The Evolution of Halo's Plasma Rifle | Let's take a look at every version of the Plasma Rifle
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- čas přidán 24. 07. 2024
- The Covenant of Halo are known for their very unique and alien weapons. While not being nearly as iconic as the Needler, the Plasma Rifle is still quite memorable. It is the backbone of the covenant war machine and like many weapons throughout halo’s almost two-decade long run, its evolved and changed over the course of its existence. Let’s take a look shall we?
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Without even knowing it had that stunning effect, I now want it back. The Plasma Rifle was never meant to be a Covenant AR or SMG. I think it’s more interesting to make it unique like in CE than the alien version of a human weapon.
FPSGamer48 it’s part of what makes H5 so bland... every gun is only built to kill.. no variety.. No interesting roles... just “this gun kills at this range, this gun kills at that range”
Late Night Gaming agreed, Halo once had a unique sandbox, but it is so bland now. All the alien guns are retextured versions of their human counterparts. You could see it a bit in Halo 4, but it is glaringly obvious in Halo 5.
343 is trying to increase sales by making Halo a watered down generic FPS game that anyone can like, but in doing so, are losing Halo's charm and what made Halo a game people liked. They are losing longtime fans, and new fans aren't interested because Halo is becoming so generic that there is no point of buying it. The same thing is happening to Star Wars.
Btw can you please play Cursed Halo.
This has been the problem with every game after CE, the weapons are designed for multiplayer balance first, campaign second. Halo 2 was definitely the worst culprit, look at the carbine and beam rifle, obviously designed to match the BR and sniper rifle even though they're not characteristically covenant weapons at all. Same with the turret on the Spectre, it had to be a standing, fast firing turret to mirror the Warthog. The shotgun which had been amazing for ploughing through enemies at mid-range was changed to only be effective at point-blank to counter balance the energy sword even though it makes zero sense.
I always thought of these sort of things like oh the ghost is the covenant mongoose or plasma launcher is a covenant Spartan laser sort of I never really thought of the the designed and the way it looked cuz Mongoose small ghosts small ghost is covenant mongoose you're so right it doesn't have to be entirely that way there can be a parallel but the parallel can have their own little differences and unique quirks I hope this makes sense reply and tell me what you don't get or ask someone explain it better also yes I said Spartan laser and plasma launcher I'm a Halo reach boi so what
Here let me simplify the comment I made and shorter covenant have small vehicle unfc have small vehicle
So I thought the the weapons were to have a parallel basically sort of like what you said
I remember actually running into you in a game of CE, I remember thinking "why is he only using the plasma rifle?"
Thats all i ever needed. People would rush sniper and rockets while i dipped out for the plasma rifle.
As he should!
You really do see how big the elites are when the plasma “rifle” is held like a pistol compared to how you hold it two handed
Commie Sauce Same with the Spiker and Needler
PackHunter117 Yet in First Person Reach they hold the Needler with 2 hands destroys my soul.
Tyler Ellis OH YEAH. Modders should change that
PackHunter117 As a Modder Myself “We’re it so easy”
Tyler Ellis Oh.....
The plasma rifle has more character development than Fireteam Osiris
Everything from bungie era has
The fact that this is true is sad
"Now, this game is terrible but THAT carboard box is the most fleshed out villain in all of gaming!"
“See this single blood splatter on the wall in 343 Guilty Spark? That has more character than all of Fireteam Osiris combined.”
Spartan Locke: *shits himself* *looks around confused*
*while not as iconic as the needler*
Ｆｏｒｅｓｈａｄｏｗｉｎｇ
Ah yes, Dual Wielding needlers. 900 RPM worth of supercombine explosion.
Sometimes foreshadowing is relatively obvious
True now
I like how the arbiter holds the plasma rifle one handed but still does the “ow my hand” animation when the weapon overheats
That is something I always wondered.
I like to think he just burned his right hand cause maybe he touched something and is trying to hold in the loudest shout in the halo series' history
@@gun_violence_gaming what did he mean by this?
@@sylvieslug when a spartan holds a plasma rifle, they hold it with 2 hands, directly over the plasma vent, and plasma is super hot so they just burn their hand
Yup!
