I think that many of the systemic problems that plagued the prequel trilogy affect 343i's Halo. Once had a list comparing the two, but it's lost on my hard drive. I will avoid making the obvious comparison between the geas and midichlorions, because they share only superficial similarities.

: However, that's at the expense of it's expanded universe. You aren't the
: last Spartan by any stretch of the imagination. It just feels so
: constrictive. Not to mention its set within all of four months.

I'm sorry you think so.

: The Reclaimer Saga just seems so much bigger, full of life, and expansive.
: It adapts unexplained mythology into its own. It breathes life into aspects
: of Halo the past caretakers didn't bother to explore.

Seems kind of sterile to me. Like they aren't breathing life into what Bungie didn't have time to explore, merely importing it from elsewhere. Marvel comics, probably.

: However, while it
: has strayed greatly from the visual style of the past saga, it does have
: every right to do so being set five years after Bungie's games.

They have every right to stray, but I can't find the connection to what came before. Looking back from where we are now, it's like... it's like I'm looking over the embers of bridges burning behind us, and getting a glimpse of how green it was on the other side.

Under Bungie, Halo had a certain magic to it. They couldn't consistently capture it, there's a lot of spots where they just fell flat in Halo 3 and Reach. But under them, the grass was greener, the lights were brighter, the taste was sweeter. 343i has shown themselves to be incapable of duplicating that magic, and I don't think they're capable of coming up with something else that's just as enthralling.

(Note: The above is what happens when you write forum posts while listening to Pink Floyd.)