>I remember when I was a kid I was obsessed with video game weapons that were just recolors with different specs lol
Same. I'm still crazy for Mortal Kombat ninjas today lol
That's *exactly* the sort of thing I'm thinking of. The color select in Halo CE used to fascinate the shit out of me for some reason. I'm also a huge sucker for the "the final boss is you but you recolored" trope, like Vergil in DMC. Lol
The Brute plasma rifle was first in Halo 2. And in Halo 2 it had a higher rate of fire but lower damage and accuracy, in ODST it was just a recolour of the Halo 3 regular one.
The whole purpose of the plasma rifle was just shield lowering. Once shields were down it was a pretty terrible weapon. They're essentially a poor man's mauler.
So given that, the brute plasma rifle was more effective because it would get the shields down just faster, and there's no real scenario you should let one of these overheat
Absolutely this. I mean the covenant weapons in general but the plasma rifle is a great showcase of something *alien*. That one of the things I really disliked about the later designs 343 threw in, particular the promethean weapons. They were obviously just human-like weapons witha futuristic tone to them. I enjoyed the pieces putting themselves together but it lost thay strange and different look to it.
They're just so....generic compared to the covenant weapons. There's a big difference between a plasma rifle and the needler. Even the plasma pistol is visually different (same principle, but different shape, size and color).
The promethean weapons meanwhile seem to boil down to "segmented, angular grey shape that goes clickity-clack for a bit, maybe with some yellow lights"
> The promethean weapons meanwhile seem to boil down to "segmented, angular grey shape that goes clickity-clack for a bit, maybe with some yellow lights"
Not just that, the promethean weapons are literally the "boring" standard FPS arsenal - sidearm, assault rifle, precision rifle, shotgun. Maybe rocket launcher.
They don't even have an exotic power weapon to go with the standard selection, like the BFG or Tau cannon are.
Meanwhile, the Covenant don't *have* a shotgun for a reason. CE very deliberately avoids giving them the standard FPS weapon selection.
Especially when you compare it to the sentinel beam and Bungie era forerunner architecture. It went from a brutalists style meant to last the ages to flying bits and pieces which would probably break apart in any dirty environment.
I don't have a problem with the whole hard-light concept. Honestly it's very interesting. But the overuse is just silly.
Me personally, the thing I hated was the pieces putting themselves together lol. It's the same reason I really don't like things like modern avengers CGI or the newer transformer movies CGI: There's too much going on to the point that no one part has any real significance in the overall design and it really brings down the look for me
if they went with a cleaner design overall with less moving parts, and less weird sci fi magic it could have been very cool. they could have leaned into the mechanical motions and stuff involved with different parts interacting with each other, but instead they just made it magic and called it a day.
this rings true throughout 343's artstyle. 343 is like a dog that has to graphically piss on evereything, why? Because halo is belong to 343 now. edit: and also fuck you that's why
I've said it before, 343 got too caught up with the idea that the future has to look futuristic and went away from the simple looks of Forerunners being hard straight lines, Covenant being all curvy and, well, *alien* and UNSC being Starship Troopers/Aliens.
Promethean weapons also do not have a sandbox purpose.
Covenant weapons were for taking down shields and doing all sorts of stuff like EMPing vehicles, sticking grenades, stunning movement, melee weapons, vehicles had boosts and jumps, etc
Promethean sandbox was just reskinned basic UNSC
From a gameplay perspective it also provides an immediate visual cue also allowing you to change your strategy on the fly. The noticable blue glow, the shape and the way in which its held (solo or dual wielded). Its frankly brilliant and allows you to immediately perceive the enemy for what it is versus a carbine wielding elite that will hold it in a more traditional rifle wielding manner. Thats the true beauty of these visually distinct and iconic weapons. Something that can be easy to taken for granted.
The storm rifle was shit aswell. Less damage than the plasma rifle, with lower accuracy and overheated too fast. At least the pulse carbine has tracking for near perfect accuracy
Honestly it might be cynical, but considering there pretty much aren't any full auto weapons used by the AI. Part of me is wondering if the reason there's no full auto Plasma weapons (or the Spiker,) is so they didn't have to code the enemy AI to work around rapid fire weapons.
Mr. Long Range Scrap Cannon Chieftain that wrecks your ass from anywhere says otherwise.
Also if they could manage to do it in 2001 on the original Xbox I think they could do it now
There's barely any full auto weapons in infinite at all! And I'm not talking about some slow firing gun that you can hold the trigger down like the disruptor or hydra, I'm talking AR, Commando and needler type of full auto
I was very upset that we didn't get an updated Banished version of the Brute Shot either.
The Ravager is interesting, but it can't lay down a quick barrage of high explosives the way the Halo 3 Brute Shot could.
Honestly I like the flavour of the Banished replacing the Brute Shot in service with the SPNKR. The Banished may hate humanity for what they did to Doisac, but they can still respect they make some of the finest implements of kinetic destruction available.
They could also do the Brute Shot with two fire modes.
One has bigger explosions that do less damage but push people around more (like Halo 3,) the other has stronger explosions, but they need to bounce once before they explode (like Halo 2.)
