The HaloWars.com forums are both new and very busy. It has been difficult at time to get at the interesting discussions because so much time has been taken up by the same issues over and over again. Since the announcement of Halo Wars, some eleven thousand posts have been made. About half of them are about why marines have battle rifles.
Things are improving. Their FAQ, while short, one can assume will be expanded at some point. Two sticky threads, on most-often discussed issues and instructions to new posters have gone up to try and keep duplicates to a minimum.
Still, this has barely stemmed the tide of those who wonder about the battle rifle's presence.
I'll try to put this question to rest once and for all here. Wish me luck.
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When discussing items like weapons in a game, there are two contexts to consider: the position of the weapon as an artifact within the fictional construct of the story, and the position of the weapon as a gameplay object within the game.
In the transition from Halo 1 to Halo 2, there are two prominent weapons-related issues: the upgrade of the rifle and the nerfing of the pistol.
As gameplay objects, this is relatively easy to explain, because Bungie has already set out their reasons for making the changes in the documentary contents of the Halo 2 Limited Edition DVD. They felt that the pistol in Halo 1 was unrealistically overpowered. Rather than being a sidearm, a backup weapon, it became the primary weapon because it was so powerful and accurate and had such a large magazine.
Conversely, the assault rifle behaved less like a rifle and more like a submachine gun. Slow-loading and with a high rate of fire, it was not particularly deadly or accurate.
Breaking What's Fixed
Bungie expressed a desire to reverse this trend in the second game; to make the rifle act more like a rifle and be the player's favorite weapon, and to make the pistol less powerful, and more like a sidearm. This is exactly what we see in Halo 2; the battle rifle behaves much more like the Halo 1 pistol than the new Magnum pistol does, and the assault rifle was replaced with the high-fire-rate, dual-wieldable SMG, which is a middling weapon; a pair of them are better than a Magnum but not as good as a battle rifle.
Within the context of these two weapons as artifacts in the fictional Halo universe, one of these changes is easy to explain while the other is less so.
In Chapter Fourteen of the Halo novel First Strike by Eric Nylund, an attempt is made to explain both these anomalies. Spartan IIs Will and Fred, in an underground ONI facility, are given access to a secure storage area by the artificial intelligence Kalmiya:
Fred peered inside and saw a rack of handguns. They weren't the standard-issue HE pistols; these had oversized barrels-- easily 30 percent larger and longer-- and they had grips of self-molding plastasteel. He picked one up and hefted it-- its balance was barrel-heavy, to be expected from an unloaded pistol. He found three boxes of clips at the bottom of the locker, opened one, and took out a clip. Whatever this new handgun shot, it was high caliber, slugs the size of his thumb. He slid the clip into the gun, and it secured with a satisfying click.
Now it was perfectly balanced, far better than the standard-issue sidearm.
He secured the weapon and turned to see what Will had found.
There is no indication of the designation of this weapon. It is compared to the "HE Pistol". Halo 2's pistol is the M6C Magnum. Halo 1's pistol is the M6D. Although it is certainly not a definitive answer, I think one may safely assume that two things are being asserted:
The M6C pistol, as used in Halo 2, is actually the predecessor of the M6D pistol as used in Halo 1, if the designation alone is to be considered enough evidence. This would be consistent with the idea that weapons get better with time, and consistent with Nylund's text in First Strike, but inconsistent with William Dietz' text The Flood, which indicates that the pistol used by the Master Chief during Halo 1 is "standard issue". So even before a single UNSC soldier in Halo Wars picks up a gun, the Halo universe is conflicting with itself.
Knowing that it is counter-intuitive for a lineup of weapons to decrease in effectiveness over time, Nylund here is trying to suggest somehow that the pistol Fred has found is in some way superior to the "standard issue HE pistol" and that therefore it is actually the M6D, the pistol used by the Master Chief in Halo 1, and that it is the M6C which is the "standard issue". This explains almost everything; it explains why the gun in Halo 1 is newer and better, and explains why it can't be found in Halo 2-- because it isn't the standard issue. It doesn't resolve the conflict with Dietz, but it does address everything else.
Fixing What's Broke
Conceivably, the question of what to do about the rifle would be easier. Many complained that the assault rifle was weak and inaccurate, so replacing it with a weapon that behaved more like the pistol behaved in Halo 1 should cause no problems.
Until people would start to wonder why, if that gun existed, it hadn't been seen earlier. Isn't the Master Chief the last Spartan, as far as we knew? Isn't he on a mission of the utmost importance? If so, then why wouldn't he be given the best available weapon, even if it were only a prototype? Many would conclude, sensibly, that the BR-55 as shown in Halo 2 simply did not exist at the time of Halo 1, and that this is the only logical conclusion for why it does not appear in that game.
And if Halo took place in a real universe, they would be correct. But it does not take place in a real universe, and they are not correct.
Nylund addresses the issue of the rifle as well, but does it in an extremely vague way; as if to explain why there is now a new weapon in play, but giving no information about its origins whatsoever:
Will examined a plastic-wrapped rifle. He removed the rifle from the locker, ripped off its sheathing, and shouldered it. He nodded with satisfaction.
Unlike the MA5B, this rifle had a longer barrel and stock, with a cutdown muzzle shroud. A scope was mounted on an optics railing along the top of the rifle. Will hefted a clip and inserted it into the receiver.
He shouldered the rifle again and peered through the scope. "Auto zoom, nice."
Will and Fred then traded and inspected the new weapons. Fred liked the feel of this new rifle, but wondered how much punch it had-- enough, he hoped, to make the trade-off of having fewer rounds in the clip worth it.
By all accounts, this would seem to be the BR-55 from Halo 2, although no designation is given. The barrel, the muzzle, the stock, the scope, and the smaller clip size all mirror the comparison between the MA5B and the BR-55. Despite the fact that we know, gameplay-wise, this rifle to be superior to the MA5B in almost every imaginable way, Nylund tries to present it as a tradeoff, and insinuates that it might not be powerful enough to be worth the smaller clip; to make it sound more like an equivalent of the MA5B, merely trading capacity for power, when in reality the BR-55 is superior in almost every fashion, and the clip size is a nonfactor.
The word "new" is used to describe the gun twice. However, it is not qualified at all. The gun may be new to the Spartans; they may not have seen it before. It may mean "new" in the sense that they have not yet been used, as they are described as being wrapped in plastic.
Although Nylund could have taken this opportunity to precisely identify the weapon, its designation and capacity, name its designer and the year of its creation, or do anything else more concrete to explain why this weapon now enters the scene in the place of the MA5B, he does not do so. Likely because he could not be sure of what the future impact of such actions might be; not necessarily on a game like Halo Wars, but on any future Halo game, Halo 2 included.
A Tale Of Two Studios
Ensemble Studios, going forward, is going to want to make their game attractive. They are aware of the weapons Bungie put in its latest title. They are aware of how many fans that game has, and how often they play on Xbox Live. They are aware that although for the hardcore fans, Halo 1 is the favorite game and the pistol is the favorite weapon, they know that for many more people, it is the BR-55 that is the standard-bearer.
Put yourself in their shoes. They are doing a game set earlier in the Halo timeline. Given that Bungie made a game including weapons that they themselves described as unrealistic and unbalanced, which they revised in the sequel, does Ensemble go back to using those unrealistic, unbalanced weapons in their game? Or do they instead take the new weapons, look the other way, and let someone come up with a rational in-fiction explanation for why?
I think the answer speaks for itself.