343 have failed Halo so badly, I always loved the overall story but once it got to Halo 4 things started to become rocky. It didn’t help it felt like you needed to have read novels and the like to understand the lore going forward.
343 spent it’s time trying its best to strip Bungie from the series so people would regard it as their franchise instead.
Halo 4 tried to change the multiplayer
Halo 5 Guardians tried to change the single player with forced AI squads and trying to focus on Agent Locke who they clearly wanted to lead the series going forward with how much time they spent on him, he even got his own small film. Cortana returned but as a villain yet rather than going back to the Chief and Cortana dynamic we love they committed to the villainous turn, okay no problem, they clearly are going to have her redemption in the next game by saying it was rampancy or the Didact survived being the mastermind behind the entire thing…
Halo Infinite tried to go fully open world and they just killed Cortana off screen then replaced her with someone else filling in the gaps as part of the story.
Halo 5 and Infinite also had this issue where they both started so far from the last game where a bunch of shit happened in-between that they tell you about as the game goes on. They clearly didn’t have a plan for the new trilogy and felt they kept changing their mind where they were going. It’s like how Lucas Film handled the Star Wars sequel trilogy.
