If I recall correctly, when Gearbox wanted add the Fuel Rod Gun into the game, they found that Bungie had either cut the animation data from the files or simply never made any. The Fuel Rod Gun's animations were quickly put together by someone at Gearbox, not the Bungie animator/s who designed the other weapon animations featured in the game.
Why has no one suspected that the needler reloads by “growing” the crystals inside it? Shaking it could cause a chemical reaction which causes the crystals to grow exponentially.
Turok 2 had great weapon animations for moving and firing, in the HD Remaster you can use the original weapon bobbing animations and theyre..interesting
All of the human firearms (as in they shoot bullets, rocket launcher doesn't count) except for the AR have both an empty and non empty magazine reload. Actually pretty "forward thinking" for 2001. Most games didn't feature these animations at the time except for Simulation type shooters that tried pushing for realism factor
Forgot to mention the slightly different reload animation for the shotgun, when all shells are spent and a full reload is performed! I love that animation so much
@@Turtle3000 me too, it really feels like you’re in an intense firefight when you have to fire all of your shells (especially since it’s so easy to reload one or two shells mid-firefight and keep shooting), then spend a long time to reload every single one, and then Chief gives that very deliberate shotgun pump to load the next shell, almost like an exclamation mark, before jumping back in to the action. Very enjoyable to watch and probably my favorite weapon animation in the game :)
Anyone else notice how I’m the sniper chief has some extreme trigger discipline as well? It’s a very powerful round, definitely don’t want it going somewhere unintentionally
Fun fact, human weapons in CE don’t have physical triggers, with the magnum being the exception. It could be the case that bungie didn’t bother since those weapons tend to be lower down in your view model, but I like to believe that these are very advanced weapons that use the soldier’s neural lace to fire. You can also see this futuristic design in the AR and Sniper, as they use smart sights to project a reticle on your HUD instead of being able to use iron sights. I could just be wrong though, cause bungie redesigned the human weapons to have physical triggers in halo 3, and also 2 I think.
No plasma pistol has ever been as good as the CE one, and I miss it every time I play the rest of the series. It was a real workhorse weapon that I relied on through most of my early days of playing that game until I felt more confident with the weapon's sandbox. Probably got more multiplayer kills with it than any other weapon too, just out of desperation.
@@MaxiemumKarnage Yeah I'd pretty much always have a plasma pistol and magnum in CE. I always have a tough decision to make there when I find a shotgun on a flood level, plasma or magnum which do I drop lol.
Reach and CE. CE began with awesome animations, and Reach refined those animations. I really love the Magnum animations in Reach, and the Shotgun animations rocks, too, but the ARs are my favorites. I could spend all day mimicking the Halo CE AR's reload.
I really miss the more laid-back and Goofy Chief from Halo 1, when he would literally Pat to scope of the sniper rifle or in the cutscenes put the assault rifle on his shoulder or when he got transported upside down into a Covenant Ship and smacks his helmet to tell Cortana to shut up. I've never really cared for the quiet/stoic and frankly boring chief
I just LOVED the moment in the end cutscene of Assault on the control room when he says "I don't understan-" like he doesn't give an absolute shit and literally 3 seconds later, he backs up like a puppy because Cortana screamed at him XD.
The bolt of the sniper rifle is likely spring-assisted like all closed bolt automatic rifles of our current time. Like hitting the slide release on a pistol, all one needs to do to release the bolt on a rifle is pull the bolt back a millimeter to let the spring send it forward. Were the sniper rifle a bolt action weapon, it would make sense for him to manually push the bolt forward.
Was gonna comment this as well, was also going to mention that LNG mentions that chief pushed the bolt forward on the AR as well but again is more likely that the AR is also spring-assisted, especially since it has the notch to click it into as well modeled.
It's definitely spring assisted like the AR animation is after he releases it from the safety notch, you can visibly see chief only pull the snipers charging handle just back slightly enough to let the last round bolt hold open release and drop it under spring tension, the AR though is more of an HK slap than anything you can also see that he slaps it in animation
The bolt on the sniper rifle _does_ move forward on its own. The spring pushes the bolt forward to chamber another round, otherwise the rifle wouldn't fire semi-automatically. What Chief is likely supposed to be doing in that animation is pulling the charging handle rearward slightly in order to disengage the bolt from the catch mechanism that locks the bolt to the rear after the magazine has been emptied.
The animations with Covenant weapons where Chief doesn’t fully understand how to use the weapon properly is also true for the Elite animations while holding human guns in Halo 2, 3, and Reach. They hold it very awkwardly and it’s kind of adorable.
9:36 My headcanon for the plasma pistol's melee animation is just Chief thinking "If I bash an Elite over the head with this thing, is it gonna break? I don't know how durable a gun made for the cannon fodder is really gonna be, and I'd rather not break a useful tool, so... hell with it, fist. I know THAT won't break."
I kind of wish we saw more of the CE era Fuel rod gun, I find its a lot cooler as a battery weapon rather than just an ammo weapon, something I like about it that you didn't mention is how not only does it have a heat indicator like the other plasma weapons, but an charge meter. I imagine Covenant weapons tend to (or ought to) have a focus on clear and simple visuals for the user on munitions so that no matter what alien creature is using the weapon, they know whats up with the weapon at a glance.
It's really impressive when you compare this to Monolith Productions, which went from having one of the best animated shotguns in gaming (Blood) to being plagued with pretty janky weapon animations (until maybe Condemned 2? I don't remember those being janky).
One thing I like about the sniper rifle animation is how instead of smacking the magazine in, Chief lets the rifles weight onto his hand to secure the magazine in place
It's kind of shocking how good these animations are when you compared them to other shooters of the day. Just shows how ahead of its time Halo: CE was.
Man I love your word choice when describing the animations. It’s chock full of drama and you clearly picked them very carefully. I think my favorite videos of yours are the weapon analysis ones like these. Excited to see the next in this set.
