This is a post on the “Pro’s and Con’s” of the BR and I shall ask you (the Community) as to your opinions on the weapon. This has been posted as this has been a highly debated topic and feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Pro’s
1)Simply, the weapon is unique. It is the only weapon on the games that fires a 3 shot burst and generally considered to look and sound quite cool (subject to opinion, however this is the general consensus)
2)The limit to its range capabilities means that it is able to force a Sniper out of scope at long range, but not much in terms of damage. (i.e unless Mr. Moron decides to stand still trying to no-scope cross map, he is very hard to kill at long range).
3)The fire rate and reticle position are consistent (no bloom, and a maximum rate of fire).
4)There is a significant difference between the average kill time and fastest kill time (thus creating a higher skill gap between players). An optimum kill time with the BR requires all shots in a burst to connect and discourages twitching/flicking the reticle across a player using aim assist/spread to connect like with a single shot weapon.
5)With regards to the Canonical nature, the BR replaces the Assault Rifle as the UNSC weapon of choice, adding more depth to their arsenal.
Con’s
1)As a starting weapon is often criticised for stretching beyond its niche capabilities (it can still significantly outperform an Assault rifle at mid-close range). Unbalances the Sandbox
2)The weapon spread it too large a factor in the weapons capabilities. Is it always the case that the better person wins in a battle, or does the aim assist prevail in many instances?
3)Because of the weapons large spread, and ability to outperform weapons in their niche’s, it makes other weapons obsolete.
4)Players are not punished for spamming due to there being no bloom or recoil (like Halo 2/3 SMG), along with a relatively short reload time.
5)It is too easy to enemies players out of scope when they’re using a precision weapon as only one bullet per burst has to hit.
6)Also in terms of storyline, the BR appears to be weaker (slower fire rate etc.) in Halo 3 than in Halo 2 which doesn’t make sense.
These are main point that are recited time and again on this weapon.
Does the BR have a future in Halo 4?
If so, what must change? OR Should it stay as it is?
If it isn’t in Halo 4, what should be?
The DMR? The CE Pistol? OR Something completely different?
Please give your opinions and I would like to stress that this thread is NOT a thread on why ‘Reach sucks’ or ‘If you hate the DMR you deserve to die in a pit of your own urine’ or ‘it shud b moar lyk cod/batulfeeld’.
No flame wars please!
Thanks for reading
Peng
Power weapons are fine as they are but Reach accuracy at long range is just good strong the Halo 2/3 style of mid range combat is what I’m looking for.
That was a great post, not many people manage to divide the pros and cons so evenly. I do like the BR. Even if it had some problems in the previous games. I should probably begin with saying my comments to the cons:
> Con’s
> 1)As a starting weapon is often criticised for stretching beyond its niche capabilities (it can still significantly outperform an Assault rifle at mid-close range). Unbalances the Sandbox
> 2)The weapon spread it too large a factor in the weapons capabilities. Is it always the case that the better person wins in a battle, or does the aim assist prevail in many instances?
> 3)Because of the weapons large spread, and ability to outperform weapons in their niche’s, it makes other weapons obsolete.
> 4)Players are not punished for spamming due to there being no bloom or recoil (like Halo 2/3 SMG), along with a relatively short reload time.
> 5)It is too easy to enemies players out of scope when they’re using a precision weapon as only one bullet per burst has to hit.
> 6)Also in terms of storyline, the BR appears to be weaker (slower fire rate etc.) in Halo 3 than in Halo 2 which doesn’t make sense.
I think this isn’t problem of the BR itself, but more of a problem of the whole sandbox. You see, the BR isn’t exactly too powerful, the rest of the sandbox is just too weak. You can test it out yourself, even without the BR most of the niche weapons feel rather weak. AR for example, needs a full clip unloaded to the opponent with a kill time far exceeding two seconds.
First of all, I believe that the BR should be near spreadless with only very minor spread to avoid sniping with it as was the case with DMR, but it does need to be competent at the farther end of the mid range. What comes to aim assist and such, the algorithm definitely needs to be worked out, in other words: toned down. The aim assist most of the time allows you to hit shots that shouldn’t have hit.
It’s not the spread that makes other weapons obsolete, or even it’s ability to perform accross niches. It’s an utility weapon by nature, it’s meant to be able to perform well at all ranges except the furthest. As I said, the problem is the weakness of every other weapon in the sandbox, these weapons all need a serious buff in power.
BR has a set rate of fire that is always as accurate, and therefore the most optimal and as consistent the RoF can be. Therefore it can’t be spammed as spamming with a semi-automatic weapon can be considered as the act of shooting outside of the most consistent rate of fire. Any kind of recoil and bloom would only distract the player from more important aspects of the game with minimal amount of skill needed to control them. In other words, both lack the depth to be considered as useful mechanics, both should only be used in right circumustances, both are very good ways of controlling automatic weapons.
But, at longer ranges the player who is (most likely) sniping doesn’t die for the BR. Therefore the BR is an excellent way of giving covering fire for yourself and your team to move through an open area. A good sniper can still effectively kill those players if fast enough.
But then, should the weapon be included in Halo 4? Well, it’s definitely not the best possible choice, but there are choices far worse. If 343i gets the aim assist and bullet magnetism department sorted out, Halo 4 could very well include a single shot weapon that’d have faster minimum kill time than that of the BR. But if they still have to keep considerable high amounts of aim assist and bullet magnetism, I’d rather take the BR as it requires the player to hold their reticle at the opponent for a small amount of time instead of just swiping.
>
We shouldn’t have two mid range precision weapons in the game which have different secondary ranges (long and close). First of all, because we already have the Sniper rifle for long range and we don’t really need a weapon to be able to completely counter that. Secondly, the concept of utility weapon in Halo is very important, it has literally existed in every game of the series this far. Having two mid range precision weapons would hinder that concept.
In Reach almost every weapon is long range capable the Pistol can hit a target with accuracy at the the same range of a sniper. I was more or less saying that the BR should be like in Halo 3 were its better at close to mid instead of the DMR’s crazy range in Reach. AR’s and Pistols need to go back to close quarters too.
> In Reach almost every weapon is long range capable the Pistol can hit a target with accuracy at the the same range of a sniper. I was more or less saying that the BR should be like in Halo 3 were its better at close to mid instead of the DMR’s crazy range in Reach. AR’s and Pistols need to go back to close quarters too.
Any precision weapon should definitely have the bullet accuracy of a Sniper. Because that doesn’t really help you when your reticle is 20 times bigger than the opponent. Surely, if you’re actually great enough player to be able to kill a sniper with a pistol at long range, you definitely do deserve that capability. What comes to BR, as I said it should have a very minor amount of spread, but an amount that only truly affects Sniper ranges, the reticle size already does enough. The BR definitely shouldn’t have as huge spread as it had in Halo 3, that removes too much of it’s capability at longer ranges making it useless at the farther end of the mid range.
> Any precision weapon should definitely have the bullet accuracy of a Sniper. Because that doesn’t really help you when your reticle is 20 times bigger than the opponent.
Sorry but I prefer the Halo 3 style pistol that had no zoom the kinda thing you would dear dream about taking on a sniper at long range.
For me the Reach pistol with zoom is basically just a mini DMR and thats eliminating weapon pickups around the map. The secondary start weapon should not mimic the primary one. I would rather it be Rifles long & Pistols short.
In doing this things like Maulers, Repeaters and SMG’s would be relevant again, other wise your never going to swap out the BR/DMR and Pistol. Reach is boring and predictable.
