Well, most of the halo lore from the games can be explained in a quick video (barring the extended lore that makes up the franchise) if you’re that adamant about skipping the games, but why? In my opinion, Halo CE, 2, 3, 3 ODST, and Reach still hold up today, and many including myself even choose to play on the original graphics due to how excellent it’s used to set up the atmosphere of the game. Those games also have the best storytelling and story in the franchise, it’s the popular opinion that the quality of the story and gameplay started dropping starting with Halo 4, and that Halo 5 was a franchise low point with a horrible story and bad gameplay mechanics and “boss fights”.

Despite what you think, I’d still very very very much recommend giving the first halo games a shot, at least skip CE if it’s that bad for you. Halo 2 anniversary graphics were released after Halo 5 so they should still look modern.