Without even knowing it had that stunning effect, I now want it back. The Plasma Rifle was never meant to be a Covenant AR or SMG. I think it’s more interesting to make it unique like in CE than the alien version of a human weapon.

You really do see how big the elites are when the plasma “rifle” is held like a pistol compared to how you hold it two handed

I remember actually running into you in a game of CE, I remember thinking "why is he only using the plasma rifle?"

The plasma rifle has more character development than Fireteam Osiris

I like how the arbiter holds the plasma rifle one handed but still does the “ow my hand” animation when the weapon overheats

I legit did not know about the stun effect

*while not as iconic as the needler* Ｆｏｒｅｓｈａｄｏｗｉｎｇ

8:34 Brutes weren't altered to add shields, they just added the shield effect. The armour they had in halo 3 was the same as ODST, it just didn't show the shield effect when damaged.

LnG = *mentions and praises the stun effects* Me= wait there's a stun effect?

5 years.... 5 long years, that's how long it took for the evolution of the plasma rifle to come out.

My least favorite thing about the Reach plasma rifle was they gave the classic melee swing to the plasma pistol. Still bothers almost 10 years later.

I really love your “Evolution” vids why not next time do it on a vehicle like the warthog or the ghost? I always found that the vehicles in halo were just as iconic and unique as the weapons.

When you talk about sound, maybe play a short clip of what it sounds like!

One thing i did like about the plasma repeater was that you could vent the buildup heat whenever you wanted to by using the reload button. It made sense that a gun like that would have that feature.

“Shotgun. Shot, gun! Shotgun dammit!” Really would listen on Sarge here...

Now halo CE’s multiplayer on MCC will have this spammed, thanks Lng.....

Actually, the plasma rifle does appear in Halo 4's campaign, but in the weirdest possible way. During the first mission, there's a weird block thing Chief has to push into a slot to arm a missile, and doing so forces you into third person for a moment while a unique animation plays. If you have a Storm Rifle equipped when triggering this, instead of showing it on Chief's back, instead there will be a Plasma Rifle on his hip. It turns back into a Storm Rifle one you go back to first person. I have no idea why this happens, and any other similar interactions like the relays in "Forerunner" will correctly show a Storm Rifle. It makes no sense, but yes, the Plasma Rifle does technically appear in Halo 4.

Cursed Halo’s Triple Wield was my favorite

I thought my phone screen decalibrated when 2 came on, until I realized its just reshade. Nice touch!

The plasma rifle has always been one of my favorite weapons even tho it wasn’t that good in most of the games just because of how it looks. It looks so good

The Halo 1 variant is so much more punchy feeling. Like I feel like I’m actually hurting the enemy and fast

​the beam rifle and focus rifle would be cool, or even a look at sniper weapons in general across the series.

I always liked the idea of the brute plasma rifle. It’s such a simple change, but it has an impact. Also I personally prefer the red color aesthetically, especially in ODST’s darker environments.

I still think Halo 3's aesthetics were the last peak of actually ALIEN looking weapons. I like the more smooth-rounded aesthetic than edged. It just seems more alien than human to have such

I love the 'projectile automatic weapon' type of guns in games, and the plasma rifle is no exception, especially Halo 1's with the 'pew pew pew' noise rather than the future 'yah yah yah' noise

evolution of.... the Sticky Detonator for April Fools of course

This channel makes me feel warm inside

I'd love to see a game-play reveal for Infinite, where Master Chief walks up to some Covenant crate and cracks it open with a punch, and pulls out a Plasma Rifle. The moment something like that happens in a game-play trailer, something more-or-less subtle like the shield noise in the E3 2019 trailer, people will flip.

It's sad to see how the weapons sandbox that made Halo: CE such a masterpiece (and helped made on look past the issues of tts campaign) was slowly but surely dismantled over the course of the franchise. One of the main reasons why I didn't have as much fun with Reach's campaign now that I was finally able to play it. Half of the weapons in this game have no reasons to exist. Why do we have 2 ARs, 2 "BR"s, 2 Rocket Launchers, 2 Grenade Launchers and two precission rifles without any narrative reason for it? Halo 2 mainly introduced those weapons because there were entire missions where you would never see a human weapons and thus needed those standins to keep the sandbox intact.

What didn't help the plasma rifle's case in Reach was that the plasma pistol was better in every way. Even when spamming shots, the plasma pistol strips shields way faster than the rifle. The lethality of the elites on legendary makes shield stripping and headshots quickly much more necessary. There's a lot of encounters with multiple ultras that will kill you way faster than the plasma rifle can take down their shields, making it feel like an exercise in futility compared to just using the pistol. It's a shame, because using the rifle is much more satisfying than using the pistol, but unfortunately the poor balance and muddied sandbox makes the plasma rifle feel like a "if you really want to" choice, and was one of the more disappointing facts when playing through legendary.

