After much anticipation for a flamethrower in the first two Halo titles, fans can now rejoice in the fact they can set anything on fire in Halo 3. The M7057 / Defoliant Projector, more commonly known as the Flamethrower, will be available in both single player and multiplayer.
In an interview with IGN, Frankie confirmed all the details:
The flamethrower does things that just weren’t possible in Halo 2. This is, more or less, a living flame. “If you shoot a pillar, the liquid in the flamethrower will adhere to it and burn there,” O’Connor explained. “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.”
Frankie also confirmed that the bubble shield will protect you from the flamethrower. So if you see someone coming with this monstrosity, either fire a lot of rounds at them, or throw up a bubble shield post haste.
The flamethrower does come at a bit of a cost. The bursts last just three seconds and you’ll need to pump the trigger once a burst dries out. This is a turret weapon, like the missile pod. That means you’ll be controlling it in a third-person view and will move slowly.
Along with the flamethrower, you’ll get the Firebomb grenade to compliment the already disclosed spike, frag, and plasma grenandes.
“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.” So, you thought the spike grenade was cool, huh?
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The firebomb will be a useful tool in multiplayer games like CTF to cut off a flag-runner. “You can [create walls of flames],” O’Connor said. “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.”
It sounds like the firebomb might be more useful than the flamethrower. Either way, both will be pretty damn fun.
