FullCapacity on 3/11/2006 at 01:29
After playing through a couple of times, I realize that the assault rifle is nearly worthless in the game.
There is the great 20MM HE grenade launcher which gives you indirect fire. That's the only reason I lug the thing around. But the regular rifle itself is nearly worthless.
It burns through ammo fast, ammo is fairly scarce, it dishes out too little damage, it takes a ton of weapons mods to make it even moderately effective and enemies are spaced out enough where other weapons do a better job. I don't even bother using it in the first half of the game because without mods it can't do anything except kill someone at point blank range.
I find I carry the sniper rifle as my default in hand weapon most of the time. I have the scope which removes the need for the binoculars. And it's one shot/one kill as long as I get a headshot. And as long as I have the time to set up my shot, I don't have to rush myself. If things get hairy, I can always switch off to the regular pistol to finish someone off.
Has anyone here completely maxed out the regular Assault Rifle before? (Targeting aug, all mods possible added, Master Rifles) Is there a major jump in it's ability if you are maxxed out?
Also, does maxxing out improve the range and effectiveness of the 20MM HE? Or is that set no matter what you do to the Assault rifle?
HamburgerBoy on 3/11/2006 at 04:14
It's only useful towards the last 1/3 or so of the game, when everything drops ammo for it. At that point you should be able to get your Rifle skill upgraded to Master and it's 100% accurate. Add a silencer along with a laser and you've got a great ranged one-shot kill weapon. Even though it takes a full five bullet burst to take a troop down, it goes through that burst quickly enough to not miss a shot anyways.
Qaladar on 3/11/2006 at 16:33
Assault Rifle is my go to weapon throughout the entire game. However it should be noted that I do a lot of killing at close range... that's just the way I play.
th|3f on 3/11/2006 at 22:01
Maxing out your Rifle skill seems to be imperative for a semi-effective non-stealth orientated run and gun game. I used the Sniper Rifle to thin numbers when the opportunity was available, and I actually switched between carrying the assault rifle and auto-shotgun depending on how much secondary ammo I had for each, and mainly used those as bot killers. Without really upgrading either rifle, they are definately not good against human targets. Therefore, it seems most logical to put upgrades into your sniper rifle, and the rest will take care of itself.
D'Juhn Keep on 4/11/2006 at 13:26
"It burns through ammo fast, ammo is fairly scarce, it dishes out too little damage, it takes a ton of weapons mods to make it even moderately effective and enemies are spaced out enough where other weapons do a better job. I don't even bother using it in the first half of the game because without mods it can't do anything except kill someone at point blank range."
Most of this is factually wrong. I maxed out the ammo for it in my current playthrough (Rifles all the way) just after Castle Clinton and took out all the UNATCO troops in the NSF base with it and didn't drop past half ammo - and THEN picked up all their rifles. There is a lot of 7.62mm ammo in the game. It does burn through ammo fast, if you keep firing. Better to learn from the m460 in Counter Strike and fire in bursts. Controlled, well aimed firing is better than spraying. I've been using it from Castle Clinton (Trained in Rifles), with a Laser mod to help it out early on, though when I get to Master, with a couple of Accuracy mods, it won't really be necessary. I will accept that to be great, it probably needs all the Recoil mods you can spare. On Trained, 1 burst (5 bullets of your 30 clip) to the head will kill a UNATCO trooper. And with Laser and a couple of Recoil mods, this is very easy to do. I sort of hate to be all superior, but it sounds like you're just not very good with the gun and are trying to blame your own shortcomings on it, which is hardly fair! As the gun can't argue its case, I'll do it for it ;)
Kalit on 4/11/2006 at 15:04
I love the assault rifle, worked great for me.
DarkForge on 10/11/2006 at 17:11
Same here. I love that Assault Rifle, me! :thumb:
The only time I don't like it is when it has the Silencer mod installed. Then it sucks - I want to HEAR the satisfying churning of bullets! :cool:
BEAR on 19/11/2006 at 22:21
I used it when I first got it, but I wasnt totally wild about it. Pistol shots to the head seemed to work better for me, and when I got sniper rifle I never used it again (except for the 20mmHE shells). Autoshotgun I liked pretty good, but then again I played pretty craftily, as opposed to assault.
IMO, once you get the sword all other weapons become worthless except sniper rifle.
BlackCapedManX on 9/12/2006 at 20:50
If you max out rifles skill (easily done by the time you're captured) the assault rifle (even totally unmodded) becomes a powerhouse. It's very usefull for escaping the mj12 lab because you don't have your weapons for a while (or if you're doing a speed run and don't have time to go get them) because each 5 shot burst instantly kills normal enemies. My only issue is that you can't shoot less than a 5 round burst (when at max level it seems to only really need three or so shots to the head). At a flat level of trained for all weapons (as the pistols can't get to untrained due to the bug) the pistol and the sniper rifle seem to be the best weapons (other than the DTS, but at a range they beat it out) though somewhat unweildly. The issue with the pistol is that since it can get 1hitkill headshots at trained, and a laser sight is available in the first level, there's no reason to train it anymore than that. The rifle on the other hand is usefull for the more powerful enemies (the commandos, MIBs, gunther, simmons, etc.) which the pistol never really gets more effective against, and the rifle can take over the use of standard enemy killer. Rifle ammo is also stupidly common, since a majority of enemies use it (though only drop 3-5 rounds) and rifle clips are more common than food. On the other hand, you could just use the pistol, the DTS and the GEP and that would be enough for any situation.
DaveW on 10/12/2006 at 23:29
At master rifle level, the assault rifle is fantastic. Any lower (like a lot of weapons) and it's essentially useless.