Why is this premiering while I'm sleeping?!?! REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

My favorite thing was the fact that in halo CE, the plasma rifle would sometimes misfire, and seemed to do less damage when the battery started dying, it made it feel like a weapon that could actually exist

my overall problem with the Storm Rifle is how visually similar it is to the Cov Carbine. many of halo's weapons have very distinctive silhouettes that you can tell the difference between then just by outline on the pickup icon alone.

I would really love to see a breakdown of the SMG. It's probably my favorite weapon from the games just based on coolness

I'm going to come to the defense of the storm rifle, since it's probably the highlight of halo 4 for me. like you said, its quite boring how focused it is on lethality, but its DPS at close range is ludicrous. the thing will melt a enemy player faster than a shotgun could get a second shot off, and when paired with Promethean Vision or Active Camo it is downright oppressive in the right hands.

TRY CURSED HALO!

They need to bring this back. CE’s plasma rifle was dope as all hell. Made it a worthy pick up!

Seeing these videos really confirms that the Anniversary graphics DOES hurt the gameplay. The plasma rifle had glowing, visible projectiles that allow you to dodge or compensate when firing.

It's kinda entertaining in a dark way to hear you talk up how iconic the stun effect of the PR is when there are so many people who just didn't know it even existed.

Definitely prefer how unique it was in CE. I did always love dual wielding brute plasma rifles in Halo 2 though. With that extra damage you could just shred a target so fast, it felt damn satisfying.

Dude I've been binging your videos for the past 2 days and wished you made more gun evolution videos. You're amazing HAHA

Late night although not important I think an honorable mention would be the fourth sub type of the plasma rifle in halo 5... if u mix the plasma rifle with a legendary you will get a torn blue model that is more similar too the halo: ce version...

Yay another evolution video. I'd really like to see you pull this format into more game series. There something about the casual informing that's so enjoyable.

Some stuff I wanted to say linked to your last community post about Halo: Infinite: I want to see the Storm Rifle replaced with either the Plasma Rifle or the Reach exclusive Plasma Repeater. Campaign Theater. New variants of enemies (eg: use the fact that the Hunters are made up of loads of worms to make something different). Campaign DLC (done better than Spartan Ops). Extra characters used the same way as Halo 3 or ODST and Reach (3's version where the characters you play as are Canon but don't follow you constantly when playing alone or ODST/Reach where you don't play as the extra members of Alpha 9 or Noble Team but you have varying amounts of them with you to make some levels a Lone Wolf, some a duo work and some a full team effort).

How bout the Shotgun. I feel like you'd have some similar points to make about the Shotgun like the plasma rifle, i.e. it was best in halo 1 (especially concerning the flood).

I kinda miss the strip that held the plasma rifle's halves.

I can't ever get enough of these types of videos from you. Expertly made, explains everything really well, and has zero fluff in them to bog the video down. If I had to make one suggestion, I'd love to see you include gameplay that showed off what the weapons are like during raw gameplay, just to give us a better comparison on how they changed overall across releases. It would also help since whenever you make a point about their sound effects it ends up leaving me with a curiosity the videos don't fulfill. But that's my only nitpick, everything else is 100% spot-on.

I played Halo CE for years and years and had NO IDEA about the stun/slow effect on the plasma rifle. Blew my mind.

Halo 5 Brute Plasma Rifle from "The Memories of REACH"

Nice to come back to this series But I feel like it was really a bummer when we saw the plasma rifle in the halo 4 cutscenes, but never in the gameplay. And in halo 5 all there is, is the brute plasma rifle, and not the original plasma rifle? Also fun fact: the brute plasma rifle was made because Bungie didn’t have any time left to make brute weapons in halo 2

TBH I love halo CEs plasma rifle. I find myself using it the most, even more than human weapons (except the pistol, of course) and it's the most fun to use. You are definitely right that it has its own spot in the sandbox and it has never been able to return to its former glory

I always ended up running the plasma rifle and shotgun together in CE when I got the chance as both were equally good against all targets.

Phased Plasma Rifle in a 40-watt range?

The nostalgia its been ages scene u uploaded 1 of these

I think I have the most memories with the ODST brute plasma rifle. Fantastic video as always :)

I saw your post a few days ago and I was excited for a new evolution video. I was definitely not dissapointed and I loved every part of it. Nice work man!