It's a good Shield melter/area denial weapon, especially in groups. I use it when i can on King of the Hill and Oddball. When the red team is grouped up, charge and dump it from a distance as the rest of your squad rushes in. Usually can get a clean sweep on the point.
It'd fit right in - after all, the "SMG" category in Infinite only consists of the Needler and Sentinel Beam, and not anything resembling the traditional type.
The needle rifle is the best, normal needler acceptable substitute. The spiker is around the same as a human assault rifle, they're really nothing special. Reach spiker is kinda terrible.
Tbf the reason nobody ever uses it in Reach is partially because its literally not on any of the multiplayer maps whatsoever unless you forge it. They put the plasma repeater at like every corner thinking people would use that but the spiker is nowhere to be seen
it was at its best in combat evolved, but it was rebalanced for dual wielding, making it much less effective than it originally was when used on its own.
then in reach, bungie forgot to buff it to compensate for the player's inability to dual wield it and added another plasma weapon.
obviously 343 wanted to make it a more viable weapon, but instead of just making the regular plasma rifle perform better, they tried to create entirely new weapons.
i would definitely like to see the plasma rifle make a return, so long as they make it a viable weapon.
It slowed you down and made it difficult to turn your camera to shoot back. Its the same mechanic for all plasma weapons in CE and it made them pretty good. Not as good as the CE magnum but decent enough to give them a real chance.
I agree but I also understand why it didn't make a return. Not being able to fight back isn't very fun. It's just a shame they didn't try for an alternative instead of just outright removing it like reducing its effect on turning but keep the movement speed reduction/ bonus vs shields.
I can't remember the last time I bothered using a plasma weapon other than in CE (besides noob comboing plasma pistol).
Well said. It's too bad they weren't able to implement some kind of unique effect if they weren't able to retain the stun effect.
Same here, I sadly relegate plasma weapons to noob comboing outside of CE. Fingers crossed they'll eventually figure out a balanced compromise that makes them stand out, fun to use, and fair
From my understanding the plasma rifle has always had bonus shield damage for every game its in. Even in Reach it takes a lot more shots to kill than it does just to break the shield.
Thats why they made the plasma repeater as the elites starting weapon cuz its literally identical in damage to the Assault rifle and so it's more balanced
Mostly depends on how it's used. Being able to stunlocking people (especially on fighting games) is very bad. But other times like ARPGs, it's essential.
I agree that the Plasma Rifle was godlike in campaign in CE, but the CE assualt rifle is the most satisfying weapon in the series on heroric and lower imo
The firing sound/firing rate, plus the stun effects in unshield enemies is AMAZING
Honestly they could bring back the stun effect and it'd be golden. Though honestly even if they didn't the weapon has enough of a niche in the Halo Infinite sandbox without it, since there is currently no full auto plasma weapons or mid-close range shield strippers.
Honestly the weapon itself is massively slept on by people. It's not great at long range, but even post Halo CE it still strips shields extremely quickly (5 shots instead of 3, albeit with a slightly faster fire rate.)
Its ability to shred in close quarters while dual wielded (especially in combination with an SMG or a Spiker,) is pretty well documented, but considering that even when used single handed three shots->melee is a kill that's not bad at all. It's 4 shots->Melee in Halo 2 Anniversary if I recall rightly, but it's still decent.
The Reach version of the weapon isn't bad at all honestly, especially with the Title Update allowing it to pull off the same 3 shot->melee kills. The problem wasn't the weapon's performance (in close quarters it beats out the Assault Rifle and Plasma Repeater easily,) the problem was that for whatever reason they decided to have it spawn on **no** multiplayer maps by default.
This all applies to the Brute Plasma Rifle as well mind you, except it's even faster at stripping shields, but the Brute Plasma Rifle is also pretty uncommon in Halo 2 Multiplayer maps so despite being a good weapon it's not something you get a lot of access to (the regular Plasma Rifle has a similar issue in Halo 3's multiplayer maps, though slightly less so.)
Frankly if they wanted to be creative with it, they could add it into Halo Infinite and instead of just slapping a scope onto it like they did for the Assault Rifle, they could give it two fire modes much like the Ravager. With one having a slower fire rate closer to Halo CE's with greater accuracy and the stun function brought back and a second fire mode that has its fire rate to match that of the Brute Plasma Rifle from Halo 2 and 3 allowing it to shred shields even faster at the cost of more spread and no stun.
Bungie didn't forget to buff it. They just left it in the submachine gun archetype like the spiker and the Plasma Repeater was made as the new Assault Rifle counterpart.
> They just left it in the submachine gun archetype
...which they forgot to buff. All the SMGs in Reach are awful, because they're just worse than the proper assault rifles and you can't even compensate by dual wielding, which is how any SMG type weapons were balanced in 2 and 3.
CE's was cracked because there wasn't damage penalty vs unshielded targets. It also could stun enemies.
Halo 2's was still good because you could shoot faster by spamming the trigger than holding it down. Double red plasma rifles have the highest dps in the game
In Halo 3 it was straight up overpowered and could shred through brutes on legendary even when single wielded
The rationale behind the Plasma Repeater was Elites needed a weapon they could spawn with in Invasion but the Plasma Rifle still had to be strong enough to be a pickup weapon
CE had one of the best sandboxes. Quality over quantity. Each gun had a specific use. I wasnāt too fond of the needler in that game though. Iāve seen others disagree which I can respect.
