I'm going to take a step back and look at it retrospectively. I made the mistake with Reach and going with the hype that it was a new Halo game at the time and just praised it blindingly. Until I took a step back and realized how much of a wasted opportunity the game was. The same can be said with Halo 4. I enjoyed the CGI, not so much the art direction, but the narrative is being put on a higher pedestal now. You can tell effort is being put into the campaign's story more so this time round. Unfortunately this is where is just flops. Halo 4's story is a combination of Star-Gate, Star Wars, Mass Effect, etc combined. The basic premise of a villain who hates a race because of his own insecurities of his race's inability to uphold the mantle is not to far fetched. This can be seen earlier with the Prophets. Humans are the chosen one. To be more specific, the Chief is the chosen one. This is where the Star Wars dynamic comes in. The whole prophecy shiz that kills heroic spontaneity and where it gets too full of itself, the sci-fi nerds will either get mad or obsessively interested in this fictional BS. When Star Wars introduced midoclorians in an attempt to add further depth to the franchise, this is where Sci-Fi entertainment gets to self-absorbed with trying to make itself explain as much of it's BS to make it more 'realistically' expansive. This can be seen with Geas in the Halo Universe. It's planted and engineered by the Forerunners in this instance. This is where I turn off and the people who ingest every bit of Sci-fi detail get turned on. Not because it's a explanation which is nice every now and then, but because it tries to take itself too seriously and doesn't stick to what it does best. The actual story and relationships built between characters. The ending attempt to make Chief capture his human side is honestly quite pathetic. Now,this clingyness and dependency may be what makes Chief human side be revealed. But by doing that, you ultimately destroy the character that took the Halo trilogy to build. It's Cheif's ability, to see the more important picture to save humanity is what ultimately is keeping him saving humanity. The premise to explore Chief's humanity is flawed from the get go. Much like Batman, his cold attitudes is a product of his obsession to save Gothem, it's reflected in his choices. In his mind, that comes first. We can see that with Chief when he sacrifices everything to get the job done. I basically saying, this isn't the MC I played Halo for and I don't like where it's going and where it has now gone. [This is just my opinion, feel free to argue] Okay next is the introduction to the SUPER sci-fi elements. We get force choke, [known as manipulating gravity] which isn't too far-fetched but at this point in the Halo universe is anything not to out there? Hmmm... How about being at the heart of a nuke and being the only thing that survives. Wait... I know there's an explanation for this much like there could be any explanation for anything in a fictional universe. But hang on... Just the fact that this CAN happen. Kinda sets a precedence for what's in store. The fact that invincibility is available at any point further takes away any attempt at suspense when it comes to any possible death sentence. We're not sure if the Didacts dead and we're not sure if Cortana's dead for sure. I don't know about you but if a character is set up to die, I prefer them to stay dead. It a good excuse for writers to bring them back if a story is getting stale. However, it turns death scenes into a 'nah they didn't really die' which takes away from the actual scene. When Truth died, I knew he actually did die, no coming back. Same can be said with Johnson [The 2nd time lol] Keys and his daughter. There was a point saying. Oh -blam!- they actually died and are killed off in the Universe. There's no coming back! I don't get any of this in Halo 4. Partly because of this more Sci-fi component that makes it a messy affair. The whole data particle thing is cool and all [Liked the idea in Doctor Who, very original] but in any other Universe.... that's a big step. It just seems too sci-fi. Much like the sudden portal jumping that for gameplay purposes was just too overwhelming. When a greater evil comes in Halo 5 and then the even greater evil in Halo 6 comes. I just find humanity tackling it on it's own [as it's current course is presenting itself] to be so luckluster. Sure this is speculation but unless Kilo-5 whats to 180 again the direction it's going on it's 180 spin on Halo 3's conclusion then maybe that's redemption... The universe is going to need to ally itself much like in Mass Effect to save itself. But in order to do that. This trilogy needs to be bigger than just the Chief which as of now I don't believe it will be [This whole 100,000 years of planning crap kinda makes it his priority]. He doesn't have the galactic diplomacy and circumstance that Shepard has. Which going back, I actually believe that's what 343i want. To turn MC into Space Jesus of the Halo Universe. By exploring his human side to gain that edge. The Halo trilogy always had Chief being a part of a much bigger story to be told [We can see this in H2 as well when Arby plays half of the campaign]. But now, the bigger story to be told is Cheif's timeline from H4 out. Chief now dictates the story while the rest of the Universe waits for him to make his move. I just found the ending to be meh. I'm not disappointed as it did not fail my expectations. I just find it 'Meh' because it met my expectations of 343i H4.