343 Halo Art Style

343 Industries took over as the studio creating the Halo games after Halo Reach. They began with a remaster of the first game, Halo Combat Evolved. But when they did Halo 4, the sequel to Bungie's last game in the timeline, 343 changed the art style of Halo. Something Bungie actually began with when they made Halo Reach. The shift in art style was controversial. Some loved it while others hated it. I myself prefer the art style seen in the original trilogy of games. 

The strategy game, Halo Wars later got a sequel in Halo Wars 2. This game used a mix of the Bungie and 343 art styles. This continued when 343 made Halo Infinite which will be released later this year. But I began doing some redesigns of the weapons seen in Halo. This would be to have a more classic design to the 343 era. Remaking their designs to still be fateful to the designs before them. So let's get into how I would've made the 343 Halo art style...

Assault Rifle

The first weapon I redesigned was the most classic. The Assault Rifle. I began with this one because there wasn't much change needed for the weapon. Halo 5's biggest problem with the Assault Rifle was the color. So I decided to change the colors and also add the green lights from the Halo 3 version of the weapon.

Magnum

Halo 5 changed the classic large pistol for a black more compact Magnum. With this design, I decided to make the top and back a bit larger, change the color to the classic silver, and add an extended magazine. The weapon in Halo 5 was a smaller black version of the classic weapon. I only made some small adjustments to make the weapon be closer to the original version. To me, this looks far better and it is more in line with the previous versions. 

Battle Rifle

Halo 4 and Halo 5's versions of the Battle Rifle were far too different from the Battle Rifle seen in Bungie's games. To fix this, I decided to take the 343 design and make sure the shape was closer to the shape of the Halo 2 Anniversary Battle Rifle. I also changed the colors, added the Halo 4 scope, and added the triangles seen on the previous versions. I really like how this one turned out and I feel it is a better representation of what a new Battle Rifle could look like. 

H2 Magnum (Sidekick)

The Halo 2 Magnum was a weaker pistol with a higher fire rate. I believe the Halo 2 Magnum should've been in Halo 5: Guardians. This would work perfectly as a secondary sidearm for the UNSC and the difference in how the two Magnums would work would also make it more engaging when choosing what sidearm you want to play with. This would create more chouses when it comes to gameplay and the Halo 2 Magnum in Halo 5 could work as a precursor to the Sidekick from Halo Infinite. 

DMR

For the DMR, the most important part for me was to combine the Halo Reach and Halo 5 designs. I wanted the raised top and the iron sight at the front. I also believe the connection between the grip and the stock had to go. Otherwise, the biggest difference is the color scheme. I decided to go with a darker color scheme that was more in line with the Halo Reach color scheme compared to the light grey DMR from Halo 5.

Shotgun

The shotgun was the hardest to remake. I love both the original design from the first three games and 343's redesign. I decided to really try to combine the two designs. I went for a larger contrast between the colors while also adding the sights from the Halo 2 Anniversary version of the weapon. I of course changed the color from green to blue to make it look more like the Halo CE and Halo 3 versions. I also wanted to add the longer barrels to make it look more like the previous versions. I went for the longer middle barrel and shorter barrel underneath as we see in Halo 3 but I also decided to add a top barrel as a reference to the Halo Reach shotgun.

When it comes to the colors, I wanted it to look more like the Halo 3 and Halo CE shotgun which is the reason why there is so much silver on the large barrel. In CE the barrel nearly looks chrome in some lights. So I decided to recreate that with the new design for the barrel. By making the main part silver. The red lights are also from Halo Reach which actually is my least favorite shotgun in the series. 

SAW

The SAW was an all-new weapon for Halo 4. Meaning it was an original weapon created by 343 Industries. But I still thought it looked off compared to most weapons we see in the Bungie era of games. I remembered a concept art from Halo Reach that also had a Light Machine Gun. Because of this, I decided to combine the two. 

The biggest difference you'll see with my version of the SAW is the shape. I decided to make it more blocky as I added the Assault Riffle top on the SAW. But this time it was straight. I also added the Halo Reach Assault Rifle counter and the Halo 5 shotgun handle. Yes, the whole down part is from a shotgun but much longer and bigger. 

The stock and grip were also separated this time. With that, I made the magazine straight instead of its angeled design. After this, I made the barrel shorter and added an iron sight. All to make the weapon look like something Bungie could've done.