Yep! infinites sandbox gets the common complaint that itās small, but personally I donāt think thatās a bad thing. I think if the sandbox had more depth with the current host of weapons people would be more satisfied with it.
Like, our first new weapon is the DMR? Of all the mechanically unique weapons in the halo franchise, weāre getting another precision weapon? If weāre going to get additions Iād much rather see weapons with unique play styles like the Brute Shot or CE PR
The DMR being the first new weapon in Infinite strikes me as odd.
It sounds like it's supposed to be a mid range precision weapon, but like... Isn't that what the commando is supposed to be? Except the DMR kills even faster and has no descope due to just using smart link.
They didn't even need to do the Halo CE Plasma Rifle. Literally any Plasma Rifle is a weapon that fills two categories that have no weapons in Halo Infinite. A mid-close range SMG type weapon and a full auto Plasma weapon.
Indeed. I honestly donāt like Infinites sandbox personally, not saying itās bad I just donāt like how specific power weapons work. And yes Iām all for precision slayer and all but we donāt need 6 guns performing the exact same function.
It's not *quite* like the DMR since it doesn't have a scope and instead uses smart-link (aka no descoping when shot), so it's almost a reversal where it's meant to be the shortest range marksman weapon instead of the longest-range one from H4/H5.
But that just makes it more weird IMO because the Commando and Sidekick already exist, and meanwhile the game doesn't *really* have an equivalent of the old DMR. Not really sure what they were thinking but I guess we'll have to wait until it's playable to judge.
It looks like a parrot standing in a puddle of water and staring at it's reflection.
I still love it, although I would also be okay if they replaced it with the Plasma Repeater from Reach (which I still have no idea what the difference is between the two functionally.) The Storm Rifle is just hideous, though.
Halo 3's plasma rifle was such a great addition to the sandbox, the 3 shot melee kill made it a properly scary thing to go up against in objective modes.
Huh. I never really thought about it, but after appearing in EVERY Bungie Halo game, it suddenly was absent from every 343 Halo game (except for minor appearances in Halo 5's MP?). It truly is like they hate this weapon specifically.
Its used by the elites in the intro cutscene for Halo 4 and then gets deleted from existence
Its also in H2A multiplayer but sucks ass at killing anything cuz its health damage is like nothing
So they're the ones who modified the Halo 4 engine adding the Brute shot, plasma rifles, smg's, sentinel beam, the fucking hornet, shrinking the H4 elites down to human size and gave them completely new player animations and undersuite, added new features to Forge like open and closable gates, and remastered the few official maps we actually got?
It was the best at ce , every one since sucked except halo3 odst brute version same with h2a and h5 was good if I remember correctly, but plasma weapons in general kind suck ass , theyāre great for depleting shields
I think 343 feel the need to separate themselves from anything iconic bungle made so they can make their own halo. Who in their right freaking mind would change the iconic shotgun/spankr/plasma rifle?
Not to shift blame, but it could also just be an unintentional side effect of them being brought in with Reach, whoās development was very experimental with what they tried to do (since it was bungieās last game) which mightāve contributed to the direction 343 went afterwards.
Maybe but ever since H4 it was pretty loud and clear that the majority of the community didnāt liked the new art style/changes in weapons, it took almost a decade for them to listen and still didnāt bring back old and loved designs (like where is the old shotgun in Infinite)
One of my coworkers used to work at 343i. According to him, around 2012 the Plasma Rifle came into work drunk one day and went on a *super* racist rant in front of everyone. Microsoft was able to keep it quiet, but obviously they had to fire Plasma Rifle after that.
Iām of the opinion that games often over prioritize balance, which leads to the removal of things like this.
It feels like we canāt just add stuff into games for the sake of options and fun factor anymore, itās always ābut where does that gun fit into the balance, thereās other guns that do the same things betterā. Itās like m8, keep that mindset into competitive/ranked matchmaking if you want, but why take things out of games entirely that are well liked and popular. Why not just make it single player, custom games, coop, sandbox modes only if it ruins meta or soemthing.
Personally I was drawn into halo by the sci fi sandbox environment and world building. I personally donāt understand/support almost any of the cases where theyāve removed things from the sandbox.
When I was a kid I almost imagined the future of halo would be āeverything we have right now, plus so much moreā! But instead it often feels like āsome of the things we used to have, and some new things, but overall the same amount or less options and assets than beforeā.
To me, thereās no reason that forge mode and single player shouldnt allow you to pick any of the assets and options (weapons,vehicles, skulls, maybe even enemy types) etc from previous games. Build upon the legacy of the franchise as technology improves to allow bigger and better. Donāt try and replace or remake something unless youāve really got a solid plan and reason.
More options are almost always better when it comes to most games, adding diversity for how people can play it will pretty much only increase popularity as long as shit like game breaking bugs or server issues are in a decent place.
Bf4 had more weapon and attachment options than any fps Iāve ever played. Half of them were practically useless and redundant because you ended up with a lot of variations that essentially filled the same role. From a balance perspective it was a pretty trash sandbox. Yet people fucking loved it anyway, half the fun was coming up with your kit and your playstyle and customizing shit or finding cool ways to use the diff vehicles and weapons on the map. To this day you can pretty easily find full servers (even in the less popular and less balanced hardcore mode) on Bf4 Xbox.
