyway so they won’t be necessary at all.
And besides, sometimes I miss the days when a default power weapon felt powerful. I remember playing Halo Reach BTB on Hemorrhage and getting excited to get my hands on my team’s sniper rifle, even though it was just a normal, basic sniper rifle. Nowadays I could play BTB and pick up a normal sniper rifle and feel like “this piece of junk doesn’t even have explodey bullets or a special paint job”.
I would like to see the Hannibal vehicles come back, however.
I can name every piece of armor from Halo 3 and even most from Halo: Reach from memory. The Halo 5 numbers are so great that it’s hard to keep track. Fewer armors but more distinguished would be great for Halo Infinite.
I’ve literally only used like 10 helmets, and 4 or 5 body armors.
the rest was utter garbage. nothing other than the reach, classic req pack, and save for a few like the H4 returns, and reaper and security, looked like a functioning spartan.
It makes me so mad that we had to see the other 200 pieces of garbage, what a f******g disaster and embarrassment of an armor selection halo 5 has.
too many scopes man. too many redundant vehicles.
I don’t want the wasted development time for things that look just plain stupid, redundant, and useless.
Each weapon and vehicle variation needs to be distinct and have a reason to exist. For instance, Void’s Tear is unique from the Plasma Pistol as it creates a singularity that pulls in enemies and explodes. That’s something that no other weapon can do. On the other hand, Spitfire is also a Plasma Pistol variation, but the only difference is that it shoots faster and can fire more shots before overheating. That’s not good enough to warrant the space and effort needed to put it into the game.
Variations that are just slightly improved versions of already existing weapons shouldn’t be in the game.
I liked the variants of the weapons, the vehicles, assassinations, visors, weapon skins, stances but not the armor variants. I think if they would go for a more reach type customization it would be better and they could use the white painting on the variants as armor detail and you could make it in any colour you wanted instead.
i’m also for quality over quantity. the way it was in h5 reminded me of loadouts (like in many aóther games)… yes, you have fixed weapons, but in reality some BR variants (or AR or whatever) were just the BR with attachment like a different scope, or a silencer or a damage boost.
also many weapons just looked the same with a different colored skin.
so i prefer fewer weapons. i’m not against new weapons, but they should be more different than existing ones.
also i’m pretty sure that many variants exist in h5 just to increase the req pool.
I’m not really sure. If we’re talking as crazy as H5 can get I’d rather have just base models. I think it’s fine to have a version higher that’s a little better but nothing crazy like a nornfang. Unless it’s for a silly mode like mythic shotty snipes.
As far as armour, the way they did variants in H5 is horrible. They added white lines lol. No doubt they just existed to make the req pool larger to make it longer/harder to get what you want, resulting in you playing the game longer and possibly spending more money. If they did armour variants in H6 I’d want the actual armour to change. For example they could have the regular helljumper, but then a variation could be a super smooth version, all the edges rounded off or something and no lines and whatnot going everywhere, giving it an oversimplified look. Or they could go in the opposite direction, make it more cluttered and blocky if you like that. None of this paint stuff. Paint should be a separate customization style you can use on anything, not tied to the armour as a separate unlock.
I know there’s an argument to be made about too many variants tripping over one another, but it’s super cool to see all sorts of animations and behaviors.