- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
I don't think it really works to talk about them realistically - i.e. SMGs short range vs. AR long range. I mean, when did Halo's weapons ever try to be realistic? For instance, the bullets in the pistol are significantly more powerful than rifle or SMG bullets - how does that work? Second of all, modern SMGs are not horrible for medium range - an MP5 can hit a person a good 50m away (probably more like 100, I'm not exactly sure), whereas in Halo the SMG is effective to maybe 10 m (30ish feet). Assault rifles like the M16 and G36 series are effective to 400m, and yet the MA5B had trouble past 20m.
The problem is that if you make the weapons realistic, you also have to make the gameplay realistic. Notably, the fact that moving makes you less accurate. If you don't account for that, then making a weapon appropriately powered or ranged destroys the use of some weapons, especially the pistol.
All that is not to say the SMG will be taken out, but saying that it remains based on the properties of real guns is not a solid argument.