In the MCC there are painted Esq. Cutscenes in the Terminals that look really cool. They also fill in a lot of gaps for Halo fans that just play the games, and don’t delve into the expanded universe. With the release of Halo 5 in a few months It would be great for 343 to scrap the Halo 3 text terminals, and replace it with cutscene terminals in the same vain as Halo 2 anniversary. That give background on the Blue Team members, and their importance in the halo universe to catch everyone up for Halo 5.
No. I would rather not scrap the first definitive evidence we got of forerunner society, the activation of the Array, an indication of a powerful flood force and other prehistoric events for a recap of information which is quite easily accessible.
Here’s a tip; why not look this page and read it for yourself rather than get 343 to waste resources on retelling a story that has been retold countless times in the Halo Universe, especially when the proposal is to remove something which was incredibly more important (At the time of release, we knew nothing of the Forerunners or the Flood) and will likely (Actually, does) have much more important resonances to Halo 5’s plot? This really does look like “I’m too lazy to read so lets get rid of the reading for videos that are completely unnecessary!”
I personally prefer the text Terminals. One of the main reasons is that I think the video Terminals are just a bit overdone. I find it unlikely that 343 Guilty Spark would run around recording video diaries that John-117 would be able to view in his visor later, for example. The Domain ones are a bit more believable, but I still find the “video diary” idea just very unlikely and resource-heavy.
Text Terminals are simple. You find a story, you write the characters, you put text in there. You’re leaving it up to player imagination. It’s much more likely for John-117 to find raw data archives that recorded important events than to find video diaries that were never recorded. Especially when Mendicant Bias is pointing him to it.
I always liked the text terminals… More interactive and their were a lot of clues. I would like to not be on a time table with them though.