The Evolution of Halo's Shotgun | Let's take a look at every version of the Shotgun

[Music] shotguns are a very important part of most shooter games they occupy a very specific spot keeping enemies at a distance when helped and instilling a very welcomed sense of security when it's in your back pocket I love video games shotguns and halos shotgun holds a very special place in my heart like most weapons in the nearly two decades long series there have been many iterations and versions of this pump-action beauty let's take a walk through halos history and look at every iteration of the shotgun see the mechanical and spiritual journey it's been on and where it might be taking us next as always if you find yourself enjoying the video a like and a share is appreciated halo combat Evolved is a very well paced game with a very well paced campaign making sure to introduce the player to a new sandbox tool or enemy type at least every level the shotgun is very hard to separate from when and where it was introduced in the campaign because of how excellently its introduction was executed its introduced in the level 343 Guilty Spark which takes you into a dark and foreboding forerunner laboratory where a terrible parasitic life-form has been unleashed controlling the bodies of humans and covenant alike and turning them into terrifying monsters in moses Amba media shotguns are one of the most popular weapons seen used when holding off hordes of the undead and it's really classy for Halo to do a futuristic yet classical take on the iconic pump-action shotgun the model is certainly nothing remarkable but like most weapons in Halo Bungie made sure to give it something that identified it as distinctly halos version of the gun Halo shotguns from this day forward would be identified but the flashlights mounted on the gun and they're glowing iron sights the weapon holds 12 rounds and manually reloads each shell one at a time it can't be backpack reloaded like most guns in combat Evolved but its reload animation can be sped up by using a clever reload trick of firing the gun and pressing the reload button at the same time mechanically it's very much a weapon that supports offensive play in the campaign flood forms usually brushed the player with little regard for self-preservation and are knocked down when caught by its pellets this allows the player to maintain forward momentum without slowing down during gameplay in the multiplayer the shotgun takes the role of a more defensive weapon it's useful as a guard to protect rooms and bases in objective game types and honestly it's where the gun shines the most if you try running around and getting killing sprees with it it's gonna let you down combat Evolved shotgun is a beautiful creation and a very special part of halos arsenal but dark times were on the horizon halo 2 is a game of many highs and many lows it's a very ambitious sequel adding new weapons and sandbox items and giving the player new ways to interact with those sandbox items such as the dual wielding system or vehicle boarding mechanic one of the many returning weapons from combat Evolved is the shotgun now seen sporting a higher quality and more defined model with its blue light swapped out for a light green the sound effects were also beefed up considerably halo is no stranger to stock sound effects and shotgun here appears to be using a beefed-up version of the stock sound effect used in combat Evolved it's a spas-12 for those who are curious about it wonder if the person who created the stock sound effect knew that it would become so iconic and synonymous with halo the quality of its animations unfortunately took a massive hit while combat Evolved is certainly stiff by today's standards it had more weight behind its animations the view model in Halo 2 is also held at a very strange angle and well those are more subjective criticisms of the Halo 2 shotgun the stats of the webinar certainly confusing the range of the shotgun was reduced and the spread was increased so much in fact that the pellets spread wider than the crosshair which means it's wise to not point the shotgun directly at an enemy since the pellets will completely overshoot the target what's even stranger is that the shotgun has a range of eight world units the exact same range for the lunge of an enemy energy sword was Bungie possibly trying to turn the shotgun into a counter for sword lunging it's such a specific situation that doesn't happen in the campaign and rarely happens online so why was this direction chosen the extremely specific and rare situation where the shotgun seems to shine isn't enough to make it a viable pick up online and in the campaign it's virtually use and sadly that leaves hallo - shotgun as a bit of a poop from a but completely overshadowed by the more interesting energy sort as a close-range weapon it's sad [Music] after halo 2 the Shaka needed some help and liked the pistol from halo 2 the road to recovery would require a lot of work and effort on the scuds part it returns in Halo 3 sporting a new model and textured make it resembles something of a high quality recreation of the combat of all shotgun now the flashlight has been mounted onto the side of the gun the sights were returned to blue but the shotgun retains and enhances the sound used in Halo 2 now sounding more bassy and needy and the animation quality is improved considerably the range was reduced even from Halo 2 but the spread was tightened up and the amounts of pellets per shot was upped meaning more consistent damage is dealt to the target it usually required players