I legit did not know about the stun effect
I found out by a meme
Other players didn't use it often enough for us to need to know. 🤷♂️
@@Estinus True
Havok ??? What meme
It's really nutty in multiplayer 2v2s
8:34 Brutes weren't altered to add shields, they just added the shield effect. The armour they had in halo 3 was the same as ODST, it just didn't show the shield effect when damaged.
Actually I’m pretty sure their armor in ODST is more resistant to human weapons and more vulnerable to plasma weapons.
@@madliftedson6565 me neither, and likely the plasma rifle will still not return in infinite
@@madliftedson6565 i liked the storm rifle, but it should have kept some elements from the plasma rifle
@@yapyapthedestroyer2562 the storm rifle ain’t returning, I can tell you that much. I think the elites are being altered to serve as a long range leader-class enemy, while the brutes operate as the close range leader enemies. This might explain why the plasma rifle isn’t in the game, and is being replaced by that weird burst thing. They might both be in the game, but who knows.
@@thegrapethief5514 I hope, also the burst weapon is called the pulse carbine
LnG = *mentions and praises the stun effects*
Me= wait there's a stun effect?
I only noticed that when I played original CE splitscreen at a convention in Lincoln, UK (where original Halo 3 and 4 were also set up splitscreen/system link and original Halo 2 was on campaign).
Ya know the shotgun is like the Plasma Rifle,it will likely never be as efficient ot unique as its first outing. in Halo CE you could literally snipe with the fricking SHOTGUN. which has never returned in any of the main Halo games
@@siva4wotblitzhero531 thankfully lol
Sniper shotguns are no fun
@@MajorMlgNoob i miss being able to blundersni-sorry i mean Shotgunsnipe.....damn ive been watching too much Cursed Halo.....(sub 2 Halfpint and Lord Angrim)
@@MajorMlgNoob image how much more OP it could have been if 343 added it as a REQ.
5 years.... 5 long years, that's how long it took for the evolution of the plasma rifle to come out.
@RazorEdgeLoki 1 you took the joke and made it 1,000 times better
Into 5 years of Hell...
reece mercado subjective
@@reecemercado5907 Infinitely better
When you talk about sound, maybe play a short clip of what it sounds like!
I’ve been wondering why he never plays the sound.
I really love your “Evolution” vids why not next time do it on a vehicle like the warthog or the ghost? I always found that the vehicles in halo were just as iconic and unique as the weapons.
Yes
Good idea
Has he done a Needler one?
@@TerrorOmnibus yes
Marx can you link it
My least favorite thing about the Reach plasma rifle was they gave the classic melee swing to the plasma pistol. Still bothers almost 10 years later.
I’d rather sock a squid in the face than bash it with a nightlight.
One thing i did like about the plasma repeater was that you could vent the buildup heat whenever you wanted to by using the reload button. It made sense that a gun like that would have that feature.
The plasma repeater needs more love, the classic plasma rifle is more like an smg, the repeater feels more versatile and powerful
Now halo CE’s multiplayer on MCC will
have this spammed, thanks Lng.....
Actually, the plasma rifle does appear in Halo 4's campaign, but in the weirdest possible way.
During the first mission, there's a weird block thing Chief has to push into a slot to arm a missile, and doing so forces you into third person for a moment while a unique animation plays.
If you have a Storm Rifle equipped when triggering this, instead of showing it on Chief's back, instead there will be a Plasma Rifle on his hip. It turns back into a Storm Rifle one you go back to first person. I have no idea why this happens, and any other similar interactions like the relays in "Forerunner" will correctly show a Storm Rifle. It makes no sense, but yes, the Plasma Rifle does technically appear in Halo 4.
Cursed Halo’s Triple Wield was my favorite
I was going to mention that lol
The Halo 1 variant is so much more punchy feeling. Like I feel like I’m actually hurting the enemy and fast
HELL bull head Yeah the plasma pistol feels like it actually punches too
Yeah, I agree. The plasma pistol in CE was actually lethal and you could reliable kill enemies with it. Halo 2 and beyond made it almost impossible to do anything other than drop shields with its charge shot.
I still think Halo 3's aesthetics were the last peak of actually ALIEN looking weapons. I like the more smooth-rounded aesthetic than edged. It just seems more alien than human to have such
I thought my phone screen decalibrated when 2 came on, until I realized its just reshade. Nice touch!
