I, of course, noticed plenty of things that Halo drew from: the atmospherics, the architecture both human and alien, the music. But it drew attention to the fact that something Halo 4 and 5 have been sorely lacking is the kind of atmospherics that the original Halo borrowed (and built on) from Alien. I think of 343 Guilty Spark and Two Betrayals and Silent Cartographer and the like, and I think of the atmosphere. The quiet calm clashing with the brief but intense battles that would flare up in each area of the level.

Halo 4 had a lot of this, for sure, but a lot of this was overshadowed for me by the dissonance between characterizations of EU characters now appearing, the general dislikability of almost all of the humans who show up, and the lackluster plot. Halo 5 was overly bombastic and didn't really have many quiet downtime moments that made me feel like I could or even wanted to explore. The awe was just, gone.

Might just be me, might not.