Some Scopeless BR Theories

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

So I had a sudden thought about the BR in the Beta Trailer today, and it got me thinking, and so I decided to compile this sort of list of all the most likely theories, plus my own.

Theory #1: Placeholder asset.
Originally, this was my assumption. Whatever assets 343 gave to Blur or whoever to make the trailer simply weren’t finalised and the BR ended up without a scope.

Theory #2: MA5K/ New weapon.
The BR-esque weapon is the MA5k from the novels or a new weapon. Personally, I don’t buy this one, since it just looks too much like a BR. It’ll probably turn out to be like SPI and EVA again.

Theory #3: Weapon attachments/ customisation.
The disparity between the teaser art BR and the trailer BR means weapon attachments and modifications are now in Halo. I doubt this one too, since its…well, just not a Halo-y move.

Theory #4 (My New Theory): The BR is really just scopeless now. And it makes sense.

In Halo 3, the BR was a jack of all trades thing, good for all ranges and situations. In Reach, the DMR was introduced to try and take a BR-esque weapon and define it for long-range. (It failed, badly). Then in Halo 4, we got both back for spawning with in Loadouts.

The problem with spawning with a BR is that you’ve basically got a weapon that’s good for everything. So why bother to pick up a shotgun or sticky detonator? The Halo 3 Assault Rifle was meant to be good enough to get you to better weapons, but you weren’t really meant to run with it the whole time.

I think then, that they’ve made the BR scopeless to be like a burst-fire version of the Halo 3 AR, encourages guns, grenades and melee, while encouraging you to pick up weapons off the map.

And this makes sense, for getting back to that Arena style gameplay, but still allowing loadouts, since you’re spawning with something workable, but not necessarily ideal for everything.

If this is true, then I suspect they’ve also removed the Carbine’s scope, and the DMR and LR have been taken out of loadouts completely to be map weapons, meaning you have to work for long-range combat effectiveness.

Taking away the scopes for the BR and Carbine mean you get to spawn with precision weapons that aren’t going to completely outclass the automatics, helping balance loadouts. The more I think about it, the smarter it seems.

What do you guys think?

2

i figured they integrated the zoom into the visor/hud instead of the gun

3

i hope it is a well-balanced MA5K. or at least just a placeholder.

4

  1. My guess is that it is a MA5K.

  2. Remember guys that this is a trailer and everything we see from the arena to the armor could be just a concept of what’s to come. We might not even see this mysterious weapon ever again.

(I hope the armor stays simple and matte like it was in the trailer and not shiny and plastic looking.)

5

theres only going to be one br either its without scope or not. halo is a little counterstrike when it comes to aiming, its highly unlikely that br won’t have a scope thats for sure

6

Here’s a one of my theories:

There is now an option to Customize weapons. But it is a custom game/ forge thing.

Everyone still spawns with the same weapons but in custom game options for example you could increase the Magnums magazine size to 12 to make it a better spawn weapon and you can customize the BR, giving it a 72 mag and remove the scope, to make it a better Power Weapon pick up.

In the campaign it could mean you might get a few variations of certain guns, Like ODSTs might have black silenced variations of weapons.

I remember asking for something like this in my early naive forum days. Link

7

I don’t know how not having a scope = BR no longer outclasses autos. I hardly ever use the scope on the thing anyway. And the reason people don’t pick up sticky dets is because that weapon kind of sucks . . . regardless of whether the BR has a scope.

However, I personally think it’s a BR without a scope; perhaps fully auto. I strongly doubt it’s the MA5K (only differences from the H4 BR are rearstock and receiver cosmetics; forestock, barrel length, flash suppressor, and mount are identical). Carbines have shortened barrels. The trailer weapon does not. My guess is that certain H5 gamemodes may use modified weapons. I doubt user customizable attachments will be there . . . but I have less doubt about 343i using modified weapons for specific games.

And Rouge’s custom games thought is possible as well, in my opinion. After all, changing weapons characteristics is a custom option lots of us have repeatedly asked for.

8

Going with theory 2 for several reasons:

1- Ammo count: It has 72 on the ammo count. If it really was a BR, it would kill 6 people before you need to reload it in its current stats. That would make the gun extremely overpowered.

2- Theories don’t make sense:

A- 1 is not true as they were confirmed to be in-game assets, though done through a more powerful engine than XB1. The only thing holding any truth is that they may not be final.

B- 3 don’t make sense since that would be heavily against the idea of arena-style gameplay that they are back-peddling to. Giving players the option to change how a weapon works breaks that in more ways than loadouts would.

C- 4 doesn’t make sense since Marines need the scope. Besides attaching the scope, it wouldn’t make sense canon wise to just make a specific set of guns for them, outside of weapons clearly needing the armor to protect the user such as the Spartan Laser or the mini gun Jorge used.

The only thing I could see is that they could allow cosmetic changes. But actual tweaking of the gun would be a dumb move for weapon balancing. Especially since the idea had passed this forum several times over and has had been frowned upon on just about every occasion it is brought up.

9

> C- 4 doesn’t make sense since Marines need the scope.

Not if visors with a software upgrade came standard. I mean, Corbulo academy already had cadets with visors with trackers. With them apparently being able to produce mjolnir of sufficient quantity, components for marine armor should also be advancing.

We’re also seeing spartan vs spartan combat, a place marines need not apply.

But I think I agree its probably a seperate weapons, the 72 bullet count is a massive buff otherwise.

10

probably 3 unfortunately. a new scopeless rifle would be good since it could be even with the AR but weapon customization dosnt belong in halo.

11

> probably 3 unfortunately. a new scopeless rifle would be good since it could be even with the AR but weapon customization dosnt belong in halo.

I can’t see them doing that. While I of course may be wrong, allowing user-customizable weapons would destroy any goodwill they earned by emphasizing arena/eSports during E3 and following. The two big no-nos repeatedly communicated by the majority of the community are attachments and iron sights. It just wouldn’t make sense.

Of the OP’s options, I still think #2 is the most probable (except for the MA5K part). A new BR variant (larger clip, no scope, perhaps automatic) would seem to fit the best.

12

How does the MA5K Rifle even shoot? Is it automatic, burst fire, both, or what?

13

While I hope the MA5K is in H5G, the gun in the trailer is a scopeless BR.

14

I’ve actually thought about theory 4 before. In an effort to try to stop people from spamming the BR I can see 343i removing the scope from multiplayer. Might help with the balance.

15

Its a scopeless BR, there’s no doubt about it. Whether that confirms weapon attachments or not, is not something i’m willing to bet on just yet, but is a very high possibility.

16

I get where you are going with this, but you have an invalid argument. It all depends on the situation is when the BR is good. Obviously it is very good in a lot of situations but lets try at close combat. I’ll use a shotgun and you use a BR. More than likely I’ll win that battle.