: I've always thought open world Halo was a horrible idea. Sure, the franchise
: needs to evolve, but it needs to evolve in a positive direction. Open
: world level design just doesn't support the kind of tight scripted
: encounters Halo does best.

: Maybe that's an unpopular opinion, but oh well.

Maybe not open world, but I would like to see bigger, more expansive levels. Level design in Halo hasn't really progressed any since the original, and has often regressed. Halo 4 was perhaps the most constrained and linear in the series, with Halo 2 not too far behind. Things need to open up a bit and offer more freedom while at the same time still having distinct levels with distinct beginning and end points. Halo 1 still is the best in this regard. Both "Halo the Level" and Silent Cartographer offer a good bit of freedom in how you progress through them, while AotCR is technically linear but is still huge and open, offering a great sense of scale. Halo 3 had some touches of this on The Ark and The Covenant, as did Reach with Winter Contingency and ONI Sword Base, but they still fell short of Halo 1 IMO.

Halo 1 impressed me with its sense of scale. I never saw an FPS like it before. The first level was a traditional corridor crawl, but stepping outside the life boat on the second level and seeing this sprawling vista was like "Wow!" I really hope Halo 5 recaptures that feeling that the original gave me almost 14 years ago.