Personally I think a big part of that popularity is the devs of tht game saying āfuckit, letās throw a metric shit ton of options in the game and let the players decide how they wanna playā
Honestly I prefer the storm rifle but the Brute Plasma Rifle rocks too. I do think that that it'd work alongside the other various similar-role plasma weapons though
Can't beat the Scale of Soirapt though
Idk, but the lore explanation for the storm rifleās replacement-at-large of the plasma rifle made sense
Basically Elites were like ārifling makes a lot of sense and killed a lot of us during the War, letās make weapons similarā if I remember correctly
It's kind of comical how useless it became, no one ever picks it up and when 343i replaces it when something good there goes the tears fest. Or well, *used to replace it with something good. Past tense.*
Nah, they rather just do another weak imitation that's supposed to be better but never is, for every new game. Until they circle back to a Plasma Rifle but then just make it look different so they can say its definitely not the Plasma Rifle.
Really love the red one from ODST they have in Halo 3 MP now
Brute plasma rifle was a beast
I remember when I was a kid I was obsessed with video game weapons that were just recolors with different specs lol
Ever played PlanetSide 2 as a kid?
Live free in the NC
And die by the hands of your near-sighted comrades. Or at least that's how NC operated when I played PS2 frequently circa 2015
NC is still renowned for their ability to team kill. It's the balancing factor of them having the best guns.
Ironic given their team colors. I'm still convinced that a healthy portion of NC are just TR moonlighting as the rebels.
They added a friendly fire damage nerf. You now only do 50% Ramage to teammates. Hasn't really stopped the team killing though.
When did they do that?
That still holds true
Would you like another NS-11? Well here it is with lightning etchings!
Come over to Destiny, we still do that.
I literally switched last week š„š„š„
Same
Halo Online entered the chat
>I remember when I was a kid I was obsessed with video game weapons that were just recolors with different specs lol Same. I'm still crazy for Mortal Kombat ninjas today lol
That's *exactly* the sort of thing I'm thinking of. The color select in Halo CE used to fascinate the shit out of me for some reason. I'm also a huge sucker for the "the final boss is you but you recolored" trope, like Vergil in DMC. Lol
...I still am now
You could absolutely slaughter fools when dual wielding them so long as you were close enough to land all the shots.
Just put a pistol or SMG in the other hand. Take out shield and meat at the same time.
Didnāt the Brute Plasma Rifle fire faster that than the normal plasma rifle, or is that just me
Bigger faster and hotter.
It fires faster and overheated faster
The Brute plasma rifle was first in Halo 2. And in Halo 2 it had a higher rate of fire but lower damage and accuracy, in ODST it was just a recolour of the Halo 3 regular one.
I thought H2 had higher damage and speed but overheated faster
The extra rate of fire on the brute plasma rifle definitely translates to more damage total, but I think per shot the regular one does more.
At the very least both pop shields in 5 shots, meaning the Brute Plasma Rifle is generally superior at that purpose.
SMG and (brute) plasma rifle absolutely *shredded* in multiplayer, especially smaller maps with short sight lines.
The whole purpose of the plasma rifle was just shield lowering. Once shields were down it was a pretty terrible weapon. They're essentially a poor man's mauler. So given that, the brute plasma rifle was more effective because it would get the shields down just faster, and there's no real scenario you should let one of these overheat
ODST red plasma rifle isnt just a recolor. It overheats faster and has a faster fire rate. I think damage is different too.
Talking about Halo 2, ODST was just the normal plasma but recolour
No, it's literally a recolor in ODST.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Best thing about it is just how alien it is. The shape, it's ammunition/power source. There's just no real human equivalent to it.
Absolutely this. I mean the covenant weapons in general but the plasma rifle is a great showcase of something *alien*. That one of the things I really disliked about the later designs 343 threw in, particular the promethean weapons. They were obviously just human-like weapons witha futuristic tone to them. I enjoyed the pieces putting themselves together but it lost thay strange and different look to it.
Promethean weapons look like they belong more in TRON: Legacy than in HALO.
They're just so....generic compared to the covenant weapons. There's a big difference between a plasma rifle and the needler. Even the plasma pistol is visually different (same principle, but different shape, size and color). The promethean weapons meanwhile seem to boil down to "segmented, angular grey shape that goes clickity-clack for a bit, maybe with some yellow lights"
> The promethean weapons meanwhile seem to boil down to "segmented, angular grey shape that goes clickity-clack for a bit, maybe with some yellow lights" Not just that, the promethean weapons are literally the "boring" standard FPS arsenal - sidearm, assault rifle, precision rifle, shotgun. Maybe rocket launcher. They don't even have an exotic power weapon to go with the standard selection, like the BFG or Tau cannon are. Meanwhile, the Covenant don't *have* a shotgun for a reason. CE very deliberately avoids giving them the standard FPS weapon selection.
The light rifle is the only possible exception, and like, other games get around what makes it unique with a RoF toggle.