“Shotgun. Shot, gun! Shotgun dammit!”
Really would listen on Sarge here...
the beam rifle and focus rifle would be cool, or even a look at sniper weapons in general across the series.
LessCommonKnowledge or some of the other unique weapons like carbine or needle rifle being more precise and direct than most other covenant weapons that fire more slow projectiles able to be dodged
I don’t have much positive to say about the Beam rifle. It looks cool (minus the H4 redesign) but it’s just a “pink sniper rifle”
Late Night Gaming what about the other covenant precision weapons?
The focus rifle is an abomination
@@LateNightHalo the halo 4 redesign looks far cooler
The plasma rifle has always been one of my favorite weapons even tho it wasn’t that good in most of the games just because of how it looks. It looks so good
evolution of....
the Sticky Detonator
for April Fools of course
I always liked the idea of the brute plasma rifle. It’s such a simple change, but it has an impact. Also I personally prefer the red color aesthetically, especially in ODST’s darker environments.
This channel makes me feel warm inside
So does plasma burns
It's sad to see how the weapons sandbox that made Halo: CE such a masterpiece (and helped made on look past the issues of tts campaign) was slowly but surely dismantled over the course of the franchise.
One of the main reasons why I didn't have as much fun with Reach's campaign now that I was finally able to play it. Half of the weapons in this game have no reasons to exist. Why do we have 2 ARs, 2 "BR"s, 2 Rocket Launchers, 2 Grenade Launchers and two precission rifles without any narrative reason for it? Halo 2 mainly introduced those weapons because there were entire missions where you would never see a human weapons and thus needed those standins to keep the sandbox intact.
I didn't like how they nerfed the needler in Reach. It used to be able to supercombine even when an enemy's energy shields were up but now you have to strip them. I suppose it's because they added the needler rifle and it would have been far too powerful to have it supercombine so easily
The pistol was improved. Glad that happened
The AR is absolutely useless on higher difficulties. Not glad about that
Aleph Kasai Then they made the Needler OP in 4 rip
@@tylerellis9097 They buffed it?
Aleph Kasai I meant 4 my bad mistyped, the 4 Needler is the Reach Needler with better tracking, supercombine on shields and for the first time since CE ai can supercombine you with it.
Aleph Kasai As someone who plays Reach split screen all the time, it’s still super strong. I can’t speak for campaign but in MP it’s damage output is far higher then it has any right to be. It’s way more effective then any other weapon that’s not a sniper or explosive
I'd love to see a game-play reveal for Infinite, where Master Chief walks up to some Covenant crate and cracks it open with a punch, and pulls out a Plasma Rifle. The moment something like that happens in a game-play trailer, something more-or-less subtle like the shield noise in the E3 2019 trailer, people will flip.
Another reason my favorite covenant weapon (a.k.a. my "Plasie") should return!
What didn't help the plasma rifle's case in Reach was that the plasma pistol was better in every way. Even when spamming shots, the plasma pistol strips shields way faster than the rifle. The lethality of the elites on legendary makes shield stripping and headshots quickly much more necessary. There's a lot of encounters with multiple ultras that will kill you way faster than the plasma rifle can take down their shields, making it feel like an exercise in futility compared to just using the pistol. It's a shame, because using the rifle is much more satisfying than using the pistol, but unfortunately the poor balance and muddied sandbox makes the plasma rifle feel like a "if you really want to" choice, and was one of the more disappointing facts when playing through legendary.
Also the plasma repeater existed
Magnus&Jaexen the Repeater is worst then the Plasma Rifle And Plasma Pistol But it’s introduction made the Plasma Rifle far more rare so true.
I don't quite understand what they were going for with the repeater. It's fire rate is higher than the plasma rifle but it needs to be manually cooled making it extremely sluggish and not fun to use
@@alephkasai9384 It just feels really weak, too. Whenever I use it, it feels like I'm barely damaging the enemy's shields, and its poor accuracy doesn't help, either.
