As Halo-mania continues to heat up, Bungie reveals two new hot pieces of Halo 3 weaponry: the Firebomb and the flamethrower.
Bungie Lead Writer Frank O’Connor discussed with IGN the technical reasons for the flamethrower’s absence from the previous Xbox Halo titles. “It wasn’t just balance in Halo 2, it was also performance,” said O’Connor. “Obviously, the 360 makes things like that significantly easier. In Halo 3, we can control where it goes a lot better. [The flamethrower] obviously features a lot in campaign. But in multiplayer it doesn’t have to be in every multiplayer playlist and map.”
O’Connor continued, talking about the practical uses for fire. “If you shoot a pillar, the liquid in the flamethrower will adhere to it and burn there. Likewise with the floor and with bad guys. It will cause continual damage to a vehicle. When the flames start to cool down and evaporate, it stops causing damage. If you’re lucky enough to keep it on a Warthog, then you will in fact take it down with a flamethrower.”
The rumored fourth grenade type has been revealed as the Firebomb, a throw-able explosive that produces flames with the same properties as the flamethrower’s. “It has a very similar level of damage as [the flamethrower]. It works pretty much the same way. It’s very dangerous to get hit by one directly. It will explode and splash over you when it hits. … You can [create walls of flames]. You can block an exit by throwing down a couple of fire bombs. It will create a small wall of flames that it’s not smart for someone to walk through.”
O’Connor commented on the addition of new grenades to gameplay. “Obviously, we’ve had that extra grenade spot in the UI for a while. It works like any other grenade. So you can have spike, plasma, frag and flame now. If you think about it, that gives you the same amount of grenades as Halo 2 did – it’s just all different flavors.”
