Halo has a bit of a diverse history with their pistols. It seems for every good pistol they add there is a poor one to match it
In CE we got a beauty of a pistol. It was versatile, powerfully, and had a large ammo and clip size. Its the picture of what a pistol in a game should be, great as a back up plan for average players and was good enough so veterans can use it for pure offense. I never got the chance to play a proper lan game of halo ce but I did play online via halo pc. I loved this pistol to death, it was just so damn -Yoink!-.
Then we got the Halo 2 pistol. I may be biased towards this pistol, since I never got to play halo 2 online for various reasons and I only own a prepatch version of the game, but it was a total wimp. It had a higher rate of fire sure, but the amount of ammo you needed to waste on a single enemy just to down him was insane. I hear it was better with dual wielding but that’s a bit of an excuse in my opinion. A good weapon should stand out on its own, not need to lean on one another to be useful.
The Halo 3 pistol was a step in the right direction in that the power was increased but it fired so slow that again by itself it was rather useless. I only used it on AR spawns and even then I would easily trade it for any other given weapon.
Reach had 3 different types of pistols. It had the standard 5 shot pistol in both bloom and zb. This was pretty good and alot more useful than the halo 3 pistol. Then it had my all time favorite pistol in all of halo put together. The 4sk pistol, or more specifically the zb variant. Dear lord did I love this thing. It had a high rate of fire and totally dominated close quarters combat. I remember bombs trying to double pummel me when I whipped out that bad boy and dropped them faster than they can count to 3. The last version is the mock CE pistol which for the most part does its job well but it can never match the classic CE version.
I mention these pistols to give you a sense of the pistols of halos past. Now in Halo 4 there is word of a 6 shot pistol (yes I know the game is still being tuned and this is subject to change) with bloom. My issue is not with bloom but the versatility of the weapon. I feel like we might get a pretty wimpy pistol for the sake of it being a pistol. We can see that past halos have had pistol that have more or less surpassed most of the other guns in the sandbox. I’m not saying the pistol should sit ontop the sandbox but what I am saying is we don’t need another low tiered pistol that’s only good to use an you need to fall back. Give us a pistol we can use for assault, not just defense. Make it so there’s a damn good reason to use to pistol over another weapon.
Well the Halo 2 and 3 pistols had to suck because of dual wielding. Everything that can be dual wielded has to have its power cut in half, so in other words dual wielding was completely pointless.
The CE pistol is not a pistol, its a slightly more inaccurate DMR that shoots faster, and is full auto. SO I certainly doubt we will see it again.
Although I am alwyas towards the idea of “don’t nerf stuff in campaign to make it balanced in multiplayer” I don’t see why we couldn’t have a CE style pistol in campaign and Spartan Ops, and a default Reachish one in multiplayer. Because I liked the Reach pistol in multiplayer, it just didn’t fit the job of picking off grunts. (the first half of nightfall, ugh)
> > Not even slightly concerned about my sidearm. More concerned about the BR, DMR, and AR.
>
> Sidearm? We are talking Halo. If a gun is diminished to a role of “sidearm” it should just be eliminated.
Well it is a side-arm. The annoying bit from the training pit thing in MW2 comes to mind: “Switch to your other weapon, it’s faster than reloading!” which is about all I use the pistol for since CE.
> > > Not even slightly concerned about my sidearm. More concerned about the BR, DMR, and AR.
> >
> > Sidearm? We are talking Halo. If a gun is diminished to a role of “sidearm” it should just be eliminated.
>
> Well it is a side-arm. The annoying bit from the training pit thing in MW2 comes to mind: “Switch to your other weapon, it’s faster than reloading!” which is about all I use the pistol for since CE.
This is exactly what I am hoping 343 can work against in Halo 4. It shouldn’t be that people use the pistol just because their weapon ran out of ammo but use it for the sake of using a different weapon. I do agree if the pistol becomes a sidearm then there is no use for that weapon
The CE pistol will have a fond place in my heart forever. If they don’t want it in the regular sandbox, I’d like it to be an option for custom games / special “classic-style” playlists in every Halo game from now until eternity.
