: I think it's weird that, as of Halo 4, the Forerunner are suddenly using
: portals contained within physical rings, like a Stargate. Sure the portals
: still pop out of nowhere, and they're probably made out of insubstantial
: hardlight, but it's pretty different from the Beam-Me-Up-Scotty-type
: teleportation we saw in the first two Halo games.

: It's a pretty blatant change. I think it was driven by design limitations
: rather than lore, because Halo 4 needed John 117 to gallivant around
: Requiem without a Pelican or a friendly monitor to teleport him. This same
: portal movement was used by Spartan Ops because they had limited assets
: and couldn't script a Pelican to come in and rescue you with every level.
: Then Halo 5 and spinoff games ran with it, and I think we're stuck with
: portals.

: I see why they're going to be used for Halo: Infinite, especially if it is an
: open-world design. I just can't help but feel a disconnect with the old
: games, where you had to walk or fly everywhere unless you had someone with
: root access to the control room helping you.

I definitely think the portals in Halo 4 were overused (I've got a half-written article somewhere about how a major issue Halo 4's story had in terms of the moment-to-moment gameplay arc was that it robbed players of a lot of the feeling of momentum and forward progress) but for Requiem and now Zeta Halo it makes a lot more sense that they don't behave exactly the same in part because each ring is a lot more bespoke in overall design.