How will 343 “reboot” Halo with Infinite?

I’ve been seeing a lot of hype around the community since that Banished trailer dropped, and from my POV 343 is no doubt trying to please their core audience by teasing some lore stuff. I don’t know too much of the lore just to preface.

So my question is: how will 343 “spiritually reboot” the halo franchise? I think their pitfalls for H4 and esp. H5 was that most of the mainstream audience was left in the dark on the lore/story. If you weren't up to date on the books you were left out in the campaign, which turned many off. So how does 343 achieve a coherent continuation of the storyline while bringing in newcomers to the big world of Halo as well?

My suggestion?
For the beginning of the game, they absolutely need a long and interesting cinematic cutscene type recap of entire franchise. Yes, from Combat Evolved to now. If they just launch new players into “previously on Halo 5” this will not work. I really hope they do a nostalgic and welcoming recap that really welcomes those who are brand new and reacquaints those who haven't played in years. Im not sure what else to add, but Im really noticing that was a main issue (for me) in the previous two titles. Im more worried that they will not balance out catering to their two demographics: hardcore fans and the casual gamer.

And yes we need the casual, mainstream audience in order for this game to thrive for years to come.
Thoughts?

As 343 said in the same statement they mentioned the "spiritual reboot" buzzword:

Quote:

... a game with a vision set firmly in the future, but a foundation rooted deeply in the things our team and our fans have fallen in love with – the scope, the scale, the heroism and the moments of spectacle and wonder that brought players together on couches, at basement LAN parties, on Xbox Live and in esports arenas for years. The stories of shared adventure and individual discovery that made the first Halo game such a defining moment for millions of gamers – and helped chart the course for countless FPS games ever since. We want to recapture that sense of awe and delighted surprise – and the right way to do that is to lean into the things that are already magical, and build outward from there.

So yes, they are crafting a game that will serve as a good entry point for new players, meaning it shouldn't rely too heavily on external lore. However, a straight up "Previously on Halo" would be out of place to me. Gears 5 did this but only for recapping Gears 4, and it was a little weird. I don't think a cinematic highlight reel of previous games does them justice; for new players, it would lack the little moments that made the previous titles charming, and some context would probably be lost. For old players, it's kind of unnecessary hand-holding. The only people I could see that being for is anyone who hated Halo 5 so much that they completely forgot it's events, and while H5 gets panned alot, it wasn't that bad and most people are memeing when they say they repressed memories of 5.

It's a soft reboot as in they are probably gonna try and do what Halo CE did, it tossed you into the middle of a war with aliens and you figure things out as you go. The Covenant weren't expanded upon until Halo 2 so I can see this idea of middle of a war working really well for 343 and new fans since you just gotta know that the aliens are bad basically.

ChickenRAAMen wrote:

Take the Gears 4 approach. Have a mini-mission set in each major era - Insurrection, early Covenant War, late Covenant War, and possibly a post-war thing as well (but that might be too much).

Even for someone who’s played Gears from the beginning, that was such a cool way to start the new trilogy.

I should clarify: I hope this is the route they took. Obviously too late to suggest it now lol.

SDdawg wrote:

I’ve been seeing a lot of hype around the community since that Banished trailer dropped, and from my POV 343 is no doubt trying to please their core audience by teasing some lore stuff. I don’t know too much of the lore just to preface.

So my question is: how will 343 “spiritually reboot” the halo franchise? I think their pitfalls for H4 and esp. H5 was that most of the mainstream audience was left in the dark on the lore/story. If you weren't up to date on the books you were left out in the campaign, which turned many off. So how does 343 achieve a coherent continuation of the storyline while bringing in newcomers to the big world of Halo as well?

My suggestion?
For the beginning of the game, they absolutely need a long and interesting cinematic cutscene type recap of entire franchise. Yes, from Combat Evolved to now. If they just launch new players into “previously on Halo 5” this will not work. I really hope they do a nostalgic and welcoming recap that really welcomes those who are brand new and reacquaints those who haven't played in years. Im not sure what else to add, but Im really noticing that was a main issue (for me) in the previous two titles. Im more worried that they will not balance out catering to their two demographics: hardcore fans and the casual gamer.

And yes we need the casual, mainstream audience in order for this game to thrive for years to come.
Thoughts?

i think the way they recap is maybe like flashbacks or something like that i have heard rumours that it will be open world which will attract tons of new players Im very exited to see how they do it