Tell me you have fallen for the “Utility Weapon Meta” plague that was harming Halo. You and almost everyone else has an extreme misunderstanding of CEs weapon design philosophy and thats due to Halo 2. In CE all the guns had a purpose, no gun was there to just support other guns aside from maybe the plasma pistol but that was just due to the AI needing a weak gun for grunts. The magnum was not designed to be the “Utility Weapon” people see it as now. Right before release it was buffed in secret and thus its power made it to the final version.
H2 only got BR starts because the SMGs and dual wielding broke the golden triangle of comabt, thus the BR was thrust into the 1st string starting weapon role. From here on BR/DMR starts are a plague on Halo and Halo thrived despite them not due to them as you are assuming. Its much easier to balance games when only 1 weapon needs to be good an basically everything outside a rocket is there to support this “utility weapon”.
The BR/DMR Utility Weapon is a class of weapon no other shooter I can think of has, not even other Arena Shooters. Its basic design destroys many of the elements of an arena shooter. Arena shooters are meant to have the more powerful weapons on the map. Not one weapon that is strong at spawn and then most other map weapons just support this “utility weapon”.
In previous games the “Utility Weapon” was above the rest of the sandbox, kind of like power weapons except better because due to everyone having one you basically have infinite ammo. So on top of near infinite ammo you also have low to no recoil, hitscan projectiles (not all versions had this), a large mag that can kill more spartans per mag than most other weapons, near perfect accuracy, zoom, a headshot multiplier on easy to hit, large, and slow moving targets that move slower when hit, no penalty to hip fire, and with all this a lower time to kill than nearly all map weapons save a rocket, shotgun, and sniper although many times a sniper and shotgun lose as you can either descope or just backpeddle if you dont get 1 shot.
The ONLY skill required to use a BR was aiming which for many of the reasons stated was pretty easy. Along with aiming the AR requires more map awareness as if you try to look down a long sightline you are not descoping any long range weapon before they kill you and unlike the BR its mich harder to stay in lethal range when competing with map weapons as they will kill you faster at shorter ranges and the AR barely outranges them. It also requires you to not just use the AR all game, you could but you won’t be near as effective against map weapons like a BR start would be. Thus lowering the impact of map weapons. This leads to a very bland sandbox as everything ends up pointing back to one gun. Infinite finally went back to what CE tried to do except this time 343 was successful. Infinite pulled the BR into the meta instead of leaving it on top.
Infinite truely is the most balanced Halo unless you like the “Utility Weapon” design philosophy that began in H2. Now if you want to say that you like that design more than fine but ever since Reach Halo was slowly dying for various reasons and I think a big one is how bland it is to use a “utility weapon” and most guns outside a power weapons just be there to support it. That and 343 tried to make Halo “theirs” with 4 and 5 and Bungie just did whatever they felt like in Reach on their way out.
Something else people dont like to hear is that if someone has a map weapon they most likey should be beating you. In other shooters its a bit more fair as you can start with what you are best with but arena shooters, just like battle royales, give you better equipment on the map and if you dont get it you either have to outperform or get killed. If a team is better at controlling map weapons you should get stomped as thats the skill that should be shown in arena shooters, not who can aim marginally better with a perfectly accurate laser and then ignore most/all map weapons. Thats just the nature of arena shooters naturally.
Every weapon in CE is balanced around the magnum and in campaign the AR and PR are the worst while in MP the PP is the worst.
Almost like Halo is unique
And Halo still follows this, a skill based weapon capable of contesting power weapons and allowing players to have reversals.
You sound like you are really bad at H3 and CE where the utility weapon is not easy to and invalidates almost all of your points.
LMAO imagine thinking a braindead bullethose better than all other loadout weapons is balanced, imagine comparing Infinite to CE when Infinite’s sandbox is the most shallow.
Which is why you start with a utility weapon, to allow the player who just respawned to be able to contest the guy with the sniper.
Nice try but Halo isn’t other arena shooters and does not follow the same rules. Halo is at it’s best when the player spawns in with a precise weapon capable of contesting power weapons while allowing a skill gap deep enough for reversals. You are bad at Halo and your logic showcases this well.
I just told you this isn’t true. You can look it up. The game was not designed around the magnum being as strong as it was. It was trying to be like Infinite but failed due to a dev making the magnum that strong in secret right before release.
And none of your arguments are anything but “I like the utility weapon and hate how arena shooters inherently function” which is fine. You can like that more but for its purpose AR starts in Infinite are near perfectly balanced. It wasn’t trying to follow the Utility Weapon design that started in H2. Also saying the AR is OP just means you are bad at Infinite, its good but other wepaons easily beat it especially most map weapons. You have had 15+ years of intentional “Utility Weapon Metas” and even longer with the unintentional CE magnum. Halo has been on the decline since H3 and Infinite is the sequel i have been waiting for since 3. Been playing Halo for 20+ years and Infinites gameplay is without a doubt the best there has ever been.
