I’ve played very little multiplayer because I just can’t stand the Arena gameplay, and Warzone has been worn out incredibly fast. I don’t care that I got 10 scorpions in reserve; if my team doesn’t play the objective, we can’t win and there’s no point.
That being said, does anyone feel that the weapons are incredibly well balanced? Like, in a bad way balanced? I’m feeling there’s no distinct advantage to any weapon anymore, not like previous Halo games. The suppressor is God now, when it was garbage last game. The DMR and BR feel the same; in H4 they were totally different, especially at launch before major weapon tweaks. Plasma pistol isn’t a threat because nobody wastes their time using it / noob combo is useless when the shoot/switch time is going to take more time than 5 well placed headshots.
Focus on certain powerweapons or area control has been eliminated because of this. I never see anyone sitting around rocket spawns (thanks in part to the timer). I can’t say in the very limited time I played, there was a significant “camper” presence. Now, I realize it’s counter-intuitive to complain that there isn’t any camping… But that was part of Halo. Camping, power weapon control, and area denial. I end up seeing everyone running circles around the map with AR, akin to CoD BlOps II where people would run the map with SMGs because there was nearly no defense against it. Then again, that’s every CoD game.
This last point is just nitpicking, but the weapon noises, while rich and realistic, are now generic. I enjoyed the cartoonish noises some of the weapons made because each one sounded completely unique. You knew what was being fired and it was always respectful of Halo CE’s sounds (who can forget the classic AR sound?). I can’t even figure out what people are shooting me with now.
All things considered, I just feel like the weapons have been whitewashed. They’re bland and disappointing. I have no favorites because choosing one weapon is literally choosing the entire class of weapon (IE, DMR vs BR). I think as everyone screamed for balance in this game, they completely forgot that unbalanced weapons are what made Halo the game it was.
A million other threads say that this that and the other weapons are over powered. Now one says that they are all so even there is no use switching them.
This forum needs massive amounts of medication to fix this terrible Bipolar Disorder!
No one ever sat around power weapon spawns at the competitive level.
Anyways, how would you have designed the sandbox instead? With the ridiculous amount of similar weapons (four rifles, seriously…) you’re bound to have redundancy, and rather the suppressor be same-y than useless.
Ha. I’m not sure who is saying they’re “unbalanced.” Apparently they’ve never tested the DMR vs the BR. I agree that a few weapons do fall into a “worthless” category (binary rifle). However, overall, weapons are too balanced. Like I said, take a suppressor and fight a guy with an AR. You’ll probably see nearly no increase in your kill rate, unless you’re terribly inaccurate to begin with.
Prime example: rockets have reduced speed (or would seem) as compared to other games. Add in the boost-dodge you can do now, and rockets are totally nerfed. A guy with an AR is likely to be able to get in close enough to you and take you out before you have a chance to hit him, if they get the jump on you. Tank feels worse too, direct shots are the only way to kill (no splash damage?).
There are certain things in Halo that I’ve grown to love to hate, and those have been taken away. I can’t imagine how people continue to think that things are “unbalanced.”
> 2533274819302824;3:
> No one ever sat around power weapon spawns at the competitive level.
>
> Anyways, how would you have designed the sandbox instead? With the ridiculous amount of similar weapons (four rifles, seriously…) you’re bound to have redundancy, and rather the suppressor be same-y than useless.
You’re right, nobody did at a competitive level. Knowing when power weapons spawned was a huge deal - old competitors in H2 used to use stopwatches taped to their controllers to ensure they knew when the respawns would occur.
Even so, I’ve never claimed to be competitive, and I think this is why I’m so upset with the direction the weapons have gone. How I would’ve designed the sandbox? I’d make it so maps weren’t 100% symmetrical. There would be a slight advantage to both sides (burial mounds, blood gulch, beaver creek). While slightly symmetrical each side had advantages (quicker power weapon access from certain sides but less defensible). Did you like Zanzibar? Some of my fondest memories are from that map.
One final point - Halo was never a competitive game with the majority, so why cater to a minority? Maybe the majority now IS competitive gamers, which would be believable now that we’ve gotten rid of splitscreen. I don’t think this would’ve been an accurate statement in 2010 though, at the height of the community.
lol I can’t tell if original poster is being sarcastic. But, “Halo” in its best form was always focused around getting into action quickly and having the means to fight weapon advantage.
And, yeah they could have just kept like 6-7 useful weapons and make everything else weak but maybe they wanted people to actually use the entire sandbox this time.
It’s a shame. That’s what you get when you hire Pros and a 343 team that actually wants to make a versatile game.
> Even so, I’ve never claimed to be competitive, and I think this is why I’m so upset with the direction the weapons have gone. How I would’ve designed the sandbox? I’d make it so maps weren’t 100% symmetrical. There would be a slight advantage to both sides (burial mounds, blood gulch, beaver creek). While slightly symmetrical each side had advantages (quicker power weapon access from certain sides but less defensible). Did you like Zanzibar? Some of my fondest memories are from that map.
