The Designated Marksman Rifle (DMR) made it’s debut in Halo: Reach and is easily the most controversial weapon of the entire Halo series. Leaving one of the worst impressions on Halo fans, many of the community consider this weapon the death of Halo: Reach’s multiplayer experience all together. This weapon suffered from far too many inconsistent shot placements due to it’s bloom effect and simply left no other alternative. It wasn’t until an update years down the line which reduced and eliminated the bloom all together which turned many opinion back in it’s favor but it’s was simply too late to win the community’s attention as a whole. So how does such an ill received weapon make it to the dance in Halo 4 and where does it stand? Surprisingly enough, the tweaks in Halo 4 actually places the DMR as quite possibly the absolute best primary semi-automatic rifle in the game!
Weapon Breakdown: This is primarily a mid to long-range weapon as by design, it’s utilized to pick opponents off with high-powered and accurate shots within a total of 5 shots. The DMR is a single shot, semi automatic rifle which also possess a zoom in ability that doubles the magnification of it’s standard view. The bloom (recoil rate which widens the reticule and makes the gun less accurate) resets quickly to a pace as to where it almost feels non-existent unless the player is heavily spamming it’s shots too quickly. The ammunition clip of the DMR is very accommodating for long-term use without need for any ammunition pick ups for quite a while if players simply play a distant and safer role from firefight zones or happen to run on killing sprees. This weapon is also a hitscan gun (the bullets will make precise and instant contact with whatever or whomever is within it’s reticule upon firing) making it lethal from around 80{3a19833c997fa52158a43c449fe089ff048ac0506a335cac10721cfa396ff282} distance of any map without losing it’s effectiveness.
Pros and Cons:Â With the long-range power that the DMR possesses and easy to maintain accuracy, this weapon is leaps and bounds more deadly than just about any other weapon in the game. It’s primary uses are for mid to long-range, however even within tight spaces where player find themselves in unexpected close quarters battles, the DMR still manages it’s effectiveness almost flawlessly. The only real error than can limit the use of this gun is actually from fault of the players execution and personal accuracy within the game. Targets at a close range are hard to miss but landing the final headshot quickly demands a little more precision than landing body shots and may be the only thing that requires more focus in practice to novice to intermediate level players.
For as much flak as the DMR has suffered from its debut in Halo:Reach, the tweaks in its performance does more than enough to make up for it in Halo 4. This weapon has skyrocketed from the bottom of the barrel to the top favorited and most used weapon for all the right reasons with it’s only real flaw lying within the player’s execution behind it. The DMR has seen such a tremendous boost in its stats across t he board that some even go so far as to consider this an overpowered weapon. While it is highly doubtful to see any tweaks within online patches for this gun, it is almost a sure thing that seeing this gun in the hands of many players will be just as commonplace as the Battle Rifle was in Halo 2-3.
