New weapons: Halo 5 vs. Halo 4

[sindronian]

TL;DR - In think that the new forerunner weapons in Halo 4 weren't interesting and were just laser/energy versions of the human weapons. The incineration cannon was interesting and the scattershot was different but I hope that Halo 5 can offer some new, creative and iconic weapons.

So yeah. I didn't like the forerunner weapons in Halo 4. Some of them were fun to use like the incineration cannon but none of them turned out to be iconic like the needler.

My hope is that we get a lot of new creative and iconic weapons in Halo 5.

I'm not saying it's easy to come up with iconic weapons I'm just saying 343 shouldn't hire any more designers who worked on the TRON movie.

Most of the forerunner weapons are essentially laser gun versions of the human weapons. This in my eyes is lazy. To be honest the names for these weapons are pretty bad too (boltshot, scattershot....???!!).

Halo Reach, the last game that Bungie worked on, had some nice examples of creative weapons. The grenade launcher (pro pipe), plasma launcher, the DMR (sem-auto rifle isn't necessarily inventive, but it was for Halo and developing 'bloom' was for sure a challenge), and the needle rifle. I love how the needle rifle richoches off of almost everything.

The grenade launcher from Reach being by far the most creative edition of the game. It's like Bungie took the noob tube from CoD and made it into a viable thing to use in multiplayer that is actually fair and versatile. Truly brilliant m8.

What do you guys think?

Here are some of my ideas for what could have been interesting weapons:

1. Some version of an EMP type weapon/launcher. Kind of does something similar to a pulse grenade except more easy to use and powerful. How about an automaic weapon that shoots rounds which easily deplete shields? Plasma weapons sort of already do this but it could be a power weapon that is similar to this from crysis: http://crysis.wikia.com/wiki/K-Volt I can see a weapon like this being huge in competitive play. One guy in the front pushing forward and spraying out shield depleting blasts while the rest of the team picks the enemy off from behind him/her.

2. Damage over time weapons. Come on, we're talking about forerunners here I'm sure they can do better than laser/heat-based weapons. How about biological weapons that kill you over time? I feel it would be super cool to have some sort of forerunner sub-machine gun, like the supressor but more accurate, which shoots out rounds that go straight into the opponents health. It would be a power weapon of course. But instead of making it sound like a gun the rounds would have to look, feel and fire a lot more interestingly. I know that's vague but....yeah. So when you hear this gun basically you run or kill the guy weilding it from a distance. It would be very distinct.

3. Some sort of a gun that moves physical objects. Ok we have the gravity hammer, what's the next step? How about some sort of a device which can latch onto a vehicle or object and the player can use the analog buttons to toss it into something, or hit a button to push the object forward. Some sort of a splatter machine. If you tried to move a player, instead of being able to throw the player like a ragdoll (would be super annoying) it would just deplete some/all of the player's shields instead. The amount of time that would be allocated to you in order to move the object between picking it up and letting it go would be very short. Just a second or a second and a half. So you could latch onto something and toss it right after. Would make it less over-powered that way.

4. A complete killing machine. The incerineration cannon is powerful, same with the binary rifle. However neither of these weapons quite live up to what I imagined forerunner weapons to be like. I don't think anything 343i created came close. I believe it would have been possible and it is possible to implement a forerunner power weapon that is rare to find on maps, hard to use but totally iconic and satisfying to get kills with. Something OP but with very limited use. It would shoot out multiple flying arcs of energy....That crack and richoche on surfaces. Basically a gun that could shoot lightning out of it, forerunner style. The lightning would kill anyone in impact but it would be quite hard to control when fired in a general direction. The bolt of lightning would last about 1-1.5 seconds allowing the player to subtley drag it to his target. the lightning would arc off of the target and damage other things, without killing them. So basically a spartan laser that shoots out an uncontrolled lightning blast instead of a focused beam with a small splash damage radius...or A HUGE splash damage radius. Obviously it wouldn't be EXACTLY lightning but the blast would just look like it. I'm totally going to draw a picture of this and post it later.

 

[BeckoningZebra1]

I think that is a matter of opinion. Weapons tend to only be memorable if you loved using them. For people that started the Halo experience with Halo 4, I'm sure weapons like the instant kill Binary Rifle with a never-ending laser and the ultimate camper tool, the Boltshot, are highly memorable. 

 

I personally really like the Binary Rifle, it's a One-Shot Wonder, but balanced because of the low ammo cartridges and the laser it emits when scoping scoping. (And let's face it, it's next to impossible to get a snapshot with)

 

I think Halo 4 featured many memorable weapons, UNSC, Covenant, and Forerunners alike. I'm hoping Halo 5 has its share of awesome weapons as well.