Can't belive you left out the Rocket Launcher idle animation! That one is perhaps my favorite! Cheif presses the little green button, and the Launcher calibrates the rocket reload cycle! The spinning of the SPNKR is so iconic, it just makes sense that the weapon stays in tip top shape, so it can keep on spinning in them new rounds of ammunition!
The CE Magnum... If you notice the empty mag has no bullets in it, also, while a new one does. Also never noticed him flipping the slide release with his thumb, either. Neat.
A couple more things to note is the sniper has different reloads for empty and partially empty, chief actually pushes the test button on the rocket launcher, the AIs have a reload animation for the needler where they whack the side of the gun, and the assault rifle ejection port is animated on the outer side even though only your co-op partner can see that. I don't believe any of the future games quite go into this much detail, and that's one of the many reasons I love CE.
I personally feel that the SPV3 Needler reload just took the magic out of the weapon's reload. You just open the back of the gun and... reload a mag into it... like EVERY OTHER GUN. Not saying it's bad, it's just not as hilarious as the regular reload in where you go, "Wha... HUH?" 😆 Great vid, keep it up. 👍
5:33 The bolt moves on its own. That's how high caliber (semi) autos often work. The bolt stays in a mid position and has to be pulled further back post reload so the spring can send it home. Correct me if I'm wrong but I was fairly certain you knew this at some point
i think the assault rifle has my favorite reload in combat evolved, i love that little slap there, which fun fact is actually how you're expected to reload specific firearms made by H&K, coined as the HK slap
Man your content is so underrated. It’s very entertaining and showed me a lot about Halo that I didn’t know. Hope that in Infinite more people will watch it!
Two compliments: 1) I love how many metaphors you use when talking about these animations. It almost mythologizes them in a way that’s super appealing. 2) your choice of music from the series is exquisite and always matches the subject matter VERY well.
Something else I noticed about the weapons, Is their amazing visual design when it comes to revealing how close the weapon is to spending all of it's munitions. For the UNSC weapons it is a tactical and utilitarian display or obvious mechanical movement (With the exception of the shotgun.) The UNSC's placement of the ammunition identifiers also coincides with where you would typically expect to aim the weapon, keeping the focus on the battle where it is needed. When it comes to the covenant's weapons they are far more alien and unnatural seeming to almost break or shudder under the stress of chief's untrained use. The way the covenant weapons inform you about their usefulness also helps them feel even more alien, it isn't practical. It interrupts the flow of the weapon's otherwise seamless function or is extremely flashy in the case of the needler or the overheating and it's almost as if it were a warning, a warning the chief doesn't understand as he almost seems to recoil or perform an awkward motion to calm down the wrath of a plasma overheat or wrangle the needles of the needler into a combat ready position. Halo CE has so much love poured into it's weapon animations and your video does a great job of highlighting otherwise unnoticed and unspoken details which add so much more to a game world. These weapons are your interface with the world, how your will takes form or your action becomes consequence. So all the detail carefully crafted into place makes your actions feel so much more in line with the world and gives them weight. I love your work with these kinds of videos and hope to see more amazing insight into the intricacies of weapon animations. Thank you for doing what you love.
It'd be cool if 343 remastered the Magnum's CE animations for Infinite if they bring it back (which I'm sure they will). Plus I really want a CE style model as well. I always thought it looked the chunkiest/most powerful. It felt like a handcannon which was appropriate for how it handled.
My headcanon is that the Needler's loading mechanism detects all the cleave planes within the blamite nodules that you see on the ground in CE, perfectly cutting the mineral into multiple crystals. The crystals themselves have tracker nanites and explosives that occupy either ion sites, void spaces, or axial voids in their crystal lattice which link to the weapon's tracking system.
This game is the one that I come back to when I’m feeling down or depressed. The animations are such a significant aspect of the game and yet it often goes unnoticed. I’m glad you decided to tackle these animations. Thank you, latenight. Love this :)
I am loving these videos. I have a lot of nostalgia for CE's animations, they stuck with me even while not playing the actual games for years. My favourites over all. The ONLY issue with this presentation I could think of is that it doesn't show the weapons in the positions they were originally framed, which does make a little difference to the presentation the developers would have been planning. But it is so nice to be able to see all that Gun now, isn't it? We get to see some cool details we just didn't get to see in the past. Love those settings. Also this video is super crispy and nice to look at!
Amazing underrated video my man. It’s not just a another reloading history video, your commentary shows your love and knowledge of the game. Making this a very unique and satisfying video.
I remember as a kid new to Halo & video games as a whole, I would just stare at the animation & small details on the weapons. A memory that sticks out especially is just me in Blood Gulch for who knows how long, holding the charge of the plasma pistol til it would explode; the noise & visuals just captured me.
The CE Magnum draw animation is hands down my favorite Halo animation of all time. The sheer fucking AUTHORITY that Chief draws the pistol and racks the slide with just perfectly conveys that some squid headed freak is about to get turned into purple paste splattered against the wall.
Can't wait to see the halo 2 video. I always felt like bungie missed out on doing the reverse of master cheif not quite knowing how to use alien weapons but with the arbiter and unsc weapons. Though with halo 2s rushed development I'm not surprised because they had bigger priorities.
It's so impressive how all the animations hold up, but my favorite has to be the one that wasn't shown. When you completely empty the shotgun and fully reload Chief does a slow, but very awesome, pump with the shotgun. It always felt like it was conveying the message "Wow, that was a lot of destruction I caused! Let's do it again," to me. It just makes the shotgun feel that much more powerful and makes finishing a skirmish with the final shot in the magazine that much more satisfying.
Good video as ever. You forgot to talk about the shotguns reload animation when the gun is empty. The final racking of the shotgun when reloading it from 0 to 12 shells is so satisfying.
I like how the human two-handed small arms handling vs the Covenant's one-handed was a recurring theme throughout the trilogy's weapon animations. In 2 and 3 (Reach did it a bit but not to the same extent) the Elites would hold a lot of UNSC weapons meant for two hands like the SMG with one hand. They even manage to hold and fire the rocket launcher one-handed, which I always thought was pretty badass.
