Since we really don’t know if there are any Covenant weapons in Halo: 4, and we don’t know any of the new weapons, this post will be all about the human weapons featured in Halo: 3. Most specifically the basic weapons like the SMG, Shotgun, Assault Rifle, and Battle Rifle. (Power Weapons are supposed to rule all weapons, thats why they’re scarce and have long respawn times with low ammo count.) I’ll also go into shields, reloads, recoil, and much much more. There is no TL;DR, because it’s extremely hard to summarize it all. Here we go.
(Just to help, here’s the ranges. Intervals in between is where it’s anybody’s kill.
Close Range: 0-30 Meters (Just past motion tracker range)
Medium Range: 50-100 Meters
Long Range: 200-400 Meters
Extreme Range: 500-Beyond
The ranges in between, say the 20 meters in between close and medium range would be where a close range weapon and a medium range weapon would both have an equal chance of killing each other.)
-The Battle Rifle
First of all, I would like to display my idea of how the Battle Rifle should be in Halo: 4. It should have three round bursts, and single shot fire. For three round bursts, the optimal range would be Medium Range. With the semi-automatic the optimal range would be Medium to Long Range. The Reticle for the BR in three round burst (TRB Mode) would about the same size as the reticle size for the DMR. It would be harder to aim at close range then any other range. The Single Shot (SS Mode) would have a reticle slightly larger than the current Sniper Rifle (Halo Reach Sniper) making it nearly impossible to accurately place shots at very close range, and hard to place mid-range shots. Long Range would be aided by the use of a high powered scope capable of up to 10x Zoom in SS Mode, and 4x Zoom in TRB Mode. It would take ten shots to kill a fully shielded Spartan. (3 1/3 Bursts, 10 shots) This would make the Four Shot BR again. For TRB Mode, there would be a slight delay in between bursts, about long enough for one bullet from an assault rifle to fire. The SS Mode would have a fire rate fast enough to kill at the exact same time as the TRB Mode. This means that if two people were to stand at the exact same spot, with someone exactly 5 Meters away, one person using TRB Mode, the other SS Mode, the tenth shot will always impact and kill the player at the exact same time for each mode. This makes the only difference between the modes the accuracy and range. You wouldn’t be able to kill as easily at medium range with SS Mode as you would with TRB Mode, same with long range.
-The Assault Rifle
This weapon was largely defeated by the Battle Rifle in Halo 3. Someone with enough skill could kill an AR Rusher easily with the BR. Even if the AR user fired first, the majority of the time, the BR user would make a fool out of the AR User. We all know the AR is most capable of a kill in Close Range, with Medium Range being more difficult. With the idea I proposed above, the BR should no longer be a ruler of all weapon, and be a Mid to Long Range gun. This means the AR can now have a chance to take out a BR user at Close Range. But what if it goes against a BR at point blank? Which will kill better? Well, how about have the 9 shots to pop the shields, and then an extra three to kill the target putting it at 15 shots to kill someone. (This would be the same for the BR if you only got body shots) However, if you read closely, I stated that the BR would have a small pause large enough for one bullet of an assault rifle to fire. This would put it at three extra shots in the time it would take for a BR at TRB Mode to pop someones shields. Coupled with that is the ability for the AR to fire four shots in the time it takes for the BR to send a three round burst. This means that at close range, if two players stood 5 meters away facing each other, one with a BR on TRB Mode and one with an AR, and they both fired at the same time, the AR Player would Kill the BR player first without sustaining any health damage. The only damage would be his shields would be down. However, to do a kill like this the player would have to have the player being covered by the reticle, with no part of the reticle on the outside of the player. At that point you would run the risk of bullets missing the player. With this a player is guaranteed two kills if they aim correctly.
-The Magnum
This gun has gone through many stages in the series of Halo. It went from an Automatic gun usually found being used by Jesus’s personal military, to a gun where you could eat a burger between shots, to a high recoil, low ammo, scoped almost death ray but not quite there yet type of weapon. Here’s my proposal for the Halo: 4 Magnum. Close to Mid-range weapon, four shots to pop shields then one to the head. (Or four to the body) The rate of fire would put it at a kill slower than the Assault Rifle, yet faster than a BR, provided your at close range. The reticle size would be about the same size as in Halo: 3.
-The SMG
I’ll keep this very short, since there’s not much to say about the SMG. It’s range would be about 15 Meters at the most, with high recoil. It would take shields down quick, yet struggle at taking down the health. This is where Dual Wielding would be a strategy. It would kill a little faster than an AR if dual wielded, yet alone it would kill slower than a BR.