Despite being iconic staples to the franchise, I firmly believe that these two weapons are why the Halo franchise has in summary gone through a process I call the combat devolved crisis and ultimately why Halo needs to move on from these weapons for the foreseeable future. I’ll explain why in brief detail.
Both of these weapons peaked in their first appearance and I’ll start with one rifle first:
The AR was basically a spray and pray weapon that had a fire rate of a sub machine gun but has a range of an ordinary assault rifle. Contrary to popular belief, the AR in Halo Combat Evolved indeed has range. You just have to do burst fire manually to nail nearly every shot at a target. Playing the map Boarding Action demonstrates this. The weapon truly lived up to the name because while it is an assault rifle, it carries 60 rounds and has a quick fire rate like an Uzi. Making it a deadly weapon up close and still lethal down range when going burst. It has a purpose in the sandbox, being optimized up close when facing against say the Magnum and generally beats every weapon up close most of the time besides the shotgun.
Unfortunately every version of the AR got worse than, devolving into a regular modern day, standard assault rifle with a drop of 32 rounds, then for some reason 36 in the last two installments. We gone through the rifle getting worse and worse until Guardians allowed it to be the equivalent of Call of Duty’s M4, being too viable and easy to use in every range and scenario. This problem in Guardians was amplified to a 10 in the next game, creating an infinite amount of problems for the AR since it defeats every weapon but the Sidekick (and obviously power weapons of course).
As we know Halo 2 introduced the BR. This rifle replaced the Magnum and shoots burst, not semi. While being faster in projectiles making it essentially hitscan, the weapon is a lot easier to use compared to the Magnum in CE. The saving grace are the button combos regarding skill gap. Despite steamrolling the game’s entire sandbox, at least the BR is fun to use for and introduced depth. You can hate the button combos and consider it lame or cheating, fact remains is that it is very distinct from other BRs and the weapon itself created an entire meta. It’s interesting and in a way evolved some of Halo’s combat even if I disagree with it being hitscan, burst and frankly too easy to use. While I prefer the beta version of the H2 BR, the final version is the best official BR to date.
Just like the AR, the BR got neutered and arguably weaker in every sequel. H3 took away the entire appeal of the BR from 2 and made it a bland and unsatisfying weapon to use. Leading shots with a weapon that’s burst in an arena shooter is demonstrably terrible and there’s a reason no Halo game has returned to the model H3 did with it. Even Destiny 2 made sure the BXR55 wasn’t following the travesty footsteps 3 did (leading shots, slower projectile, random spread etc). This has lead to every sequel besides Guardians being basically H2 BR being a laser weapon that doesn’t miss except no button combos.
Guardians added the inconsistent recoil. Making it very ineffective and useless since Magnum and Promethean pistol stomp it. Infinite managed to make it have terrible spread and poorly zeroed, your shot goes way too high. This is noticed easily in gun fights as the BR is not caring of skill but luck. You either get that lucky spread or don’t. At least 2 BR spread wasn’t insane and tightly nit.
The reason the respective weapons peaked in their first appearance is due to having a scenario of purpose or place in the sandbox (AR in CE), or altering the combat of Halo in some unique form compared to it’s predecessor (Halo 2 BR). Most importantly, they stood out. Not causing redundancy or clones in the sandbox in which 4 and Guardians greatly indicate the problems of a logjam weapon sandbox.
In Halo Infinite, these two rifles frankly further illustrate just exactly why they need to either be removed, or never appear in a future Halo title ever again. They caused a new problem with their appearance in Infinite which is, the sandbox no longer having a purpose anymore.
Why use anything else but the AR in mid or sometimes close range when it out guns everything, even Sidekick from time to time? Why use anything else but the BR when in long range? The sniper, Shock Rifle, Pulse Carbine, Stalker Rifle, in multiplayer frankly all suck. They just don’t even matter. No skill ceiling, no depth, no strategy, nothing.
Yes, the Halo 2 BR was a God tier weapon with BXR, double or quad shots but it still lost to say a duel wield SMG up close or Sniper Rifle /Beam Rifle. Even the Carbine gave it some fights. Even plasma pistol to melee can cause surprises.
The BR and AR in Infinite dominate their respective ranges to where it negates the sandbox variety entirely even with the sole fact they removed redundancy problem in Halo Infinite. These two weapons even in other games have managed to harm the sandbox overall in various games, not just Infinite.
Noob combo gave Bungie the idea to make plasma pistols do EMPs. The SMG (which is an improvement from the CE AR since it’s able to carry two and is even faster fire rate) has unfortunately degraded the plasma rifle (no more stun mechanic, which only CE had) because they had to showcase the BR. Reach introduced bloom to combat the problems the BR brings to the sandbox, but no one likes bloom and would rather stick with hitscan anyway. Yet hitscan leads to higher aim assist and magnetism, which reduces skill ceiling?
Do you see why I just want these weapons gone? They will never live to their peak and even then, caused problems in their sandbox since their very inception. Halo needs to move on from these two rifles. Come up with something new, and I’m not talking about the Commando for the prophets sakes. The combat devolved crisis aka sandbox problem is a thing plaguing this series because the franchise refuses to move on from these two weapons.