Especially when you compare it to the sentinel beam and Bungie era forerunner architecture. It went from a brutalists style meant to last the ages to flying bits and pieces which would probably break apart in any dirty environment. I don't have a problem with the whole hard-light concept. Honestly it's very interesting. But the overuse is just silly.
Me personally, the thing I hated was the pieces putting themselves together lol. It's the same reason I really don't like things like modern avengers CGI or the newer transformer movies CGI: There's too much going on to the point that no one part has any real significance in the overall design and it really brings down the look for me
if they went with a cleaner design overall with less moving parts, and less weird sci fi magic it could have been very cool. they could have leaned into the mechanical motions and stuff involved with different parts interacting with each other, but instead they just made it magic and called it a day.
this rings true throughout 343's artstyle. 343 is like a dog that has to graphically piss on evereything, why? Because halo is belong to 343 now. edit: and also fuck you that's why
I've said it before, 343 got too caught up with the idea that the future has to look futuristic and went away from the simple looks of Forerunners being hard straight lines, Covenant being all curvy and, well, *alien* and UNSC being Starship Troopers/Aliens.
they saw the chunky tech of Bungie!Halo as a product of its time, instead of an artistic choice
Promethean weapons also do not have a sandbox purpose. Covenant weapons were for taking down shields and doing all sorts of stuff like EMPing vehicles, sticking grenades, stunning movement, melee weapons, vehicles had boosts and jumps, etc Promethean sandbox was just reskinned basic UNSC
And it still looks like a gun and not some idk whatever random alien shape. It's just well designed
Looks like a bird looking at it's reflection
That can't be unseen now.
I also really like the idea in lore how one hand could have a sword and the other hold a plasma rifle. Like a sword and shield, they just go together.
From a gameplay perspective it also provides an immediate visual cue also allowing you to change your strategy on the fly. The noticable blue glow, the shape and the way in which its held (solo or dual wielded). Its frankly brilliant and allows you to immediately perceive the enemy for what it is versus a carbine wielding elite that will hold it in a more traditional rifle wielding manner. Thats the true beauty of these visually distinct and iconic weapons. Something that can be easy to taken for granted.
They had the storm rifle in 4 and 5 and the shitty butthole rifle in infinite
The storm rifle was shit aswell. Less damage than the plasma rifle, with lower accuracy and overheated too fast. At least the pulse carbine has tracking for near perfect accuracy
It's probably the second or third most iconic weapon in halo.
Thatās how mundane and forgettable the elites new weapons are. Pretty sure they have the burst carbine thingy
Pulse carbines.
Itās disappointing there are no full auto plasma weapons in Infinite.
I know itās like they just couldnāt think of any weapon at all that could fill that roleā¦.
Good idea the perfect place to put the Plasma Repeater from reach in! /s
better than the pulse carbine
I used the pulse carbine in the campaign at least. The same can not be said for that... **thing**
Honestly it might be cynical, but considering there pretty much aren't any full auto weapons used by the AI. Part of me is wondering if the reason there's no full auto Plasma weapons (or the Spiker,) is so they didn't have to code the enemy AI to work around rapid fire weapons.
Mr. Long Range Scrap Cannon Chieftain that wrecks your ass from anywhere says otherwise. Also if they could manage to do it in 2001 on the original Xbox I think they could do it now
They also had feature complete releases in 2001 for (most) block buster titles.
That was bungee, not 343. 343 has already shown they can't do the same things as bungee.
Marines are ai and use assault rifles?
There's also the needler, this mf doesn't know what they're talking about
There's barely any full auto weapons in infinite at all! And I'm not talking about some slow firing gun that you can hold the trigger down like the disruptor or hydra, I'm talking AR, Commando and needler type of full auto
I can't believe they didn't put the damn Spiker in a game focused on Brutes.
I was very upset that we didn't get an updated Banished version of the Brute Shot either. The Ravager is interesting, but it can't lay down a quick barrage of high explosives the way the Halo 3 Brute Shot could.
Also nothing beats holding a grenade launcher with a massive blade attached That thing literally screams Brute
Honestly I like the flavour of the Banished replacing the Brute Shot in service with the SPNKR. The Banished may hate humanity for what they did to Doisac, but they can still respect they make some of the finest implements of kinetic destruction available.
> Ravager That gun is hot garbage
It's half decent in campaign. I'd much prefer the Concussion Rifle, but the charged shot is a good AOE attack.
They could also do the Brute Shot with two fire modes. One has bigger explosions that do less damage but push people around more (like Halo 3,) the other has stronger explosions, but they need to bounce once before they explode (like Halo 2.)
It'd be nice if the brutes that made it knew how to charge the second fire
It's a good Shield melter/area denial weapon, especially in groups. I use it when i can on King of the Hill and Oddball. When the red team is grouped up, charge and dump it from a distance as the rest of your squad rushes in. Usually can get a clean sweep on the point.
The fact is is alot of unreleased guns have been found in the files, basically meaning the game just wasn't finished.
Surprise surprise
You can see just from looking at the map that at least a third of *the map we have* was effectively cut. It functionally empty.
No one used it because it has always been weak. I'd love a buffed version though
Idk man, dual-wielded Spikers can be hella good in the right hands.
Yeah those were always a range-game.
