: I feel like the believability..feasibility..I don't know, the realism? of the
: events and content of Halo have moved much more towards fantasy sci-fi
: than when it was first introduced. Like, in Halo 1, it was a gritty
: human-kind, fighting against a powerful alien foe, and while a classic
: sci-fi setting, the mystery of Forerunner architecture and looming
: murmurs of ancient civilizations somehow made it feel more..real life.. or
: something like that.

: With the introduction of the Didact, and more tangible answers to the
: mysteries of Forerunner existence, it almost feels like we're moving into
: a complete fantasy realm of wild sci-fi content; over-the-top characters
: and designs and action... as opposed to a relatively muted, human-centric
: vision of the future.

: There's less, in my opinion, that's separating Halo now from other science
: fiction stories and universes... it's harder to imagine, say, the
: characters from I Love Bees (yeah I'm saying it again :) - who were
: depicted VERY realistically, believably, human, living in the Halo 4
: universe.

: Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I dislike where Halo is going - I still
: love my Haloverse :)... but I think this is one way that Halo has lost (or
: changed) that 'magic' that was around when it first launched; when we
: first discovered the Flood, when we first looked out over the landscape
: that was a Halo ring. Things have just become far too organic, bright,
: colourful, flashy, compared to those moments.

: Maybe it'll never return to that state... *shrug* But I miss it. =/

I think that's the case with most any 'universe' we engage with in the beginning. The fun and excitement is the unknown or the exploration of what's provided. This leads to conjecture and wild imagination and speculation. The thing is, this also feeds our thirst for more 'official universe' which then diminished the unknown and some of the imagination and speculation.

With Halo, it was an introduction for many of us to a brave new world, and as for myself it was all at a time when I HAD time to get lost in a universe. As I've aged and have less time to spend in the universe, AND as the universe has expanded with more unknown being fleshed out, the mystery and intrigue can easily be lost. This is why I'm personally intrigued with how they continue the main Halo storyline with Master Chief. 343I is at a unique juncture where they don't have to flesh out more of the unknown for a little bit. They could easily (and I hope they do!) take the next couple of games to flesh out the Master Chief instead and give us some amazing depth to one single character we've already experienced so much with. This, despite some of the shortcomings both real and perceived from Halo 4, is why I'm excited to see where they go next with Halo on the Xbox One!

- MacGyver10