Capitalist/Socialist Weapon Selection
I know it's been commented upon a lot, but try this for size: the weapon hierarchies of Doom (and successors) versus Halo.
- Halo: You can only carry two weapons at once. This is a pain, because every weapon is useful. The Assault Rifle, so irksomely useless at early stages, becomes a very useful Flood-slayer. The Pistol pulls off headshots and is surprisingly powerful. Even when more powerful weapons are available - the shotgun, the rocket launcher, the plasma rifle - the basic pistols are most useful, because they are plenty, and have unique features (a zoom on the human pistol, the overcharge on the Covenant pistol). Every weapon is an option - you could waste rifle ammo useful versus Grunts on an Elite, or choose more appropriately but risk running out of plasma charge. Or, just rocket launcher the lot of them, but prepare to be low on ammo later. Every cog in the machine is useful, and every weapon is useful until the very end. It's a very socialist/communist perspective, and the limit to two weapons only serves to highlight how useful each weapon can be.
- Doom: You can carry all weapons at once. In general, each one supercedes the previous; the shotgun outclasses the pistol, the chaingun (generally) outclasses the shotgun, and so on until the BFG. In general, you use the best weapon available to you. If that's out of ammo, you use the next; so after a BFG spree in a big room, you're reduced to rocketing a pile of enemies until you have BFG charge again. The shotgun is probably the best overall, being quite powerful but slow; the chaingun, though next up the ladder, is powerful because of rate of fire, not strength of round. That said, the pistol is never used once the shotgun and chaingun are acquired - the shotgun does more damage, and the chaingun uses the same ammo more effectively. Might is right; the higher numbers succeed. Also, because you always have everything with you, there's no penalty for not using it. It's more capitalist in outlook - the higher up the food chain, the more powerful, but you're not penalised for still having the low-end stuff. And just above the very bottom is the surprisingly powerful workhorse.
Is this making sense?
Posted by tajmahal at December 2, 2003 09:51 PM