 

[Also, how is 'Grenade Launcher' a better name than 'Scattershot' or 'Boltshot?']

[sindronian]

[Also, how is 'Grenade Launcher' a better name than 'Scattershot' or 'Boltshot?']

I never said it was better. I liked how the weapon functioned, not it's name.

 

I know it's a matter of opinion. I would just be surprised if people complained assuming 343 doesn't keep the halo 4 forerunner weapons.

 

The binary rifle is indeed balanced but once again it's a sniper rifle that shoots a laser. I just feel the same balanced weapon could have looked/played a bit differently.

 

The grenade launcher is a great example of something that plays and even looks different. It can EMP, 1 hit kill on impact, bounce and last but not least it can trigger detonate.

 

I just have a feeling a hell of a lot more work was put into making the grenade launcher than the binary rifle (TRON sniper rifle).

 

I'm glad you found the weapons memorable. I'll easily forget them though, unlike the needler which will always be a part of halo.

[Yoshi1176]

You also have to remember that the promethean weapons were firing laser/light stuff. Not projectiles like the UNSC and not plasma like the covenant. There isn't much else that they can have reasonably fire from the binary rifle.

[SilentGamer64]

Not really a new weapon, but a good forerunner weapon to bring back would be the sentinel beam from Halos 2 and 3. I was disappointed to find nothing after killing a few sentinels in Halo 4's campaign.

[RedStarRocket91]

For the most part, I have to admit that I found the Promethean weapons to be a bit disappointing. Although I knew at least some of them would just be racial analogues of existing weapons, I was expecting a bit more variety in the power weapon department - but then those turned out to basically just be supercharged racial analogues, too. There were a couple of things I definitely liked though, like the fact that quite a few weapons had multiple firing modes: the Lightrifle was really great in this regard, even if the burst-fire mode was too weak, and although it wasn't a popular weapon I did like the principle of the Boltshot. I also really liked the targeting beam the Binary Rifle had, because it's an absolutely terrifying psychological weapon as much as one to actually shoot people with - even if it's out of ammunition, since they don't know it's empty you can still use it to intimidate opponents into staying away from its scope, which makes it great for locking down newly-spawned vehicles, power weapons and objectives.

 

But there's no denying that the Suppressor, Scattershot and Incineration Cannon were disappointing - and even though it had a cool gimmick, I could also say much the same of the Lightrifle. I get why it's done, because there needed to be weapons that could fill the general-purpose automatic and rifle weapon slots on Promethean missions, but I did hope we'd be seeing some more interesting power and utility weapons. I wouldn't agree that Reach was better in the new weapon department, because most of the new weapons there were either racial analogues (as with the Grenade Launcher and Concussion Rifle, which were basically just alternate Brute Shots, the DMR and Needle Rifle, which were just enhanced Carbines and Battle Rifles, and the Plasma Cannon, which was just a weaker Spartan Laser), but I am hoping we'll get to see some more variety in Halo 5.

[WonderWombat]

I just want an accurate assault rifle which has yet to be done. They just keep making them faster and less accurate.

Edited May 20, 2014 by WonderWombat

[sindronian]

I just want an accurate assault rifle which has yet to be done. They just keep making them faster and less accurate.

I actually thought the assault rifle was perfect in Halo 4. finally an actual weapon capable of killing something. It would make no sense for it to be accurate though. It's a bullet hose and it's supposed to be a bullet hose.

Not really a new weapon, but a good forerunner weapon to bring back would be the sentinel beam from Halos 2 and 3. I was disappointed to find nothing after killing a few sentinels in Halo 4's campaign.

Wow I didn't even realize that. That's actually silly that they would remove that nice treat after having it in like every halo game.

I added some vague weapon ideas in the post:

 

1. Some version of an EMP type weapon/launcher. Kind of does something similar to a pulse grenade except more easy to use and powerful. How about an automaic weapon that shoots rounds which easily deplete shields? Plasma weapons sort of already do this but it could be a power weapon that is similar to this from crysis: http://crysis.wikia.com/wiki/K-Volt I can see a weapon like this being huge in competitive play. One guy in the front pushing forward and spraying out shield depleting blasts while the rest of the team picks the enemy off from behind him/her.

 

2. Damage over time weapons. Come on, we're talking about forerunners here I'm sure they can do better than laser/heat-based weapons. How about biological weapons that kill you over time? I feel it would be super cool to have some sort of forerunner sub-machine gun, like the supressor but more accurate, which shoots out rounds that go straight into the opponents health. It would be a power weapon of course. But instead of making it sound like a gun the rounds would have to look, feel and fire a lot more interestingly. I know that's vague but....yeah. So when you hear this gun basically you run or kill the guy weilding it from a distance. It would be very distinct.

