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This topic has moved here: Poll [22 votes]: How should the pistol be treated in a Halo game?
  • Poll [22 votes]: How should the pistol be treated in a Halo game?
Subject: How should the pistol be treated in a Halo game?
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Poll: How should the pistol be treated in a Halo game?  [closed]
Primary/secondary:  68%
(15 Votes)
Sidearm:  32%
(7 Votes)
Tertiary:  0%
(0 Votes)
Other:  0%
(0 Votes)
Total Votes: 22

It seems every time I go on Waypoint and visit a thread about magnums, there's this predominant idea of pistols being sidarms.

I'm not posting this here because I want people to say the CE pistol (notice that it's not even in the poll!) but because there's a greater level of maturity.

I've been severely disappointed with the pistol over the years. The ODST pistol brought back hope but that was killed with Reach. I for one would like a pistol that can affect AI and doesn't have anything that hinders my performance.

But what about you?

For reference: (I'm not including the H2 pistol because that was made like that for dual wielding, not necessarily as the start of sidearms in Halo games. Notice that it has the same ammo and clip size of the CE pistol)

H1 pistol
Pro: high damage, decent accuracy, rof, and range, plenty of ammo, big clip size, automatic firing, can tell where you hit, movement is crucial
Con: spread, loud

H3 pistol
Pro: high flesh damage, decent range
Con: insufficient ammo, no scope, dual wielding doesn't improve it, slow kill times. And though it's accurate, the lack of a scope makes that pointless.

ODST pistol
Pro: decent flesh damage, superb accuracy and range, high rof capped by controllable recoil
Con: silencer is aesthetic, low shield damage, burn through ammo

Reach pistol
Pro: decent damage, high rof
Con: allows spamming, insufficient ammo, poor range, accuracy hindered, constantly have to reload, no shield bleedthrough

[Edited on 05.21.2012 2:28 AM PDT]

  • 05.20.2012 7:57 PM PDT

ShawtyHullstineFilms CEO-Team MLG EXTREME

Each weapon over the years has evolved to serve a purpose. For example, I think Reach's pistol was designed to serve as a sidekick to the assault rifle. Lower the shields with the AR and then finish them off with a headshot with the pistol.

Of course, weapons must evolved from game to game. How boring would it be to have the same weapon traits for 5 straight games.

In the case of CE, the pistol was meant to be a precision weapon since there was no BR or DMR. I think the pistol had to become more practical after the introduction of those weapons.

  • 05.20.2012 8:14 PM PDT
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Posted by: farmerscott21
Each weapon over the years has evolved to serve a purpose. For example, I think Reach's pistol was designed to serve as a sidekick to the assault rifle. Lower the shields with the AR and then finish them off with a headshot with the pistol.
That's also been in H3 actually.

Yet the reason why I tolerate the H2 and H3 pistols is because I can get satisfaction from getting kills with them. With the Reach pistol, I find that there's nothing fun about it and I often feel cheated of a kill.

  • 05.20.2012 9:00 PM PDT

Fun fact: The CE pistol does so much damage because of a glitch they couldn't fix. This glitch caused it to do twice the damage it was supposed to.

That said, the Halo 2 pistol was needlessly weak, the Halo 3 pistol fired much too slowly and had no ammo, the ODST pistol was weak and burned ammo like crazy, and the Reach one somehow managed to pull together the worst parts of each one.

  • 05.20.2012 9:59 PM PDT

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Posted by: chickenlittle
Fun fact: The CE pistol does so much damage because of a glitch they couldn't fix. This glitch caused it to do twice the damage it was supposed to.

That said, the Halo 2 pistol was needlessly weak, the Halo 3 pistol fired much too slowly and had no ammo, the ODST pistol was weak and burned ammo like crazy, and the Reach one somehow managed to pull together the worst parts of each one.


Actually, Bungie stated a few years back that the pistol was so powerful due to a last minute code change by an employee.

  • 05.20.2012 10:36 PM PDT

Posted by: Multijirachi

Posted by: chickenlittle
Fun fact: The CE pistol does so much damage because of a glitch they couldn't fix. This glitch caused it to do twice the damage it was supposed to.

That said, the Halo 2 pistol was needlessly weak, the Halo 3 pistol fired much too slowly and had no ammo, the ODST pistol was weak and burned ammo like crazy, and the Reach one somehow managed to pull together the worst parts of each one.


Actually, Bungie stated a few years back that the pistol was so powerful due to a last minute code change by an employee.
Do you have a source for that?

  • 05.20.2012 11:26 PM PDT

Games I like:,
Half-Minute Hero
MBU
Portal
Halo 3 is the best Halo ever
Maps I like: Turf, Avalanche, Pylon, Sandbox, Breakpoint and many more.

It's somewhere on the internet, I'll start searching again.

  • 05.21.2012 1:33 AM PDT
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Now that I think of it, the H3 pistol wasn't so great either. Looks like I got carried away with the pistol's treatment...