Eh, that doesn’t really answer my question.
You told me how you’d design maps. I’m asking how you would design the weapons themselves.
I like Zanzibar. Asymmetric and Slightly-Asymmetric maps can be great if done right.
I like how some people want to go back to the past so bad they even want to bring back the “bad parts” of what Halo was, like useless weapons, because “it felt right then”. It feels like blind nostalgia to me. We don’t want them to mess up what’s been actually improved just for the sake of it.
> 2548688896268500;5:
> > 2533274819302824;3:
> > No one ever sat around power weapon spawns at the competitive level.
> >
> > Anyways, how would you have designed the sandbox instead? With the ridiculous amount of similar weapons (four rifles, seriously…) you’re bound to have redundancy, and rather the suppressor be same-y than useless.
>
>
> You’re right, nobody did at a competitive level. Knowing when power weapons spawned was a huge deal - old competitors in H2 used to use stopwatches taped to their controllers to ensure they knew when the respawns would occur.
>
> Even so, I’ve never claimed to be competitive, and I think this is why I’m so upset with the direction the weapons have gone. How I would’ve designed the sandbox? I’d make it so maps weren’t 100% symmetrical. There would be a slight advantage to both sides (burial mounds, blood gulch, beaver creek). While slightly symmetrical each side had advantages (quicker power weapon access from certain sides but less defensible). Did you like Zanzibar? Some of my fondest memories are from that map.
>
> One final point - Halo was never a competitive game with the majority, so why cater to a minority? Maybe the majority now IS competitive gamers, which would be believable now that we’ve gotten rid of splitscreen. I don’t think this would’ve been an accurate statement in 2010 though, at the height of the community.
Having the need for a coach adds imbalance between teams with coach’s and teams without, and what about Matchmaking with randoms? Atleast it’s not random like we’ve seen in the past though.
Also, are you just making stuff up on the maps? Like go and look at the maps again. The majority are not 100% symmetrical. And, why should they make maps so unbalanced so one spawn has the advantage at the start? I thought Zanzibar was horrible but BR starts made it tolerable and it was only good on 1-Flag/Bomb.
I played Casually and Halo wasn’t that fun when Bungie ran it. And by Halo, I mean Slayer and their Objective modes. MLG had to fix it, So I just played non-Halo Grifball instead. By catering to the Pro scene it has made it more fun for me again. I actually practice stuff on maps which I haven’t done since Halo 2.
> 2548688896268500;1:
> That being said, does anyone feel that the weapons are incredibly well balanced? Like, in a bad way balanced? I’m feeling there’s no distinct advantage to any weapon anymore, not like previous Halo games. The suppressor is God now, when it was garbage last game. The DMR and BR feel the same; Plasma pistol isn’t a threat because nobody wastes their time using it / noob combo is useless when the shoot/switch time is going to take more time than 5 well placed headshots.
You are complaining that the weapons are too balanced? Really?
First you say weapons are too balanced, and then you say Supressor is god, and plasma pistol is useless. Which is it, are they balanced or unbalanced?
DMR and BR are not nearly identical. BR is 4Sk, DMR is 5Sk.
> 2548688896268500;1:
> Focus on certain powerweapons or area control has been eliminated because of this. I never see anyone sitting around rocket spawns (thanks in part to the timer). I can’t say in the very limited time I played, there was a significant “camper” presence. I end up seeing everyone running circles around the map with AR, akin to CoD BlOps II where people would run the map with SMGs because there was nearly no defense against it. Then again, that’s every CoD game.
God, this complaint hurts to read. You want weapon camping? As for people running around with AR’s and SMG’s, you shouldn’t have a serious problem killing them as they have very limited range… They certainly aren’t OP. But again, you said the weapons are too balanced. Which is it? Are they balanced, or are SMG’s really defenseless against!!!
> 2548688896268500;1:
> All things considered, I just feel like the weapons have been whitewashed. They’re bland and disappointing. I have no favorites because choosing one weapon is literally choosing the entire class of weapon (IE, DMR vs BR). I think as everyone screamed for balance in this game, they completely forgot that unbalanced weapons are what made Halo the game it was.
Again, DMR and BR are quite different. As a whole, your complaints are stupid.
I think what he means to say is that weapons are too similar. That there’s no significant functional or power difference between them, causing them to not feel desirable to pick up and use. I.e. this isn’t even a balance issue, it’s a design issue.
“The BR and DMR kill in four shots and five shots respectively, so they’re completely different.” Requiring one less bullet doesn’t keep them from being nearly identical. There’s far more important aspects of the guns that keep them separated.