to adopt the one-two punch tactic of firing a shot to drain the shields and then quickly may laying to finish off the job in multiplayer due to its extremely limited range it's never wise to use it offensively only stick to defensive usage and in the campaign and try to avoid it as much as you can it does look cool it does sound cool but it won't do very much when it requires you to get so close to an enemy unfortunately the shotgun is often locked in a battle with its covenant counterparts the energy sword and Mullard for supremacy as the close ranged weapon of the game and it doesn't usually come out on top in ODST the spin-off game in the Halo 3 engine it's able to stand on its own a bit more due to the removal of the energy sword but the next shotgun will need to do a lot more if it wants to reclaim its throne Halo Reach is a bit of a divisive Halo game but what is agreed upon is that it's seen as a bit of a celebration of the things that Bungie found valuable about halo it was the high point for halos infection game type and the Living Dead multiplayer playlist was always seen up there is one of the most populated in the game when looking at the shotgun it's easy to see why visually it's been given a complete high-quality makeover sporting a very high poly design with lots of detail the sights are now given an angry red coloration and the barrel is given a heat shield the distinct ping sound of a shotgun blast in Halo is a bit less pronounced this game which can lead to it feeling a little bit less impactful than the halo 3 variant this is not actually the case mechanically you see Halo Reach is shotgun has the same stats as the halo 3 variant in all but the range which is extended it's been solidified as a defensive tool in this game and has been given the range to reliably be that defensive tool a perfect weapon for infection game types Halo Reach is shotgun like previous Halo games after combat Evolved doesn't really have a distinct voice in the campaign setting but against players aam beats it's perfect it has only six shots before requiring full reload like Halo 3 but the slightly extended range gives it a bit more of a breathing room to fend off attacking zombie players it's the definitive infection shotgun and it's a design that many people grew to love my heart will always belong to the halo 3 shotgun model but I understand the love for this one combat Evolved Anniversary a remaster of the gearbox sport of combat Evolved makes clever use of already existing assets to give the game a bit of a facelift its faithfulness to the original art style of combat Evolved is of course debatable but the original shotgun was given the reach model with the glowing sights changed to a blue color in a small attempt to make it a bit more combat involved the sound is also given the beefy blast sound with the distinct ping found in Halo games post combat Evolved overall nothing's changed the combat Evolved animations don't really line up too well with the shotgun which makes it look a bit stiff and strange in chief's hands but overall it's interesting to see the combat Evolved shotgun in this light [Music] [Applause] with Halo 4 came a complete aesthetic makeover for the Halo universe some designs remained albeit with a high-tech and futuristic design while others were completely replaced with new very science fictiony focused designs it was a very strange time seeing halo looks so different and well they may not look very halo II they're good designs in their own right the community however seems to be an agreement that the new shotgun design didn't quite stick the halo Landing I'm I'm not quite sure what happened here it resembles a model spaceship more than it does an actual shotgun the only thing it retains to let you know that yes this is supposed to be a halo shotgun is its flashlight and shell loader at the top of the gun the now iconic glowing sights of the gun were puzzlingly removed a thing done to the pistol as well and just it's strange its sound work was changed as well removing the ping sound that the shotgun used to call its own and replacing it with a meteor and punchier sound the animation work for the shotgun is quite excellent modifying a lot of the animations from reach and making them more visceral and immediate how does it function though mechanically it does more damage than previous Halo shotguns and with a tighter spread this makes it ever so slightly more lethal than the reach shotgun at longer ranges in the campaign the shotgun is actually quite nice it's not back to the days of combat Evolved but due to its low ammo count but high damage it becomes a very good tool to keep in your back pocket that can be pulled out and allows for a bit more of that offensive play style seem incompatible its a strangely welcome return to form for the shotgun mechanically online though it seemed being a bit more useful as a weapon you can just sprint around the map getting killing sprees with the rather busy art direction of Halo 4 makes it very hard to visually see what guns players are holding and the fact that it spawns in randomized ordnance drops leads to it being a very unpredictable random variable in a very messy combat loop it's pretty great in the single-player campaign but online that's a different story which is kind of Halo 4's multiplayer in a nutshell for the anniversary of Halo 2 the Vista port of Halo 2 was given a visual facelift just like combat Evolved and well you know the tragic story of the Halo 2 shotgun what was birthed and the graphical overhaul is truly something special I present to