About the Needler reload, I like to imagine that the gun is filled with some kind of liquid that is ejected out of the top of the gun and immediately solidifies as it hits the air or passes through the top. I’m sure it’s not the actual case, but to me it makes the most sense when you think about the size of the Needler compared to the length of the needles that pop out of it. Like I can’t imagine that dinky little gun holding even 20 full-sized needles at once
The CE magnum, AR, and Needler are tied for my favorite animations in the game; although, the rest of the arsenal is satisfyingly expressive too. Chief displays a lot of character in the way he handles the weaponry, which adds to the player's immersion.
If you go through Forgotten Weapons’ video catalog, you’ll see that most of these weapons are based on real guns. For an example, the sniper rifle is based on a 20mm rifle. It weighs something north of 30 pounds and it needs that weight to keep from breaking your shoulder with the recoil.
It’s interesting to note that the Needler’s reload animation was expanded upon in Halo SPV3 where you actually pop the top of the gun open and slam a giant crystal into it, only for it to pressurize the crystal into shards that explode from the top like how it’s designed. It makes sense as ammo pouches were also a thing back then, as even the needler got its own as a giant crystal in 343 guilty spark
going back and reading the halo CE manual gives you some more insight into the weapons and their design, the calibre they fire or in the plasma weapons case, how much power they draw in our units, even giving you some hints into gameplay like how plasma will drain shields and by saying that upon observation their weaponry seems more effective against themselves than our own. and yes, it does also mention how they have no clue how the needler reloads, its also mentioned in halseys journal accompanied by a full dissasembly of the weapon, where she too concludes she has no clue how it works.
My favorite Halo is CE and seeing halo 3, reach, and 2 get the spotlight for a while was a bummer for me. However, I noticed an almost resurgence of CE in the past year and that does put a smile on my face.
The reload animations for CE were one of the very first things I noticed when I played it back in the early 2000s. I hadn't played a game like Halo before, and seeing what I KNEW was a real world safety feature and proper gun handling from the Chief in the animations just cemented the "evolved" feeling for me. These weren't space guns, or even something like the space opera slug throwers of Star Wars. These were guns I could see being used not even 10 years from now, an evolution of combat, indeed. It just seemed so COOL to me.
Chief isn't actually cocking the magnum everytime he pulls it out, in fact he's chamber checking. That's why you may or may not notice the cartridge is only half visible plus not pulling the slide all the way back. That's how you know he's chamber checking and not loading a new cartridge which honestly is even more attention to detail.
Fun fact, the flamethrower actually got a new HUD crosshair in the latest MCC update. Since most of the flamethrower's assets like animations and HUD icons were scrapped, Gearbox had to basically start from scratch there when they added it to multiplayer and they re-used the crosshair from the shotgun. However, the latest update gives it a new HUD icon based on the original crosshair from the 1749 beta build of Halo CE (which was also later used for the Halo 3 flamethrower).
i was replaying CE this week in preparation for infinite and i noticed something when i got to the flood. Initially i felt a little safer and more comforted when i heard unsc weapons. only to realize i was entirely alone. It made me realize how clever the sound design was in allowing you to notice the sounds of combat and who is fighting from the sound effects alone.
When I saw the needler ammo was just a pink rock I assumed you feed that in the lower area and it splits it inside to then load into the upper area. I miss the see through blue and pink look to the needles tbh.
what about chief pressing the test button on the rocket launcher and i'd say the needler has cartridges like our guns and when he pushes it up he likely presses some button to load the next one
I like the detail that the charging handle doesn't move on the Assault Rifle. Given the design and operation during the reload, it appears to be a roller-delayed mechanism, similar to that of the G3 or CETME, where the charging handle is not directly connected to the bolt and so doesn't move during firing. It just feels like Bungie knew their guns and how to make them convincing, even down to the quirks of different operating systems
That is interesting because I found it odd that the charging handle isn't connected to the bolt because it results in slower reloads to my knowledge? With an M4 the bolt locking back when empty is one less thing for the user to do, but with an MP5 having to manually retract and then slap forwards the charging handle is clunkier it seems. But I also don't know that much about rl guns so perhaps I'm misguided haha
George S-R No you're right, it does lead to slower reloads. However, roller-delayed blowback is generally a bit gentler on the shooter, though most of that will usually come down to calibre more so than mechanism
The reason why the sniper rifle charging handle rides forward on its own is because Chief is actually pulling it back to release the tension on the locked back bolt. It's very similar to how the sidekick reloads in Halo Infinite or the effect of racking an M4 in real life with its bolt locked to the rear. While racking it may be redundant, it ensures that the bolt has released and can ride forward on its own. The weapon handling in this game is really well done and is very mechanically immersive with how similarly the weapons function compared to contemporary firearms.
So the Halo CE sniper rifle has a bolt hold open. That means when you insert a new mag you only need to pull the bolt back a millimeter or 2 and let it go. The bolt will travel back into battery, stripping a round from the magazine and chambering it as it goes. The bolt moves under sprint power, the same thing used to cycle the action between shots. With that being said, the animation shows Chief pulling the both back just a bit and letting it go. It’s actually really good.
Note on the sniper rifle.. When reloading and releasing the bolt to chamber another round, he’s pulling the charging handle slightly back which releases it and he’s letting it slam forward as you do. He’s not pushing it forward he’s just releasing it. That being said I really like that animation
I always had such a soft spot for the halo ce flamethrower. I noticed how it was only available in multiplayer, and my (at the time) young mind ended up fascinated by it, it was almost mysterious in a way and I always imagined how cool it would be if it appeared in one of the later flood missions, thrown together as a last resort by the few remaining marines as a last ditch effort to survive.