The AR feels balanced and is fairly consistent with previous Halo games. I’ve had absolutely no issues with it and it’s one of very few weapons in the game that I don’t dislike.
How is it balanced, it requires no skill and beats almost all other weapons in a head to head with no skill required on the end of the AR user. The only way you think that’s balanced is if you try applying COD or BF logic in which the bullet hose reigns supreme.
Again you must be just abysmally bad at Infinite. I listed above all the guns that beat it and you still lie and say you get cross mapped or mowed down at close range even with map weapons. And yes intention matters in design. If bugs and glitches are unknowingly left in a game that doesn’t meant game was designed around those bugs. That makes absolutely no sense. And the Copium comment is overused especially by people who cry that they can’t just press the easy button and spam the BR across map and ignore 90% of all other weapons, thats copium right there, trying to tell yourself that was fun or better than a better balanced game is just sad. Not to mention you have 7 halo games with a Utility Weapon so go play those.
Yep looked you up on Halo Tracker, you are bad at Infinite, that explains so much. You really just need to learn how to play without an overpowered spawn weapon.
Not like the AR is purpose designed in this game to work at close range, a function easy to do when you can just hide around corners and walk around cover. The AR works because unlike the BR you can force the engagement into the range at which the AR is nigh guaranteed to win.
Because precision weapon starts encourages players to keep their distance and not close for melee. This makes combat boring and predictable. You get more chaotic melees involving multiple fighters with automatics. This creates fun combat encounters.
In Halo 5 the pistol meant most of the weapons weren’t used. With the Battle Rifle and DMR just being upgraded versions of the pistol. This meant lots of one on one fights with people awkwardly jumping about at two dozen paces. Why would you ever spawn a Needler or Shotgun when you have access to a DMR? Why bother with a missile launcher when you can get the same and often more kills at longer ranges with a BR?
Also because players keep their distance it means close range power weapons have a harder time of it. A shotgun or sword has a good chance of wrecking AR players but going near a castle of precision weapons is near suicide. So there’s a knock on effect.
Plus, on Big Team Battle the open areas mean precision weapon starts would be unbalanced and break the combat loop. You’d just have people pelting eachother at range. I think you’re mostly talking about Arena where you have a more close quarters map and corridors where you can sneak up on people. But that’s not the case for every game mode.
Also the BR is not a difficult to use gun or a mark of skill. It outranges everything, does far more damage at all ranges and you can chain a larger multi kill before reloading. There’s no disadvantage to it.
False, CE and 3 have plenty of close combat encounters. Map design is at fault.
Because the rockets and shotgun are easier to use.
You mean a balancing factor to keep the hammer and sword from being too dominant?
Have you ever heard of Saint Projectile Weapons? she’s very rare these days but I remember how she saved Halo 3.
Harder to use is a disadvantage, it’s harder to use than the AR yet the AR is just as powerful and can control the engagement range more than the BR user. Keep in mind the AR is also a RNG weapon awarding random headshots.
You brought up skill first, I play twice a week at max usually once for Infinite. So I don’t just grind and you are just bad at Infinite so you blame not having your overpowered best friend BR there to save you.
You seriously can’t even fathom how arena shooters are supposed to work and yeah Halo is different but when you make a game in a category then due to balancing procede to destroy what makes the category fun it usually doesn’t end well. Infinite is just fun to play and in general the only complaints people have are lack of content not weapon balance because people realized how much more fun it is to play when you can move around the map and not get beamed by a BR from spawn. It also allows more weapon variety and makes each weapon more meaningful in the sandbox as they see more use.
Just go watch ranked/comp gameplay. They hardly ever use anything other than a BR except when they have to reload mid combat and dont have time to so they swap weapons. Thats so boring and in other shooters that only happens when a gun is OP so the devs nerf it. In Halos case the devs did it on accident, then on purpose, and despite this flaw Halo survived.
“you are bad at a game that does not require skill”
yawwwwwn
So Halo doesn’t need to follow the same rules, it never has either.
Subjective
This is false, the BR is still hitscan and crossmaps you in ranked and the AR crossmaps you in general. 343 did not fix the BR they made it worse. Again projectile weapons fix everything.
You mean the braindead bullethose is better than a weapon that requires some skill, wow…that totally makes it better right?
Man the BR requires at least some skill but you sat in a corner with the AR so now you are guaranteed the kill because the AR was buffed to the point of awarding free kills within close range while still being a braindead gun.
An easy to use gun should not be powerful, this is common sense. The sniper can one shot you because it is not easy to use, the rockets one shot you because you must fight for them. What skill does the AR require that would justify it being broken?
Ignorance must be bliss. The BR and DMR are some of the most overpowered weapons in all of gaming and just saying that you liked it that way and don’t like it when an AR is anything more than absolute bottom tier trash is not a good argument.
