: 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.

Hmm, I actually think the Halo 2/3 era was the height of cartoonish fantasy Halo. Also note that those are my favorite entries in the series. ODST and Reach attempted to bring a credible reality to the universe...I'd say Reach in particular succeeded, but it wasn't really the type of story I was interested in. I see Halo 4 as a refreshing return to form, giving us some of those larger-than-life characters and ideas that have been missing for the last few years. It's not as well realized as 2 and 3, but its nice to see the series pulling back from generic grimdark soldier stuff.