: I'm hoping it just doesn't get swept under the rug. It's definitely an
: interesting dynamic.

: They have set Halo 6 up to potentially be a literal game-changer, both in
: story and possibly mechanics.
: I'm not sure how I'd feel about Halo using the mechanic, but it would make a
: certain sort of sense for a Mass Effect or KotOR style planet-hopping
: quasi-open world mechanic. They at least have it set up to where that's
: not outside the realm of possibility. While I think that has the potential
: to be interesting, I'm hoping against it, as Halo 5 was a very refreshing
: break from Destiny and all the "open world" games out there.

I don't see Halo ever doing a ME-level planet-hopping option, because going that open-world drastically limits your options for storytelling, and leads to those idiosyncrasies of games, like the fact that no dragons are going to attack until I complete this mission in Skyrim, which means for 50 hours after the first dragon attacked nothing happened of any note in my game :) ODST was a small, contained story that didn't rely on anything happening until the very end, so it was a limited example of where it would work.

With that said I'd love for them to expand on the no-combat interludes we got here (I hesitate to say mission because more than any other Halo game, I think this one flows together and feels much less punctuated.) Getting to explore larger areas how you want, looking for collectibles or plot details or exploring, and maybe taking down the occasional baddy, is the enduring appeal of games like BioShock for me, and it was awesome having a taste of that in my Halo (in general, the intel has been really great from the ones I've picked up. Less than the terminals but a lot more encompassing due to their slight nature.)