Halo 4 gets more Call of Duty-like in multiplayer update

Halo 4 recently received a multiplayer update that drastically changes the way the game is played, by making many weapons more powerful in the shooter.  The bulk of the massive list of tweaks come in the form of weapon tuning, where most of Halo 4’s weaponry has seen a significant increase in the power department.  This gives players the ability to drop fellow Spartans at a much faster rate than before.  Coupled with an increased player speed attribute, Halo 4 is sounding like it’s pace has seen a significant increase in this latest update.

The developer says that the multiplayer update will “provide a more fast-paced, optimized matchmaking experience, and all of Halo 4’s applicable Matchmaking game types will be affected by this change.”

Why is 343 making such drastic changes more than six months after release?  It could be the waning player base for Halo 4.  While the game is still popular by any measure, Halo 4 failed to capture the undivided attention of the shooter crowd in 2013. 343 used numerous devices to keep player counts high, but there are noticeably far less players in the online arenas than were found in Halo 3 and Halo: Reach.  Many of the fans of the Halo series attributed this to the changes that were made to multiplayer, claiming the game to be less balanced than its predecessor.

You can find the full list of weapon tweaks below.

Battle Rifle

• The Battle Rifle damage has been increased. The Battle Rifle is now capable of killing in four bursts.
• The Battle Rifle rate of fire has been slightly decreased.
• The Battle Rifle red reticle range (range at which auto-aim benefits kick in) has been decreased.
• Two bursts from a Battle Rifle followed by a melee will now kill an opponent (2-shot melee).

Carbine

• The Carbine damage has been increased. The Carbine is now capable of killing in seven rounds.
• The Carbine accuracy has been increased (projectile spread decrease).
• The Carbine red reticle range has been decreased.

LightRifle

• The LightRifle zoomed rate of fire has been increased.
• The LightRifle un-zoomed rate of fire has been slightly decreased.
• The LightRifle red reticle range has been increased to match the updated DMR range.

DMR

• The DMR red reticle range has been slightly decreased.

Assault Rifle

• The Assault Rifle damage has been slightly increased. The Assault Rifle now kills in three less rounds.
• The Assault Rifle auto-aim angle has been reduced.
• The Assault Rifle projectile spread has been decreased.

Storm Rifle

• The Storm Rifle damage has been increased. The Storm Rifle now kills in three less rounds.
• The Storm Rifle auto-aim angle has been reduced.
• The Storm Rifle projectile spread has been decreased.

Suppressor

• The Suppressor damage has been increased. The Suppressor now kills in three less rounds.
• The Suppressor auto-aim angle has been reduced.
• The Suppressor projectile spread has been decreased.

SAW

• The SAW’s damage has been increased to maintain double the damage-per-second of the Assault Rifle.

Magnum

• The damage has been slightly increased. The Magnum is still capable of killing in six rounds.

Vehicles

• The damage has been increased on both the Mantis and Warthog Chain Gun.