What exactly is getting spiritually rebooted?

So I've been digging through what little info we have for Infinite and the term "spiritual reboot" intrigued me. That must mean that more than one significant aspect of the game getting overhauled. From what we've seen the art/music are a definite throwback but they hardly necessitate the term imo.

I'm paraphrasing a quote from a 343 dev that says "This story will mark a new chapter and challenge for the Chief while respecting and continuing threads that led to this point" and also that iInfinite is the "beginning of the next 10 years of Halo."

From this quote, I'm assuming the spiritual reboot is talking more about the story than anything else. My question is what storythreads do you think are gonna get left behind/resolved in favour of new ones? What are the new ones?

My opinion: Maybe we're going back to the flood (rhino, deer flood forms?) Or even the precursors? (although they are all dead..) I really don't like prometheans as an enemy type. They just don't have any character to em. The covenant are alright. Fighting the covenant felt like fighting real intelligent beings with feelings instead of zombie/robots. Although their AI could go back to Reach or CE, but we need something new. We "finished the fight" in Halo 3...it doesn't make sense we keep fighting fringe forces of the covenant just so we can have them in the game. Atriox is good but he's not a galactic threat imo. Humanity defeated the covenant and then a forerunner commander. Atriox feels like a step down. Atriox could be a good antagonist for a spin off ODST game. But for Chief we need someone more epic. I feel Didact could be a really good antagonist. But that would mean he would be back from being composed and bring along the boring prometheans. Or Evil Cortana (ughh 👎) creates a new enemy type. Like a billion wardens. 😉

Note: I'm leaving gameplay mechanics out of this because that's just a rabbit hole and we all know the community is divided on this. Theres really nothing new to add.

Chimera30 wrote:

Spiritually reboot means their trying to capture the feelings that made the original Halos so popular. The story will be a continuation of H5 and build on that narrative.

Yeah it will be a continuation but from the quotes I understood that they're going to take it in a new direction while respecting what came before? New challenge+new chapter =/= equal evil Cortana correct? I mean she's not "new". As in the game won't revolve around H5s Evil Cortana plot. I feel like there's gonna be a new plot fairly early in the game.

Like we would start being worried about evil Cortana and boom something new.

fuzzyyogi wrote:

Chimera30 wrote:

Spiritually reboot means their trying to capture the feelings that made the original Halos so popular. The story will be a continuation of H5 and build on that narrative.

Yeah it will be a continuation but from the quotes I understood that they're going to take it in a new direction while respecting what came before? New challenge+new chapter =/= equal evil Cortana correct? I mean she's not "new". As in the game won't revolve around H5s Evil Cortana plot. I feel like there's gonna be a new plot fairly early in the game.

Like we would start being worried about evil Cortana and boom something new.

They’re not abandoning the previous plot. I highly doubt bad Cortana or the Prometheans are going anywhere.

Chimera30 wrote:

fuzzyyogi wrote:

Chimera30 wrote:

Spiritually reboot means their trying to capture the feelings that made the original Halos so popular. The story will be a continuation of H5 and build on that narrative.

Yeah it will be a continuation but from the quotes I understood that they're going to take it in a new direction while respecting what came before? New challenge+new chapter =/= equal evil Cortana correct? I mean she's not "new". As in the game won't revolve around H5s Evil Cortana plot. I feel like there's gonna be a new plot fairly early in the game.

Like we would start being worried about evil Cortana and boom something new.

They’re not abandoning the previous plot. I highly doubt bad Cortana or the Prometheans are going anywhere.

I don't think itll be abandoned but it'll maybe take a backseat. Similar to HCE. We thought the Covenant was the only enemy and then outta nowhere the flood appeared. Similarly Cortana could be the default villain but something bigger (maybe the flood again) is waiting for chief.

I DR HALSEY I wrote:

They should probably finish one thing first before abruptly changing gears. Again.

Or rather 2 things,Halo 5 and Halo Wars 2 both ended with huge cliffhangers.

fuzzyyogi wrote:

I DR HALSEY I wrote:

They should probably finish one thing first before abruptly changing gears. Again.

Lol true. But the current thread is sooo bad.

When I saw the chief floating in space, for a moment I thought they retconned halo 5 and picked up at the ending of halo 4 😅

That's a funny thought actually. If the PC launches of The Master Chief Collection go smoothly enough, there will be players whose last Halo game was Halo 4. They may just be thinking the same thing when they begin Halo: Infinite's campaign. They may believe it continues where Halo 4 left off, at least for a moment.

I don't think they're dropping any storylines, it's a continuation of the reclaimer saga taking place after H5. I think by "spiritual reboot" they're referring to the general feel of the game, rethinking the storytelling, gameplay, and art style. We've already seen this in the art style and the vibes the trailers have given.

Chimera30 wrote:

Spiritually reboot means they’re trying to capture the feelings that made the original Halos so popular. The story will be a continuation of H5 and build on that narrative.

I'm glad someone finally clarified what that meant.

343 explains quite explicitly in The Making of The Halo Infinite Announce Trailer what it's referring to with a "spiritual reboot" to Infinite.
Apart from the art style being emblematic of earlier games, three core concepts guided their design for the trailer, and likely the game at large.
Those concepts were hope, mystery, and nostalgia.
Basically, that sense of awe and wonder we all felt when we played Halo:CE for the first time.
And I'm all for it!