SMG Gets Upgrade For Halo 3: ODST
Dual-wielding was a very cool feature of Halo 2, but many of the weapons were underpowered on their own. This does make sense from a real world perspective (guns you can wield with one hand generally have less powerful rounds) and also from a gameplay perspective (if dual wield guns were on their own as powerful as single guns they’d be deadly in pairs). Due to this balancing though some of the guns felt underwhelming if they weren’t paired right. The SMG in particular was disappointing unless it was paired with something good at stripping away shields such as a Plasma Pistol or Plasma Rifle.
In Halo 3 Bungie toned down the power of dual-wielding weapons to balance out the multiplayer which further nerfed the power of the SMG, leaving it the best method of scratching an itch on approaching flood, but unable to do much damage. For the upcoming Halo 3 expansion, ODST Bungie has decided to revamp the weapon, making it more useful and a bit more powerful. It’s been upgraded to be more useful in a tactical sense. The weapon is now fitted with a silencer, ideal for a soldier being dropped behind enemy lines, a reflex sight and a smart-linked scope that’ll allow for some zooming in on your foes. It sounds like they’re trying to make it into a replacement battle rifle, but the post on Bungie’s site assures us that they’re still keeping it a tool for close quarters combat.