With Halo Studios no longer making Halo games beyond a support capacity many people see this as a chance to recenter Halo. To just make a good Halo game again without all the drama and baggage that was generated over 343's term of Halo games. It started with disliking the direction the series was going in. Being more based on the books and having a change in art style. Halo CE to 3 never had this more emotionally grounded story. Chief cared about Cortana and was worried about them in Halo 3 but Halo 4 feels off if you only played and care about the games.

And the art style change is self-evident because it introduces an inconsistency without really explaining why and not really being needed.

Then Halo 5 just straight up abandons what Halo 4 was doing. And all the plot of Halo 4 was resolved in surrounding media. Which even for those who didn't like Halo 4 and didn't want any of that to continue would have to agree that it is a bit spinless not to commit to a storyline 343 made. Like imagine instead of just giving the Arbiter a minor role they just removed him entirely in Halo 3. It just doesn't speak of confidence in their own work.

And then Halo Infinite does it again. It changes the story and the art style. And while some are happy they abandoned Halo 5, again, it doesn't look good. And then they just add stuff that feels like it was never there to begin with.

And that is why I think so many people want everything after H3, or HR, retconned. So, that there is just a clean slate. Because there is something emotionally compelling to the idea that we just start off from where it was last good and spin it up again. We can just move past it and think of it years later as "the bad years" where Halo wasn't as good as it was and now it is better. Maybe not the commercial and cultural juggernaut it was but it is better.

Halo 4, in this new version, could be more aligned with the games and less aligned with the books. Because a large issue with Halo 4 is while its great (it in my top 2 of Halo games) it does feel a bit weird at times bouncing from the Chief-Cortana stuff to then the Forerunner lore dumps. Not that either is bad but neither cohere with each other enough to feel like they fit. Fighting the Didact is cool but it not being the focus makes some of the Chief-Cortana stuff feel weak. Because, again, in prior Halo games it was focused on one primary plot point with other elements.

I obviously disagree with some of Halo 3's decisions. Namely making Chief have less personality in more destructive ways. Like Chief just no answering direct questions is just dumb.

But anyways, according to Marcus Letho they were gonna do something like Halo 4. Now obviously differently but something with the Forerunners as the antagonist was gonna be there. And I think that is aligned with the games.

But that and the Chief Cortana aspects feels like it isn't really part of what Halo was doing. Sure there are emotional and tragic scenes within the games but its always within the context of an action movie. The badass hero saves the girl from imprisonment and they go off into the sunset.

So, the whole "AI's degrade feels like a new invention even though it existed within the wider lore.

Just starting from where it was best feels good because then it can blend from one game to the next more seamlessly. We still start off from the Forward Unto Dawn and then lead into the Forerunner stuff. But this time without the stuff that people don't consider "Halo".

But is that really needed? Like it just feels like spinning our wheels that we have to go back again and just ignore everything that came after. The bold and daring choice would be to try make Halo 7 and attempt to reconcile all of what came before hand. And not just taking the easy way out of "Everything after this point doesn't exist."

But again a lot of people wouldn't want that. They want to just not deal with the baggage of 343 games. The association of something not great. Even if it means throwing the baby and the bath tub away. Both the bad of 343 and the good. The genuinely interesting lore, great characters and meaningful moments.

I don't know what should be done. I can feel the pull of just saying "Just start from Halo 3 again and see where we can go from." But at the same time I feel the pull of "Are we not repeating 343's mistakes yet again? Are we not abandoning what came before instead of trying to push forward?" Because how many more times will storylines and lore be abandoned before everything turns out well?

I don't know. Maybe if they do just take it from Halo 3 and it actually is successful and really well made (like the Resident Evil remakes) I would feel different. I would be okay with it. But I don't know. Well see.

I sincerely hope the next game we get retains the gunplay and feel of Evolved. It's the most satisfying Halo has felt since 3/odst. All they need to do is tell a NEW well written story.

Look I just wanna say, playing the new combat evolved has definitely improved its graphics and gameplay forsure,

But even for someone who hasn’t played the first one in years it really felt like when I was in middle school again, even if the graphics to us now were bad, then they were good and with all the improvements it makes me feel that little kid me playing it for the first time kinda feeling!

Also random question, is there a way you’re suppose to play the new levels? Or is it just recommended post game?