I really like the Desert Eagle reload animation from CoD MW2, especially when you release the slide when reloading from empty, the way it throws the players hand forward as it reaches the end of its travel really implies how heavy of a pistol the Desert Eagle is. I also really like one of the running animations when carrying a bullpup rifle in Ghost Recon Breakpoint, on occasion Nomad will tuck the rifle under his arm and hold it by the handguard or barrel. I find it really interesting because that’s a natural way to comfortably carry a bullpup when running, especially long distance, and nobody is taught to carry it like that but everyone ends up doing it anyway.
Might be a hot take: I don’t think any Halo game has come even close to weapon animations thus far to CE, besides perhaps Halo 5. I personally always thought CE’s animations had the most unique personality by far, making every single weapon feel loved and special. Each weapon had its own weighty and charismatic animation, and the melee animations all had weight and personality. After CE, most of the animations felt too similar to each other, and rather empty (with every weapon having the same/similar melee speed and even reload speed) Halo 5 only competes because of how much detail put into the weapons to make them as realistically functional as possible.
A personal favorite would be Corvo's sword close and open in Dishonered. The thing literally does like a backflip, shooting the blade out of the stock. And does a front flip to close. Just a smooth ass animation
Small correction on the pistol animation when switching to it: Chief isn't cocking the pistol, he's pulling the slide back part-way to verify that there's a round chambered. You'll notice that it doesn't get pulled back all the way, to prevent the chambered round from being ejected.
afaik, the needler reload works like this: there's a crystal inside the gun add new crystal in, shake gun to break crystal, form needles needler readies up the new needles to be fired
Just a quick note, he’s not pushing the boat forward on the sniper rifle, he’s pulling the charging handle back slightly which releases the bolt catch allowing it to slide forward on its own.
Haha I like what you said about Elites laughing at the Chief at how he uses the Plasma Pistol. I could imagine some joint Human/ Sanghelli training in peace times.
Fun fact about the assault rifle: Chief uses an HK-slap on the gun's bolt, which half of all soldiers will swear tooth and nail that it'll slow you down and damage the gun on the long run while the other half says the exact opposite
Just a thing about the sniper rifle; it’s a last round bolt hold open, meaning you only have to pull it back slightly and then let go and the bolt will travel forward on his own. - Dutch
The Needler in CE has the place where Chief slides his hand into, and of course that's where the trigger is. But I also like the imagine that there's one of two things he does to reload. One, he releases and presses once more on the trigger, timing it just right so that he doesn't accidentally fire what he just reloaded. Or two, there's a button beyond that of the trigger, and Chief extends his finger to press it. I like to imagine that it's two, because the weapon is mainly used by grunts. And their hands are far from any other race's in the covenant, so it'd seem relatively easy for their giant stubby hands being able to slightly move a claw and tap the button.
I always likes the reload of really any spankr, just throw half the gun away and add a new one. The ce needler all together, and that one halo 5 plasma rifle melee where you jab the front of the gun into the enemy
6:11
you'll thank me later
Thank You
Sounds like something caboose would say
Bruh wtf is this
thank you dearly
Yes
Makes you appreciate how much effort went into this game when it was made.
It's funny how well combat evolved holds up when compared to more recent game titles. This game truly deserves to be called a masterpiece
Blint Mitz
Blint Mitz
And how rushed the anniversary graphics are. Cause oh boy. It really does show sometimes that some weapons were made for a different game
Blint Mitz
If I recall correctly, when Gearbox wanted add the Fuel Rod Gun into the game, they found that Bungie had either cut the animation data from the files or simply never made any. The Fuel Rod Gun's animations were quickly put together by someone at Gearbox, not the Bungie animator/s who designed the other weapon animations featured in the game.
Not all heroes wear capes
Why has no one suspected that the needler reloads by “growing” the crystals inside it? Shaking it could cause a chemical reaction which causes the crystals to grow exponentially.
Implying that if you keep shaking it the needles just continue to grow perpetually 😂
Tbf that's actually a really cool thought
@@connormunro-flanagan2078 *drops the needler* oh god oh fuck oh no-
personally i find it funnier if there flat-out isn't an explanation
@@connormunro-flanagan2078 Maybe the needler itself has a limiter that keeps the needles from "growing" too much?
I never knew Halo CE had animations this cared for. To be honest, I didn't even know the slide of the pistol went back when you pull the trigger.
Turok 2 had great weapon animations for moving and firing, in the HD Remaster you can use the original weapon bobbing animations and theyre..interesting
It's really hard to tell which is actually good considering that when firing a real handgun, the slide moves so fast you don't really see it
I knew. Cuz this is my favorite game
All of the human firearms (as in they shoot bullets, rocket launcher doesn't count) except for the AR have both an empty and non empty magazine reload.
Actually pretty "forward thinking" for 2001. Most games didn't feature these animations at the time except for Simulation type shooters that tried pushing for realism factor
@@Virgil-280 they do exaggerate the animation so you can actually see the slide reciprocating back and forth for stylistic purposes
That HK slap on the AR has always been a missing touch since CE for me
Forgot to mention the slightly different reload animation for the shotgun, when all shells are spent and a full reload is performed! I love that animation so much
It looks pretty bad (the quality of that animation) but it's cool that they went into that much detail in a 2001 game
Haha I was just about to make this comment… whenever I play through CE, I expel all my shells just to get that animation.
Agreed!
@@Turtle3000 me too, it really feels like you’re in an intense firefight when you have to fire all of your shells (especially since it’s so easy to reload one or two shells mid-firefight and keep shooting), then spend a long time to reload every single one, and then Chief gives that very deliberate shotgun pump to load the next shell, almost like an exclamation mark, before jumping back in to the action. Very enjoyable to watch and probably my favorite weapon animation in the game :)
6:23
"Jenkins use the Spnkr!"
"I can't sir it's updating!"
Kinda boggles my mind how Halo CE had two different reload animations for half empty and empty but the rest of the Bungie trilogy didn’t
They do in the later trilogy just the animation not as significant
umm... u might wanna think that one over again chief
They don’t?