That way they don’t even have to worry about balancing it in the sandbox, etc. Just let the old-school fans indulge in some nostalgia, a la the Anniversary Classic playlist. Except they can program an identical CE Pistol into the game instead of having to work backwards from a different pistol.
I also really don’t think this would take that much effort (programming a single weapon), and it would go a long way towards gratifying 343 amongst the long-time fan base.
How was the Halo 1 pistol the pinnacle of pistols? how was it a fall back kind of weapon?
it was no pistol, it was more powerful than a freaking rifle. It was no side arm.
we do NOT need that thing back. I find that the Halo 3 pistol was a bit weak, but was a decent side arm. The halo 3 ODST automag was good against unshielded foes, but was a bit weak against shields. Halo reach had a good pistol. 5 shots. not too great but not bad. Just the perfect balance. an actual sidearm. not a nuclear rifle like CE, and not poo like halo 3.
> How was the Halo 1 pistol the pinnacle of pistols? how was it a fall back kind of weapon?
>
> it was no pistol, it was more powerful than a freaking rifle. It was no side arm.
>
> we do NOT need that thing back. I find that the Halo 3 pistol was a bit weak, but was a decent side arm. The halo 3 ODST automag was good against unshielded foes, but was a bit weak against shields. Halo reach had a good pistol. 5 shots. not too great but not bad. Just the perfect balance. an actual sidearm. not a nuclear rifle like CE, and not poo like halo 3.
It worked in the context of Halo CE. It may not work in the context of the other games.
However, I see no reason why they can’t include it as an option in custom games or classic-style playlists. Part of the reason people want it back is for gameplay, part of it is for nostalgia. Including it as an option allows 343 to satisfy both, without potentially throwing the regular sandbox out of whack.
> How was the Halo 1 pistol the pinnacle of pistols? how was it a fall back kind of weapon?
>
> it was no pistol, it was more powerful than a freaking rifle. It was no side arm.
>
> we do NOT need that thing back. I find that the Halo 3 pistol was a bit weak, but was a decent side arm. The halo 3 ODST automag was good against unshielded foes, but was a bit weak against shields. Halo reach had a good pistol. 5 shots. not too great but not bad. Just the perfect balance. an actual sidearm. not a nuclear rifle like CE, and not poo like halo 3.
Treating a weapon like a sidearm is almost as bad as dual wielding, its only good when you view it in that category. What’s the point of adding a weapon if its just something you fall back on and do nothing else with. Although I do admit the reach pistol was decent I would never want to go all out with it like I would the CE pistol or the 4sk zb reach pistol. When I see these pistols I don’t consider them a side arm, I consider them weapons on their own, worth picking up and using them on their own merits.
> > How was the Halo 1 pistol the pinnacle of pistols? how was it a fall back kind of weapon?
> >
> > it was no pistol, it was more powerful than a freaking rifle. It was no side arm.
> >
> > we do NOT need that thing back. I find that the Halo 3 pistol was a bit weak, but was a decent side arm. The halo 3 ODST automag was good against unshielded foes, but was a bit weak against shields. Halo reach had a good pistol. 5 shots. not too great but not bad. Just the perfect balance. an actual sidearm. not a nuclear rifle like CE, and not poo like halo 3.
>
> Treating a weapon like a sidearm is almost as bad as dual wielding, its only good when you view it in that category. What’s the point of adding a weapon if its just something you fall back on and do nothing else with. Although I do admit the reach pistol was decent I would never want to go all out with it like I would the CE pistol or the 4sk zb reach pistol. When I see these pistols I don’t consider them a side arm, I consider them weapons on their own, worth picking up and using them on their own merits.
and you somehow DIDNT view the Halo 1 pistol like that? it was one of the most powerful weapons in the game! IT was not a sidearm, it was a weapon in its own merits. But the role of the sidearm is supposed to be filled with a “not so perfect” gun. if the primary weapon is weaker than the supposed sidearm, than doesnt that make the sidearm the new primary weapon? thats how it was in CE. We do NOT need that again.
