: Hey, I was just looking at the Terminal 1 screen in the level Charon Doesn't
: Make Change for another post when I noticed that one of the hunters has
: his weapon mounted over the left rather than the right shoulder. In the
: game, we only see hunters with right-sided weapons. I'm curious if this
: has ever been noticed or commented on before. A quick search of the Story
: Page didn't turn anything up, but it's hard to imagine this not coming
: up as some time in the past, especially with this group :) I wonder if
: left-handed hunters are less common than right-handed ones, and if there
: is any discrimination in Pfhor society as a result, or is shoulder
: selection purely arbitrary.
We see both in the game, actually. Whether they have their weapon mounted on the left or right shoulder simply depends on which direction they're facing. In Marathon 2 and Infinity (I'm not sure if Bungie did this in M1 or not), the sequences where the monster faces to the player's right are simply the sequences where it faces left, flipped horizontally. So when the player looks at the Hunter's left side, the cannon is on its left side- but when he looks at its right side, it's switched to the right side.
This may have been done so that the artists wouldn't have to draw each monster from each side, or it may have been to reduce file size... I'm not sure. You usually don't really notice it in the game, though- but if you look for it, it's there. It's also evident in the Marine sprites- if you look on one side, he's right handed, and on the other side, he's left handed. That, uh, blue thing on his chest also switches sides. What is that thing anyway? A badge? The motion sensor? Anyone know?