@@busychickens4299 They do in Halo Reach, but I think he was talking about destiny lol
@@ghostintheknl583 Reach isn't part of the original trilogy, but yeah
I like how even though ce is almost 20 years old it still has amazing animations
Its more than 20 years old fyi
@Richard *almost* more than 20 years old
Anyone else notice how I’m the sniper chief has some extreme trigger discipline as well? It’s a very powerful round, definitely don’t want it going somewhere unintentionally
Fun fact, human weapons in CE don’t have physical triggers, with the magnum being the exception. It could be the case that bungie didn’t bother since those weapons tend to be lower down in your view model, but I like to believe that these are very advanced weapons that use the soldier’s neural lace to fire. You can also see this futuristic design in the AR and Sniper, as they use smart sights to project a reticle on your HUD instead of being able to use iron sights.
I could just be wrong though, cause bungie redesigned the human weapons to have physical triggers in halo 3, and also 2 I think.
No plasma pistol has ever been as good as the CE one, and I miss it every time I play the rest of the series. It was a real workhorse weapon that I relied on through most of my early days of playing that game until I felt more confident with the weapon's sandbox. Probably got more multiplayer kills with it than any other weapon too, just out of desperation.
Reach came close, but hoo boy that CE plasma pistol is arguably the best gun in the game (either the plasma pistol, rifle, or magnum)
@@MaxiemumKarnage Yeah I'd pretty much always have a plasma pistol and magnum in CE. I always have a tough decision to make there when I find a shotgun on a flood level, plasma or magnum which do I drop lol.
The plasma rifle was really fun as well and great in mp
Totally true
It’s so spammable.
Hot take: CEs animations are the most fluent and natural in the series
The animations have character and attention to detail but are stiff. Not the best but the most memorable
Reach and CE. CE began with awesome animations, and Reach refined those animations.
I really love the Magnum animations in Reach, and the Shotgun animations rocks, too, but the ARs are my favorites.
I could spend all day mimicking the Halo CE AR's reload.
@@bean1an143 I would say Halo 5 had better animations
@@argo9721 It has excellent animations as well, but I have a soft spot for Reach.
#biases suck.
You mean “fluid”? 😝
These animations are timeless. Love the Needler's melee and am happy to see it returning in infinite.
I was as giddy as a child when I saw Infinite reuse the CE Needler's melee animation.
I really miss the more laid-back and Goofy Chief from Halo 1, when he would literally Pat to scope of the sniper rifle or in the cutscenes put the assault rifle on his shoulder or when he got transported upside down into a Covenant Ship and smacks his helmet to tell Cortana to shut up. I've never really cared for the quiet/stoic and frankly boring chief
I just LOVED the moment in the end cutscene of Assault on the control room when he says "I don't understan-" like he doesn't give an absolute shit and literally 3 seconds later, he backs up like a puppy because Cortana screamed at him XD.
Shows character development though. It wouldn’t make sense and would be weird if he didn’t become that way.
@@D_Boone I would agree but his character seemed to drastically change between the ending of Halo 1 and beginning of Halo 2
Next title: I review every pixel on every frame of Halo ce
The bolt of the sniper rifle is likely spring-assisted like all closed bolt automatic rifles of our current time. Like hitting the slide release on a pistol, all one needs to do to release the bolt on a rifle is pull the bolt back a millimeter to let the spring send it forward. Were the sniper rifle a bolt action weapon, it would make sense for him to manually push the bolt forward.
Or they just didn't animate it well could just be that
Was gonna comment this as well, was also going to mention that LNG mentions that chief pushed the bolt forward on the AR as well but again is more likely that the AR is also spring-assisted, especially since it has the notch to click it into as well modeled.
@@Tar_Ogre he dosnet push it forward he slaps it down like a mp5
It's definitely spring assisted like the AR animation is after he releases it from the safety notch, you can visibly see chief only pull the snipers charging handle just back slightly enough to let the last round bolt hold open release and drop it under spring tension, the AR though is more of an HK slap than anything you can also see that he slaps it in animation
yeah, it really seems apparent and this is exactly what i thought the reload was meant to feel like
The bolt on the sniper rifle _does_ move forward on its own. The spring pushes the bolt forward to chamber another round, otherwise the rifle wouldn't fire semi-automatically. What Chief is likely supposed to be doing in that animation is pulling the charging handle rearward slightly in order to disengage the bolt from the catch mechanism that locks the bolt to the rear after the magazine has been emptied.
The animations with Covenant weapons where Chief doesn’t fully understand how to use the weapon properly is also true for the Elite animations while holding human guns in Halo 2, 3, and Reach. They hold it very awkwardly and it’s kind of adorable.
Shit they even animated the slide lock on the OG Pistol. That's dedication!
But a complete pain on legendary due to it playing EVERY TIME YOU SWITCH WEAPONS.
9:36 My headcanon for the plasma pistol's melee animation is just Chief thinking "If I bash an Elite over the head with this thing, is it gonna break? I don't know how durable a gun made for the cannon fodder is really gonna be, and I'd rather not break a useful tool, so... hell with it, fist. I know THAT won't break."
I kind of wish we saw more of the CE era Fuel rod gun, I find its a lot cooler as a battery weapon rather than just an ammo weapon, something I like about it that you didn't mention is how not only does it have a heat indicator like the other plasma weapons, but an charge meter. I imagine Covenant weapons tend to (or ought to) have a focus on clear and simple visuals for the user on munitions so that no matter what alien creature is using the weapon, they know whats up with the weapon at a glance.
I think the ideas for the fuel rod cannon went on to inform design for the beam rifle.
The needler melee always made me hope that one day, they'd make it explode when we use it...wasting a clip, but detonating.
Bro, what a good idea…
Marathon had some cool animations too, but it’s very impressive how well they were able to make these animations in their first full 3D FPS game.