@@alephkasai9384 the repeater was designed to do more damage to heath than shields, so it should be used after you stripped the shields
my overall problem with the Storm Rifle is how visually similar it is to the Cov Carbine. many of halo's weapons have very distinctive silhouettes that you can tell the difference between then just by outline on the pickup icon alone.
Doesn't the pickup use the name instead of the silhouette in newer games for that very reason?
@@Robbie_Haruna which requires you to read directly instead of having a visual indicator your peripheral vision can easily understand
@@justinnyugen7015 I think I was misremembering anyway.
Unless it's in Halo 5, as I no longer have that installed. Halo 2 Anniversary had text and silhouettes on pickup prompts, but that was it.
And I'm half convinced the choice to have names present is because of the Plasma Rifle and Brute Plasma Rifle have the same silhouette.
I love the 'projectile automatic weapon' type of guns in games, and the plasma rifle is no exception, especially Halo 1's with the 'pew pew pew' noise rather than the future 'yah yah yah' noise
TRY CURSED HALO!
Seconded. InfernoPlus put so much work into that work of shitposting art, such an insanely good mod.
pew
The three plasma rifles and extra arm.
It is absolutely hilarious being able to pick up another arm.
Yes
@@admiralmoor it's definitely not another arm...
Why is this premiering while I'm sleeping?!?!
REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
well you're your not sleeping if you are awake
I would really love to see a breakdown of the SMG. It's probably my favorite weapon from the games just based on coolness
I'm going to come to the defense of the storm rifle, since it's probably the highlight of halo 4 for me. like you said, its quite boring how focused it is on lethality, but its DPS at close range is ludicrous. the thing will melt a enemy player faster than a shotgun could get a second shot off, and when paired with Promethean Vision or Active Camo it is downright oppressive in the right hands.
But, you have to get *really* close to use to use it. I'm a fan of weapons occupying their own niche, but the storm rifle is almost completely useless outside of it's very small niche, unlike other weapons that you can at least attempt to use outside of theirs (bursting at long range with the AR, plasma pistol still does some damage to armour, shotguns can still do decent damage just outside of two-shot range, etc)
Why the prometian vision? Im curious
@@Ob_Bashar to see enemies behind wall and see if its a good idea getting close
They need to bring this back. CE’s plasma rifle was dope as all hell. Made it a worthy pick up!
Seeing these videos really confirms that the Anniversary graphics DOES hurt the gameplay. The plasma rifle had glowing, visible projectiles that allow you to dodge or compensate when firing.
I play on Anniversary graphics and I haven’t noticed any such problem. Then again, I’m not looking for it and mostly focusing on the enemy and not running into a wall or something.
Dude I've been binging your videos for the past 2 days and wished you made more gun evolution videos. You're amazing HAHA
How bout the Shotgun. I feel like you'd have some similar points to make about the Shotgun like the plasma rifle, i.e. it was best in halo 1 (especially concerning the flood).
It's basically like the Pistol(s). Excellent in its first outing, castrated-I mean nerfed in the second game, slightly rebalanced in the 3rd, kept mostly the same in ODST, and buffed a little bit in Reach. And then it actually got buffed again in Halo 4 and moreso in Halo 5. Still... first one is the best one.
@@BioGoji-zm5ph when using with flood shotgun is more powerful,pistol requires 2 shot to kill flood
@Mister Majestic Oh, it was certainly good in MP as long as you were able to keep your opponents within a certain distance, but in the campaign, that thing got balanced like a MP weapon, which... really wasn't very good when playing on higher difficulties. It could still be deadly... when being used by Flood and Brutes against the player.
My favorite thing was the fact that in halo CE, the plasma rifle would sometimes misfire, and seemed to do less damage when the battery started dying, it made it feel like a weapon that could actually exist
Nice to come back to this series
But I feel like it was really a bummer when we saw the plasma rifle in the halo 4 cutscenes, but never in the gameplay. And in halo 5 all there is, is the brute plasma rifle, and not the original plasma rifle?
Also fun fact: the brute plasma rifle was made because Bungie didn’t have any time left to make brute weapons in halo 2
Better to have a last-second reskin than nothing at all. Smash Melee had Dr. Mario and Falco as last second characters.
Definitely prefer how unique it was in CE. I did always love dual wielding brute plasma rifles in Halo 2 though. With that extra damage you could just shred a target so fast, it felt damn satisfying.