Most weapons in combat evolved feel like they do a better job of what they're designed to do

"Loot box" and just like that my interest in halo 5 has died. way to go 343

I like the way the Halo 5 brute plasma rifle crackles during the cool down animation, really satisfying!

5:40 that little snippet is just GOLD

Anyone notice that from 0:00-0:20 the background music is in spongebob? Also great vid

"Plasma Rifle is not as iconic as Needler" Excuse me what? That's all elites used back then with the occasional different one.

This video makes me want to play all the halo games again. Great video!

I love these evolution videos, keep ‘em coming.

Doesn't even mention the triple plasma rifle, smh /s

The Most Famous Plasma Rifle: Scarab Gun

Something I noticed when playing halo 2 was that you could feather the trigger with the plasma rifle and shoot slightly faster but it overheated slightly quicker as well.

I like that the halo CE version wasn’t just a glorified shield stripper. It felt like a truly effective firearm and I loved it.

You know? I really enjoy your commentary LNG, keeps me very engaged, and just really easy to follow. It could be your voice, but just really enjoy your vids because of that (and of course the content).

I'm noticing a pattern in your videos. It was the best in CE then drastically goes downhill to make a slight comeback. And I agree. The weapons are at their peak in CE. They're all good. When I play I struggle to choose what I want to carry. Some might make the argument that CE has the smallest roster of weapons but smaller doesn't equal worse. Because of the short weapon count it gives them an opportunity to be unique. This is also true in Bloodborne. Smallest roster of weapons in any Souls game. But they're the best. They transform, they have different movesets and combos. In Dark Souls there're tons of weapons that feel the exact same. Same thing in an fps like COD or Battlefield. I can't tell you the difference in weaponry. But there sure is alot of them. Like that's cool or something.

Loved the editing for halo 3's opening cutscene!

Loving this series. You are definitely the best halo youtuber

It’s one of the most useless weapons, but I still love it. CE perfected it compared to all of them thanks to the stun (I found out about it by playing online lol). When they took it out, it sucks now imo. Never used it in campaign even when I didn’t have ammo, never used it in matchmaking. Only in CE have I used it. It’s an iconic weapon, and I love the design and sound (pre-343)

Im mostly using it in campaigns when I can't find a plasma pistol to break shields

I love all these in depth vids.

The Plasma Pistol is my favorite for providing me with one of my most vivid and nostalgic memories when I first found one and charged it up as a kid, mesmerized by the glow. Plasma Rifle is probably third place after Needler though, just looking at the models brings it all back

never used it in my whole halo life, just pistol plasma pistol for legendary.....

My personal favorite is the bit crushed plasma rifle in Halo: Cursed Edition

Please make more of these awesome videos!

The more and more I watch these videos, the more I begin to realise that 343 was fucking everything up straight out of the gate since Halo 4.

So far, ive been seeing nearly every version of these weapons at their peaks in Halo CE.

Not as iconic as the needler? Eh. Arguable. Debatable, but I'd disagree. It's easily more so, second only to the Energy Sword.

Love these videos I hope you make more!

I love the videos of the evolutions of all the weapons so far!!!! One gun in almost all of the halo games that has been my favorite is the shotgun. I'm wondering, is it possible for you to do an evolution of the shotgun next?

Can you do the plasma pistol wait never mind it’s only purpose is shield take down

Found this video in 2023. Sad to say 343 did not learn anything.

I absolutely love these evolution vids. It was mentioned in an earlier comment but I agree that I think vehicles would be a cool thing to do. Hell even like frag grenades. At least to me they seemed to change a good bit throughout the series

Never clicked on a video so fast! Keep up the great work, I love the evolution videos!

Can't wait for CE to come to PC so I can use the plasma rifle 😂

I'm sad the the plasma repeater never went beyond reach

Your truly are the best when it comes to these types of video's

In the original Halo: CE manual, there's a sentence that speculated on a possible reloading mechanism humans were unaware of or something, but I'm not sure it was ever acknowledged again.

Hi, I'm from the future. I've got bad news for you buddy!

I can't brag about being first and making a comment saying "FIRST!" So instead I will be honest and say 498th!

I love these videos man, keep it up!

A part of me is sad the video isnt as long as the others. I love the 20+ minute videos about halo weapons

The one thing I didn't like about it's evolution was that the heat gauge got really small.

I’ll be honest, I think the storm rifle is prettier :p I hope in infinite that both can make an appearance with their unique niches

Can't wait for the Carbine video. My absolut favorite Weapon from the Halo franchise.

Im so happy you did this video, I was hoping that you make one. I personally like the Halo CE and 3, they are mt favorite ones, Halo Reach looks the best