It's really impressive when you compare this to Monolith Productions, which went from having one of the best animated shotguns in gaming (Blood) to being plagued with pretty janky weapon animations (until maybe Condemned 2? I don't remember those being janky).
"The Fuel Rod Gun animations look really rushed."
Thanks, Randy.
Greasy
Civvie 11?
One thing I like about the sniper rifle animation is how instead of smacking the magazine in, Chief lets the rifles weight onto his hand to secure the magazine in place
It's kind of shocking how good these animations are when you compared them to other shooters of the day. Just shows how ahead of its time Halo: CE was.
Man I love your word choice when describing the animations. It’s chock full of drama and you clearly picked them very carefully. I think my favorite videos of yours are the weapon analysis ones like these. Excited to see the next in this set.
Never really noticed the assault rifle's "HK Slap" until you slowed the reload footage.
I always love using the charged shot on CE's plasma pistol makes me feel like it's about to explode in my hand
Can't belive you left out the Rocket Launcher idle animation! That one is perhaps my favorite! Cheif presses the little green button, and the Launcher calibrates the rocket reload cycle! The spinning of the SPNKR is so iconic, it just makes sense that the weapon stays in tip top shape, so it can keep on spinning in them new rounds of ammunition!
You need to do one for the 3rd person/ npc models, they're incredibly detailed for a game from 2001
The CE Magnum... If you notice the empty mag has no bullets in it, also, while a new one does. Also never noticed him flipping the slide release with his thumb, either. Neat.
My favorite weapon animations are every single weapon in Bloodborne. Those transformations are art.
A couple more things to note is the sniper has different reloads for empty and partially empty, chief actually pushes the test button on the rocket launcher, the AIs have a reload animation for the needler where they whack the side of the gun, and the assault rifle ejection port is animated on the outer side even though only your co-op partner can see that.
I don't believe any of the future games quite go into this much detail, and that's one of the many reasons I love CE.
I personally feel that the SPV3 Needler reload just took the magic out of the weapon's reload. You just open the back of the gun and... reload a mag into it... like EVERY OTHER GUN. Not saying it's bad, it's just not as hilarious as the regular reload in where you go, "Wha... HUH?" 😆 Great vid, keep it up. 👍
5:33 The bolt moves on its own. That's how high caliber (semi) autos often work. The bolt stays in a mid position and has to be pulled further back post reload so the spring can send it home. Correct me if I'm wrong but I was fairly certain you knew this at some point
I just finished rewatching ninfreak’s Reloading is Art series, so the timing of this is perfect.
i think the assault rifle has my favorite reload in combat evolved, i love that little slap there, which fun fact is actually how you're expected to reload specific firearms made by H&K, coined as the HK slap
Man your content is so underrated. It’s very entertaining and showed me a lot about Halo that I didn’t know. Hope that in Infinite more people will watch it!
Two compliments:
1) I love how many metaphors you use when talking about these animations. It almost mythologizes them in a way that’s super appealing.
2) your choice of music from the series is exquisite and always matches the subject matter VERY well.
Something else I noticed about the weapons, Is their amazing visual design when it comes to revealing how close the weapon is to spending all of it's munitions.
For the UNSC weapons it is a tactical and utilitarian display or obvious mechanical movement (With the exception of the shotgun.) The UNSC's placement of the ammunition identifiers also coincides with where you would typically expect to aim the weapon, keeping the focus on the battle where it is needed. When it comes to the covenant's weapons they are far more alien and unnatural seeming to almost break or shudder under the stress of chief's untrained use.
The way the covenant weapons inform you about their usefulness also helps them feel even more alien, it isn't practical. It interrupts the flow of the weapon's otherwise seamless function or is extremely flashy in the case of the needler or the overheating and it's almost as if it were a warning, a warning the chief doesn't understand as he almost seems to recoil or perform an awkward motion to calm down the wrath of a plasma overheat or wrangle the needles of the needler into a combat ready position.
Halo CE has so much love poured into it's weapon animations and your video does a great job of highlighting otherwise unnoticed and unspoken details which add so much more to a game world. These weapons are your interface with the world, how your will takes form or your action becomes consequence. So all the detail carefully crafted into place makes your actions feel so much more in line with the world and gives them weight.
I love your work with these kinds of videos and hope to see more amazing insight into the intricacies of weapon animations.
Thank you for doing what you love.
It'd be cool if 343 remastered the Magnum's CE animations for Infinite if they bring it back (which I'm sure they will). Plus I really want a CE style model as well. I always thought it looked the chunkiest/most powerful. It felt like a handcannon which was appropriate for how it handled.
I love the irony that the dinky little Halo 2 M6C peashooter is called a Magnum and the Halo CE M6D thad gun is called a pistol.
@@MaxiemumKarnage
It's other way around really. 😆
@@tristanbackup2536 Yes, that's my point
My headcanon is that the Needler's loading mechanism detects all the cleave planes within the blamite nodules that you see on the ground in CE, perfectly cutting the mineral into multiple crystals. The crystals themselves have tracker nanites and explosives that occupy either ion sites, void spaces, or axial voids in their crystal lattice which link to the weapon's tracking system.
Really waiting for that Halo 2 weapon animations review, just to see how this absolute madlad reviews an Elite holding human weapons
Combat Evolved still has the best animation and sound effects in the franchise even twenty years later.
This game is the one that I come back to when I’m feeling down or depressed. The animations are such a significant aspect of the game and yet it often goes unnoticed. I’m glad you decided to tackle these animations. Thank you, latenight. Love this :)
I am loving these videos. I have a lot of nostalgia for CE's animations, they stuck with me even while not playing the actual games for years. My favourites over all.
The ONLY issue with this presentation I could think of is that it doesn't show the weapons in the positions they were originally framed, which does make a little difference to the presentation the developers would have been planning. But it is so nice to be able to see all that Gun now, isn't it? We get to see some cool details we just didn't get to see in the past. Love those settings.
Also this video is super crispy and nice to look at!
