In a typical slayer match you start off with a pistol. The great equalizer. A weapon that takes a considerable amount of skill in order to three-shot consistently. Everybody in the game starts off with it. If somebody has a rocket launcher or a sniper rifle and he's got his sights on you, the pistol gives you a fighting chance. And if you're better than the other player, then the game rewards you by letting you kill him even though he has the superior weapon. You see? Now it's less about who has the better gun than it is in Halo 2. Halo 2's lack of a weapon respawn until after somebody drops a weapon that he picked up equates to you holding a powerful weapon on the map that nobody else can have.

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Well, it depends how you look upon balanced gameplay. If you think balanced gameplay means that every player has equal oppurtunities then yes halo 2 is balanced...but so is every single FPS game ever made.

If however do you mean that the fact that since halo 1 takes such a great deal of aim compared to h2 that the pistol takes skill to use, it is a balancing weapon. If you are good enough - and only if you are good enough - you can take out a player who has a sniper at the pistols max range, a shotgun/AR or whatever at close range, and even beat other pistollers who happened to fire first.

In halo 2 however, any player that has any sort of coordination can easily keep that reticle on that slow lumbering players head with the accompanied bullet magnetism and extreme autoaim. If somehow the other player does manage to kill him, it is because either the shooter sucked (would have to be truly terrible - probably under 5 with some sort of deep mental problem) or because it was at the guns maximum range, and LUCK (NOT SKILL) meant that the BR bullets were not as accurate (the gun is not perfectly accurate) as his opponents.

Also, talking about the BR taking out the shotgun/sword in close range scenarios. Again we are going to assume that because of autoaim the players would not miss. The sword would simply win everytime, and the shotgun would only lose if he was truly unlucky (AGAIN LUCK) and the gun decided to fire less bullets and cause less damage.

I am going to make a little prediction as to what your counter argument will be, since I have had conversations like this hundreds of times. You might say something like "In halo 1, getting into a close range fight with a rocket launcher meant you were going to lose." Firstly I will say yes, you will lose, but now I will tell you why this is still far more balanced than halo 2. In halo 1 the rocket launcher fires VERY slowly (much slower than the halo 2 RL), and if you by any chance miss that first rocket, you have a high chance of dying before you can fire again. Secondly the rocket launcher can damage yourself, but halo 2 has the sword which you can not harm yourself with. Thirdly the rocket launcher carries a very limited supply of ammo, while again the sword has an unlimited amount. - UNBALANCED.

actually the sword loses a lot in close range because if youre really close to the opponent and pull your sword it takes 2 slashes to kill giving the opponent enough time to bxr or duck bxb. Also, i think spawning with a br is equal to the pistol. Its basically the same thing except it takes 4 shots indtead of 3.

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So you don't know what a shnoon is?

...That doesn't stop the Energy Sword from being an overwhelming unbalanced close-range weapon.

I knew you'd say that. But in Halo 2 on default settings, you spawn with an SMG, not with a BR. See the difference between Halo and Halo 2? In Halo, you spawn with the pistol (battle rifle). But in Halo 2, you don't spawn with the BR (pistol).

Now, that's just a simple matter of gametype settings. However, the battle rifle still can't counter the shotgun at close range the way a pistol could in the first game, no matter how well you four-shot.

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dude, in slayer you spawn with an smg. Mostly only nubcakes play slayer but i only play hardcore which you spawn with a br EVERY game....and its easy to out battle a shot gun...u just keep backing up. And oviosly the sword is unbalanced...what do you expect? the sniper is an "unbalanced" far range weapon

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So you don't know what a shnoon is?

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im not reading all that. All that matters is Halo 2 is a great game and you cant deny it. Its got better graphics and IMO!!!! its better gameplay. The only thing i read in that article is the thing about the grenades and it makes no sense. If a grenade is at your feet it should kill you

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So you don't know what a shnoon is?

Graphics doesn't make a game good.

Then the sworddude has to slash a tad bit earlier doesn't he? bxr = glitch... see? unbalanced weapon ftw?

Read Nessy's story again. Auto-aim and magnetism maybe?

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I'm not! I'm just saying, if people look at it as the sequel to Halo 2, it's kind of disappointing and not superior.

So? Graphics don't make the game (although I think you know that already).

I disagree, but that's your opinion.

Yeah, and if a battle rifle shoots you in the head once it should kill you too. But it doesn't. You know why? Because you have energy shields that recharge. Because you're a genetically modified soldier in a high-tech armored suit. Because it's a video-game.

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There are more things that make it skilless.

Remember, the br has 3 shots and at range it is alot about luck. Moving backwards and shooting someone is NOT skill. It is very easy, so easy that my brother has been capable of doing it for years (he is 8 years old).

In no other FPS i've played have grenades been designed for spam so much. In halo 1 you could place grenades and it was an art to throw them. In halo 2 the optimal angle for grenades is nto even 45 degrees, and they bounce everywhere and watching some high end videos, they are usually thrown 4 at a time with a sort of praying that you will get a kill kind of way. VERY unlike halo 1.