Yay another evolution video. I'd really like to see you pull this format into more game series. There something about the casual informing that's so enjoyable.
It's kinda entertaining in a dark way to hear you talk up how iconic the stun effect of the PR is when there are so many people who just didn't know it even existed.
I kinda miss the strip that held the plasma rifle's halves.
Late night although not important I think an honorable mention would be the fourth sub type of the plasma rifle in halo 5... if u mix the plasma rifle with a legendary you will get a torn blue model that is more similar too the halo: ce version...
I can't ever get enough of these types of videos from you. Expertly made, explains everything really well, and has zero fluff in them to bog the video down. If I had to make one suggestion, I'd love to see you include gameplay that showed off what the weapons are like during raw gameplay, just to give us a better comparison on how they changed overall across releases. It would also help since whenever you make a point about their sound effects it ends up leaving me with a curiosity the videos don't fulfill. But that's my only nitpick, everything else is 100% spot-on.
Some stuff I wanted to say linked to your last community post about Halo: Infinite:
I want to see the Storm Rifle replaced with either the Plasma Rifle or the Reach exclusive Plasma Repeater.
Campaign Theater.
New variants of enemies (eg: use the fact that the Hunters are made up of loads of worms to make something different).
Campaign DLC (done better than Spartan Ops).
Extra characters used the same way as Halo 3 or ODST and Reach (3's version where the characters you play as are Canon but don't follow you constantly when playing alone or ODST/Reach where you don't play as the extra members of Alpha 9 or Noble Team but you have varying amounts of them with you to make some levels a Lone Wolf, some a duo work and some a full team effort).
The nostalgia its been ages scene u uploaded 1 of these
Phased Plasma Rifle in a 40-watt range?
Da oozee nein millimeda?
Fawtee five lonn-slide wit lazah sighteen
I saw your post a few days ago and I was excited for a new evolution video. I was definitely not dissapointed and I loved every part of it. Nice work man!
TBH I love halo CEs plasma rifle. I find myself using it the most, even more than human weapons (except the pistol, of course) and it's the most fun to use. You are definitely right that it has its own spot in the sandbox and it has never been able to return to its former glory
Most weapons in combat evolved feel like they do a better job of what they're designed to do
"Plasma Rifle is not as iconic as Needler"
Excuse me what? That's all elites used back then with the occasional different one.
In the original Halo: CE manual, there's a sentence that speculated on a possible reloading mechanism humans were unaware of or something, but I'm not sure it was ever acknowledged again.
I love these evolution videos, keep ‘em coming.
Halo 5 Brute Plasma Rifle from "The Memories of REACH"
The Most Famous Plasma Rifle:
Scarab Gun
Ok
I played Halo CE for years and years and had NO IDEA about the stun/slow effect on the plasma rifle. Blew my mind.
I always ended up running the plasma rifle and shotgun together in CE when I got the chance as both were equally good against all targets.
Anyone notice that from 0:00-0:20 the background music is in spongebob? Also great vid
Doesn't even mention the triple plasma rifle, smh /s
I think I have the most memories with the ODST brute plasma rifle. Fantastic video as always :)
This video makes me want to play all the halo games again. Great video!
"Loot box" and just like that my interest in halo 5 has died. way to go 343
You know? I really enjoy your commentary LNG, keeps me very engaged, and just really easy to follow. It could be your voice, but just really enjoy your vids because of that (and of course the content).
I love these videos man, keep it up!
Love these videos I hope you make more!
Im mostly using it in campaigns when I can't find a plasma pistol to break shields
I'm noticing a pattern in your videos. It was the best in CE then drastically goes downhill to make a slight comeback. And I agree. The weapons are at their peak in CE. They're all good. When I play I struggle to choose what I want to carry. Some might make the argument that CE has the smallest roster of weapons but smaller doesn't equal worse. Because of the short weapon count it gives them an opportunity to be unique. This is also true in Bloodborne. Smallest roster of weapons in any Souls game. But they're the best. They transform, they have different movesets and combos. In Dark Souls there're tons of weapons that feel the exact same. Same thing in an fps like COD or Battlefield. I can't tell you the difference in weaponry. But there sure is alot of them. Like that's cool or something.
