Alright, lets be honest. Infinite’s weapons are largely unsatisfying in a majority of the current modes we have available to us. I get that they didn’t want to follow in the footsteps of Halo 5 and have 99 Req weapon options, but they could have done more.
“SMG” (Needler, kind of the Sentinel beam)
For instance. They have no real “SMG” in the game, and I’m sorry but I don’t count sentinel beam as a true SMG. I don’t know if the Needler counts, but I’ll list it here anyways. It’s way too strong, and I thought it had been strong in Halo 5. In this game it may as well be free godmode. I’m not saying it’s the absolute best gun in the game, but it shouldn’t be as powerful as it is regardless of how good it is. The tracking is so strong, and it makes me wonder if the Needler and Plasma pistol swapped the strength they home in on players with.
-Commando & Stalker Rifle/DMR
The DMR is nowhere to be seen, with a lot of us thinking the commando would be the one to replace it, until we learned that it’s the definition of bullet spread and poor hit registration. Simply because it’s full auto. The Stalker rifle feels like a DMR which is trying too hard to act like a Sniper Rifle, with four shots to kill, a sniperlike scope and shape, but it’s simply inefficient when compared to the regular sniper rifle as far as it’s strength and reliability goes. It’s more reliable than the commando, but definitely not as good when it comes to a rate of fire.
Shotgun/Bulldog & Mangler
The Bulldog is okay, but it just feels like it’s trying too hard to change up a formula which has been in place since Halo CE. That being that the shotgun is designed to be effective in close quarters, taking one to two shots at most. The Bulldog’s minimal hits to kill is 2. It averages to 3, and if you’re really unlucky you’re looking at 4+ shots for a single kill, in which you often die due to it’s inconsistency. We all complained about Halo 5’s inconsistent shotgun, but this… This is somehow even worse! (And I put over a hundred days on 5, I know it’s shotgun inside and out.) So from firsthand, personal experience, I can’t support the bulldog being the only proper “shotgun” in the game. The Mangler is honestly better, despite it taking more shots to kill a player, it simply feels more powerful. It holds a lot more ammo, (32 rounds total and 8 in the loader to 21 total and 7 in a drum I believe.) It’s effective, has good range, and gets the job done.
Pistols.
The Plasma Pistol. Lets be honest with ourselves. It SUCKS. Don’t try to defend it, if you’ve played any other Halo game you’ll know that it could be a legitimately viable support weapon when used correctly and in conjunction with a precision weapon. In this game, it barely tracks enemies before it gives up it’s chase. What happened to it? It used to EMP everything in one shot, now I can hit a scorpion four times and it does absolutely nothing. The Disruptor is a delight to use if you know what you’re doing, and it’s essentially replaced the plasma pistol in terms of it’s effectiveness. The Sidekick is good, although it’s definitely something to adjust to for those of us who played Halo 5 and got used to the Sniper rifle that was really our Magnums. No complaints with it here, it does it’s job and it does it well. To clean up and get killshots.
Power weapons/weapons I couldn’t be bothered to list in their proper places on this list.
The Sniper Rifle.
It feels different than it did in Halo 5 and I don’t know why. It feels to me like the travel time for every bullet you shoot is longer, and it almost feels more inaccurate in this game despite having what I’m almost certain is a smaller reticle. It does it’s job, but can feel clunky at times, or like it’s too slow. The Skewer is really fun to play with, the fact that the projectile arcs adds a certain level of skill to getting kills with it at range, but that just makes it more rewarding as you get better with it!
Heatwave.
The Heatwave is unique for a number of reasons. namely the unique ability to control whether it’s projectile spread is horizontal or vertical, (or it’s alt fire mode, for those of you who like it simple). It’s a nice 3 shot kill if you hit vertical shots on a player, but it’s also good at crowd control with it’s horizontal fire mode.
Cindershot.
This gun is a wild one, but once you tame it you’ve got a friend for life. The two shot kill is immensely satisfying and the skill it takes to calculate your angles is the only time I’ll ever have fun doing math. It’s probably a little too powerful for it’s own good, but I’m not complaining.
Ravager.
At first, I thought it was totally useless. Then I found out about it’s charged shot and realized it can actually be a seriously useful weapon for short term area denial. Chews through energy but I think it’s more or less fair, given how effective it can be. Besides, it isn’t a gun which is too powerful to combat.
Energy Sword.
I miss the ability to zoom in with the sword from 5, it was incredibly fun to use and I remember many times where I would hear people ask how my friends and I lunged so far. In Infinite, it feels more like past games. No zoom, feels a bit slower as far as swing speed goes, and the change to it’s energy consumption is understandable but highly irritating nonetheless.
Gravity Hammer.
Oh boy, this one still makes me mad even though I get why they did it. The swing speed and the energy consumption are my two problems with it. I have to get right into swing speed, and how much slower it is compared to Halo 5. Sure, it has a considerably larger AOE and an EMP effect, but it just still feels so slow. Sure, it hits like a brick wall but in the time it takes you to get the hammer down, your opponent just made themself coffee and read a book, then still had time to come and kill you mid swing. Also giving us ten hits instead of twenty is much more reasonable from a balancing standpoint, so at least that makes sense. But I wish it swung just a little faster.
Battle Rifle.
I don’t have much to say about this one, other than I hate the fact that the first two bursts don’t seem to register and by the time you realize you’ve taken damage from it you’re dead already.
Assault Rifle.
For once, I really feel like the AR is largely balanced and well thought out. I have no complaints, moving on.
Plasma Carbine… Just no. So much ew is contained within that weapon and I don’t even know where to start.
Hydra.
I don’t like thinking about how much it’s been nerfed from 5. I can’t even call it a viable support weapon anymore, given the fact that it takes four to five hits for one kill, shoots slow and reloads slower, and just has incredibly high ammo consumption overall.
That’s all I have for weapons, now onto equipment.
Grappleshot.
This thing does what it’s supposed to do, and it can be a lot of fun on any map! Although sometimes it feels like the grapple doesn’t go far enough, while others it feels like it goes too far.
Threat sensor.
I thought it would be largely useless due to how I never used it in campaign, but I’ve gained a healthy respect for it in multiplayer. Yes, sometimes it doesn’t pick up on anyone, but it can be super useful in objective modes to see how many people are holding a location or camping, etc.
Repulsor.
This is the definition of dream crusher on any map with a ledge. It’s good for climbing, pushing other players away, and returning those tank shells to sender, of course. Super fun, super effective, super silly.
The Thruster.
It’s far from as fun as it was in Halo 5, and it’s definitely been made slower and less powerful, but at least it’s in the game. Not my first pick, but it can help you cover gaps on maps like Launchsite, at the man cannon by the vehicle spawns.
The Drop Wall.
Remove this or buff it to godhood, seriously. They should have made this thing an April Fool’s joke because I’ve seen mobile games with better and faster deployable cover options. The drop wall can barely take a hit, it takes forever to deploy, and the only thing it could counter if you got lucky was the gravity hammer. Oh wait, the hammer even swings faster than it deploys! Point is, the drop wall sucks, and you can’t change my mind unless 343 fixes it themselves. And even then, I’m not sure my opinion will change.
TLDR: We have a lot of weapons and equipment, but half of it seems like it was designed with inefficiency and a seeming lack of real purpose in mind.
What are your thoughts? I look forward to hearing what you have to say!