you all the highest-quality version of the shotgun to date it's visually a work of art and well in-game the awkward view model and stiff animations of Halo 2 let down the model the sound work does not it faithfully recreates the iconic ping sound that underpins a shotgun blast while giving it a powerful boom to make it feel impactful if it weren't for the awkward view model animations lack of flashlight on the side of the gun and stats it would probably be my favorite version of the shotgun in the series for the anniversary editions multiplayer the shotgun appears to sport either a highly modified Halo 3 model or a completely new model designed to look faithful to the original it's hard to say what isn't hard to say though is that the animation work and sound design is excellent here and well not exactly faithful to the original halo to shotgun mechanically it's much more useful at a range and works well when following up blasts with a quick melee it functions more like an in-between of the halo 2 and a halo 3 shotgun halo 2 anniversary multiplayer also comes with a variant of it called the survivor shotgun and the only thing different is it allows the player to hold more additional shells after the incredible returned to something more familiar with halo 2 anniversary shotgun we sadly needed to leave it behind as halo 5 would be sporting the same model from Halo 4 albeit with higher fidelity its coloration was made a bit more metallic and gray much of the dirt and scratches were removed giving it a strangely clean look and well now it really looks like the player is just running around with a toy spaceship as their weapon the sound for it is also strange halo 4 shotgun deviated from the classic sound a lot but this one deviates even further from Halo 4 shotgun it's got a very dry crunch sound to it shots that make it sound more like a piece of machinery dropping a box of stuff than a shotgun firing off or around its it's a very ugly looking weapon and very strange sounding gameplay wise an attempt was made to fix the issue of Halo 4 and make it a little bit more identifiable in players hands the flashlight that seen on the side of the gun is now on at all times and yes it looks a bit more like a fog of milk than a beam from a flashlight it gets the job done you can definitely tell when a player is holding this thing in terms of its campaign gameplay it struggles a bit to be special seeing as it's got a forerunner weapon brother the scattershot and then it also finds itself among some heavy competition with automatic weapons which can shred enemies pretty quickly at close range but also extend their range by aiming down the sights making them useful at medium to long range the campaign does the shuk on no favors by over saturating the player in heavy weapons frequently in Halo 5s campaign the player can find comically large stashes of weapons and unique finds like a shotgun which is normally a special moment in a halo campaign is now made redundant and boring in multiplayer things are thankfully a lot more focused due to the removal of loadouts but due to the unpredictability that comes from the spray and range bonuses when aiming down the sights it can come off as a cheap weapon to fight against because it's randomly extending its range past what should be normal if chaos is what you want then this shotgun will do you just fine but for competitive play maybe giving the shotgun variable accuracy benefits when aiming down the sights wasn't the smartest move it's a shotgun that benefits the player but does it really benefit the game if that makes any sense like most weapons in Halo 5 variants of it can be found by opening loop boxes and using them in the warzone game mode or by goofing off in custom games let's walk through them the lawgiver is a shotgun variant with a faster fire rate longer range higher damage output and lower recoil modifier which leads to it being a flat-out buff to the standard shotgun the blaze of glory was an experimental weapon combining UNSC and forerunner technology and requiring only one shell for a full reload simplifying its role as a shotgun in favor of allowing the players to just go on more killing sprees and finally the oath sworn is the personal shotgun of the Spartan Kelly member of Spartan blue team and friend to the Master Chief the oath sworn gives the player a permanent speed boost when equipped and features a fiery increased damage increase and recoil decrease it's not nearly as lethal as the blaze of glory but it's a fine and cool addition for fans of halos narrative universe it's also seen in the campaign but only for those who choose Kelly as their playable character functionally though it's no different from the standard shotgun which is a bit strange halo shotgun has seen many highs and lows pretty days and ugly days but through all of that it's an important part of the Halo arsenal whether it's blasting space zombies in the face or attacking players in infection game types what's your favorite version of the shotgun for many of these Halo games discuss it down below and I'll see you guys on the next video [Music] [Music]

Channel: Late Night Gaming

Views: 461,273

Keywords: Halo, Gaming, LateNightGaming, Examining Games, Commentary, Taras, LNG, Late Night Gaming, Lootboxes, Halo 5, Game discussion, Halo 2 shotgun, Halo shotgun, Evolution of Halo shotgun, Evolution, Halo MCC, MCC PC, Halo 2 Anniversary, Halo 2 anniversary PC, halo 2 steam, halo steam, MCC steam, Evolution of Halo, Covenant, UNSC

Id: WgF2xMeGyag

Length: 19min 4sec (1144 seconds)

Published: Fri May 15 2020