Loved the editing for halo 3's opening cutscene!
Never clicked on a video so fast! Keep up the great work, I love the evolution videos!
It’s one of the most useless weapons, but I still love it. CE perfected it compared to all of them thanks to the stun (I found out about it by playing online lol). When they took it out, it sucks now imo. Never used it in campaign even when I didn’t have ammo, never used it in matchmaking. Only in CE have I used it.
It’s an iconic weapon, and I love the design and sound (pre-343)
If you dual wield it with an SMG, you have a killer combination. Also dual wielding plasma rifles can also quickly neutralize enemies especially if you time the mouse buttons slightly differently to really make your opposite team panic.
@@davidperry4013 I beat H3 on legendary solo, and found out the flood get messed up by plasma rifles, so haha, a couple months after my first comment was a lie, plasma rifles absolutely MELT flood.
Yeah I was gonna say. I use the plasma rifle almost too frequently and it throws other players off. It's an absolute monster even by itself, but that's just me.
never used it in my whole halo life, just pistol plasma pistol for legendary.....
I love all these in depth vids.
Loving this series. You are definitely the best halo youtuber
My personal favorite is the bit crushed plasma rifle in Halo: Cursed Edition
Can you do the plasma pistol wait never mind it’s only purpose is shield take down
In CE it was one of the best guns for legendary
lol there isnt much to talk about there haha it sucks in H4 and Reach but thats about all I can say. I can certainly talk about the history of it
@@LateNightHalo please do! Btw I subbed back when you have around 150 found you through other halo friends of mine back in the day!
Something I noticed when playing halo 2 was that you could feather the trigger with the plasma rifle and shoot slightly faster but it overheated slightly quicker as well.
A part of me is sad the video isnt as long as the others. I love the 20+ minute videos about halo weapons
So far, ive been seeing nearly every version of these weapons at their peaks in Halo CE.
Found this video in 2023. Sad to say 343 did not learn anything.
I love the videos of the evolutions of all the weapons so far!!!! One gun in almost all of the halo games that has been my favorite is the shotgun. I'm wondering, is it possible for you to do an evolution of the shotgun next?
Please make more of these awesome videos!
Not as iconic as the needler? Eh. Arguable. Debatable, but I'd disagree. It's easily more so, second only to the Energy Sword.
Can't wait for CE to come to PC so I can use the plasma rifle 😂
It's been on the PC for over 15 years
@@chickenman1801 I knew an idiot like you would respond like that... I mean on the MCC version. I own CE on PC but I'd much prefer to play it on the MCC.
@@chickenman1801i was talking about mcc... 🤦♀️
@@Snarky_Queen it's not as good as the first PC port
I like the way the Halo 5 brute plasma rifle crackles during the cool down animation, really satisfying!
I like that the halo CE version wasn’t just a glorified shield stripper. It felt like a truly effective firearm and I loved it.
Hi, I'm from the future. I've got bad news for you buddy!
I'm sad the the plasma repeater never went beyond reach
I absolutely love these evolution vids. It was mentioned in an earlier comment but I agree that I think vehicles would be a cool thing to do. Hell even like frag grenades. At least to me they seemed to change a good bit throughout the series
Im so happy you did this video, I was hoping that you make one. I personally like the Halo CE and 3, they are mt favorite ones, Halo Reach looks the best
I can't brag about being first and making a comment saying "FIRST!"
So instead I will be honest and say
498th!
The one thing I didn't like about it's evolution was that the heat gauge got really small.
5:40 that little snippet is just GOLD
The Plasma Pistol is my favorite for providing me with one of my most vivid and nostalgic memories when I first found one and charged it up as a kid, mesmerized by the glow. Plasma Rifle is probably third place after Needler though, just looking at the models brings it all back
I’ll be honest, I think the storm rifle is prettier :p I hope in infinite that both can make an appearance with their unique niches
Never thought I'd get emotional over the plasma rifle. It's incredible how seemingly innocent changes to weapon sandbox can have a huge impact on the feel of a game
The more and more I watch these videos, the more I begin to realise that 343 was fucking everything up straight out of the gate since Halo 4.
Your truly are the best when it comes to these types of video's