> 2548688896268500;4:
> Ha. I’m not sure who is saying they’re “unbalanced.” Apparently they’ve never tested the DMR vs the BR. I agree that a few weapons do fall into a “worthless” category (binary rifle). However, overall, weapons are too balanced. Like I said, take a suppressor and fight a guy with an AR. You’ll probably see nearly no increase in your kill rate, unless you’re terribly inaccurate to begin with.
>
> Prime example: rockets have reduced speed (or would seem) as compared to other games. Add in the boost-dodge you can do now, and rockets are totally nerfed. A guy with an AR is likely to be able to get in close enough to you and take you out before you have a chance to hit him, if they get the jump on you. Tank feels worse too, direct shots are the only way to kill (no splash damage?).
>
> There are certain things in Halo that I’ve grown to love to hate, and those have been taken away. I can’t imagine how people continue to think that things are “unbalanced.”
Supressor you dont really need to aim much. It’s homing is awesome but it also runs out of ammo fairly quickly. The Binary Rifle though while my least favorite sniper I will say when you use the Mythic version of that thing you will -Yoinking!- murder tanks and ultra/oni vehicles. It’s laser sight needs some toning down though. I think it just needs the scope glint and not a massive marker of “I AM OVER HERE!”
Where this isn’t horrible, and I’m not shunning you for that. (Enjoy the game how you wish), it does clearly state that you don’t know howto use weapons in their optimal range. You are right, Mid range the DMR and BR are very similar. At close range the BR has the advantage, and at long range the DMR has the advantage.
Also AR are very ineffective at long range, and serve only to de-scope people that are shooting at you long enough to get to cover. The suppresor was bad in Halo 4, so they fixed that. Not only did they fix it, they gave all the forerunner weapons a theme and stuck with it for the most part.
Play the game how you want, but really, you are saying the weapons are too similar. Have you played Destiny? I love that game but if you want to see similar weapons that is the one for you. (Felwinter’s Lie, Party Crasher, Matador).
Both rockets and rods aren’t very powerful at all in this game… or just not in the sense of being able to go on a good spree before dying, like before.
But I feel a distinct difference between the BR, DMR and Carbine this time around and have absolutely no idea how you gathered that they are less differentiated than in Halo 4. This is the most different they’ve ever felt from each other.
In all the matches I play, the power weapons and power ups are highly contested and largely determine the outcome of the match. Matches are won & loss by map control.
Also what you said about noob combo isn’t true… weapon switching is very fast in this game and takes about 2/3 as long as 4 BR shots. And the homing on the charged shot is very effective.
Also, not trying to be a jerk but if you’re getting killed by the AR when you have rockets you gotta be doing something seriously wrong. I would play some more games and see if your opinion changes down the road.
> 2533274819302824;11:
> I think what he means to say is that weapons are too similar. That there’s no significant functional or power difference between them, causing them to not feel desirable to pick up and use. I.e. this isn’t even a balance issue, it’s a design issue.
>
> “The BR and DMR kill in four shots and five shots respectively, so they’re completely different.” Requiring one less bullet doesn’t keep them from being nearly identical. There’s far more important aspects of the guns that keep them separated.
I’m pretty sure the DMR has much better range than the BR. And it’s semi-auto, not burst.
The irony of Halo is that Halo 2 was a radically different game from Halo CE, and what gave Halo the MLG-fame it has was due to Halo 2’s existence. Halo CE, in all honestly, is quite unbalanced and broken. And yet, a lot of Halo fans still list it in their top 3 Halo games.
I find this post to be hilarious. So in Halo 4 they made the BR = DMR = Carbine = Light Rifle as similar load out weapons. In this game they separated each weapon with distinct differences.
In general:
Light Rifle fires slow but kills in 3 shots
BR fires in bursts kills in four perfect shots
DMR has a much larger range than the BR
Carbine has a high rate of fire but takes quite a bit more to kill
SMG >= Storm Rifle > Suppressor >= Assault Rifle
I mean pretty vast distinctions when comparing to 4. Donno what to tell ya. Also just to add in… The general theme of halo dating back to 2001 is control the power weapons to win. This is true. This is how it should be without being a loadout type FPS game.
I’d say that in this game, not only are the weapons very well-balanced, but they fell much more distinct. Because you always start with the AR (and can’t choose the Storm Rifle or Suppressor as loadout items) all of those weapons were able to be made more distinct. The rifles all have their own niches (BR is all-around, Carbine is great if you can shoot fast and land your shots, DMR & LightRIfle are better at longer ranges, with the LightRifle being a strong weapon when scoping) too. And the pickup weapons are certainly unique. Honestly, this is probably the best Halo’s sandbox has ever been, in terms of weapons. The only ones that feel sorta similar are the Scattershot/Shotgun and Sniper Rifle/Beam Rifle, but even they feel different enough, and still, this game has some great weapon variety.