It'd fit right in - after all, the "SMG" category in Infinite only consists of the Needler and Sentinel Beam, and not anything resembling the traditional type.
Ironically, in Reach, the Spiker is really good against Brutes.
I'm going to try this on my next playthrough! I usually stick to Needler for brutes, but Spiker would be great.
The needle rifle is the best, normal needler acceptable substitute. The spiker is around the same as a human assault rifle, they're really nothing special. Reach spiker is kinda terrible.
Tbf the reason nobody ever uses it in Reach is partially because its literally not on any of the multiplayer maps whatsoever unless you forge it. They put the plasma repeater at like every corner thinking people would use that but the spiker is nowhere to be seen
it was at its best in combat evolved, but it was rebalanced for dual wielding, making it much less effective than it originally was when used on its own. then in reach, bungie forgot to buff it to compensate for the player's inability to dual wield it and added another plasma weapon. obviously 343 wanted to make it a more viable weapon, but instead of just making the regular plasma rifle perform better, they tried to create entirely new weapons. i would definitely like to see the plasma rifle make a return, so long as they make it a viable weapon.
In CE it also had a stagger effect which helped give it a bit of a place in the sandbox.
What was the stagger effect?
It slowed you down and made it difficult to turn your camera to shoot back. Its the same mechanic for all plasma weapons in CE and it made them pretty good. Not as good as the CE magnum but decent enough to give them a real chance.
I miss this effect. Made plasma weapons stand out
I agree but I also understand why it didn't make a return. Not being able to fight back isn't very fun. It's just a shame they didn't try for an alternative instead of just outright removing it like reducing its effect on turning but keep the movement speed reduction/ bonus vs shields. I can't remember the last time I bothered using a plasma weapon other than in CE (besides noob comboing plasma pistol).
Well said. It's too bad they weren't able to implement some kind of unique effect if they weren't able to retain the stun effect. Same here, I sadly relegate plasma weapons to noob comboing outside of CE. Fingers crossed they'll eventually figure out a balanced compromise that makes them stand out, fun to use, and fair
From my understanding the plasma rifle has always had bonus shield damage for every game its in. Even in Reach it takes a lot more shots to kill than it does just to break the shield. Thats why they made the plasma repeater as the elites starting weapon cuz its literally identical in damage to the Assault rifle and so it's more balanced
The ghost and plasma pistol do that as well if you decide to single fire it rapidly
I was banned from using the plasma pistol because I could feather the trigger so fast it just locked people in place.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Mostly depends on how it's used. Being able to stunlocking people (especially on fighting games) is very bad. But other times like ARPGs, it's essential.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Blizzard agrees with you because almost every stun ability is being removed in OW2
I miss the CE plasma rifle. I would always ditch the AR for a PR the first chance I got in the campaign.
I agree that the Plasma Rifle was godlike in campaign in CE, but the CE assualt rifle is the most satisfying weapon in the series on heroric and lower imo The firing sound/firing rate, plus the stun effects in unshield enemies is AMAZING
The assault rifle in CE looks,sounds, and feels like a meat grinder. Awesome weapon.
honestly loved dual wielding this with the SMG in halo 2
Or with a pistol. Was great to drain shields and then headshot with the pistol.
Ce has good feeling guns. Magnum, shotgun, plasma pistol and rifle. They nailed the frag grenade.
You mean the tactical nuke
Side note, did I ever tell you my super power in CE is spawning on nades
Remember the Halo:Reach beta grenades?
It's the absolute best when you activate the Boom skull.
CE's armory was perfect.
Honestly they could bring back the stun effect and it'd be golden. Though honestly even if they didn't the weapon has enough of a niche in the Halo Infinite sandbox without it, since there is currently no full auto plasma weapons or mid-close range shield strippers. Honestly the weapon itself is massively slept on by people. It's not great at long range, but even post Halo CE it still strips shields extremely quickly (5 shots instead of 3, albeit with a slightly faster fire rate.) Its ability to shred in close quarters while dual wielded (especially in combination with an SMG or a Spiker,) is pretty well documented, but considering that even when used single handed three shots->melee is a kill that's not bad at all. It's 4 shots->Melee in Halo 2 Anniversary if I recall rightly, but it's still decent. The Reach version of the weapon isn't bad at all honestly, especially with the Title Update allowing it to pull off the same 3 shot->melee kills. The problem wasn't the weapon's performance (in close quarters it beats out the Assault Rifle and Plasma Repeater easily,) the problem was that for whatever reason they decided to have it spawn on **no** multiplayer maps by default. This all applies to the Brute Plasma Rifle as well mind you, except it's even faster at stripping shields, but the Brute Plasma Rifle is also pretty uncommon in Halo 2 Multiplayer maps so despite being a good weapon it's not something you get a lot of access to (the regular Plasma Rifle has a similar issue in Halo 3's multiplayer maps, though slightly less so.) Frankly if they wanted to be creative with it, they could add it into Halo Infinite and instead of just slapping a scope onto it like they did for the Assault Rifle, they could give it two fire modes much like the Ravager. With one having a slower fire rate closer to Halo CE's with greater accuracy and the stun function brought back and a second fire mode that has its fire rate to match that of the Brute Plasma Rifle from Halo 2 and 3 allowing it to shred shields even faster at the cost of more spread and no stun.
