Halo has always been a mixture of a sci-fi and a military shooter, sometimes with other genres sprinkled in as well.
I feel like under Bungie’s direction, part of the beauty of Halo was seeing this clash of believable futuristic human military up against very sleek and intimidating aliens, all while also discovering more about ancient and mysterious aliens. Everything from the music, to the art direction, to the characters seemed to encapsulate this smorgasbord of themes.
As many things as there are that I’ve loved of 343i’s tenure so far with Halo, one thing I’ve missed is this feel of separate themes. Humanity’s militaristic theme has been replaced with a futuristic sci-fi feel for humanity. The themes of the covenant and Forerunners, even in the story progression, have partially been diluted as well. Forerunners, from the history to the characters to even the architecture, no longer carry a mysterious overtone as they did on Alpha Halo or even the Ark.
I say all of this to pose this question: what kind of balance of themes do you all want for Infinite? Did you like humanity’s technology becoming blurred visually with the Forerunners’? Do you like the “Covenant” taking a back seat to the Prometheans? Should the Flood return and bring the genre of horror back slightly to the series?
I agree with you that I want the different factions to have distinct portrayals. Humanity appeared more industrial and minimalist in the old games. The star ships, for instance, were efficiently designed to suit their purpose and weren’t over embellished. The Covenant appeared far more ornate and spiritual, meshing well with their ideology. Forerunner architecture was ornate and grandiose, which ties in with the Covenant aesthetic that worshiped them. With the new games, Everything just kinda blends together.
So I’d like to see a more grounded military sci-fi theme for the UNSC that differentiates them from the Forerunners. With how blended the art style is in H5, it makes it difficult to see just how much more advanced the Forerunners were compared to humanity.
As for the Covenant, I feel like that name only exists because of name recognition for the franchise. The fact that the splinter factions are still referred to as the Covenant makes Cortana’s dialogue at the end of H3 make no sense. “Truth, the Covenant, the Flood… it’s finished”… well they aren’t finished if we keep calling every splinter faction “the Covenant”. This is part of why I like the Banished so much. It’s still got all the different species, but has a new name and new goals to keep it fresh.
As for the Flood… YES. I want them back so badly.