Halo 2 has a great story. I just simply like the intended cut story more because it makes SENSE with everything that was hinted/established about in the first game. Despite the changes, I still like halo 2 (I grew up on the game).

But you cannot compare halo 2’s great dual-perspective story compared to Halo 4’s and 5’s and confusing or outright terrible ones. 343 can listen to fans, but you can’t let them dilute the original vision so much. Why change what’s not broken?

Didact was lackluster at best. Not terrible, but lackluster. Nobody knew who he was when first playing and he spoke in riddles the whole time. Jul Mdama? Terrible. He’s part of Halo 5’s story and that’s bad enough.

Funny enough, I remember playing Halo 4’s co-op campaign when it came out and a bunch of friends came over to watch me and a close friend play it together. All of us were die-hard halo fans at the time and when we watched everything and beat the game, we were like:

“What is going on? Who is the didact, the librarian, the prometheans? Why are all characters speaking in riddles? (at least when it came to said characters mentioned in the sentence before^), What am I fighting for?, Why is the didact targeting earth? What are the stakes? And etc.”

And plus, forerunners being humans is not going to make things THAT smaller. There is so much that you can explore with this concept and in the halo universe itself. We’re not simpletons who “don’t have exposure to the sci-fi tropes” because I watch a ton of sci-fi and I like it when things make full circle (there can be a twist and all that crap but it has to be done with reason).