 

3. Some sort of a gun that moves physical objects. Ok we have the gravity hammer, what's the next step? How about some sort of a device which can latch onto a vehicle or object and the player can use the analog buttons to toss it into something, or hit a button to push the object forward. Some sort of a splatter machine. If you tried to move a player, instead of being able to throw the player like a ragdoll (would be super annoying) it would just deplete some/all of the player's shields instead. The amount of time that would be allocated to you in order to move the object between picking it up and letting it go would be very short. Just a second or a second and a half. So you could latch onto something and toss it right after. Would make it less over-powered that way.

 

4. A complete killing machine. The incerineration cannon is powerful, same with the binary rifle. However neither of these weapons quite live up to what I imagined forerunner weapons to be like. I don't think anything 343i created came close. I believe it would have been possible and it is possible to implement a forerunner power weapon that is rare to find on maps, hard to use but totally iconic and satisfying to get kills with. Something OP but with very limited use. It would shoot out multiple flying arcs of energy....That crack and richoche on surfaces. Basically a gun that could shoot lightning out of it, forerunner style. The lightning would kill anyone in impact but it would be quite hard to control when fired in a general direction. The bolt of lightning would last about 1-1.5 seconds allowing the player to subtley drag it to his target. the lightning would arc off of the target and damage other things, without killing them. So basically a spartan laser that shoots out an uncontrolled lightning blast instead of a focused beam. Obviously it wouldn't be EXACTLY lightning but the blast would just look like it. I'm totally going to draw a picture of this and post it later.

[WonderWombat]

I actually thought the assault rifle was perfect in Halo 4. finally an actual weapon capable of killing something. It would make no sense for it to be accurate though. It's a bullet hose and it's supposed to be a bullet hose.

You misunderstand what I mean. The Assault Rifle (especially 4's) is fine. I would like a new assault rifle, one that is more accurate but shoots considerably slower. It would also still be able to shoot in automatic so it ins't just a Battle Rifle or DMR. The one assault rifle that was sort of like this was the plasma rifle. Other than that the Plasma Repeater, Storm Rifle, and Suppressor all got faster and less accurate.

Edited May 22, 2014 by WonderWombat

[sindronian]

You misunderstand what I mean. The Assault Rifle (especially 4's) is fine. I would like a new assault rifle, one that is more accurate but shoots considerably slower. It would also still be able to shoot in automatic so it ins't just a Battle Rifle or DMR. The one assault rifle that was sort of like this was the plasma rifle. Other than that the Plasma Repeater, Storm Rifle, and Suppressor all got faster and less accurate.

Ah I see. Yeah I agree. An automatic marksman rifle would be a good new edition. 

 

 

[Caboose The Ace]

A automatic Markman rifle ?

 

Sounds op no ?

 

Imagine the ranger of DMR combined with a the power of the AR.

 

I just don't think the idea would work.

 

It could maybe work, but from what I can see I don't think so.

[sindronian]

A automatic Markman rifle ?

 

Sounds op no ?

 

Imagine the ranger of DMR combined with a the power of the AR.

 

I just don't think the idea would work.

 

It could maybe work, but from what I can see I don't think so.

An automatic long range rifle isn't the most imaginative thing and it's been done a thousand times in other games. I don't think it's as far fetched as you're making it. There would obviously be way more recoil than the DMR. 

[RedStarRocket91]

An automatic long range rifle isn't the most imaginative thing and it's been done a thousand times in other games. I don't think it's as far fetched as you're making it. There would obviously be way more recoil than the DMR. 

 

But then, what would the point of including it be? If there's no point firing it on full-auto because it becomes too inaccurate then what's the advantage it has over the DMR? If it had a faster kill time then people would dislike it as they'd see it as a luck-based weapon rather than a skill-based weapon and one which was too powerful at closer ranges (just like the DMR in Reach), and if it killed at the same or a lower speed then there'd be no advantage in using it over the DMR.

 

If you want to go for a new precision weapon of some kind, how about a Forerunner weapon designed for civilians rather than soldiers? The Forerunners were basically arming everyone who could carry a gun by the end of their war with the Flood, regardless of whether they knew how to fight or not, so something like a weapon with a slower kill time but much higher aim assist/bullet magnetism would be both lore-friendly and useful to newer or weaker players who aren't so good with traditional precision weapons. As long as it kills appreciably slower than traditional precision weapons it wouldn't be unbalanced, and you'd have a new weapon which serves a specific role in the arsenal, rather than just making multiple weapons for the same role.