: Bungie has been historically really good at world building, and backstory,
: but not so great at the actual narrative. I think this worked out in
: Marathon and Myth, since so much of the story was "off screen",
: and it was presented to you in text. The technology was also not what it
: is today, so everything was somewhat abstract and you had to fill in the
: gaps yourself and use more imagination.
This is KEY to me for world building certain aspects of the universe. Mystery described to you is still slightly mysterious. Being shown Forerunners in Halo, I must say that they became much more Human than I was expecting after reading The Greg Bear Novels. However, they felt a lot closer to the Forerunner that could be related to humans from Bungie hints.

The Precursors had (in my memory) been described as more legend by the Forerunners than an actual honest to goodness thing. Making them real isn't/wasn't the problem. Just like the explanations for the Forerunner aren't exactly bad. The media currently coming out feels... disjointed. Some things "feel" like Halo while others feel like other universes shoehorned into Halo. 343i has done a pretty good job connecting other media to the games, such as the Greg Bear Novels and the Ur-Didact and the Forward Unto Dawn characters returning as well as the Comic tie-ins to the Spartan Ops characters. I personally love cannon and the idea of it, but certain things have a hard time being resolved with believability and other things (IMHO) are better as mysteries (Forerunner).

To take a dead horse metaphor and beat it, the Star Wars new trilogy didn't live up to the back story of Vader most of us had hopped for. The Forerunner back stories don't feel right to me based on the hints sprinkled through Halo. I realize not everyone feels this way, but I think certain mysteries should never be resolved.