How Halo Broke It's Weapon Sandbox (And Infinite Seems To Fix It)

I love Halo, but recently I've been realizing that Halo has a serious weapon sandbox issue. It's not that the guns aren't fun to use, far from it, the problem is that Halo has for so long diluted it's weapon sandbox. It's resulted in cases where either one weapon dominates the sandbox or every weapon except power weapons have their role in the sandbox left unclear to the player. 

Unlike other games like Call of Duty, this is a major issue for Halo as it relies more on it's weapon sandbox than COD's loadout system. Halo is a series defined by it's weapon sandbox, how one approaches a situation with the tools at hand or has to dip until they can find better tools. But in terms of those tools no Halo has done it better than Halo 1, every other game has been a steady downward spiral.

Halo 1 is the game with the least amount of overlap and therefore dilution in it's weapon choice. You had your bullet weapons for tearing through flesh and plasma weapons for tearing through shields and stunning foes with the occasional sniper or rocket launcher overriding it but being balanced by their spot as rare power weapons. On top of that every gun performed differently, meaning no gun felt alike.

For example, the Assault Rifle is meant for mowing down hordes of weak enemies while the pistol picks them off from a distance with it's scope and high power. Using the AR at long range was useless and the pistol was just too risky and not very ammo efficient for close range. No gun dominated or butted into the field of another, which made every gun a viable option in a fight.

The only flaws with how Halo 1 did things was that the pistol was maybe a bit too strong, the plasma pistol and rifle were a bit too samey, and that the pistol being the super strong reliable killer while the AR was your back pocket weapon could throw off new players. Overall though, Halo 1 made a very strong impression which sadly wouldn't last.

This very clear and defined sandbox we saw in Halo 1 would start to be diluted in Halo 2. Sure the pistol was revamped into the Battle Rifle and the Assault Rifle into the sub-machine gun but the problem was that the Covenant weapons were revamped into just being alien versions of human weapons. The Plasma Weapons saw nerfs to their stun and shield stripping while the Covenant Carbine and Beam Rifle were introduced as the alien versions of the BR and Sniper.

This resulted in a sandbox where it didn't really feel like there was a difference between guns. Why use the Carbine over the BR?  Why use the human pistol over the plasma pistol? Halo 2 even has a reskin of the Plasma Rifle with a faster fire rate that just didn't need to exist, even if it's red plasma was far cooler than blue. The meta was automatics for upclose and precision for ranged combat.

Or the meta would be that if the BR didn't over power every gun at every range, even up close the BR was king. So not only did the up close automatics become an amorphus blob in terms of use they also became useless. And this trend only got worse and worse in subsequent Halo games to the point where removing the BR made the sandbox more interesting, such as in ODST.

Now Halo: Reach did try to replace the BR with the DMR, which had worse recoil and would be nonviable at close range. But then the pistol got upgraded and became a beast up close so ultimately automatics were still hot garbage in Reach. Halo 4 would make this trend worse by introducing a shotgun pistol and  which you could spawn with which, combined with the normal pistol or returning Battle Rifle, made automatics a joke.

Halo 5 honestly just gave up, gave every gun headshot capacity, a COD style iron sight, and turned the pistol into a rifle. Pro-play in Halo 5 is literally just pistol starts because every gun bled into each other so it didn't really matter what you used. Halo's weapon sandbox needed a tweak and pruning which it would appear we got with Infinite.

During the two flights for Halo Infinite I was in I saw a massively changed sandbox that stripped away many of the weapons that felt too similar to one another and merged several others into each other. Those changes give Infinite the chance to create the best Halo Sandbox since Combat Evolved.

For example the Plasma Rifle and Carbine have become the pulse carbine, which fires tracking burst plasma shots great for draining shields but the tracking never felt overpowered. Another great example is the pistol; the scope on it has been stripped away, it's fire rate has been nerfed, and now it's good only for about one or two shots before things go wild. Meaning the pistol is only good as a last resort finisher for when your rifle runs dry, which I think was what the Halo 2 pistol went for but lacked the power to pull off.

Meanwhile the precision sandbox has been pruned so only the pulse carbine and battle rifle remain. One strips shields and has tracking shots but no headshot ability while the other requires you to lead but nets headshots while not being very viable up close like the BR of old. Combine that with an accuracy and power boost to the AR means that automatic weapons are worth using again and the meta isn't just "precision or die".

Suddenly these feel like guns with different roles in the sandbox and not just the same "it kills good" blob that Halo 5 had going. I mean they do reliably kill but in different ways that make them feel unique and suited to different play styles. I can viably use the AR at close to medium range, which feels great but doesn't butt into the BR's medium to long range role too much.

The only weapon that feels too similar to other guns is the new Commando Rifle, which feels like the accuracy of a Battle Rifle and the full auto capability of the Assault Rifle melded into one. It's a strange gun that feels odd in the weapon sandbox, like it doesn't belong in a game this tight. I'd also apply the same complaint to the Heatwave compared to the Shotgun if I could actually use the Heatwave.

Of course problems with the Heatwave aside I am excited for Halo Infinite and looking to see whether my hopes of the weapon sandbox getting fixed have come true. I only saw a small slice of Infinite but if what I saw is any indication this could be the best Halo weapon sandbox since Combat Evolved. Which given that Halo's weapon sandbox is more important than most shooters like Call of Duty or Battlefield means a lot. I just hope 343 can deliver the goods this time.

Note: Despite my love for it, Halo 3 has the worst weapon sandbox in the series, the BR is too strong.