Literally nothing happens until the end of The Storm and at no point in the first 4 missions do you ever get the impression that Earth (the planet we spent like 30 years trying to hide which has become humanity's final bastion) is ever actually in any danger. It's completely disconnected from the narrative of Halo 2, why couldn't we have had a prologue mission or two where you escape Delta Halo as Arby with Johnson/Miranda/Spark and get back to Earth while John attempts to assassinate Truth and ends up falling from the Keyship?
Then the game which was advertised as the conclusive episode to the trilogy and will "finish the fight" leaves 12 major plot points hanging which were either unresolved or were introduced in the last mission of the game...
Yup, Halo 3's story sucked alright. Almost as much as the dialogue ("TO WAR!")...
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12 major plot points? I don't follow. Also I guess the cut content from Halo 2 would have answered your questions...
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Edited by Ur Haruspis: 5/1/2013 7:50:59 PM(Note: * refers to plot points introduced in Halo 3.) 1) 6 of the 7 Halo rings are still primed and ready to fire - a shadow that will forever loom over the Halo universe as long as it's unresolved. This is picked up again in Halo 4, as Infinity's primary mission is to locate the remaining Halos to study and decommission them. *2) The Gravemind tells us that defeat at Installation 04B only delays his return at the end of Halo 3. The Forerunner Saga and Halo 4 extrapolate on this, the former revealing that the Precursors and Flood are the same and are returning to bring humanity "unity" when we are "ripe" - the "ripe" part being covered by Halo 4, as the Librarian is nurturing humanity to attain the Mantle. *3) Medicant Bias virtually screams to the player that the Chief's story is not done, informing us that: *4) The Forerunners are not dead... (Chant to Green and many other Warrior-Servants/Lifeworkers who went on the Great Journey with the IsoDidact, the Ur-Didact being who we have met in Halo 4). *5) ...and that the path to the Forerunners is "frought with peril," suggesting a new threat (Precursors). *6) No explanation whatsoever was given to these mysterious new beings referenced by the Didact called the Precursors. Later forming the basis of Greg Bear's 'cosmic game' in the Forerunner Saga, and which we now know is feeding directly into the Reclaimer Trilogy (as I mentioned before). *7) Nor was any explanation given as to what "following in their footsteps" means when the Didact started talking about the Great Journey he will go on after he fires the Halos. *7.1) Therefore, The Great Journey does in fact exist, but has been misinterpreted by the Prophets. What is the Journey, and what is the signifigance? Librarian brings this up again when she appears in the campaign and Silentium's 'Rebirth' epilogue covers it in greater detail. 8) Mankind has yet to uphold their destiny as guardians (as mankind's destiny is the entire thematic point of the series, not continuing the story would mean voiding the relevance of the franchise as a story). This forms the thematic basis for the Reclaimer Trilogy, as the name itself implies. This plot point has been jump-started into action with things like the Janus Key. 9) We do not know if humanity can survive the inevitable tensions between the Covenant client races, the Elites, and themselves as the alliance between them was forged out of necessity (Joyous Exultation's destruction and the death of Xytan crippled the Sangheili), and while there was a bond formed between John and Thel that can hardly generalise the attitude of billions of Sangheili and humans who spend decades slaughtering one-another. *10) We were not told what made humanity so special and worth saving in the eyes of Librarian. She said that we held the answer to many Forerunner secrets. *11) Cortana, who holds the largest wealth of Forerunner knowledge in the universe aside from the Forerunners themselves, is slowly drifting into insanity. How can anyone claim that Halo 3 provided any kind of satisfying closure when we spend the whole game building up to her rescue only for her to be discarded and left to rot into insanity half an hour later? *12) And finally, Master Chief, the selected messenger of Medicant Bias, is drifting near an unknown Forerunner world at the very end of Halo 3. Silentium's epilogue covers this again in The Trial of Mendicant Bias, the IsoDidact apprehends him and imprisons a fragment of MB on the Ark with the new purpose of seeking atonement for his betrayal. The rest, as they say, is history.
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With much of this being accounted for in the new books and trilogy, I don't think you could call H3's story 'bad'. It'd be bad if all of it were unresolved, definitely, but that's not the case. Though all of this being introduced with H3, the tag line 'Finish The Fight' was indeed misleading.