Amazing underrated video my man. It’s not just a another reloading history video, your commentary shows your love and knowledge of the game. Making this a very unique and satisfying video.
For some reason the melee animations are super satisfying and I spam them while I run around
Great video. Btw, you forgot to mention the animation on the shotgun where chief cocks the shotgun after reloading to full when its completely empty
deciding on a favorite CE weapon animation is like picking your favorite child
I remember as a kid new to Halo & video games as a whole, I would just stare at the animation & small details on the weapons. A memory that sticks out especially is just me in Blood Gulch for who knows how long, holding the charge of the plasma pistol til it would explode; the noise & visuals just captured me.
Favourite viewmodel animation? Reloading the Ace of Spades.
Damn, that’s a good answer. I love the way your guardian flips it
@@LateNightHalo It is a very expressive twirl, indeed. Mine in particular calls hers "Cayde's Promise". It's all a long story.
The CE Magnum draw animation is hands down my favorite Halo animation of all time. The sheer fucking AUTHORITY that Chief draws the pistol and racks the slide with just perfectly conveys that some squid headed freak is about to get turned into purple paste splattered against the wall.
Please make a supercut when you've done a video for every game in the series. I love this!
Friendly reminder that Halo was originally going to be an RTS game.
Can't wait to see the halo 2 video.
I always felt like bungie missed out on doing the reverse of master cheif not quite knowing how to use alien weapons but with the arbiter and unsc weapons.
Though with halo 2s rushed development I'm not surprised because they had bigger priorities.
You know the melee animations are good when you have to imitate them every time you see it
It's so impressive how all the animations hold up, but my favorite has to be the one that wasn't shown. When you completely empty the shotgun and fully reload Chief does a slow, but very awesome, pump with the shotgun. It always felt like it was conveying the message "Wow, that was a lot of destruction I caused! Let's do it again," to me. It just makes the shotgun feel that much more powerful and makes finishing a skirmish with the final shot in the magazine that much more satisfying.
Favorite animation from Halo: H2 Sniper rifle.
Favorite animation from any game: Dead Space Plasma Cutter Reload.
Good video as ever. You forgot to talk about the shotguns reload animation when the gun is empty. The final racking of the shotgun when reloading it from 0 to 12 shells is so satisfying.
I like how the human two-handed small arms handling vs the Covenant's one-handed was a recurring theme throughout the trilogy's weapon animations. In 2 and 3 (Reach did it a bit but not to the same extent) the Elites would hold a lot of UNSC weapons meant for two hands like the SMG with one hand. They even manage to hold and fire the rocket launcher one-handed, which I always thought was pretty badass.
About the Needler reload, I like to imagine that the gun is filled with some kind of liquid that is ejected out of the top of the gun and immediately solidifies as it hits the air or passes through the top.
I’m sure it’s not the actual case, but to me it makes the most sense when you think about the size of the Needler compared to the length of the needles that pop out of it. Like I can’t imagine that dinky little gun holding even 20 full-sized needles at once
The HK slap on the AR is one of my all time favorites in any game.
The CE magnum, AR, and Needler are tied for my favorite animations in the game; although, the rest of the arsenal is satisfyingly expressive too. Chief displays a lot of character in the way he handles the weaponry, which adds to the player's immersion.
If you go through Forgotten Weapons’ video catalog, you’ll see that most of these weapons are based on real guns. For an example, the sniper rifle is based on a 20mm rifle. It weighs something north of 30 pounds and it needs that weight to keep from breaking your shoulder with the recoil.
It’s interesting to note that the Needler’s reload animation was expanded upon in Halo SPV3 where you actually pop the top of the gun open and slam a giant crystal into it, only for it to pressurize the crystal into shards that explode from the top like how it’s designed. It makes sense as ammo pouches were also a thing back then, as even the needler got its own as a giant crystal in 343 guilty spark
going back and reading the halo CE manual gives you some more insight into the weapons and their design, the calibre they fire or in the plasma weapons case, how much power they draw in our units, even giving you some hints into gameplay like how plasma will drain shields and by saying that upon observation their weaponry seems more effective against themselves than our own. and yes, it does also mention how they have no clue how the needler reloads, its also mentioned in halseys journal accompanied by a full dissasembly of the weapon, where she too concludes she has no clue how it works.
My favorite Halo is CE and seeing halo 3, reach, and 2 get the spotlight for a while was a bummer for me. However, I noticed an almost resurgence of CE in the past year and that does put a smile on my face.
The reload animations for CE were one of the very first things I noticed when I played it back in the early 2000s. I hadn't played a game like Halo before, and seeing what I KNEW was a real world safety feature and proper gun handling from the Chief in the animations just cemented the "evolved" feeling for me.
These weren't space guns, or even something like the space opera slug throwers of Star Wars. These were guns I could see being used not even 10 years from now, an evolution of combat, indeed. It just seemed so COOL to me.
Chief isn't actually cocking the magnum everytime he pulls it out, in fact he's chamber checking. That's why you may or may not notice the cartridge is only half visible plus not pulling the slide all the way back. That's how you know he's chamber checking and not loading a new cartridge which honestly is even more attention to detail.
Fun fact, the flamethrower actually got a new HUD crosshair in the latest MCC update. Since most of the flamethrower's assets like animations and HUD icons were scrapped, Gearbox had to basically start from scratch there when they added it to multiplayer and they re-used the crosshair from the shotgun. However, the latest update gives it a new HUD icon based on the original crosshair from the 1749 beta build of Halo CE (which was also later used for the Halo 3 flamethrower).
i was replaying CE this week in preparation for infinite and i noticed something when i got to the flood. Initially i felt a little safer and more comforted when i heard unsc weapons. only to realize i was entirely alone. It made me realize how clever the sound design was in allowing you to notice the sounds of combat and who is fighting from the sound effects alone.
1:03 I love that sometimes you can see a ring of fire like from a desert eagle.
