This is what the original Halo Trilogy had and that is what invoked that “Halo feel” from the game and music. We had barely any knowledge on who or what the Forerunners were and what they were. All we knew was they fought the flood and lost, the main story for the original trilogy was Humanity pinned against the wall by the Covenant with no way out and while the dread of acing extinction was there the sense of curiousity and knowledge to be learned were what made the game sooo special.
Multiplayer maps in Halo are loved mainly due to their balanced playthrough but at the back of your mind every game you know that map had a story to tell, you know something happened on that map or that map had an indirect relevance to the overarching story. Halo 4 brought back that curiosity from maps that Reach failed in doing so, yet the curiosity in Campaign fell short. The campaign was amazing, despite it’s render failing making maps very linear and small, but the tides have shifted. The Covenant are no longer bringing Humanity onto the border of extinction, and the Forerunners are no longer as vague and mysterious as before, and to top it all off the player/ Master Chief is no longer as valuable as he was previously (he is still incredibly valuable but the UNSC is actively trying to replace him).
That “Halo Feel” that we all missed with Neil’s work might not return because the tides have shifted. It can be done still as Forerunners are becoming more apparent and Covenant are beginning to fall through, speaking for myself, I want that sense of immense curiosity and “epicness” the original trilogy had, that amongst many other things is what made Halo such a unique title amongst other sci-fi games and shooters overall.
Thank you for your time for reading I know it was hefty but nostalgia kicked in.
I know what you mean. I kind of wish the Forerunners and Flood would have remained a mystery. The new details in the Forerunner Saga are interesting, but, I don’t know, I was just more intrigued with the story when everything was a mystery. Don’t get me wrong though, I’m still very invested in the story. I just think it would have been better if the Forerunner story was like background info in terminals or something (just my opinion).
I love that sense of mystery and other-wordiness of the first Halo. Even Halo 2 had it, but not quite to the same degree.
There’s something magical about not knowing, about being in the dark and still having so many unanswered questions and things to learn.
As S 000 DeM has said, we still have the Precursors.
I really hope that we get to explore some more mysteries in the Halo universe, and that we get those moments where something is revealed that we never saw coming.
With regards to the Forerunners, it needed to happen. The same mystery for 4+ games would have been boring as hell, and a new developer meant that Halo needed something new. The Precursors are even more mysterious than the Forerunners were - we haven’t even seen anything Precursor in origin (unless you count the Flood or potentially the Impact artifact).
The Precursors will solve all problems that you have with mystery/wonder. So will Ancient Humanity.
Also, with regards to Neil Davidge. While I do think that he is a great composer, and some of his music has inspired some of mine, I just don’t think he rings the “Halo Feel” in the way that Kazuma Jinnouchi and Tom Salta do.
Their attempt to compensate for Spartan-II losses will just be disastrous.
The way Spartan-IVs have been depicted in the game and comic, it’s truly atrocious, although I am intrigued by Musa and Jun.
As for Prometheans, I hope the Knights undergo a huge appearance change because they are not intimidating, at all. Crawlers and Watchers are fine, they just need improved AI behavior.