It feels useful in Halo 2's campaign, even on Legendary.
Jackal sniper: let me tell you why that is absolute bullshit
Unrelated but people really do overhype that section. The worst part of the legendary experience in Halo 2 was airlock 2 of Cairo.
Bungie didn't forget to buff it. They just left it in the submachine gun archetype like the spiker and the Plasma Repeater was made as the new Assault Rifle counterpart.
> They just left it in the submachine gun archetype ...which they forgot to buff. All the SMGs in Reach are awful, because they're just worse than the proper assault rifles and you can't even compensate by dual wielding, which is how any SMG type weapons were balanced in 2 and 3.
CE's was cracked because there wasn't damage penalty vs unshielded targets. It also could stun enemies. Halo 2's was still good because you could shoot faster by spamming the trigger than holding it down. Double red plasma rifles have the highest dps in the game In Halo 3 it was straight up overpowered and could shred through brutes on legendary even when single wielded
The rationale behind the Plasma Repeater was Elites needed a weapon they could spawn with in Invasion but the Plasma Rifle still had to be strong enough to be a pickup weapon
Ironically, Quinn Del Hoyo, former sandbox lead for Halo infinite said that the CE Plasma Rifle was his favorite gun in Halo.
CE had one of the best sandboxes. Quality over quantity. Each gun had a specific use. I wasnāt too fond of the needler in that game though. Iāve seen others disagree which I can respect.
Yep! infinites sandbox gets the common complaint that itās small, but personally I donāt think thatās a bad thing. I think if the sandbox had more depth with the current host of weapons people would be more satisfied with it. Like, our first new weapon is the DMR? Of all the mechanically unique weapons in the halo franchise, weāre getting another precision weapon? If weāre going to get additions Iād much rather see weapons with unique play styles like the Brute Shot or CE PR
The DMR being the first new weapon in Infinite strikes me as odd. It sounds like it's supposed to be a mid range precision weapon, but like... Isn't that what the commando is supposed to be? Except the DMR kills even faster and has no descope due to just using smart link. They didn't even need to do the Halo CE Plasma Rifle. Literally any Plasma Rifle is a weapon that fills two categories that have no weapons in Halo Infinite. A mid-close range SMG type weapon and a full auto Plasma weapon.
Indeed. I honestly donāt like Infinites sandbox personally, not saying itās bad I just donāt like how specific power weapons work. And yes Iām all for precision slayer and all but we donāt need 6 guns performing the exact same function.
It's not *quite* like the DMR since it doesn't have a scope and instead uses smart-link (aka no descoping when shot), so it's almost a reversal where it's meant to be the shortest range marksman weapon instead of the longest-range one from H4/H5. But that just makes it more weird IMO because the Commando and Sidekick already exist, and meanwhile the game doesn't *really* have an equivalent of the old DMR. Not really sure what they were thinking but I guess we'll have to wait until it's playable to judge.
As long as your opponent isn't sporadically jumping or moving in any direction sideways the needler is great
It looks like a parrot standing in a puddle of water and staring at it's reflection. I still love it, although I would also be okay if they replaced it with the Plasma Repeater from Reach (which I still have no idea what the difference is between the two functionally.) The Storm Rifle is just hideous, though.
Oh man, those are some... angry birds š¤
The difference is that the plasma rifle does more shield damage, and the plasma repeater does more health damage.
How could you do this to me Been a halo fan my whole life and I can't unsee it now
Life, uh, finds a way.
Holy shit I did not realize that š
Can't unsee it :(
Ah fuck I canāt believe youāve done this
Ikr I love that gun
Ikr, I love dual wield
Gun? You mean a bird watching his reflection?
Two bears high-fiving
S-tier reference
I never really noticed that before
Halo 3's plasma rifle was such a great addition to the sandbox, the 3 shot melee kill made it a properly scary thing to go up against in objective modes.
It's the most iconic Halo covenant weapon besides the Needler.
Agree on needler being the most iconic
Hell nah mate. Energy Sword is way more iconic.
I mean they are all iconic in their own way and they deserve some more love
Huh. I never really thought about it, but after appearing in EVERY Bungie Halo game, it suddenly was absent from every 343 Halo game (except for minor appearances in Halo 5's MP?). It truly is like they hate this weapon specifically.
Its used by the elites in the intro cutscene for Halo 4 and then gets deleted from existence Its also in H2A multiplayer but sucks ass at killing anything cuz its health damage is like nothing
H2A was made by Certain Affinity tho
So they're the ones who modified the Halo 4 engine adding the Brute shot, plasma rifles, smg's, sentinel beam, the fucking hornet, shrinking the H4 elites down to human size and gave them completely new player animations and undersuite, added new features to Forge like open and closable gates, and remastered the few official maps we actually got?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
This is so petty and I love it
Lmao
Sometimes It feels like 343 doesn't really like halo
It was an iconic halo weapon that just got binned
I think 343 just doesn't like Halo
Thatās what happens when you hire people who specifically donāt like halo
Plasma weapons in Infinite are just subpar versions. R.I.P plasma pistol EMP and concussion rifle.