  • 05.21.2012 2:27 AM PDT


Posted by: Sliding Ghost
Now that I think of it, the H3 pistol wasn't so great either. Looks like I got carried away with the pistol's treatment...

The Halo 3 Pistol was probably one of the most frustrating Pitols to use for me due to the low ROF. Dual Wielding would still usually result in a loss against a BR/Carbine so I used it only in Campaign for nostalgia of Halo CE.

  • 05.22.2012 11:39 AM PDT

Halo 2 > Halo 3 > Halo 3 ODST > Halo Reach > Halo CE

Based on campaigns.

A pistol should be a sidearm. If we had CEs pistol in later Halo games, precision rifles like the BR and DMR would be pointless if you have a pistol with scope and high damage

  • 05.22.2012 12:02 PM PDT
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Posted by: Mark V guy
A pistol should be a sidearm. If we had CEs pistol in later Halo games, precision rifles like the BR and DMR would be pointless if you have a pistol with scope and high damage
And yet there is a pistol with scope... and decent damage in Reach.

I now just want a reduced version of the ODST pistol (with damage intact since it didn't do much shield damage).

Posted by: Wilis_kid

Posted by: Sliding Ghost
Now that I think of it, the H3 pistol wasn't so great either. Looks like I got carried away with the pistol's treatment...

The Halo 3 Pistol was probably one of the most frustrating Pitols to use for me due to the low ROF. Dual Wielding would still usually result in a loss against a BR/Carbine so I used it only in Campaign for nostalgia of Halo CE.
Yep, completely useless when confronted by multiple targets.

[Edited on 05.22.2012 12:51 PM PDT]

  • 05.22.2012 12:50 PM PDT

Halo 2 > Halo 3 > Halo 3 ODST > Halo Reach > Halo CE

Based on campaigns.

Reachs pistol has extreme bloom

  • 05.22.2012 4:32 PM PDT

Everything in Reach has extreme bloom.

  • 05.22.2012 5:05 PM PDT

Games I like:,
Half-Minute Hero
MBU
Portal
Halo 3 is the best Halo ever
Maps I like: Turf, Avalanche, Pylon, Sandbox, Breakpoint and many more.

It was mentioned during an episode of the Bungie Podcast that there was an internal debate about how powerful the M6D should have been. It was stated that the weapon was supposed to be weaker, but an employee made a last-minute code change that gave the pistol its power.

I couldn't find the podcast, but this is from the Podcast and M6D pages of Halopedia.

  • 05.23.2012 10:32 PM PDT

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It depends on what pistol from what halo game you are talking about, example halo 1 I would consider it has an secodary, while other games I would say the pistol is a sidearm in the rest of the halo games.

  • 05.24.2012 7:22 AM PDT


Posted by: halo odst 117 MC
It depends on what pistol from what halo game you are talking about, example halo 1 I would consider it has an secodary, while other games I would say the pistol is a sidearm in the rest of the halo games.

The Halo CE pistol may as well have been a primary weapon. Halo 2's felt like a sidearm although I still would only use it if there was no headshot weapon around. Halo 3's I didn't like and Reach's was a hit and miss for me.

  • 05.24.2012 2:09 PM PDT
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Posted by: chickenlittle
The Halo 2 pistol was needlessly weak, the Halo 3 pistol fired much too slowly and had no ammo, the ODST pistol was weak and burned ammo like crazy, and the Reach one somehow managed to pull together the worst parts of each one.

Holy blam. Could you please summarize my thoughts a little more succinctly ?

  • 05.29.2012 9:01 PM PDT

I ♥ Bungie!

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  • 06.06.2012 4:12 PM PDT

Posted by: nesteggfailure

Posted by: chickenlittle
The Halo 2 pistol was needlessly weak, the Halo 3 pistol fired much too slowly and had no ammo, the ODST pistol was weak and burned ammo like crazy, and the Reach one somehow managed to pull together the worst parts of each one.

Holy blam. Could you please summarize my thoughts a little more succinctly ?
You want me to try? ;)

  • 06.06.2012 8:33 PM PDT

I'm a Blarg Blarg.

In Halo CE I used the pistol like a madman but after that pistols in Halo were pretty terrible. Thats why I took up dual wielding! But in Halos were that isn't possible (Reach, ODST) I just used them for convenient headshots.

  • 06.07.2012 8:30 AM PDT

the gun pointed at the head of the universe

ODST had the best pistol, but I still think that Reach's pistol is a reasonable and satisfying compromise between the CE pitstol and those in 2 & 3.

Looking at the gameplay for Halo 4, I'm really interested to see how the latest pistol works out- it seems to have a scope.

  • 06.07.2012 10:55 PM PDT

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I used the Halo 1 magnum as a primary while I played it for PC. The Halo 2 and 3 magnums I only used as sidearms, only used when my primary needs a reload. The ODST and Reach magnums I used like primaries. I guess that it all depends on what Halo game that you are playing?

  • 06.11.2012 3:29 PM PDT