: Really? I liked dual wielding in halo 2 and halo 3. it was really fun mowing
: down drones with two smgs, and you could really go rambo-style when dual
: wielding. it made the game more visceral and close quarters. in reach and
: halo 4, the combat is always at a distance. you don't nearly as often get
: up-close and personal with your enemies. it's also neat because maybe you
: start a level with a BR and an SMG, and you wind up using up all your BR
: ammo. well the SMG is OK but it's really cool that it combos so well with
: a bunch of enemy weapons you find. like the mauler.

I didn't care for dual wielding mainly due to balancing issues and the fact that it could be a hassle to deal with. I've already gone into detail on this subject before on many occasions, but to sum it up, dual wielding resulted in the weapon sandbox having a bunch of half-guns that are relatively useless when being single-wielded. You had to waste a lot of time hunting down either a single-wield weapon like a BR or another half-gun to complement the one you already have equipped. If you didn't you were at a disadvantage, which is especially bad in MP if it was SMG starts. You also had to sacrifice the ability to throw grenades, melee, or board vehicles, as you drop your left-hand weapon to do those things, thus necessitating having to go hunt down another half-gun. As I like to say, why have two of one weapon when you could have a single-wield version that does the job just as well if not better? That's why the Halo 1 plasma rifle will always be the best version of that weapon. It was a formidable weapon that stood on its own amongst the other weapons.

Gameplay always trumps "rule of cool," and IMO dual wielding is bad for gameplay. If the SMG and AR exist side-by-side, there are only two proper ways to distinguish them: 1) make the SMG a silenced firearm, which would not only make it harder to hear but would also make it to where the shooter doesn't show on radar when firing while standing still, or 2) have the SMG be weaker per-shot and less accurate but with a deep 60-round magazine and a faster rate of fire, while the AR hits harder and is more accurate but has only half the magazine capacity (think the H1 AR with 30% less per-shot power vs. the Halo 4 AR). I prefer #1 because it minimizes redundancy.