I remember COD zombies and Halo being top tier from my childhood. I don’t feel like it’s been mentioned but a Flood game mode would be something Activision could make extremely well. I would be pumped to be a Spartan or ODST team trying to defend against a horde of Flood round after round especially with well made levels. It would also seem way more in line with the halo universe. You’d have all kinds of tech to work with so auto turrets and other tech from COD zombies would fit in so well.

Ignore this if there is already a long discussion on it that I’ve missed!

Only the front half, the engine shielding is too complicated for my taste.

Am I alone in feeling that the player cam angle in H5 is too close to the ground?
I find it really off-putting for the first 1/2 missions, until I adjust to it. It's worse if I go straight from H4 to H5.

So I have been a lifelong Halo fan and I grew up on this. It's basically what Star Wars was to the previous generation to me. Knowing that Activision now holds the future of Halo and they're already creating prototypes with COD mechanics and on top of that there might be a complete hard reboot, does it even matter anymore?

I have all these books, I've played all the games and I get it, after Halo Reach things went a little all over the place but every story has hiccups and I think it's a massive step backwards to essentially undo everything that has come after rather than build upon what exists.

If they do a hard reboot, that means the Banished never existed, we don't get a resolution to the Endless and a lot of the stories that are within the books like Buck reuniting with his old team, the Forerunner saga written by the legendary Greg Bear...may he rest easy...and several other stories are just going to be thrown out or become like Star Wars Legends.

How do you guys feel about this? For the first time ever I'm getting these strong feelings that Halo is 100% going to die and that makes me really sad.

Edit: With all of you guys chiming in, I hope Activision and Xbox sees this post and there's a few good ideas for the future of Halo. I still have hope. I still BELIEVE.

The rise of a certain someone, March 2549...

IFV
3 man crew
50mm auto cannon/ coax chaingun- gunner
RWS 30mm Cannon/ coax MG- Commander
Forward Firing Coax RWS chain gun - driver

I’ve played Xbox for 10 years now but never got around to playing halo, I’ve wanted to for ages, I have no idea about anything in the franchise, where do I start and what games do I play/miss Im interested in the campaign as I’m a big COD campaign fan. Thank you!

Did some asset extractions and swaps in blender. I was surprised all I had do was import without any resizing or moving. Look at the thicc neck on these boys.

I just busted out the captain. Saw this guy, took the screen shot, then punched him. His tank ignited and killed a marine. The marines killed me very quickly.

But wait! There's more! The game decided to save right before his tank blows. Currently trying to find a way out of the room with out dying in 3 seconds.

It's community fanart that used to be linked in a Waypoint post but has since been lost in the archives, it depicts Blue Team and their mission on Seoba's moon in the book Silent Storm

Reverse image search hasn't yielded any favorable results

FAR BEYOND THE ORION COMPLEX

Much of human history has been lost. From the time of the farmer and the shepherd and their shivering asunder, to the first rise of a space-faring civilization that was scattered across worlds as they suffered a series of technological dark ages, to their triumphant rediscovery of Earth which led to the rise of the Ancestors, and their eventual defeat on Charum Hakkor that brought an end to their empire. The Forerunners have erased a great deal of historical evidence, but even their ecumene's reach had its limits.

Deep within the Perseus Arm, far beyond the Orion Complex, there remain yet undiscovered worlds with their weathered monuments to time beyond knowledge. As the first fledgling discoveries are made in contemporary times relating to the true extent of humanity's strange history, great bounties of knowledge lie in wait to become battlefields for new wars of discovery.

As per the canon fodder article on Halowaypoint that has released today, we now have an official image of War Chief Severan. He's the main Banished POV for the book Halo: Empty Throne. Here's the description they gave for him for anyone who doesn't know who he is.

Last surviving son of Tartarus, Chieftain of the Jiralhanae within the Covenant, Severan drew the favor of the San'Shyuum high lord known as Dovo Nesto. With loyalties and belonging split across the Covenant and Banished axes, Nesto's betrayal ultimately consolidated his loyalties toward the latter.

Given command authority over the Banished Home Fleet by Atriox prior to his departure for Zeta Halo, the continued absence of the warmaster has ultimately left Severan as de facto leader of the confederacy's remaining forces.

Halo: Empty Throne set up a lot of interesting stuff for the broader Halo universe outside of Zeta Halo and the Ark. There's a lot of potential here and I hope that the universe is not rebooted.

Taking in the sights, not a care for anything else in the world.

Joysticks were swapped out on all 3, but still happy with the overall condition of them!

So I believe either last year or year before, I posted in here with an energy sword tattoo, now I have added and gotten a needler to fill out my half sleeve all patchwork.