- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Probably the one of the hottest debates we see on the MLG forums is debates about the pistol not returning in Halo 2 with the same mechanics from Halo 1. Bungie has stated many times before that they removed/modified the original pistol due to its god-like abilities. While attempting to balance the game with this maneuver, modifications were made to the sniper rifle and the addition of the beam rifle and the energy sword seemed like a backwards step. Can you explain what lead you guys to make these decisions?
As far as the pistol goes, it was too powerful in Halo, more powerful than we intended. Our philosophy for weapon design (and game design in general) is based on simple rock-paper-scissors relationships. In Halo 1 there was no rock to smash the pistol. The weapons in Halo 2 are much better balanced.
Along these lines we also toned the sniper rifle down a bit because we found it was too difficult to counter at mid to close range when in the right hands. The networking model seems to overcompensate for poor sniping accuracy, but this was an unforseen consequence of other decisions.
(Taken MLBPro.com)
i was deeply saddened when i read this. it appears that they had no intention of making the pistol what it was in halo. or they werent aware of how great it really was. the pistol was the most memorable aspect to halo and since it was that way accidentally then it would seem that bungie accidentally made halo multiplayer what it actually was.