> and you somehow DIDNT view the Halo 1 pistol like that? it was one of the most powerful weapons in the game! IT was not a sidearm, it was a weapon in its own merits. But the role of the sidearm is supposed to be filled with a “not so perfect” gun. if the primary weapon is weaker than the supposed sidearm, than doesnt that make the sidearm the new primary weapon? thats how it was in CE. We do NOT need that again.
Exactly, I always dropped my AR and kept the pistol, when I found a power weapon in CE. And that AR was also really good. It is supposed to be a side-arm, it is supposed to be the thing you drop when you find a power weapon, not be a power weapon itself.
> > > How was the Halo 1 pistol the pinnacle of pistols? how was it a fall back kind of weapon?
> > >
> > > it was no pistol, it was more powerful than a freaking rifle. It was no side arm.
> > >
> > > we do NOT need that thing back. I find that the Halo 3 pistol was a bit weak, but was a decent side arm. The halo 3 ODST automag was good against unshielded foes, but was a bit weak against shields. Halo reach had a good pistol. 5 shots. not too great but not bad. Just the perfect balance. an actual sidearm. not a nuclear rifle like CE, and not poo like halo 3.
> >
> > Treating a weapon like a sidearm is almost as bad as dual wielding, its only good when you view it in that category. What’s the point of adding a weapon if its just something you fall back on and do nothing else with. Although I do admit the reach pistol was decent I would never want to go all out with it like I would the CE pistol or the 4sk zb reach pistol. When I see these pistols I don’t consider them a side arm, I consider them weapons on their own, worth picking up and using them on their own merits.
>
> and you somehow DIDNT view the Halo 1 pistol like that? it was one of the most powerful weapons in the game! IT was not a sidearm, it was a weapon in its own merits. But the role of the sidearm is supposed to be filled with a “not so perfect” gun. if the primary weapon is weaker than the supposed sidearm, than doesnt that make the sidearm the new primary weapon? thats how it was in CE. We do NOT need that again.
Perhaps I’m causing a little confusion. Im not saying the CE pistol was a side arm at all, I’m saying it was its own weapon. Im also saying that we do not need a sidearm gun in the game. Make each gun powerful enough on their own. Its like say in reach where we have DMR/AR starts. You wouldn’t consider the AR a sidearm but just a secondary weapon. When we stop thinking of pistols as sidearms and start seeing them as secondary weapons then we can actually have good fun gameplay
I get what your saying OP you don’t want a wimp pistol like in halo 2 cause that’s not even a sidearm that’s a filler for a weapon spot in halo 2 with its magnum if you only had one you pretty much had to be a vulture to kill anyone with it. but we don’t need a halo CE pistol cause I use that thing instead of the AR. but reach technically has a halo CE problem a LOT of people I play with use the assault rifle as a backup and the pistol as a main weapon that just does not make sense why should your secondary weapon be more powerful than your primary. I want the pistol to be good in halo 4. But I don’t want it to outperform primary weapons. it needs to fulfill its roll as a pistol not as powerful as your primary weapon but reliable enough that you can count on it when you need it the most.
Getting headshots on an Elite was satisfying, firing effect was great, firing impact was noticeable, and it’s so loud when up close to an enemy that it can confuse him. Firing from behind cover can also confuse them. This works with any weapon but feels best when using the pistol.
Though the H2 pistol can actually be used to get kills, there’s hardly any ammo for it so it’s still useless (you can’t charge through campaign with that thing. You have to use the BR at some point or you’ll run out of ammo).
In H3, it’s effectively been sidelined.
In Reach, it’s virtually non-existent.
ODST was the only time the pistol was close to CE. Just a little shield damage increase and range nerfing and it would be perfect.
But H4’s pistol (at that time) seems to have Bloom similar to Reach, clip size of 8, and sounds like it does even less damage.
