Halo takes place in the future, yet the weapons are basic modern day stuff. A basic pump shotgun, a burst battle rifle, a sniper rifle, a simple SMG, etc. Unreal Gold and Unreal Tournament take place in the future and have unreal (no pun intended) stuff like a Flak Cannon, Shock Rifle, Ripper, Lightning Gun, Shield Gun, Mine Layer, Link Gun, etc.
Halo’s universe was strongly influenced by media like Aliens and thus, we’ve got pretty conventional weapons for humanity.
Halo’s writers acknowledge the law of diminishing return in their weapon development. They’re using effective weapons, and it wouldn’t make sense to upgrade to newer designs if the improvement to their effectiveness wasn’t enough to offset the costs. And the further you develop, the harder it is to make an improvement that meets that criteria.
Also keep in mind, that the ammunition humanity in Halo is using is both armor piercing and high-explosive… a combination modern militaries don’t use.
Honestly. Im fine with the mordern weapons look. It sort of separates the covenant weapons from humans.
In most futuristic games the alien side and humans side look way to similar and to me thats boring.
I think it would actually all fit quite well if the game was set in like 2152 instead of 2552.
Lol diesel 4x4s being carried by starships with translight drives is ridikilis. Not as bad as chevy tahoes tho.
In a commentary by bungie devs they said it was a sacrifice made for gameplay. They then jokingly speculated in the future, that you’d just have to drink a glass of water and all your enemies would die.