So I saw Alannah Pearce on a recent podcast try to suggest that Halo’s art style might be outdated and as such that may be contributing to the negative discussion about the graphics.
343 already addressed this on a blog post citing how excited the community was for the “classic” art style to return before the demo and that their E3 2018/19 trailers were praised in this regard.
For those still unconvinced, consider this. If 343 Industries released a Halo game in the future where the graphics in both cutscenes and gameplay mirrored those of the Halo 2 Anniversary cutscenes from Blur, people would lose their minds. They already did when Halo 2 Anniversary was revealed. Halo Wars 2 cutscenes were also highly praised. As was Halo Infinite in the E3 2018/19 trailers.
That’s what 343 Industries should be targeting going forward. And we should make that more widely known. Even if those graphics are not possible in gameplay today, 5 years from now, that may be a different story. Just look at Unreal Engine 5.
I hope Halo Infinite next year resembles more closely what was shown in E3 2018/19. Both trailers said they were “in-engine.” We were sold those “next-gen” graphics in terms of marketing as well when Halo Infinite was revealed.