LNG should seriously consider being a voice-over narrator for novels! Your inflection and pronunciation always on point
When I saw the needler ammo was just a pink rock I assumed you feed that in the lower area and it splits it inside to then load into the upper area. I miss the see through blue and pink look to the needles tbh.
what about chief pressing the test button on the rocket launcher and i'd say the needler has cartridges like our guns and when he pushes it up he likely presses some button to load the next one
I like the detail that the charging handle doesn't move on the Assault Rifle. Given the design and operation during the reload, it appears to be a roller-delayed mechanism, similar to that of the G3 or CETME, where the charging handle is not directly connected to the bolt and so doesn't move during firing. It just feels like Bungie knew their guns and how to make them convincing, even down to the quirks of different operating systems
That is interesting because I found it odd that the charging handle isn't connected to the bolt because it results in slower reloads to my knowledge? With an M4 the bolt locking back when empty is one less thing for the user to do, but with an MP5 having to manually retract and then slap forwards the charging handle is clunkier it seems. But I also don't know that much about rl guns so perhaps I'm misguided haha
George S-R No you're right, it does lead to slower reloads. However, roller-delayed blowback is generally a bit gentler on the shooter, though most of that will usually come down to calibre more so than mechanism
I'm surprised you didn't cover the oddball and the flag in multiplayer, I just love how the player just butts someone with the bottom of the flag pole
The reason why the sniper rifle charging handle rides forward on its own is because Chief is actually pulling it back to release the tension on the locked back bolt. It's very similar to how the sidekick reloads in Halo Infinite or the effect of racking an M4 in real life with its bolt locked to the rear. While racking it may be redundant, it ensures that the bolt has released and can ride forward on its own. The weapon handling in this game is really well done and is very mechanically immersive with how similarly the weapons function compared to contemporary firearms.
You forgot my favorite animation: the shotgun being reloaded from fully empty and gloriously pumped to put a shell in the chamber!
So the Halo CE sniper rifle has a bolt hold open. That means when you insert a new mag you only need to pull the bolt back a millimeter or 2 and let it go. The bolt will travel back into battery, stripping a round from the magazine and chambering it as it goes. The bolt moves under sprint power, the same thing used to cycle the action between shots.
With that being said, the animation shows Chief pulling the both back just a bit and letting it go. It’s actually really good.
Note on the sniper rifle.. When reloading and releasing the bolt to chamber another round, he’s pulling the charging handle slightly back which releases it and he’s letting it slam forward as you do. He’s not pushing it forward he’s just releasing it. That being said I really like that animation
I always had such a soft spot for the halo ce flamethrower. I noticed how it was only available in multiplayer, and my (at the time) young mind ended up fascinated by it, it was almost mysterious in a way and I always imagined how cool it would be if it appeared in one of the later flood missions, thrown together as a last resort by the few remaining marines as a last ditch effort to survive.
I really like the Desert Eagle reload animation from CoD MW2, especially when you release the slide when reloading from empty, the way it throws the players hand forward as it reaches the end of its travel really implies how heavy of a pistol the Desert Eagle is.
I also really like one of the running animations when carrying a bullpup rifle in Ghost Recon Breakpoint, on occasion Nomad will tuck the rifle under his arm and hold it by the handguard or barrel. I find it really interesting because that’s a natural way to comfortably carry a bullpup when running, especially long distance, and nobody is taught to carry it like that but everyone ends up doing it anyway.
Might be a hot take: I don’t think any Halo game has come even close to weapon animations thus far to CE, besides perhaps Halo 5. I personally always thought CE’s animations had the most unique personality by far, making every single weapon feel loved and special. Each weapon had its own weighty and charismatic animation, and the melee animations all had weight and personality. After CE, most of the animations felt too similar to each other, and rather empty (with every weapon having the same/similar melee speed and even reload speed)
Halo 5 only competes because of how much detail put into the weapons to make them as realistically functional as possible.
A personal favorite would be Corvo's sword close and open in Dishonered. The thing literally does like a backflip, shooting the blade out of the stock. And does a front flip to close. Just a smooth ass animation
Small correction on the pistol animation when switching to it: Chief isn't cocking the pistol, he's pulling the slide back part-way to verify that there's a round chambered. You'll notice that it doesn't get pulled back all the way, to prevent the chambered round from being ejected.
Where is the rest of this series? I got really excited only to be disappointed.
afaik, the needler reload works like this:
there's a crystal inside the gun
add new crystal in, shake gun to break crystal, form needles
needler readies up the new needles to be fired
Just a quick note, he’s not pushing the boat forward on the sniper rifle, he’s pulling the charging handle back slightly which releases the bolt catch allowing it to slide forward on its own.
Haha I like what you said about Elites laughing at the Chief at how he uses the Plasma Pistol. I could imagine some joint Human/ Sanghelli training in peace times.
Halo CE is hands down a masterpiece
"Chief awkwardly punches"
Awkward until you get punched by a half ton man and your skull implodes
Fun fact about the assault rifle: Chief uses an HK-slap on the gun's bolt, which half of all soldiers will swear tooth and nail that it'll slow you down and damage the gun on the long run while the other half says the exact opposite
Just a thing about the sniper rifle; it’s a last round bolt hold open, meaning you only have to pull it back slightly and then let go and the bolt will travel forward on his own.
- Dutch
The Needler in CE has the place where Chief slides his hand into, and of course that's where the trigger is. But I also like the imagine that there's one of two things he does to reload. One, he releases and presses once more on the trigger, timing it just right so that he doesn't accidentally fire what he just reloaded. Or two, there's a button beyond that of the trigger, and Chief extends his finger to press it. I like to imagine that it's two, because the weapon is mainly used by grunts. And their hands are far from any other race's in the covenant, so it'd seem relatively easy for their giant stubby hands being able to slightly move a claw and tap the button.
Christmas came early with this one!
I always likes the reload of really any spankr, just throw half the gun away and add a new one. The ce needler all together, and that one halo 5 plasma rifle melee where you jab the front of the gun into the enemy