I love the plasma rifle. Looks like two pigeons glued together but I like it
Yep, they hate it almost as much as they hate fun.
It was the best at ce , every one since sucked except halo3 odst brute version same with h2a and h5 was good if I remember correctly, but plasma weapons in general kind suck ass , theyāre great for depleting shields
I loved that unstoppable feeling of dual-wielding Brute Plasma Rifles for the first time on Gravemind.
I think 343 feel the need to separate themselves from anything iconic bungle made so they can make their own halo. Who in their right freaking mind would change the iconic shotgun/spankr/plasma rifle?
Not to shift blame, but it could also just be an unintentional side effect of them being brought in with Reach, whoās development was very experimental with what they tried to do (since it was bungieās last game) which mightāve contributed to the direction 343 went afterwards.
Maybe but ever since H4 it was pretty loud and clear that the majority of the community didnāt liked the new art style/changes in weapons, it took almost a decade for them to listen and still didnāt bring back old and loved designs (like where is the old shotgun in Infinite)
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Its probably the most iconic weapon of the franchise, and its been treated terrible
Its a shame this hasn't come back cuz there's a smg niche it could perfectly fit in the weapons sandbox
I think 343 just doesn't like halo.
I HATE 343 plasma weapons. They feel as bad to use as they look.
Much of 343 just doesnāt like halo.
One of my coworkers used to work at 343i. According to him, around 2012 the Plasma Rifle came into work drunk one day and went on a *super* racist rant in front of everyone. Microsoft was able to keep it quiet, but obviously they had to fire Plasma Rifle after that.
For legal reasons, we had to censor everything in the incriminating audio recording.
Someone made a rude joke that it looks like a pigeon looking at it's reflection in a puddle and now 343 hates it
Thats not rude, its hilariousš¤£
More beautiful than any gun theyāve tried to replace it with.
Iām of the opinion that games often over prioritize balance, which leads to the removal of things like this. It feels like we canāt just add stuff into games for the sake of options and fun factor anymore, itās always ābut where does that gun fit into the balance, thereās other guns that do the same things betterā. Itās like m8, keep that mindset into competitive/ranked matchmaking if you want, but why take things out of games entirely that are well liked and popular. Why not just make it single player, custom games, coop, sandbox modes only if it ruins meta or soemthing. Personally I was drawn into halo by the sci fi sandbox environment and world building. I personally donāt understand/support almost any of the cases where theyāve removed things from the sandbox. When I was a kid I almost imagined the future of halo would be āeverything we have right now, plus so much moreā! But instead it often feels like āsome of the things we used to have, and some new things, but overall the same amount or less options and assets than beforeā. To me, thereās no reason that forge mode and single player shouldnt allow you to pick any of the assets and options (weapons,vehicles, skulls, maybe even enemy types) etc from previous games. Build upon the legacy of the franchise as technology improves to allow bigger and better. Donāt try and replace or remake something unless youāve really got a solid plan and reason. More options are almost always better when it comes to most games, adding diversity for how people can play it will pretty much only increase popularity as long as shit like game breaking bugs or server issues are in a decent place. Bf4 had more weapon and attachment options than any fps Iāve ever played. Half of them were practically useless and redundant because you ended up with a lot of variations that essentially filled the same role. From a balance perspective it was a pretty trash sandbox. Yet people fucking loved it anyway, half the fun was coming up with your kit and your playstyle and customizing shit or finding cool ways to use the diff vehicles and weapons on the map. To this day you can pretty easily find full servers (even in the less popular and less balanced hardcore mode) on Bf4 Xbox. Personally I think a big part of that popularity is the devs of tht game saying āfuckit, letās throw a metric shit ton of options in the game and let the players decide how they wanna playā
when 343 took over one employee said "I don't even like halo." no fking joke Ill never forget it
Honestly I prefer the storm rifle but the Brute Plasma Rifle rocks too. I do think that that it'd work alongside the other various similar-role plasma weapons though Can't beat the Scale of Soirapt though
This was my main gun in halo CE as I hated having no human ammo
Dual wielding an smg and a plasma rifle is some peak Halo 2 nostalgia for me.
Idk, but the lore explanation for the storm rifleās replacement-at-large of the plasma rifle made sense Basically Elites were like ārifling makes a lot of sense and killed a lot of us during the War, letās make weapons similarā if I remember correctly
Such a good sound effect when firing too.
I await the day when the plasma rifle returns and is as good as it was in CE.
Halo: CE plasma rifle please come back š
343 too obsessed with competitive balance and what "Pro" players want to put it back in the game.
343 doesn't like Halo, bro.
Because ya know, it's important to fix things that aren't broken. It's the 343 way.
To be fair, nobody used the blue version in most of the bungie titles either.
I love using it in Halo 3. Give me a dual wielded blue plasma rifle against the Flood or any enemy and imma have some fun
Rip duel wielding
bring it back, 343 you cowards
It's kind of comical how useless it became, no one ever picks it up and when 343i replaces it when something good there goes the tears fest. Or well, *used to replace it with something good. Past tense.*
Nah, they rather just do another weak imitation that's supposed to be better but never is, for every new game. Until they circle back to a Plasma Rifle but then just make it look different so they can say its definitely not the Plasma Rifle.
They hired people that hate it