It's a game I want to play with my eyes shut so that I don't have to look at it. The glare! Those shapeless shapes, unnecessary kibbling, and enemies-are-bad-therefore-they-must-be-ugly.

As Quirel said the characters have lost all agency, they are flesh robots, pawns moved around by the authors. Characters are always at the mercy of the authors but a good or mediocre writer can convince you that the characters are people in their own right. 343 has rubbed it in our faces - the librarian probably decided 100,000 years ago that Cortana would be blue. All the characters are her puppets - that probably includes the Didact (both versions).

Just a thought: does anybody else see her as the Virgin Mary? Our Lady? Was Bear (or someone else at 343) thinking along those lines?

: Thankfully, the two studio's approaches and intents are so disparate that I
: can enjoy the originals still as they were, mysteries intact. 343i's story
: is just a similar or alternate universe. A 'what if'. I do not believe
: owning an IP grants you the power to make a story ring true.

Tru dat.

: Some mysteries should never be solved. Wonder, excitement, danger is found in
: questions, curiosity and the dark and obscure. Answers do not usually
: require your imagination. They shine a spotlight on something,
: disconnecting it from all that it could have been, which will always be
: greater than the thing itself.

I don't agree with the principle that mysteries should never be solved in real life but I do agree with it in fiction.

So far when we solve real life mysteries the answers we find are better than stuff we could have made up. In fiction we are limited to human imagination and the results are often disappointing.

: Sometimes I think 343i was flawed before it get off the ground because of its
: purpose. Being locked in the Haloverse forever in every arm of its
: extension doesn't sound like a healthy environment for storytelling.

I agree

: The
: stories will be artificially extended, answers will be needed, elements of
: mystery will constantly be destroyed to create two lesser mysteries. I
: truly think the best thing 343i might need is to make non-Halo games as
: well so as to gain perspective and learn new ideas to apply back to Halo.

All their devs have worked on other games and they tried applying ideas fro other games. COD cough cough.